

A Father’s Video Game About His Son’s Terminal Cancer - fspeech
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/a-video-game-about-terminal-cancer?intcid=mod-latest

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kdamken
Despite the tough subject matter, these are my favorite kinds of games.

Maybe it's because I played so many video games growing up, but now that I'm
in my late twenties most of them don't really capture me anymore. I get bored
of them quickly. I find the ones that I enjoy most are often shorter, but
deliver a powerful narrative experience. Titles like Dear Esther, The Walking
Dead, Proteus, and especially Gone Home are looked down upon by many to be
just "walking simulators", but to me they're the best gaming currently has to
offer. I played through GTAV for a few days and haven't thought about it
since. But because of the focus on the narrative experience, games like these
stay with you, like a good book or movie.

While this game will likely be tough to get through, I'll probably get way
more out of it than a few hours in the latest cookie cutter RPG or FPS.

~~~
corysama
> looked down upon by many to be just "walking simulators"

I played through Dear Esther in a single session in VR. It was a magnificent
walk.

~~~
eropple
I couldn't keep interested in Dear Esther, but _Korsakovia_ , by the same
folks, is a tremendous experience. (Also may bring modern computers to their
knees because of some bad technical choices, but having everything go choppy
and weird when you're under terrifying stress is not a bad side effect.)

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po
Sometimes there are games that are awesome and important and I am glad that
they exist… but that I don't think I ever want to play. Pretty sure this is
one of them.

~~~
leereeves
When I was 20 I would have loved games like this that share experiences and
deep truths.

Now that I'm a bit older I just want games that help me escape those
experiences and deep truths.

~~~
ivanca
Got a chronic illness at 2012, my closest lady friend died this year after a
long battle with schizophrenia, and I'm just 26... yeah, I'm sure many people
have it worse but after a while you can barely deal with your own baggage to
be willing to imagine getting any more.

So yeah, escapism is the best thing there is around, if just to avoid going
mad.

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ironoxide859
I'll try to pretend that I didn't tear up reading that story but it would be a
lie.

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web007
"That Dragon Cancer" if you're looking for more info.

[http://thatdragoncancer.com/](http://thatdragoncancer.com/) and the
kickstarter [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/godatplay/that-
dragon-c...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/godatplay/that-dragon-
cancer)

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csense
This looks really dumb. The gameplay's going to be crap, it's probably going
to wildly overuse cutscenes, and the game's message isn't subtle at all.

It's supposed to be all literary and pretentious, but it's not going to be
fun. I can't believe backers want to waste real money on this garbage.

~~~
eropple
The use of the word "game" to describe interactive media is an unfortunate
one, largely because your reaction is understandable through the parsing of
the word--though you must couple it with aggressive rejection of context, as
you have in this case, to find strict parsing to be a good way to derive
meaning.

Or, put another way: I don't think your distaste for what other people think
of the potential of a piece of art oozes through quite sufficiently. Could you
perhaps try to be a little bit more of a jerk about it, while doing even more
to assume facts not in evidence?

Thanks in advance.

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j_m_b
Some gameplay demo footage:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4ivCwjnQ6I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4ivCwjnQ6I)

Here is a teaser trailer:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHPc2zwVEn0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHPc2zwVEn0)

From the footage I saw, this game is like a novel in that you are getting
inside of the head of someone else and experiencing life from their view
point. A "Being John Malkovich" video game.

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cmyr
I was able to play an early version of this at sheffield doc fest
([https://www.sheffdocfest.com/interactive/overview](https://www.sheffdocfest.com/interactive/overview)),
and was really impressed. It is one of the better examples I've encountered of
somebody using the mechanics and language of video games to tell a truly
personal story.

Very worth encountering if you have the opportunity.

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trequartista
Here's the Polygon article about the game, which IMHO is far more detailed -
[http://www.polygon.com/features/2015/4/16/8374481/that-
drago...](http://www.polygon.com/features/2015/4/16/8374481/that-dragon-
cancer)

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smudgy
It's now truly possible to walk a mile in a someone's shoes.

