Gaming the Mind Podcast

Wraith in Apex Legends hears a mysterious voice that helped her unlock her powers and tells her what will happen in the future. So is she mentally unwell? Who decides? In this episode Don, Sachin, Fai and Marcus (mental health doctors) discuss characters who hear voices: Wraith from Apex Legends, Legion from X-Men, and Lain […]

[content warning - this episode features mentions of suicide and abuse within the context of the game Yume Nikki] In this episode Don, Fai, Andrew and Sachin (mental health doctors) and Hammy (medical student) discuss the experimental horror game Yume Nikki and use that as a base to discuss the Japanese phenomenon of hikikomori, and what dreams say about our minds. Read more about Yume Nikki here...

In this episode Sachin, Don, and Marcus (mental health doctors) discuss: – Gamer burnout: What is burnout and can you experience burnout from video games? (check out this article for more https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/mby89y/millennial-burnout-gamers ). They also discuss this article on millennial burnout: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/annehelenpetersen/millennials-burnout-generat...

In this episode Sachin, Don, Fai (mental health doctors), and Hammy (medical student) discuss: - Celeste: how does it portray anxiety in main character Madeline and how is the game's attitude to mental health reflected in its design? (Check out this article that describes how a tough game like Celeste can be soothing: www.polygon.com/2018/2/8/16961386/celeste-stress ) They also discuss difficult g...

[cw - suicide] In this episode Sachin, Don (mental health doctors), and Hammy (medical student) discuss: - Silent Hill 2: how does it use symbolism to portray trauma and mental health issues, and does it do a good job? (see article www.inverse.com/article/27660-sil…nami-pyramid-head for more) They then discuss games where all players work together for a common goal, and what exactly is the essence...

In this episode Sachin, Fai, and Marcus (mental health doctors) discuss: - Claims of stimulants used as performance enhancing drugs in esports (see article motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/…fficial-league) - A Twitch streamer with Tourette's and what this means for representation (see article kotaku.com/the-singular-life-o…streamer-1830499961) They then discuss games used for teaching!

In this episode Sachin, Don, Fai (mental health doctors) and Hammy (medical student) discuss: - Gaming in moderation, based on an article by student Timothy Franklin advocating this (http://collegian.tccd.edu/?p=37310) - Concerns about how Cyberpunk 2077 will handle trans identities, in light of how the tabletop game handles it, and problematic tweets from the developer (see article https://www.eu...