I have never posted anything like this so I apologize in advance for being a little scattered.
Many players of Destiny know who "My name is Byf" (on YouTube) is and if you do play Destiny and don't know his work, I strongly recommend you get to know it. This message is not about Destiny. It is about Mr. Byford, Me and people like myself.
I have had points where I walked away from Destiny because I completely lost interest in it. I would normally return once an expansion came out, play for a while and walked away again. When times in my life would get difficult I would return to Destiny because of the community of people there. Yea some of them where horrible people but when you find good people they are some of the best humans. I have a long list of friends found as randoms in Destiny. When my group comes together to play we try to take the game and use it to elevate all of us. To make all of us feel a little better about ourselves in the in the end.
I have recently started to watch Mr. Byford’s YouTube work. Due to his stories about the game, on our characters’ motivation, why is the is like that and so much more, I have not taken a prolonged break. If you play Destiny here is his landing page and do yourself a favor, watch his lore. Even if you don't play the game watching his cinematics is worth your time. He has a great voice and these are amazing stories on their own.
Mr. Byford posted a video about his struggles with depression that he had been hiding from his community. This is a very raw video and is worth you listening to him.
As a lifelong gamer and someone that also suffers from depression I am able to relate to Mr. Byford. Destiny is the only near MMO style game I have ever played. The MMO genre does not appeal to me and I still don't understand how Destiny was able to capture my attention. I don't believe gamers with depression, like me, are rare and I think some of us medicate with our games. In the games we can play the best of ourselves or the best of someone else. If, for just a little while, we can just not be that person we hate so much, ourselves. I can't speak to other online games but many of the people I know in Destiny understand exactly what I am saying. I think many who don’t game can understand what I am saying.
I am asking those that read this is to listen to Mr. Byford and to me. Sometimes when a person you know, someone you care for or someone that is somehow involved in your life retreats to gaming, it is because we need help and won’t ask for it because we don’t feel worth it. We run from real life to find an escape from ourselves in a game. We are looking to escape the ideas that we have that make suicide the logical, correct and only solution. Suicide is never the solution to your problems, voices or whatever. Let me say that again so I am clear, suicide is never the solution to anything. When people game it is not always us escaping. When we do it is us wanting to be something other than ourselves. I have found that if you want to help me when I am in that mindset, all I want is to know that someone cares enough listening. They care enough to see past those parts of me I hate. Let us know you are listening when we chose to talk. Please don't judge us, don't tell us to “just be happy,” don't tell us to "snap out of it," rather offer us your help and not your advice. Be there for us when we are ready to talk. Remember that just because you love something about us it does not make our hate for that same thing less valid. When we talk please be kind and try to understand us.
Thank you all for making it this far and for listening. If you help one of us, listen to one of us or even save one of us because of this, thank you so very much. Thank you for seeing past our weakness and failings to who we really are. Thank you for being there for all of us.
