Mods and Depression: How a Modderin helps with games of their mental health
The fact that video games can help us with our psychological problems have shown many articles this week and should not be a great surprise for most gamers. However, the work can help with and of games of their own mental health - even if you do not have a part of a large or small developer studio.
Content warning: The articles of Mental Health Week deal with different aspects of mental health and sometimes include examples of negative emotions and unhealthy behaviors that can cause negative reactions in some people. Please be careful with texts that potentially contain triggering topics for you.
* Important note: * If you have depression or self-destructive thoughts: you are not al1. Please get help. For example, in the German Depression Help under 0800/33 44 533 or free advice centers.
How this works, author is explained by author and artist Jessie Aka @Girstillstill, a passionate modder. About Jessies Twitter account we stumbled shortly before the release of the Mass Effect Legendary Edition in May 2021, as it is not only a damped bioware fan, but has made a name for itself in the community especially by modding - and by its openness to the topic Mental Health.
Jessie tweetes very open about how to create mods like improved faces for NPCs of their psychic health and how to give the games of Bioware a refuge when life is difficult to endure.
More about the Modderin :
Jessie Aka Girsstandstill is an author and artist in her late 30s, which became big with video games like Mortal Combat and the Sims. At the age of 14, a bipolar disorder was found at her, at which a late autism diagnosis was added last year.
Your psychological and physical health status has just put many stones in their way in recent years and they found not only a refuge in video games, but also an outlet to be not only creative, but also productive
Video games as a refuge
After working for several years two full-time jobs and completed a training in parallel, Jessie returned a burnout in 2017, as life told in the interview. Due to their physical constitution (and later through the Corona pandemic), it could not leave the house and fell in severe depression. Being sick and can not work, gave her feeling that her life had no value and she was only a burden of others, as Jessie reminded himself. Yet she felt isolated.
But video games should help her. Preferably, you lost yourself in RPGS like the Mass Effect Trilogy, Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars The Old Republic or the Dragon Age Games. As a hero * to save in the galaxy, if they were struggling in real life, to create it through the day, was comforting for Jessie. To flee to games, she left her dark thoughts for a while. But she still struggled to feel useless as if she had nothing to reach in her life.
Mods were the solution:
Making mods just opened so many new opportunities that I would never have kept possible. To gamble and making mods, gave me a refuge and the opportunity to be productive and contribute to my way.
When mods give life to life
Jessie originally did not want to modes itself. She believed that creating mods would be too heavy as she had no special computer skills. The idea for a Dragon Age-Mod, in which Riadan would carry out the dark ritual with Morrigan, but changed it. She posted the idea in a Facebook group to Dragon Age hoping that someone would build the Mod or explain how she could make it myself.
After a few days she got the answer to a Modderin who gave her the resources and tools to start with the modding. Jessie began to build "Face Morphs", making mods that change the appearance of NPCs or expand the character creation options.
She posted the Face Morphs on the popular mod page Nexusmods and got a lot of positive feedback. Many fans wrote to her that thanks to Jessies mods, they could finally build the hero * in her dreams:
When I started using [Mods] and looked how people reacted to it, I got the feeling of having a purpose. That there was still something that I could contribute and rush me, which benefited others. When I realized that mods gave me a meaning in life, I also realized that I felt less suicidal and was looking forward to interacting with the people using my mods. [...] Today I have a community from friends who understand me and I do not feel isolated and alone.
On and off belongs to this
Although the modding Jessie helps with her mental health, it is not a wonder. Sometimes you just miss the motivation when it is depressed, changing phases of productivity and inactivity are part of them. If you can not work on mods, you will try to use other self-welfare methods that can help you.
Even the modes themselves does not always bring positive experiences. Sometimes people leave comments on Jessie's mods to complain that they do not like them. Jessie knows that her creations never liked all and constructive criticism is important to her, but unexpected negativity can still be reflected on its motivation. It is all the more important to her not to forget why you modet:
"I'm trying to remember that only because someone does not like something created by me, which does not mean that it should affect me negatively. I'm doing [the mods] for myself and that's the most important thing. "_
Nobody is alone
Meanwhile, Jessie works on numerous different types of mods. In addition to Face Morphs and God Items (ie equipment with extremely good values), you currently help yourself to create CutScenes, textures and companion mods and use Blender. Your goal is to make your favorite games through mods more diverse and more and more.
More articles from our Mental Health Week are here :
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Mental Health Week
What awaits you & all articles in the overview
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In everyday life Jessie put their mental illnesses many hurdles. But this also means that she has other life experiences that give her a unique viewing angle and showed her how important compassion, empathy, patience and kindness are. In the modding community, she met people who are fighting with the same problems and learned that they are not alone and would not be ashamed to be different. For those who are interested in the modes, she has a simple advice:
_ "Do not have a shy to turn to Modder if your questions have. Many of us love to promote new people in the modding community. We all know how hard it was to start, so we always like to give our knowledge of future generations of moders. Do not be discouraged from anyone to realize your ideas in the form of mods. We are all fans of games. To learn modes just give you the opportunity to personalize your favorite fictional game worlds. "_
An important request: Since our articles from the Mental Health Week are more sensitive topics that have partially requested us a lot while writing, we ask you for a friendly and understanding comment culture at this point. Thank you and have fun reading!
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