{"id":3669,"date":"2019-04-17T07:00:41","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T12:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ablegamers.g5u2p0ll-liquidwebsites.com\/?p=3669"},"modified":"2019-04-17T09:42:07","modified_gmt":"2019-04-17T14:42:07","slug":"bloodborne-at-home-in-an-ugly-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ablegamers.org\/bloodborne-at-home-in-an-ugly-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Bloodborne: At Home in an Ugly World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Submitted by John Wiswell<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s early in Bloodborne<\/em> and your Hunter is exploring one of the first houses in the game. There are a few hidden enemies lurking, but you already know how to spot and dispatch them. You come downstairs and take out the last enemy with a thunderous backstab. You\u2019ve mastered backstabbing. You\u2019re getting the hang of this game.<\/span><\/p>\n

A stray item glows in the center of the room, next to a man slumping in a wheelchair. He\u2019s unresponsive as you approach, so you blow past him to scoop up the item. That\u2019s when he sits up and shoots you in the back.<\/span><\/p>\n

That gunman surprises so many players because they expect people in wheelchairs to be passive. They don\u2019t even expect to see disabled characters in action games at all. Too often, disabled gamers don\u2019t expect to see ourselves represented. That\u2019s why getting shot in the back is refreshing. It\u2019s the start of something.<\/span><\/p>\n

The man is the poster child for something welcoming in this gross setting. In Yharnam, disabled citizens are as dirty and maniacal as abled-bodied citizens. They\u2019re part of a culture that is descending into violence. That means they are also some of the enemies you\u2019ll be farming to level up, which could have been repugnant. But what would actually be repugnant would be if disabled characters were unusually horrible and monstrous, as they are in too many other games.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mobs roam the streets and will attack you on sight in fear that you\u2019re a cursed beast. Most of these mobs are abled people, but among them are characters with noticeable spinal problems and bodily dysmorphias. They carry similar weapons and aren\u2019t treated as any less capable. In this world, they\u2019re just part of the mobs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Deeper into the city you\u2019ll face Hunters with dwarfism, armed just like your own Hunter character, and they will absolutely shred you if you aren\u2019t careful. There\u2019s no text log explaining when Little People were introduced to the Hunters. It\u2019s not an aberration or a big deal here. As far as we know, Little People have always been part of the order.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"bloodborne<\/p>\n

It goes on – one of the first elevators is guarded by another wheelchair user \u2013 and this one uses a Gatling gun. Some dungeons are patrolled by giant amputees with saber prosthetics. They\u2019ve adapted to this violent society. They belong in this gross space as much as anybody does.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now there is some lovable rep. The Oedon Chapel Dweller has multiple health issues and is the most heartwarming character in the game. He gives sanctuary to other survivors you find. Any player who doesn\u2019t cherish him is the real monster in this world.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the most part, Bloodborne isn\u2019t interested in aspirational fantasy. We don\u2019t look to it for disabled role models. Instead, it says that disability is part of the norm, and decays like anything else. That\u2019s an essential message in a story that turns out to be about a world that was promised a cure that was actually poisoning it. All of this menace is the meddling of Fantasy\u2019s answer to Big Pharma.<\/span><\/p>\n

The largest disability theme here is mental illness. We know something is wrong with the mobs, and hope there\u2019s something more than another \u201ccrazy is evil\u201d story. Then we notice the Insight stat. Insight goes up when you experience uncanny plot events, or defeat particularly nightmarish monsters, or consume specific items. Once Insight rises high enough your character can see eldritch beings that were in the environment all along but weren\u2019t visible to normal minds. That weird halo that tried to grab you in the early game? Now you know that was a great beast reaching through from another dimension to grab you.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"bloodborne<\/p>\n

Insight t is not mental illness. It\u2019s about being able to see the world differently, and process overwhelming knowledge. Madman\u2019s Knowledge is an item that lets you absorb the experience of people who directly experienced the gods, and even the name references that it\u2019s the lived experience, not the condition that matters. These people weren\u2019t \u201ccrazy,\u201d and the mentally ill can have literal insight into the way the cosmos works that abled people should\u2019ve heeded sooner. This theme is often brought up when talking about people with schizophrenia.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s funny to feel comfortable in such a dangerous place. If you\u2019re the player character, you\u2019ll have to fight to survive the night. But if you aren\u2019t \u2013 if you\u2019re just another disabled citizen \u2013 \u00a0then this world might have a place for you. Even if looking at it makes me want to wash my hands, that\u2019s unusual. It\u2019s why I\u2019ll vacation again in Yharnam this summer.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\nSubmitted by John Wiswell It\u2019s early in Bloodborne and your Hunter is exploring one of the first houses in the game. There are a few hidden enemies lurking, but you already know how to spot and dispatch them. You come…\n<\/div>\n
Continue reading…<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":3670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","inline_featured_image":false,"wp_popup_display_lightbox":0,"wp_popup_suppress":"","wp_popup_trigger":"","wp_popup_trigger_amount":0,"wp_popup_disable_on_mobile":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,72],"tags":[48,62,163,110],"class_list":["post-3669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ablegamers-blog","category-our-story","tag-ablegamers","tag-accessibility","tag-bloodborne","tag-inclusion","entry","entry-type-post"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ablegamers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Wheelchair_Mob_Extra.jpg?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ablegamers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ablegamers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ablegamers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ablegamers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ablegamers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3669"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ablegamers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3681,"href":"https:\/\/ablegamers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3669\/revisions\/3681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ablegamers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ablegamers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ablegamers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ablegamers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}