Tags
autism, bipolar, diversity, Gaming, mental health, Ubisoft, Watch Dogs 2, Wrench
I’m more than a little enamored with Watch Dogs 2 right now. A little late to the fandom I know, would you believe we’ve had the game for 2 years and I’ve sat nearby spinning wool while my daughter played through entirely 4 times and it still didn’t register?!
Better late than never. I’m loving the diversity and representation present. While there’s always room for improvement, I think this game has done a stellar job on inclusiveness. I was honestly a little blindsided at that coming from Ubisoft after they doubled down on the female player character thing a few years back, so credit where it’s due.
I really enjoyed the Marcus/Horatio mission tackling everyday racism, particularly where the writing seems to be shredding the imbalances present in gaming/silicon valley – but that’s not my lane, so I’m going to talk about where I *do* intersect.
As a character with Aspergers, I found Josh to be quite endearing. I understand the actor put a lot of research into the character development, and there are certainly aspects of Josh that ring really true for me, right down to his intensity/posture at the computer and difficulty conveying emotion while overwhelmed. The only criticism I would have with Josh, is that at times it feels like there’s a little much trying to make him everything about autism, rather than the diversity of it. Still, worlds ahead of the stereotypes that exist out there.
What really stole my heart though, was Wrench. He was completely unexpected. In fact, since my usual gaming MO is to skip through chat and cut scenes wherever possible so that I can get back to *playing the game*, I was half way through before I realised just what I was missing, and had to start over in order to pay attention.
In a bit of a wake-up call for internal biases, Wrench has all the appearance of a punk anarchist, and initially I thought I was drawn to the character because ‘bad boy’… but nope. Wrench is single-handedly the geekiest, nerdiest, affectionate, loving, loyal, caring, unselfish, sweetest creature imaginable. He just also happens to blow stuff up with fireworks.
He’s clearly got his own version of madness going, but he owns it and just like Josh, you take him as you find him.
In terms of madperson symbolism, the mask he wears is something a lot of people I know do: a public mask in order to convey sanity, to fit in, to function without judgement, to not upset others. It can be exhausting. I think the same can go for autism: for me social cues, behaviours and interactions are learned, a little like programming a computer. It’s tricky, one minute you’re out with your bro buddies and someone sticks a finger in an overflowing glass of fizzy drink because science. Clearly a socially acceptable behaviour then, right? Of course. The next day, with a different friend? Apparently not. OMFG trying to work out how you’re supposed to behave around who gets convoluted.
Well, to hell with that. Be more Wrench.
All the feels,
imp xo
imp the sane 