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Video games are often viewed as pillars of escapism, but the larger beauty of interactive storytelling is that it offers opportunities for deeper empathic connections. But, more importantly, Bissell’s novel, including the excerpt above, connected with a part of me that I did not yet acknowledge: my depression and my (sometimes subconscious) attempts to deal with it.Īll art forms can provide relief and insight to victims of mental illness (check out Matchbox Twenty’s “ Unwell,” Lars von Trier’s Melancholia, or Francisco Goya’s Black Paintings), but the immersive nature of video games provides something else: the opportunity for victims of mental illness to process their feelings in a safe, engaging environment and the opportunity for others to experience simulations of symptoms. The dim restaurant lights shielded me well enough from the gaggle of suburban families that surrounded me, so I hunched my back and unashamedly swallowed Bissell’s words. As a post-college, pre-career teacher wannabe, the 200-plus-page book about the artistry of video games perfectly quenched both my thirst for entertainment and my need to be perceived as an intellectual. I read those words years ago while eating subpar noodles in a building that used to be a Blockbuster Video. It was an extra life I am grateful to have it. I would be lying if I said Oblivion did not, in some ways, aggravate my depression, but it also gave me something with which to fill my days other than piranhic self-hatred. At the time I was residing in Rome on a highly coveted literary fellowship, surrounded by interesting and brilliant people, and quite naturally mired in a lagoon of depression more dreadfully lush than any before or since.

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Oblivion is less a game than a world that best rewards full citizenship, and for a while I lived there and claimed it. The song Charlotte plays for the player is called Eiffel Tower and appears in the album Around the World in Music by Kevin MacLeod.Links and videos of several indie games are posted below the article.Ĭonsider author Tom Bissell’s experience with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion as described in his book, Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter: She does so later on, minutes before the player escapes, and writes a final letter for the player to find in her pastry shop should they choose to leave their cell. She also implies that should they not come by "tomorrow evening" (Day 5, game-wise), she will commit suicide. Towards the end of day 4, she sends you a homemade cake that can be eaten, along with a curious-looking poster that resembles a monochrome heart with spirals and drips coming off it.Īs the game comes to an end, Charlotte asks the protagonist to "come down here," as she is incredibly lonely and wants to see another person. She is quite friendly, and owns a pastry shop named "Charlotte's Delicious Pastries." Although she openly and continually expresses her loneliness to the protagonist, she tries to convince herself that there is a person left in this world besides her.ĭuring day 4, Charlotte plays a song on her gramophone just loud enough for the player to hear. Stranded and isolated from the world in her pastry shop, Charlotte has managed to keep both Doctor Money's disease and cure at bay by staying in her shop to avoid contact with other, possibly infected, people.Įarly in the game, the protagonist receives an ornate, pink-coloured letter, from a woman named Charlotte. Meet lonely Charlotte - one of the few to survive the deadly virus sweeping the nation and killing millions.