YvoCaro Plays

YvoCaro Plays: contemplating old age

Time to sit down for another YvoCaro Plays. As always, these blurbs are mostly about the video games I’m currently playing. Unedited thoughts that spring up in my mind, mostly game related. And sometimes a random train of thoughts starting with the game and ending somewhere completely different.

It’s only fair to warn you that spoilers might sometimes be included. If you like these bits of gaming thoughts you can find the previous ones here

A game that resonates with my daily life

The past weekend I played The Stillness of the Wind. A game I bought as the description interested me. I’m always intrigued by games that are different, where the developers dare take paths that are new and inventive.

And there’s this: the game resonates with me in daily life.

If you’ve followed my blog-ramblings on the site, you will probably know that I am a caregiver, together with my brother, for my elderly mom. She is 85 now, and can’t walk very well anymore. She can however manage with her walker in her own little flat as long as she can hold on to her trusty aid. 

Yesterday that went very wrong as she tripped and fell. Tripped on a decorative rug. Of the kind older people just can’t do away with. Her knee needed sutures as did her elbow. But luckily, nothing was broken. After a few hours in ER she could go home again. 

As luck would have it I was working from home yesterday and I live close by. So it was no trouble at all to rush to her side immediately. Sill, I’m so thankful that there’s a good system in the Netherlands that allow people to keep living at home with extra daily care. The nurses that come twice a day are so helpful and all of us together form a framework of people who can help her and keep her company for at least a couple of hours each day. Still, it’s the loneliness in the rest of the day that sometimes makes her feel down. 

A game with an elderly protagonist

Can you see why I was drawn to The Stillness of the Wind? It’s about that daily struggle when you get old, about everyone leaving and being left alone. And it’s not just the storyline: Talma walks slowly too. 

At first I tried speeding things up like I do with for instance the Delicious game. Clicking on two or three points Emily needs to do in a row, to not loose time. That didn’t work. Talma would just stop, skip my first and second click and go straight for the third click. Very annoying at first, because I knew my day in the game would be too short to do all Talma needed to do.

But then it dawned on me: I was missing the point of the game. The game teaches you how it is when your body won’t cooperate anymore, even if your mind is agile. It shows you that you just have to let the feeling you need to rush go, and just do what you can. Not always easy, not in the game nor in real life.

I’ve already written in the review that it’s a short game. But the gameplay, and the fact that the ending isn’t a happy one only made my feelings about the game even deeper. I won’t spoil the end for you, but if you want to consider playing something very much out of the ordinary, you can read my review here. 

And with that, I want to ask you: what have you been playing this past week?

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