(I wrote a related post in Chinese here.)
I recently finished a visual novel (a game genre). It is a great game with fully voiced feature, and it has good ending. However, after I finished the game, I felt depressed and empty until now (around a week now). The feeling is just similar to grief. I believe that, how good the game is, then how empty it will be. This is because the fictional and realistic are totally different thing. Whatever you feel through fiction, when you come into reality then they are just gone. And you found that, what you gained was just emptiness.
I searched online, and found that this type of depression is called post-game depression.
I have summarized the factors that cause me having post-game depression.
- The player (you) has great empathy – you can feel like game character feels.
- Game characters have realistic characteristics – you will feel that the game characters like a real person.
- Fully voiced dialog – just like those scamming dating app, you feel the heartwarming speech.
- The game character(s) match the player’s favour – you like the character.
- The story is long – you spend time with the game, causes you attached to the game character.
- The story is reasonable and logical – it may contains science fictional element, but story flow is reasonable.
- Good ending, but without finalize everything – you see the happy ending, but looks like something is missing.
In conclusion, you are attached to a fictional story that is somehow realistic (especially in the characters’ relationships), but when the story ended, then it is ended. Nothing else. This causes the player feel something suddenly missing.
In order to cope this bad experience, I am trying to (i) pay more attention on my spiritual life (i.e prayer and bible reading); (ii) talk to someone else (e.g. join Discord); (iii) listen to sad songs/musics; and (iv) re-imagine the whole game with a more completed story. Time passing will make me forget the game and the feeling, but this is really a bad experience. 😕
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