Games You Can’t Win
A transgender woman, a sufferer of severe mental illness, and the parents of a child with cancer transform their experiences into intensely personal video games.
By DAVID OSIT and MALIKA ZOUHALI-WORRALL on Publish Date March 17, 2016.In this short documentary, a transgender woman, a man with severe mental illness, and the parents of a child with cancer transform their experiences into intensely personal video games.
Students
1. Watch the above eight-minute film. While you watch, you might take notes using our Film Club Double-Entry Journal (PDF) to help you remember specific moments.
2. After watching, think about these questions:
- What moments in this film stood out for you? Why?
- Were there any surprises? Anything that challenged what you know — or thought you knew?
- What messages, emotions or ideas will you take away from this film? Why?
3. Next, join the conversation by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box that opens on the right. (Students 13 and older are invited to comment, although teachers of younger students
are welcome to post what their students have to say.)
4. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.
5. To learn more about this film, read the article discussing the film written by the filmmakers David Osit and Malika Zouhali-Worrall.
Video games are generally associated with guns and explosions — a medium better suited to escapism than intimacy. So when we attended a gaming convention a few years ago, we were surprised to see some players displaying profound emotion.
The game they were playing was “That Dragon, Cancer,” created by Ryan and Amy Green and a small team to share their story of raising their young son Joel who had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. We saw that the response to the game can be unusual. Some players leave the computer speechless and in tears; others finish and seek out the parents, eager to empathize in person, and to comfort. Yet many times the role of comforter seems to fall on the parents Ryan and Amy, as players are inspired to intimately share their own stories of battling illness and coping with loss. While video games stereotypically tend to be associated with violent story lines or mindless tasks, “That Dragon, Cancer” is one of an increasing number of personal, autobiographical games that are generating new conversations and exchanges within and outside the gaming world. These interactive works share intimate and sometimes traumatic personal experiences in video game form.
We made a feature-length documentary, Thank You For Playing, that follows Ryan and Amy over the 18 months that they created “That Dragon, Cancer” while raising their terminally-ill son. This Op-Doc features the experience of the Greens, as well as two other developers we met, Matt Gilgenbach (“Neverending Nightmares”) and Anna Anthropy (“Dys4ia”). As a result, we learned more about the new applications of video games: games wherein the goal is not necessarily to “win” — many don’t even feature a clear win/lose structure — but to share personal experiences from the creator’s life as a work of creative, interactive nonfiction. While their reasons for creating these games vary, one element clearly unites these developers: the video game is their chosen artistic medium, and programming is their paintbrush.
More?
- See all the films in this series.
- Read our list of practical teaching ideas, along with responses from students and teachers, for how you can use these documentaries in the classroom.
What’s Next?
Our next Film Club discussion will be on the seven-minute film “A Conversation With Asian-Americans on Race.” In this short documentary, Asian-Americans confront stereotypes about their community. The discussion will begin on May 6.