SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
What Is Doki Doki Literature Club? Parents Warned About Horror Video Game After Teen's Death
Parents and teachers have been warned about the potential mental health risks of a cult "visual novel" video game, with one coroner saying it may "trigger suicidal thoughts" in young people.
One father, Darren Walmsley, 49, believes Doki Doki Literature Club, a free-to-play PC title that is presented with a cartoony art style but has overtones of psychological horror, may have contributed to the death of his son Ben earlier this year. Ahead of an inquest into the passing of the child, officials spoke out about the game's subject matter, which includes violence and suicide.
[...] Detective Inspector Jude Holmes, from the Greater Manchester Police, said: "We believe this game is a risk to children and young people, especially those that are emotionally vulnerable and anyone with existing mental health concerns. It's also really important to discuss with your children which games and apps are suitable, and ensure they understand why others aren't appropriate to use."
Cool story, Sherlock.
Doki Doki Literature Club! Wow, there's a Linux version. Time for another Community Review?
Also at NextShark and Manchester Evening News.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 30 2018, @09:11PM (1 child)
Your typical virtual novel / dating sim is you chatting to cartoon girls in RPG-adventure-style click-your-reply-of-choice until you manage to get laid. Basically dialog heavy adventure story but without any game mechanics aside from dialog choices targeted at socially inept teens that are stupid enough to actually derive satisfaction from this sort of games.
Doki Doki Literature Club parodies this most stupid of games using a dumb twist where the resulting relationship turn abusive and the wrong sentence can end up in a suicide or murder in over-dramatized, ultra-violent humorist way. It's not even black humor we're talking about here. It's just a satire on the genre and the idiotic charterer interactions in these sort of games. Like, you're talking to one girl too much might get another one jealous resulting in murder-suicide and a "I can't live without you!" style note...
This is the old "Are you feeling depressed or having suicidal thoughts over realizing you have no savings or prospects? I am now that you mentioned it!" joke. Crazy kids.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday July 01 2018, @12:04PM
That term evoked the imagination of thoughts committing suicide … you know the situation when you have a thought, but don't immediately write it down, and then later you try to remember, but you have no idea what it was? Well, probably that thought committed suicide.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.