This week on COG Considers, we tackle one of the most tired and unpleasant tropes in horror games: why games--and every other pop culture avenue--are so determined to paint people with Dissociative Identity Disorder as murderers.
Are they? You are fixed on Japanese games that are anime based/fashioned. Perhaps if you were not playing games that are similar to the animes that inspired them you would have more/different experiences.
When Cliche and Troupes are the building blocks, you can’t expect much. Just like you cannot expect good case study when the tester/observer has practically no variance in test subjects.
Sooooo many horror games out there... you really gotta explore some more.
I am aware! But games like Outlast or Remothered aren't really doing anything different, either--the most you could say is that Outlast hammers in that not all mental patients are dangerous. Just some of them. It really isn't just anime-inspired games that are doing this, even if you're counting Deadly Premonition among them. Bendy and the Ink Machine did it with Alice Angel, Krieg from the Borderlands games is this but played for laughs, and Dog/God from Fallout: New Vegas' Dead Money DLC is another example of both murder and weird, unrealistically rapid closure. This article was inspired after seeing one too many indie games on Steam with the premise 'discover the inner world of this tormented killer with DID.' Trust me when I say I'm exploring all kinds of horror games, and even outside those boundaries, because this is a really wide-reaching pattern.
That said, if you have any recs for more interesting/less stereotypical usage of characters with DID, hit me up.
Surprised killer7 isn't mentioned. This was the central premise of that game
Do better.
Are they? You are fixed on Japanese games that are anime based/fashioned. Perhaps if you were not playing games that are similar to the animes that inspired them you would have more/different experiences.
When Cliche and Troupes are the building blocks, you can’t expect much. Just like you cannot expect good case study when the tester/observer has practically no variance in test subjects.
Sooooo many horror games out there... you really gotta explore some more.