Praise The Sun: Notoriously Difficult Video Game May Help Players Cope With Depression

There are games that are meant for pure enjoyment, and there are games that are meant to challenge you. And then there is Dark Souls, which is meant to punish you over and over again until you finally “git gud”, as the community puts it, and overcome the incredible difficulty levels and defeat e.g. a giant sword-wielding wolf and feel like a god, only to be taken out by a few grunts a few moments later.

In the game, you play The Chosen Undead as you make your way through the kingdom of Lordran, scurrying from bonfire to bonfire (the game’s only save points), collecting souls and figuring out the best way to dispose of your foes. But one slip and it’s a big YOU DIED screen, followed by a desperate attempt to get back to where you died in order to collect your souls, which are used to level up and purchase much-needed items.

That doesn’t sound like a grand old time for your mental health, but the game has a reputation for helping players through tough times, with players claiming it has helped them through depression. According to the new study, which analyzed reports from games on Reddit, there may be some truth to that. Or, at least, a large volume of similar experiences. 

With the large caveat that the study focused on self-reported depression rather than clinically diagnosed depression, the team found that players responded well to the game’s structure, and applied it to their own lives.

“Players described how the game’s structure had taught them acceptance of failures as an essential part of life’s process,” doctoral researcher Jaakko Väkevä explained in a statement. “Dark Souls, through its ruthless difficulty and powerful narrative themes, seemed to empower many players to confront their real-life struggles with perseverance and hope.”

One particular mechanic, termed “hollowing”, was especially helpful according to the researchers, with players seeing it as a metaphor for depression itself. 

“Hollows are those cursed with the darksign that have suffered death and now lack humanity. Deprived of humanity enough, they become completely mindless, losing any shred of reason and hungering for humanity, blindly attacking anyone that possesses it,” Reddit user cedear explains. 

Hollowing occurs to players upon death, making them weaker and more vulnerable, but can be reversed by reaching a bonfire, restoring your “humanity”. Meanwhile, a mechanic that allows players to ask for help from other players seemingly encouraged people to ask for help in the real world.

“We found the game’s online community could provide players support and encouragement. Players commonly considered the game as a form of self-care, finding therapeutic value in how it helped them cope with depression and difficult life experiences,” the team explains in their study. “Taken together, our findings highlight the in-game concept of hollowing as a defining feature of Dark Souls, effectively integrating its challenging gameplay, narrative themes, and cooperative multiplayer dynamics to holistically contribute to players’ experiences of profound mental health benefits with the game.”

While the study focused on self-reports from players, it casts videogames in a more positive light than they sometimes get in the press.

“When considering games and their impact on well-being, there is a tendency to highlight potential negatives, like spending too much time in front of screens,” associate professor Janne Lindqvist added. “Dark Souls is an example of how video games can positively impact gamers’ lives beyond the gaming experience itself.”

The study was presented at the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.