How Diablo II Helped One Person Get Through 9/11
At and around the time of 9/11, I was a Counter-Strike addict. It sometimes struck me as odd while I’d played the game, but it never felt wrong. Should it have? It was a game, it was a whole mess of fun, and it didn’t matter much to me how topical the game inadvertently was. I was a teenager. I wasn’t smart enough to see that yet.
During 9/11, Naomi Alderman wasn’t playing terrorists vs. counter-terrorists on de_dust. She was playing Paladins and Sorcerers vs. Mephisto and Duriel in the Durance of Hate. She was playing Diablo II, for 30 hours a week. It was her way of dealing with the tragedy surrounding her in the streets of Manhattan. And, looking back, she sees absolutely nothing wrong with that.
As gamers I’m sure we all know the therapeutic power of playing games. A good Gears of War session can leave us satisfied, fulfilled, maybe a little less grouchy than we were before we started. Games as stress relief, sure. But games as a method of grieving, or of dealing with absolutely earth-shattering tragedy? That’s another level. Alderman writes:
I remember surfacing from four-hour Diablo II sessions feeling as if I’d been on holiday, so grateful that I’d been able to blot out the images of genuine horror filling my city. The game was so mind-filling it left no room for the anxious brooding that I was experiencing the rest of the time. This was a tremendous blessing.
As life began to brighten up, Alderman says, her desire to play gradually waned off – proof that the game served her as therapy more than anything else.
I sympathize with Alderman – people read (and write) books, watch (and make) movies in response to things like 9/11. Playing a game is really no different, and it’s only a result of our culture’s disdain for the medium that we should feel compelled to think otherwise. But that’s my opinion. Is playing games an appropriate response to tragic events, both on a personal and a national level? What do you guys think?
Source: The Guardian via RPS
