Hard to believe that it's been 5yrs, on this day, that The Verge posted this article about me and my grandmother, forever immortalizing her in the gaming community as several articles popped up all over the world in reaction to it. What has happened in the 5yrs since?
-Others have started to use VR for quality of life purposes. One person reached out, telling me about how they let old vets at a local nursing home fly planes with their VR headset. Others have started to use it in the medical field for pain management and phobia therapy.
-The job my grandmother asked me daily about, asking if they called me back to hire me, eventually did hire me. Unfortunately, it was only after she passed.
-I eventually worked at another company and started to learn VR development.
-My now-boyfriend had seen the articles before we even knew each other. He's also a game developer and we are now making our own VR project that we're very excited about.
-I struggled with a lot of depression. Watching someone you care about deteriorate in front of you, everyday, took a bigger mental toll on me than I would care to admit. Eventually, I sought help through mental health professionals and have been feeling more of myself than I ever had. I hope those who feel stuck seek out the help that I was so resistant to.
-Depression also hit my physical health and I eventually was able to go on the right path to being more physically healthy. I'm now more healthy than I have been in years.
-To this day, I still can't watch the video in it's entirety. A lot of traumatic events happened that I end up reliving when something triggers the memories, but I still share this video because I still think it's important and that this technology reaches out to everyone and not just gamers. I may be a game dev, but I'm human first, and this progression to mental health and well-being is essential for us to prosper as a species.
Alrighty, talked your ear off, but thought I'd share. Thanks for listening, and feel free to share if you think this is important for others to hear out as well.
Also, if you have a story you would like to share where gaming helped you or someone you loved in a life-changing way, please share! I would love to hear your story. :)
#vr #gaming #gamedev #cancer #depression #mentalhealth