The Problem With "Insanity" in Games

I completely agree with your sentiments here. I wish phrases like "mental strain" or "mental stress" would be used instead. I worked in mental health for a long time and I think people that are affected by mental health issues or no people who do are hopefully more sympathetic to this. And I agree Lovecraft games are the worst offenders at this. Just on principle, that's why I didn't play and have no desire to play death may die.

Ah yes, "I dont suffer from this but I know people who do" the argument/defense that's one step away from "I know a black guy"

As someone with mental issues, I dont really appreciate you making the connection that nemesis portrayal of insanity is comparable TO mental issues at all. The definition of insane is to not be sane, which is what the panic cards are. Acting illogically, NOT because of some mental issues but because of fucking eldritch horror beings that defy your understanding of reality.

This is the worst take I've ever seen on the issues regarding the portrayal of mental issues in media. The problem isnt that things like nemesis or lovecraft using the term insane to describe people who've become non functional due to encounters with eldritch entities, it's that people like you see that as any kind of connection to REAL MENTAL STRUGGLES. That you propagate the very stigma you claim to be against is propagated in this thinking because you now validate the phrase "crazy" and "insane" as having some connection TO mental issues, instead of stating how mental issues do NOT have a connection to those words and that to link them is illogical and ignorant.

You have now validated every person who has called me crazy or insane, by acknowledging those insults as having any logical connection that needs to be destroyed, rather than dismissing them as words used incorrectly by people who do not know better.

That's a unsub from me, because this is a belittling attitude I do not need in my life.

It's really not worth worrying about at all

Comments on this kind of thing, in my experience on reddit and bgg are so incredibly toxic its really disheartening.

A lot of people flip a shit and claim that if we raise the bar on expectations in how games treat sensitive subjects that everyone will quickly slide down a slope into not being able to make games about anything except fluffy bunnies. Its a lazy, disengenous argument and its absolutely omnipresent on the internet.

My ex has ocd and the whole trope around losing control of your mind and doing something horrific is genuinely terrifying to her. It is an unfounded fear with ocd, but no one who doesn't have ocd can imagine how real the fear is, its an incredible burden. Needless to say my ex would feel very uncomfortable playing a game like this.

This process is about listening to people affected by these things and not immediately giving into the kneejerk response of "how dare someone construe something I DONT see as problematic, as problematic" (which everyone has within us a little bit, all of us). This process leads to better art and your calling out of lovecraftian stuff is absolutely on point, the mechanics of "insanity" in that genre are not just problematic, they are lazy storytelling that get a pass because they come packaged with the other aesthetics of the lovecraftian genre that people like.

Calling this stuff out leads not just to art that is more inclusive, but to better art in general.

Excellent video. Thank you

Thanks for using your platform to bring attention to this

Another gentle snowflake SJW video. If you don't like a game, then don't buy it or don't play it.
Similarly, if I don't like a channel, I won't watch it. Goodbye, now unsubscribed.

those mechanics of insanity were never about regular mental issues. you see problem where there is none.

This is something that I very much agree with, well done for bringing this to peoples attention.

I love that you are able to discuss this subject in such a constructive way!

Kudos. This conversation needs to be had. We can do better. Thanks for bringing it up.

While I can appreciate your sentiment and intent, I just can't buy into it. I do not connect insanity or craziness to my mental illness at all. Those closest to me don't feel pressure around using words like "crazy" or "insane" on my behalf either. I am capable of recognizing nuance and understanding the context in which these words are used.

Part of managing my mental illness requires that I don't get hung up on things like this. I put a lot of effort into managing intrusive thoughts, all this discussion does is create more. So making it an issue is the issue.

Games are fun and can be cathartic. They are an opportunity to objectively experience fear, anxiety, and hopelessness. If a game stresses me out or triggers something that I can't deal with, I play a different game, and all my friends are supportive of that.

"Psychic distress" sounds loads better than "insanity."


As someone with mental health issues, I personally have never felt bothered by the use of crazy or insane. But I do know other people with mental health issues that are offended by these terms, so I appreciate this video.

All that said, I think it's very hard to convince people to change vocabulary because it's harmful to others. If we really want it to change, I think the better argument is what you alluded to at the end.

Not only is the use of "insanity" a common trope, it's also an overused word. Creators have more than enough time to find another word to use but they don't.

If every horror board game uses insanity, it gets boring after a while. But if we instead had "psychic distress", "horror", "dread", "shudder", that can give a different feel to the game. Or you could go the opposite route and decrease a positive trait like "courage" or "hope".

This is very similar to the overused of the non-neutral term "guys". It's non-inclusive and just lazy writing.

Glad you made this video - always good to help push the industry in the right direction regarding issues like these.

Love the channel and love the sentiment here but I'm not sure I agree that this is the path to take.

They're not connected - 'crazy' and 'insanity' are being use appropriately in these board games. They shouldn't be stopped just because they're being used inappropriately by people that link them to mental health.

I'd rather see these words continue to be used properly then in any way acknowledging them being used in connection to real mental health issues.

for example.. we shouldn't stop calling female dogs 'bitches'.. we should stop calling other humans female dogs.

Or how about you grow a thicker skin and stop worrying about individual words? It's like you have to constantly walk on eggshells to avoid offending someone.

As somebody who has suffered severe psychological trauma, I'm offended that you are denying me representation.

And to all these people in the thread going "oooh aaah so true this is problematic this needs to be fixed", there's other ways to get your hits of dopamine without trying to be some self righteous crusader desperately looking for people to 'save'.

Trash take.

At first I was like "you can't take away SANITY from a lovecraftian game, that's core to the theme!" But then you went ahead and gave a.. really good alternative, distress, that.. might actually make the game better ("sanity" sounds cool, and detached. "Distress" makes me relate to my character more, and not just look at these as stats, and might even make me pause for a sec before I casually allow my character to suffer mental damage)

Nice easily digestible video carefully explaining how words matter. One of my big pet peeves among the anti pc crowd is their complaining over how being very pc is like censorship. It really doesn't make any sense, if anything it is the PC crowd that is hoping for more options when it comes to these issues.

What is this political correctness bullshit

To me take Lovecraft insanity and replace it with despair and you’re good. If anything it’s a more accurate descriptor.

This isn't something that I'm passionate about. I've also been very relaxed about removing ableist terms from my vocabulary in general (even though I definitely make an effort to avoid sexist, racist, or homophobic language). However, I do think that we should make reasonable efforts to avoid discomfort and upset in how we use language, especially in entertainment products.

If there were no good alternatives to an 'insanity track', then I'd make my peace with that. However, the video makes a good point: Having a distress, despair, anxiety, fear, or stability track not only captures the same general idea as a generic 'insanity track', but may actually be more thematic or evocative by honing in on the exact kind of mental imbalance that is relevant to the game, rather than treating all mental illness as some kind of monolith.

While I understand the sentiment, this isn't going to be very helpfull for the people you want to help.

I have been coping with depression for ten years now and also have had to learn to deal with being an autistic person in a world that honestly doesn't want autistic people to exist or acknowledge their existence as human beings worthy of respect if they're forced to deal with us. I won't claim to be an expert, but I've had my share of experiences with the stuff you're saying.

Slapping a new non-insulting term on us and the struggles we have doesn't work. This movement isn't a new thing like you said in the video. In 2010 mentally retarded was discontinued because of the bad connoctations and replaced with intelectually disabled. (and now some groups are already going around and claiming disabled is a bad word.) Idiot, retard, cretin and moron were all neutral terms to denote people with mental dissabilities at one point in history. All of them replacing the previous one that became insulting. And that was back in the late 19th century and throughout the 20th century.

The problem is not that people use insulting words to describe mental distress, mental disabilities and people with disabilities. It's that those words become insulting by being associated with us in the first place. Society sees us as beneath them. something to be scoffed at ,or at best to be pitied. Not as people with valid and fullfilling lives of their own. Not as people with their own capabilities. Whatever new word people slap on us, in a generation or less the new word will be just as insulting as the word it replaced and the cycle of people, (usually people without any personal experince with mentall illness.) start throwing around new words to describe us again.

And that wheel will keep turning unless people start actually doing something about the underlying issue of society seeing me and people like me as lesser and pitiable.

Doing this will make people feel like they have done something worthwile while they haven't done more than putting a bandage on a festering wound. It hides the problem from view for a while, but doesn't actually fix it or help anybody who is in trouble because of it.

you're starting form a good place of wanting to help. But history has shown what you're trying to do is ineffective.

Some people with mental health issues will see this kind of thing as condescending and infantilizing and others will be grateful and happy that people are taking great care when they speak around them. The old saying is true: you can please some people some of the time. You can never please every person all of the time. I think the fact that you don't want to be a dick to anyone is what matters most. I think we've de-emphasized intent too much culturally.

This video reminds me of a polite racist. I would agree with you about 40 years ago maybe, but frankly the word insane is so void of any stigma today, that is probably why it’s used in games in the first place. As someone who suffers from mental health issues, the last thing I’m concerned about is being called insane. The R word that you used so flippantly is much more hurtful. I appreciate where you’re coming from, but this is like a white person thinking they’re not racist because they have black friends.

So many good points!

This comment section is full of so much moisture I had to wipe my screen off a few times which is insanely crazy

The term Insanity in Nemesis is using the word in the correct fashion. It’s meant to represent alien induced psychosis.

You officially lost my subscription and probably many more, I'm not slamming your views but a YT channel about board games is not the spot to make comments like this. I'm sorry, but I'm out.

I mean then should we remove lame, stupid, gimp, or dumb from our vocab? Those very much were used as a pejorative against people who were special needs or physically impaired.

The context behind these words should always be taken into consideration. Most people dont connect insane and crazy to actual mental illness as the words have taken on new meanings. Example, crazy and insane can be used as a compliment. Like calling someone crazy because they did something cool but was pretty dangerous.

Dont get me wrong, I get where you're coming from and why. I just dont agree with that notion that words are offensive regardless of context.

188 Like

"Corruption" works just fine. I really appreciate your thoughts here.

I really appreciate your thoughts on this, Shay. You’re absolutely right about needing to put pressure on devs to make games more welcoming and accessible for everyone. Thanks for using your platform for these kinds of discussions.

Fully agree with you

You mention the wheelchair bound character and I recall he was the first character I played, and most noise rolls resulted in Danger. So excuse me if my perception of having no negatives feels like a lie. Being so hi-tech you'd think someone would oil the wheels so they wouldn't squeak!

Void Seeders have been the easiest alien to come up against in the Nemesis game.
I loved that interrupt cards actually had a use in full co-op, although we were never in a situation to need to use them.

Sensitive topic? It's a game. It's use a gamified representation of psychosis. In no shape or form does this element represent real mental illness, nor does it make light of affected people, nor does it poke fun at mental illness and the people who suffer from it. If someone feels personally attacked, especially in the cases where it was never used as an attack, that is effectively their problem they need to deal with. I mean, if we are to pander to the 'sensitive' people, we should stop selling war games, and all games that depict suffering of any sorts. It's the exact same principle. No more violence, no more death, no more confrontation.

Thanks, I really appreciate this. I'm tired of the way pop culture uses words like "insanity" and "madness" in ways that blur the lines between mental illness, incomprehensibility, and evil. It comes up a lot in the horror genre, but also when discussing real-life horrors like mass murders. Most games use the mechanic as a kind of damage track, or sometimes as a kind of stamina track, and I'd really prefer they use that kind of terminology (stress, trauma, psychic damage, etc.), or else something thematic like "despair" or "horror" that isn't tied to mental health or stigmatizing language.

This is absolutely pathetic. Get a life.

Clicks thinking it will be an interesting talk about mechanics.
Finds drivel about the feelings.

Insanity is a legal term not a medical one.

This is literally the worst point i have ever seen. If people think that insanity in a game is now being insensitive we have gone too far over the Line of what people Can be offended by. Seriously i played call of cthulhu for a good year with a guy who has schizophrenia who has absolutely no problem with any of the mechanics. You literally misunderstand the entire situation, insanity in most games i would argue help cement that it is scary to a large degree, it helps the people without disorders see how scary it Can be, not being in full or your own psyche. The game is about horror, it is about making you feel uneasy as you walk, and you cannot come here and say that it is insensitive, when it has been a genre defining trait for the kind of game you are mentioning. All horror comes from the mind, we fear the unseen horrors of the Dark, cause we fear what might be lurking, we fear the sea, cause we dont know what lies beneath the surface, we fear the unknown, cause we Can only try to comprehend what we might be encountering. Stop trying to change things that are genre defining and things that might be helpful to understand how scary a mental disorder Can be

Changing the wording does not magically make societies' stigmas against something like this disappear. Going to therapy is expensive but helps a lot, and a lot of people have stigmas against that because unlike physical traumas apparently you can never admit you have some mental trauma in our society and go to get help for them, which is illogical. I agree with you that the wording is inaccurate, mainly because the designers do not understand the topic well, but I never even thought about feeling offended about the wording itself. Also, every time we changed the wording, making the "old word" for X a taboo, well, the new word is used as an insult after a while and gets the same stigma. The only way to improve the situation is by educating people and changing society but you are not going to do that with words, no matter how much many of the young and completely inexperienced liberal art students with their post-modern attitudes make us try to think that. They missed the point entirely. It is just a feel-good exercise and to signal how much above others you are "thou shalt not use the words I tell you not to use". Ok but why? and what caused that state? And what did you actually do to treat the source of the problem rather than covering it up by hiding a word? It creates noise, which detracts from the real issue that needs a solution