VOTE HERE: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=200770535

If you want to know why you should vote for Depression Quest on Greenlight (besides it being a super interesting game) then read this. Read the whole thing.

There are a lot of people on these forums (and elsewhere) who like to say that people exaggerate their claims of sexism in the game industry are overblown "clicks" or that people use it to dismiss real complaints. They like to say that if there was "real sexism" happening, then they would obviously be against it. Well, here it is. This is the "real sexism."

A couple things to keep in mind before you comment:

• Depression Quest is FREE, has always been FREE and will continue to be FREE even if it's gets on Steam. So, please keep your "this is not a game" rants to yourself.
• "Don't feed the trolls" is not a legitimate excuse. Especially when those "trolls" find the developer's phone number and call her house. If you want to not feed the trolls but show support, vote for the game.

Already did but, yeah.

I fucking hate that part of the internet :(

Voted.

I remembering playing this a few months back - very interesting game. I remember I always made my character talk to people about his problems and try to resolve them, because I wanted to have a happy ending damnit!

So yeah, I'll back this.

+1vote from me

I played through it the other night and I was disappointed that there's no way to kill yourself. That's a logical conclusion to a depression arc, isn't it? Bah. Video games and their disregard for realism.

I voted. It's not a good game (in fact it's tedious as hell); but that just makes it more realistic.

i think killing yourself would be a bit far and maybe a tad encouraging to some...

gonna vote for this though.

Played it when it came out, absolutely needs to be voted in.

OBEY THE LANG

If it had a suicide option in it. You know Fox News would get ahold of this "suicide simulator."

@milkman: This isn't an epic battle for right that, once won, will show all of those sad jerks the error of their ways and bring about a new loving community for all of us to share. It's a shitty situation where the internet enables people to gain satisfaction by being assholes in your face without repercussions and we haven't developed the tools to deal with it yet.

Voting for a game to get on Steam because of that isn't a solution.

If you ever come across someone behaving like that on the internet, confront them. One on one, respectful, personal interaction is the only thing that will ever fix this shit.

do it!

I voted for it. I played this 6 months ago or so and it was like someone could read my mind. It finally allowed me to see what depression was actually specifically doing to me my whole life instead of some vague idea of it.

@joshwent: No of course it's not.

That said, encouraging people making different games so that we show that we appreciate their work and that we want them to continue make games might help them stay in the industry. I think that would be good.

Also, I don't think she could reason with people treatening her on the phone even if she wanted.

I never played this game because it seemed like a real downer.

@hunter5024:

I played this game on a night I was really down and it actually ended up helping me. Trying to get the main character to make healthy decisions briefly led to me trying to do the same for myself. Though that may just be me.

I'll vote for it, but I'm definitely not going to play it. I don't need to vicariously experience depression from a game.

Edit: Went to go vote for it and saw when the release date was.

@pyromagnestir: Well cool! I guess I always assumed this was trying to make people without depression understand how much it sucks to be depressed, but if its able to do something a little more positive than that then I might have to check it out.

Absolutely. That's really THE reason to vote for a game on Greenlight; that you're interested in it and want the dev to be able to make more. What I meant was that voting for a game to spite some horrible people isn't really helping anything.

Also, I don't think she could reason with people treatening her on the phone even if she wanted.

And yeah, of course not. That kind of harassment is inexcusably disgusting and I hope Zoe Quinn is able to get law enforcement involved. Saying that personal intereaction is the way to (attempt to) stop this is just in reaction to my point that this game getting on Greenlight is definitely not a way to stop it.

Some people are jerks that can be reasoned with, some just want to watch the internet burn.

Voted, but seeing as I'm about to play Actual Sunlight, playing this too may be too much depression at once.

There were weird things with that game, like assuming I'm into girls or sex, and some weird family dynamics that could not be less accurate for me, but they had that preface stating that depression was different for everyone so meh.

One part actually hit me pretty hard, but I certainly wouldn't recommend this to anyone I know. Still, it can be a tool for somebody out there, it'd be kinda messed up for me not to support it.

when i get bored i go into greenlight an vote yes on everything

I played this game last year and it... kinda hit really close to home. I know I have depression, but to see it so clearly in front you, living it so selectively through a fictional person was...

I selected the options I figured real me was most likely to make and I ended up hopelessly depressed and completely alone by the end. That did not help my mood at the time at all. I highly recommend people play this so they can get a closer understanding of what depression is like. Even if you know you're depressed.

In a sense I'm glad games are exploring out of the comfort zone, in the other hand that game looks like something I don't want to play.

Right, so from what I gather you're suggesting that I vote for this game not because it's a good game, but because the creator has been targeted by sexist assholes?

Sorry, no thanks. That seems like an incredibly condescending thing to do to the developer. I'll check out her game and vote for it if I think it deserves a vote, not out of pity.

Thanks for making this thread because I hadn't noticed this was on Greenlight so I've gone voted for it.

I played through it after Patrick wrote about it in Worth Reading months ago and while I wouldn't exactly say I enjoyed it I will say I found it incredibly powerful, and it really did an incredible job at conveying the crushing hopeless that can come with depression at times.

For people who have not experienced depression I think it is an incredible little tool to maybe begin to help them understand what a friend/loved one (because statistically you know someone who has or have had depression) is going through. It does a very good job at conveying the atmosphere, while also showing that there is a way out of that spiral, especially when supported by your friends, your family and medical professionals.

I think telling people to vote for it because lots of people have been sexist jerks really does the thing a discredit. It is a powerful experience that can help people, or at the very least encourage people to talk about something which is still taboo to some degree. And it is these things well. That is why people should vote to Greelight Depression Quest, on the strength of what a small team has made. I'd especially commend the music for conveying that sense of sometimes relentless negativity.

Done. Looks interesting. I'll prob try it out this weekend.

I never heard of this before, but I'll def. give it a try at least before I vote on anything.

Don't really care about the game but I voted anyway

Yeah I read about this today absolutely shitty what is happening to her. While I agree that the treatment she is receiving for trying to list this game is shitty I think you should vote for the game because you like the concept of the game and not voting for it because of the circumstances of the person behind the game.

@rockyraccoon37: I obeyed the Lang.

I don't think it has to do with pity. More that a bunch of shitheads have launched a campaign to keep the game OFF of Steam, so now a counter-campaign has sort of risen up.

Which is great because the game should totally be on Steam.

Which is fine and dandy as long as you actually believe in the product. If you're letting outside forces besides the quality of the game dictate your vote you're going against the spirit of what green light is supposed to be.

The internet weirdos stalking thing isnt really a factor in whether this game merits support. Fez was made by a shithead but its still brilliant, the personal story is unfortunate but I'd hate for that to be the x-factor as opposed to the game itself.

This is my attitude too. I'm not going to vote for it because a bunch of idiots from Wizardchan, of all places, have decided to act like arseholes on the internet.

Hold on, I think you're completely misunderstanding something here. Nobody says "don't feed the trolls" as an excuse. I don't even know why you would present that anyone is other than to discredit them with a false equivalence. The reason people say "don't feed the trolls" is because hurt feelings, twitter drama and an article written and passed around the media is exactly what they're seeking. It's not an excuse, it's advice for living. It is not a defense of what idiots do, when people say don't feed the trolls, it's because feeding them is counterproductive.

I hope she went to the police regarding people calling her. Police have been dealing with phone harassment for decades, better off than if it was just twitter harassment.

@demoskinos: I would normally agree that you shouldn't back or vote for this game just because you're empathetic to shit the developer suffers (because all developers suffer shit in some way or another). And if this were a Kickstarter I wouldn't say this, but if there's evidence that some gang of shitheads is gaming the automated systems for Greenlight to artificially prevent this from succeeding, then I understand trying to get some people to countervote. If this were Kickstarter and it were "give money because trolls" then yeah, because trolls can't prevent Kickstarters from succeeding like they can Greenlight.

Remind me who Phil Fish killed again. I mean I get that he's said some dumb things in his time, and he doesn't react well to criticism, but then when the criticism you get isn't constructive I'm at least sympathetic to his reactions. He just seems like a regular dude who often speaks before thinking of the consequences, and one time said something about Japanese game development which had some nuggets of truth in amongst the hyperbole. Shithead? He just strikes me as a faily average internet user to be honest, he just happens to have made a pretty cool game. I've really never understood why he was meant to be so awful.

And having actually read the link in the OP. Fucking hell. I used to think I was a bit awkward around women and shit. But never did that turn into this actively aggressive hatred of another genre. I really don't get it. I mean “All females are sluts and have no right to be depressed. They can just go out onto the street, lie down with their hole open and have any man come and solve all their problems." What in the fuck is this based on but some angry little manchild who is too scared to actually talk to women so just rages about them all day?

Fucking human beings man. What is the point?

ok

@demoskinos said:

It's tricky, because there's a 0% chance that the people trying to shut the game down will actually follow that idea, which will lead to the game getting less of a chance than it really deserves without people drumming up support for it.

I played it months ago, and found it to hit pretty close to home. I definitely think more people should be exposed to it. I don't really know what to say about the hateful boys and manchildren that roam the internet, though. Maybe the government should crack down on Christopher Hitchens videos.

Sorry what. What does Christopher Hitchens have to do with any of this.

I think the joke is the mental image of internet girl stalkers is the Euphoria meme, fat dudes in fedoras.

If I vote for it will it make me a better person?

@brodehouse: The reason I bought up the "don't feed the trolls" thing is because when she went public with the harassment, a lot of people on Twitter were telling her that she was just feeding the trolls. Which in this case, I think is bullshit because for one, the "trolls" in this case were trying to stop her game from getting on Steam, not really get attention. Also, just in general, I think the "just ignore them" reasoning almost never makes sense. Asking someone to suffer in silence is unfair.

Also, "don't feed the trolls" rarely works. They're like cockroaches. Shine a light on them and they scurry off to hide.

I've seen a lot more success from people actively dealing with harassment online than from people pretending it doesn't exist. Especially in cases like this, where the trolls aren't attention-seeking assholes who desperately want a response, but rather insecure little bigots trying to bully the game dev until she stops trying to make games. It's better to actively make sure their plans backfire horrendously than to just passively hope it goes away.

@brodehouse: 1. It was a joke. 2. He was racist as hell and a true, dyed in the wool misogynist that young men on the internet celebrate like a god. I know when I used to use 4chan, his crap would get posted all the time.

I don't get what the sexism part of your OP means but ya, I'm always willing to support games like this.

Or things like this.

Or whatever.

Labels.

It doesn't look good so I'm not going to vote. What I will say is I think those people who are likely in their early-teens should take a look in the mirror and really think about what they have posted online. I would also say it takes someone depressed to author something about depression, so these people are harassing someone who is already depressed.