It's Depression Mode. I'm John Moe. I'm glad you're here. And I'm cognizant of the inherent

limitations of you being here, of your presence. You're listening. I'm talking. Some other people are going to be talking soon.

And you're welcome to talk back to us, but we will not hear you. You could connect with me on

social media or through other digital means, but it won't be part of the show itself.

Although I know you're here, and I am so happy about that, I gotta realize, we all gotta

realize it's passive.

Video games are active, interactive.

You don't just watch or listen, you are inside of these worlds, to a degree.

I mean, not all the way inside.

We're not Tron. Hey, everybody, depression mode is not

Tron. But when you think about art and mental health and the effect of those two things on one

another, you kind of have to take the quality of immersiveness into account in estimating

how much of an effect the art's going to have. The more immersive it is, the more deeply you are likely to feel it, right? So seeing a movie in a movie theater is more immersive than watching the movie on TV. And so you feel the movie more than you would if you saw it in your living room. Seeing a play feels more

immersive than watching a movie in a movie theater because the people are really there,

right there in front of you. The characters in video games are not there with you, thankfully,

but you often see the art through the perspective of a character whose actions and decisions you guide. And that can be

an opportunity for escapism, sure, but in the right game, it's also an opportunity to see a different

world with different stakes and be immersed in that and really feel the art deeply. And if you're a

person who deals with disorders like depression or anxiety,

that could be quite a compelling bit of art. You can get out of yourself and gain some perspective

and stop rattling around your own head as much and actually get some insight along the way.

If you don't play a lot of games, you can't be blamed for thinking that they're all

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