Back

[P] Like, if you're playing an older-style JRPG and the enemies just shake and fade out? I can handle that. I still don't like it symbolically as it's still punishing creatures for the "terrible sin" of being born other. And it's kind of abusive to kill in a power dynamic where one could stealth, or tranquilise and relocate. Still, I can handle it. When pain responses start becoming a thing, though? And death animations? That's where I'm out. It upsets me.

#psychology #humans #videogames

-3

[P] So seeing humans being kind to dragons in Split Fiction is a genuinely refreshing change of pace. Oh, these might be humans I could like! I mean both the characters and the players. You aren't upset that you aren't killing dragons? Well look at you! Look at you, you weird little maybe mutualist! And on Woofworld, mutualism and weirdness are very positive, highly valued traits! Simetimes... if it walks like a human and farts like a human? It isn't a human.

#psychology #humans #videogames

-4

[P] I don't feel very human. It's why I talk about hiverarchy and humans from an outside perspective. If hitting 15 perncent on the Dark Triad as a bare minimum is a human trait, one that really defines a human as a human? I guess my 0 per cent means I'm some kind of funky alien from planet Funkotron. Which can be incredibly lonely and isolating. I mean, I'm never any kind of popular on the socials! I'm just... not very human. I never was, I was born weird.

#psychology #humans #videogames

-5

[P] No, really, I was! I was born bright yellow! I was one of over twenty babies and only two of us survived. Survivor's guilt as a child is one hell of a trip! And sometimes I wonder if the ones that didn't make it were the lucky ones. But here I am, and I have some sort of will to be alive. This seems like an odd segue but I promise it's all related. See, I was born with jaundice and a big, swollen head! It's a strange tale I tell for context.

#psychology #humans #videogames

-6

[0] So, as a big yellow baby with a giant swollen head that looked like a recolor of Megamind? I was rushed to a... facility where an unprecedented and unusual procedure of surgery was used to save the life of myaelf and one other. My mother described the babies (including me!) as having giant needles in our heads to drain the excess fluids. It was a risky procedure so hush-hush that all of my medical birth records have vanished! It's incredibly freaky.

#psychology #humams #videogames

-7

[P] I have no reason to fib to you about this. I just want to give you context for why I feel the way I do. So, this procedure some kindly mad scientist used to save my life couldn't be recorded. I've had five doctors and a solicitor try to chase down my medical birth records and... they always get really cagey and unnerved by it! It's a big void that scares them. And they ALWAYS drop the investigation! So, yes. I'm a conspiracy baby! It scares me.

#psychology #humans #videogames

-8

[P] I had someone look at a brain scan and they said given my cavum septum pellucidum and how "Your optic nerves are like silly string!!" {a specialist blurted that out, that was a fun day)? I should be blind, definitely completely blind in both eyes. I do have some sight in both, though. I mean, it isn't good, I am.legally blind and my vision wanes more over the years but... I'm thankful I still have sight. Every sense is a privilege. Remember that.

#psychology #humans #videogames

-9

[P] So! I have poor vision, no sense of smell, and my nerves for touch can ever be on the fritz. I have a really strong sense of taste, though! I can taste the air and taste smells like a snake. So that's handy! And my brain is... really odd! Specialists don't like looking at or talking about my brain because it's all a little bit wrong. I guess that's what being a jaundice survivor put through vividly experimental procedures results in! I'm an alien.

#psychology #humans #videogames

-10

[P] So I'm also a baseline for how humans would treat alien life! And, letting headmate Tryat describe that? "The prognosis isn't promising, chief!" I've been co-writing this with Tryst. Anyone who's followed me enough to know what some of the handful of headmates I have are like probably realise. Much of this is written in a Trysty way, tempered by me. He likes talking about our weird past. It might've contributed to our plurality. Alongside abuse trauma.

#psychology #humans #videogames

-11

[P] The point is is that my brain might... be unique. I have feelings about that. It isn't a privilege, I'm not special, and life has been hard. Still, I am me. And I have so much love for my headmates, it's probably annoying how healthy we are, but... It isn't hard to love one's emancipators! Data gets it! So I want to exist as me. The undeniable reality though is that I'm VERY alien, and humans Do Not Like that, they Do Not Like very alien.

#psychology #humans #videogames

-12

[P] Thus the incredibly typical and thoroughly predictable negative reaction humans have ti dragons. As dragons are also very alien, and humans Do Not Like that. Humans want aliens to be munsanely common extroverts with a conventionally attractive body, where the only alien features are mildly exotic factors such as blue or green skin, or a bumpily forehead. Anything even slightly more alien than that and humams Do Not Like it. Actually alien upsets them.

#psychology #humans #videogames

-13

[P] This is why that new live action Star Trek show (Strange New Worlds?) had to make the gorn rapists. Humans Do Not Like very alien, so they jusrify that by forcing them into bad guy roles. It's why the Protostar had to make their most alien crew member (Zero) a green human. It's why Lower Decks took Rutherford's implant away. It's why Cyborg in the Teen Titans cartoon constantly belaboured how it was his human bits that made him great. It's repetitive.

#psychology #humans #videogames

-14

[P] It's been my lived experuence that humans Do Not Like very alien. Even neurodivergents can often be just too alien. It's why most humans don't think of mental health issues as real until they get them. It is a scientifically provable fact that humans are born to fear the unknown, thus they Do Not Like very alien. Except I was born an alien. I don't fear the unknown, I embrace it. So, predictably, most humans Do Not Like me. It was always obvious.

#psychology #humans #videogames

-15

[P] I mean, I endured decades of abuse! I lived nightmares. Oh, the things I could tell you about what was done to me. I'd hope it'd have you feeling for me out of empathy, but I'm very alien. i know how this goes. No one saved me from abuse, humans Do Not Like very alien entities like me. So now I isolate myself, I stay indoors forever, and I live in fear of what the next interaction with humans will he. Dignity, too, is a privilege I'm not afforded.

#psychology #humans #videogames

-16

[P] I hope humans never encounter very alien extraterrestrials, they're going to be so mean, cruel, and abusive with them. You can see that with how they want to treat dragons. Monster Hunter showa what would happen if humans ever met dragons. I mean, my dragon-identifying headmates are really, really scared of humans too. It's a trait we share in common. We're all very alien, and we're painfully aware that humans Do Not Like us. The abuse makes it clear.

#psychology #humans #videogames

-17

[P] So, what does this have to do with video games? Well, whenever I see a dragon being allowed to not suffer, perhaps even being permitted to thrive in their magnaminity and mercy? It feels like someone is saying "Hello, fellow alien!" and that's nice. So many people play video games that they're an incredible medium for communication, for making statements of intent. It allows aliens to provide something meaningful for others. Therein can be found comfort.

#psychology #humans #videogames

-18

[P] In playing something like Cavern of Dreams? I feel seen. "So, wait. You want me to be an adorable baby dragon who heals an ambulatory, sapient, pacifistic warship who'd never hurt anyone? O-Okay! Snif." Right now the tears are flowing and I'm not entirely certain why! But Shimmer reckons it's because I feel seen, and I'm move by the kindness of such a comfort. Can someone paas this along to the Cavern of Dreams dev? Thanks. Anyway...

#psychology #humams #gamedev #gamedesign #videogames

-19

[PA] Which brings me to Split Fiction. It has dragons and they get to be okay! Hello dragons! This is meaningful to me as it's a comfort, a "Hello, fellow alien!" broadcasted via the medium of video games. What I don't understand is this: Looking at the concurrent players on Steam? How is Split Fiction doing as well as it is?? It has opposites day numbers with AC: Shadows! It's doing the numbers I would've expected from AC: Shadows. How odd!

#psychology #humans #videogames

-20

[P] Are there more aliens out there than I realised? Is Split Fiction doing something super-duper weird to reprogram xenophobia? Is this a gender thing? It has dragons, the dragons aren't being slain, and yet so many people are playing it. My facourite luxury is being wrong. Am I wrong? Are there more aliens out there than I realised? See, Monster Hunter: Wilds storming the Steam Charts fits my models perfectly. That's predictably human; the human I know.

#psychology #humans #videogames

-21

[P] And while Split Fiction is but a speck compared to the numbers of Monster Hunter, SF doing as well as it has done (and better than AC: Shadows) is... unpredictable. I don't have a model for that. Is thw dragon part very short, short enough for humans to tolerate until they get back to what they like more? Is it just that they tolerate that part? I need to watch a longplay of Split Fiction and do more research. I hope I won't be disappointed...

#psychology #humans #videogames

-22

[P] I worry it's something like the dragon part is very short, and/or the dragons die horribly. That's what humans want. That's on model for human. Humans Do Not Like the very alien. So I'm scared this is down to something I'm not seeing. Maybe it isn't, though? Maybe there are more people out there who appreciate alienness? Thorn is concerned that "The puppy is going to get kicked again." but I have to know. I always want to be wrong!

#psychology #humans #videogames

-23