My Ambitions are Cavernous, My Motto is Avarice

[ghoulmouse]

Thinking about "depression games"...like, the game you play obsessively when you're too depressed to do anything else.

Specifically, I'm going to humblebrag here: I think I might an extremely highly ranked Crypt of the Necrodancer player. I never thought about it because, well, I have never claimed the super hard achievements. I don't think I'm ever going to clear the game with Aria, a character who dies if you drop the beat, can't upgrade her weapon, and starts on the final floor. I'm not a speed runner. I'm not very consistent and I frequently choke on the first few floors of a run.

However, I play the daily dungeon every day basically (even a full clear is only like half an hour of play so it's a nice diversion), and if I don't fuck up I reliably end up in the top 10 of the daily leaderboard, which lists everybody who played the dungeon that day on all of Steam (usually in the range of 200ish people). That's gotta count for something, right?

I got this good at Necrodancer because, well. Depression game.

Not really sure how to feel about this. Is this an achievement? God, I dunno. Technically? I kinda wish I had gotten good at something else, though. Or, that I'd set out to get really good at Crypt of the Necrodancer on purpose and it was actually a goal I'd accomplished.

Comments

[rionaleonhart]

Hmm, interesting thought! I often come back to play Celeste (which... actually is a game about depression) when I don't really feel like doing anything else. It's a difficult platformer, so it requires focus (which makes it an effective distraction), but by this point I'm practised enough at it to be able to zip through the levels, so it doesn't frustrate me. It's a bit like playing the piano, which is something else I do when I'm feeling a bit down: you have to hit exactly the right keys at exactly the right moment, but, if it's a piece you know, it doesn't require too much thought.

[lassarina]

Often solitaire in various formats becomes my depression game, but FFVI is my anxiety game. The "I know exactly what will happen and I want it to" game.