May 2012
2 posts
2 tags
Social Links
Callie discusses how Persona 3 helped her understand and appreciate her friendships.
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The game Persona 3 saved my life, in a way. It made me really realize how important having friends and family really is. I’ve never really been the social type. I’m somewhat anti-social, and people usually just make me want to shoot someone, namely myself. I mean, after being bullied from...
4 tags
How Video Games Saved me From Drugs
Kyle discusses how video games helped him overcome his addicting to painkillers and heroin.
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When I was 17 or 18 years old I smoked weed for the first time. It was my first experience with an illegal drug and I loved it. It’s such an empowering feeling to know that you are doing something against the rules and you feel great doing it. It was fun. I probably liked it too much. It...
April 2012
10 posts
2 tags
How "Robotech: Battlecry" Helped Better my...
Jarvis discusses how, after years of silence and indifference to his sister, playing multiplayer in Robotech: Battlecry with her brought them together.
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My sister and I didn’t exactly get along. Our interaction was limited to casual greetings and forced hugs at the behest of my parents. For many years we really never spoke at all even though we lived under the same roof. I was...
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How Fallout 3 Saved my Life
Jett discusses how Fallout 3 helped him emerge from a depression instigated by an alcoholic father and incessant bullying at school.
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I entered my sophomore year of high school coming out of the aftermath of four years’ worth of bullying that I was thankful I survived. Those four years had been the most painful years of my education - and my life so far - and I felt that...
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Tracing Boundaries
Ted discusses how video games helped him come to terms with the expansiveness and uncontrollable nature of life.
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As many of my generation, I grew up playing video games. The first game I ever played was Donkey Kong on my cousin’s NES. I can’t begin to count the hours I must have spent playing Super Mario Brothers after we got an NES of our own. My mom says she used to hear...
2 tags
XBL Gave me the Friend of a Lifetime
Chandler discusses how XBL introduced him to one of his closest friends, whom he has known for two years now.
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At the age of 12, I was a rather awkward child. I was always paranoid of peoples thoughts, and I tried to be someone I’m not. I always looked up to my older brother, and wanted to hang out with his friends and be cool. They never liked that. My brother had an Xbox 360,...
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How Halo Helped Me Through Chemotherapy
Ken Berthelette discusses how playing Halo was the only thing that could help distract him from the pains and embarrassments of chemotherapy treatment.
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Last year I was diagnosed with a type of lymphoma. I had surgery on my neck to diagnose me, which left me in mild discomfort and gave me some serious scaring. I went through chemotherapy over the holiday season. My first chemo session...
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How Games Got Me a Best Man
Derek Chen discusses how League of Legends helped heal the wedge driven between him and his best friend because they loved the same woman.
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There was a girl. Isn’t there always?
I loved this girl; I loved her more then ANYTHING I had ever loved, and hey, she loved me too. She loved me. But not as much as she loved my best friend.
Eventually she ended up talking to me about it,...
2 tags
How My XBOX 360 Saved My Life
Allyx discusses how her XBOX 360 helped her contend with the aggressively debilitating side effects of cancer treatment.
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When I was 17, at the beginning of my senior year of high school, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma; cancer. While one of the more curable forms of cancer, the treatment for Hodgkin’s is very aggressive (a nurse once told me she always felt sorry for the...
3 tags
My Little Story
TJ discusses how gaming helped him cope with the onset of his grandmother’s Alzheimer’s.
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I have been playing videogames for as long as I can remember. I have also been pretty depressed for as long as I can remember. Gaming has always been a way to help me escape the darkness that closed in on me. It turns out that I have bipolar disorder with major depressive symptoms and...
My apologies
It has been a long, long time since I updated this, and I’m terribly sorry. I have been jet-setting all across the country! I am going to attempt to follow a regimented updating schedule, which means I will post two stories every Wednesday until there are no more to post.
Games are great.
You are great.
February 2012
1 post
2 tags
Making Fantasy my Reality
B’Rock discusses how Final Fantasy helped keep them stable in a family that suffered from a variety of mental disabilities.
Mental disease is strange, and when you grow up in a household where everyone is crazy its tricky to see anyone having a problem. Being the youngest I never saw any of my family members as crazy, just different. I never knew of a time when my house wasn’t...
January 2012
4 posts
4 tags
Interactivity Helps me Cope With Chronic Apathy
Whodin discusses how, after suffering from depression and apathy in his childhood, video games were one of the few things that could make him excited again.
While I wouldn’t outright say that video games “saved my life” (even though they pretty much were the only thing helping me stay sane through most of my childhood thanks to a spectacularly volatile home situation), as...
3 tags
Why It's Important to Read
Trey Smit discusses how his brother learned the importance of reading through playing The Legend of Zelda: The Adventure of Link.
My brother couldn’t have been older than four or five when we would take turns playing The Legend of Zelda: The Adventure of Link. Often, especially Saturday mornings we would sit together eating cereal and playing. My brother could read somewhat, but not...
3 tags
A Day in Sim City
Lauren discusses how, on the day she planned to commit suicide following years of living in an abusive family, The Sims helped distract and comfort her, preventing her death.
My family was the poster family for instability. One day our mom would threaten to leave us and the next she’d apologize, only to find herself arguing with our mentally ill father. It felt like a day couldn’t...
2 tags
The Strength to Choose Another Way
Joan discusses how Yuna’s bravery in FFX helped her confront her abusive husband and escape her marriage.
When I was probably too young to be making big life decisions, I got married. Unfortunately, I got married to a man that was emotionally abusive and manipulative, and had systematically isolated me from my family and most of my friends. All the while he made me feel as if this was...
December 2011
2 posts
3 tags
How WoW Helped me Through an Abusive 2 Year...
Jo discusses how, while she was trapped in a mentally and physically abusive relationship, WoW was the only thing that helped restore her sense of self-worth.
Life had been going well for me since I was a kid. I had great parents, a caring younger brother, I did well at school and I had a great group of friends (who I still talk to now and again). This changed when I got to college (year 11...
1 tag
Cultural Identity Issues and Gaming
Charlie Appleton discusses how Saints Row 2, and other games that allow character customization, helped him reconcile his Korean and British heritages.
Being born to a British father and a Korean mother while being raised in a Chinese city I felt I didn’t belong to, led to some well realised identity issues as I’ve gotten older. As a teenager, I more closely associated with my father. I felt...
November 2011
6 posts
2 tags
Metroid Changed my Life
Michelle Perl discusses how creating a cosplay replication of the Zero Suit Samus outfit motivated her to lose over 100 pounds.
See Michelle’s feature in Nintendo Power Magazine here.
Interested in joining a video game-inspired charity organization? Michelle is also involved with SOS Gamers. Check them out here!
4 tags
How Kirby Saved my Life
Aaron Reid discusses how, after dropping into a depression following the divorce of his parents and many of his close friends moving away, Kirby helped pull him out of his emotional low.
My name is Aaron Reid, and this is a bit of my story.
I was at an age in the lower single digits when my parents divorced. This unfortunate event enhanced my already introverted, and almost antisocial...
3 tags
Kingdom Hearts and my Baby Brother
Mina discusses how Kingdom Hearts helped her bond with her baby brother in a way she had previously been unable to.
In my senior year of high school, my family had a “bonus baby” namely, my baby brother. While I adored my baby brother (and still do) I went off to college and I wasn’t able to spend much time with him during those years other than summer and Christmas break. A...
3 tags
Solid Snake's Conclusion Brought me Closure
Scott F discusses how, following his brother’s death, he played Metal Gear Solid 4 in order to honor his late sibling’s memory, but ended up gaining a sense of peace.
I was never a really big “gamer” before my brother died. It was sort of his thing; he played all sorts of games, ranging from Final Fantasy to Need for speed. Among all the games he played, though, the...
4 tags
Gamers Saved My Life
Dave Matney discusses how, after becoming a father at 17, and both enduring and engaging in infidelity, a group of gamers saved him from committing suicide.
As a child of the 80’s, video games have always been part of my life — sleepovers we held just to play Golden Axe, Killer Instinct, Silent Hill, and a few D&D all-nighters, as well. Video game culture was rampant in my schools,...
Never Truly Alone Anymore
Jared Araniego discusses how, after his mother left, his sister became his parental figure - now, as she becomes less of a presence in his life, he uses video games to feel less alone.
I’ve never been good with the concept of being alone – part of me always wants to be in the company of others, and even when I think I want to be alone in my room, that part of me wants others to be...
October 2011
12 posts
4 tags
My Mom, Elizabeth Shepard
Daniel Starkey discusses how, after playing as a female Shepard modeled after his mother following her lupus diagnosis, he felt he understood her more.
I am and always have been a momma’s boy. I was raised by a single mother, and for as long as I can remember she has been at least partially disabled. When I was very young, my mom juggled school, two jobs and trying to care for me. I ended up...
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I wanted to apologize for the dearth in updates! This go-around it wasn’t a lack of submissions, but a lack of time, on my part. It’s my last semester in college and things are a little hectic. I will be updating with a new story momentarily and will try to be more consistent in the future. Thank you all your patience.
As always, games are great.
You are great.
<3 Ash
3 tags
I Need a Monk
Chris Erb discusses how Age Of Empires II helped him cope with the death of his first love.
Right after graduating high school, my friend invited myself and several other friends to a Dungeons & Dragons campaign his brother was running. I hadn’t played for at least three years, I signed right on, and it wasn’t long after that I met Nicole. She was a snarky redhead, into a lot...
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How Final Fantasy IX Kept me Sane Through Divorce
Brandon Chinn discusses how Final Fantasy IX gave him and his brother hope, a moral compass, and a sense of family/unity, during his parents’ divorce.
When I was not yet a decade into life, my parents had an ugly divorce. It was, in no way, mutual. It was a monster bred of anger and unfaithfulness, and they did nothing to keep the pain from their children. My parents (to this day)...
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Dilly Dally, Shilly Shally
Daniel Lewis discusses how Final Fantasy 7 enabled him to overcome his grief over the death of his mother.
My mom was ill since as long as I can remember. She’s had the worst happen to her compared to anyone in my family. I was really close to my mom and she raised me while my father was always away. But when she started getting sicker, I started distancing myself. Her mental state started...
3 tags
How Making a Game Helped me to be Good
Jake Spencer discusses how creating a game has helped him battle his depression and the depression of his closest friend.
I was sixteen the first time depression struck. I’d had plenty of rough times, sure, but never anything quite like this. I didn’t even know what this was. In fact, it hit at a point in my life when things had never been better. I had no reason to be down except...
3 tags
XBL Saved My Life
Todd Sauceda credits XBOX Live as the one facilitator for all of his current friendships. Despite his mother’s skepticism, Todd argues that his online friends are just as real to him as ones that he interacts with in person, and that they are just as -if not more - important.
I grew up in a very closed-in family. My mother is a very religious person, and although I fully respect her...
MegaMan for Healing
Cody Wilson discusses how his SNES got him through injury, loneliness, and the frustration of having to keep his mother’s sexual orientation a secret from classmates.
I was a little on the late side when it came to riding my bicycle without training wheels. Why take them off, I figured? I didn’t need to learn how to balance with them on, right? Problem solved! Well, I was...
3 tags
Escape to Midgar
James McCaulley credits Final Fantasy VII with helping him cope with his father’s abuse of his mother, who he sees as an Aeris-esque figure.
I grew up in a broken home. My father was abusive, mostly to my mother. He was an addict of every variety and persuasion; his vices were legendary. When I was a child, I had to listen to him abuse her for hours, with no end in sight. Sometimes I...
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Submissions are slowin'
If my updates seem infrequent, it’s probably because they are. At the very least, they have become more sporadic recently. I’m still working through some submissions, but the well has been running dry.
I state this only as a context in which to say that I have no intention of forcing this website, or participation in this website, onto anyone. This should be a space in which...
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How Pokemon Kept me Sane
Devin discusses how Pokemon helped him contend with his parents’ messy divorce, his mother’s subsequent substance abuse, and the emotional abuse of his step-father.
It’s not easy to talk about stuff like this, but I’m always willing to when it will benefit someone else. This seems like one of those instances.
I got my first Gameboy when I was about 5; it came with...
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How The Legend of Zelda Helped me Cope With my...
LordHershebel discusses how The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess consoled him after his best friend left for college.
During my time in high school I was what you might call a motherfucker. I wore leather, listened to Motorhead and Deep Purple – I displayed typical Rock n Roll attitudes you might expect from someone with a rabid obsession with vinyl records. On the surface you would...
September 2011
48 posts
3 tags
RPG's Saved my Life
James F credits RPGs for helping him overcome the trauma of sexual and physical abuse by teaching him to work hard and never quit.
I was adopted as an infant, but unfortunately my adoption story isn’t a pleasant one, and without video games, (RPGs specifically) it would have been a tragic one.
My adoptive father died when I was 8, and it was at this time that my mother, who had never...
3 tags
Diner Dash Helped me Enter the Working World
Yin Mak discusses how relating her new waitressing job to Diner Dash helped dispel her nervousness and made her a better server.
I recently started a part time job as a waitress, and I found myself relating a lot of the procedure of the job to a casual game my mother played a lot; Diner Dash.
Of course, I don’t have speedy shoes and can’t really upgrade the kitchen a whole lot,...
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Fierce, Strong, Jab Belief
Ethan Hunter learned from his days of trouncing college kids at Street Fighter II when he was 12 that he could do anything if he worked hard enough.
There was a time in my life when I wanted to play Street Fighter professionally. Hell, there was a time in my life when I basically did play it professionally. This was in a magical land known as The Nineteen Nineties. I was twelve. On weekends...
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How Games Helped me Find my One True Friend
Conor Lehman discusses how video games helped him discover and bond with his closest friend.
I’ve always been an awkward and insecure teenager, but back in my first few years of high school I
realized how true that was.
I was afraid of everything people thought about me and my various conditions. I was the biggest loner and I didn’t want to be, every day of school was a struggle and I...
3 tags
Healing with Kingdom Hearts
Megan J, daughter of a member of the Navy, discusses how Kingdom Hearts helped her cope with the absence of close friends as she moved from place to place with her family.
I am a Navy brat. Growing up and making friends was very difficult for me, and still is even as an adult. The constant cycle of arriving, awkwardly meeting someone and getting close and then being separated broke me down by...
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Video Games: You've Got a Friend in Me
Ian discusses how Everquest and the Final Fantasy franchise consistently gave him something to hold onto and prevented him from committing suicide.
My name is Ian, and games really did help save my life.
When I was young, I would say around second grade, I was kind of an outcast. At such a young age, I was terribly depressed. No kid that age should think about killing themselves, but that was...
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Kratos Helped me Bash School in the Face
Jonathan Mendoza credits God of War 3 with helping him pass his exams.
Last fall I got my hands on a copy of God of War 3. This is probably one of my favorite trilogies, so I just HAD to play it. I decided to play it little by little in order to not get in the way of my school.
I began having probably one of the hardest/stressful semesters at school I have ever had. Things were not going my...
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How Shadow of the Colossus Taught me Empathy
Akshay Mathew relives a playthrough of Shadow of the Colossus that affected him so profoundly that he turned off the console before the last Colossus. Spoilers for Shadow of the Colossus.
The first colossus was a struggle to kill. It was near an hour before the monstrous creature fell dead onto the ground. I had succeeded and was one step closer to achieving my goal; only fifteen colossi...
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Welcome to the Jam
Martin Baleford credits Barkley, Shut up and Jam: Gaiden with his decision to leave his upper-class suburbanite lifestyle and his oppressive parents in favor of a more simplistic life.
I’ve always resented my upbringing as a white, wealthy, “upper crust” (as my mother refers to it) suburbanite, only child. Ever since I was a child I’ve felt as if my identity was never...
3 tags
Light Rock
Nate Andrews discusses how Rock Band and Rock Band 2 helped motivate him to get back into exercising and lose the weight he gained from a slump of depression.
From childhood on, I was seen and known as a “big” kid—part of a designated group of youngsters with the height and/or weight to qualify for years of “big guy” quips, fat jokes, and being picked last in many a...
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Catherine Helped Me Accept Cheaters
Schane Mitchell discusses how, after being cheated on 5 times by previous lovers, Catherine helped him understand their mental state, which enabled him to let go of the sense of pain and betrayal that he clung to due to their infidelity.
I have been a genuinely kind person since the day I was born, a gamer since I was merely two years old, I have patience that exceeds most, and I can mediate...
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(Sims) Social Gaming Works: on internet friends...
Kristine credits the Sims Social game on Facebook as the facilitator of a ‘family reunion’ of sorts - it brought her and her close group of internet friends back together after a long spell of distance and separation.
Let me be clear, this will probably be the least moving submission you’ll see on this tumblr. My story hardlyqualifies under any of the socially accepted conventions...
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All Ghouls Go to Heaven
Jenn Putnam discusses how, after the death of her father, Fallout 3 was the one thing that forced her to address her suppressed pain and eventually let go of the despair from her loss.
My dad and I had always been close. I am the oldest of four girls and since dad never got a son I took the role of ‘son’. We played videogames; lots of videogames. My dad played Doom for the first time when I...
