there are definitely characters, or groups of characters who need help, and also probably hugs and a big box of doughnuts. So who is likely to becoming in for therapy, and how would those sessions go?
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Oh, Predator and Prey are absolutely showing up, and they’re gonna be incredibly utilitarian about the ordeal.
Also I’m gonna need therapy for myself, after the extended anxiety of spending time in a room with hunter-killer clones.
Predator: “I’ll not waste time. I’m here for the hallucinations. I think the grief is reducing my effectiveness. Also the implant. I require expertise in emotion regulation. Allies share what they know. You will be a useful ally, yeah…? I’d hate for this opportunity to go to waste…”
Prey: “Hi. I woke up on my first day of life with an attempted brainwashing, and then spent an hour being hunted for sport. I need instructions for treating my anxiety before the heart attacks set in. Would you like to work together? I don’t eat collaborators.”
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The protagonist of Violet could definitely benefit from some talk therapy for anxiety-avoidance.
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Yes, and probably some encouragement as well because he probably doesn’t feel confident
The main characters of Repeat the Ending will require some degree of psychiatric care for the rest of their lives.
Edit: specifically for medication management and possibly some talk therapy. I’m not sure how well things will go, though.
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IF characters need to see an IF therapist. Like Eliza!
My favourite phrase of Eliza’s was ‘Come, come, elucidate your thoughts.’ I played the version from the book BASIC Computer Games after typing it in in the early 80s. It was kind of fascinating to me as a kid, but, being a kid, the point of it or its amusing take on psychiatric speak were entirely beyond me.
-Wade
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My friends and I mostly enjoyed saying curse words or otherwise weird things to Eliza, just to see what she would say. I think I might have been 11. This was on my friend’s c64 computer, where I first played Zork I and Jumpman.
I was thinking more an ADHD therapist xD and stimulants
I think everyone in Erstwhile needs serious help recovering from grief
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crosses out another entry on the list of “IFComp 2026 ideas”
I think pretty much every character I like or write should probably go to therapy. Unfortunately I am not certain about how long the therapist would survive (I mean, there are vampires. And trans people). Doubly so if the therapist really is me. I just don’t have that kind of patience.
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I’ve actually spent the past several weeks writing code for crafting NPC behavioral/decision-making models from a psychological profile (basically the design interface is a personality quiz, sorta like the one from Ultima IV but somewhat more elaborate) and affect/mental state evaluation tools for summarizing the current state of an in-game NPC (Alice is currently Tired(710), BurnedOut(643), and Paranoid(539) and so on).
The WIP I’m working on is I guess cosmic horror, with the conceit that nearly all the characters are coping, in general poorly, with regret.
I have read so many papers on this stuff. If you need somebody with no formal training in psychology to summarize Russell and Mehrabian’s three-factor model (“Evidence for a Three-Factor Theory of Emotions”, Journal of Research in Personality, p. 273-294, 1977), I’m your guy!
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