Well, I just picked up this game called Wanderstop. Or, well, picked it up a few days ago, but I just finally got around to finishing the prologue, stopped crying, and felt like I had to go write.

Beware of spoilers for the tutorial below the fold. Wait, can tutorials have spoilers? Does that even make sense? Is calling it out as a spoiler a spoiler in itself? What about when the same things are said on the store page?

It's a cute game. An appealing fantasy. Appealing? Huh, that's a weird word to use for a game about burnout; a pretty horrible thing that I wouldn't wish on anyone.

But.

At the same time, it also presents another option. A plan B. A plan B that she doesn't like, but which is still open to her. An option to put down her sword, for a bit. To go make some tea. To rest. I don't know whether it ends up actually working out1, but..

As someone struggling with similar problems, it also feels unreal. The sort of thing that works because the game (like all fiction) exists in a world without the boring parts.2 Where nobody has to go to the bathroom. Alta's struggle is primarily internal, the drive to live up to her self-image, to (re-)find her self-worth.

She doesn't struggle to pay for food. For a mortgage.3 To pay for garbage disposal. Electricity. Water.

The kind of self-discovery that she's forced into is.. important. We should all be able to do those things. But most of us don't already have a hit game to our name that, aside from already giving a lot of immediate financial security, virtually guarantees that anything we make in the future will at least be acknowledged by the wider world.4

And I don't think access to that kind of backup should be gated like that. I'm fortunate in many ways. I live in a country that, at least nominally, tries to help people. To provide options. But it's also a hellscape of a maze to actually access that kind of help. Make the wrong call, talk to the wrong person, and it's back to the end of the line for you. Clearly you didn't need it that bad, right?

And of course, that's also an incredibly spoiled take, compared to the many people in places with no even potential for access to such options.5

I don't know.

I wouldn't wish Alta's struggles on anyone. But I wish we all had a Wanderstop of our own to fall back on.

1

I haven't actually got past the prologue yet, after all.

2

That doesn't mean that there are no problems in its world (that's the whole point, right?). Just that any work of fiction only contains, well, the problems that were intentionally put there.

3

Or rent.

4

This also isn't some kind of dig against Davey Wreden; I have nothing against the guy. His works just tend to be good at stirring up uncomfortable emotions.

5

Hi, US. :/