Upcoming Game Has Autistic Protagonist

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I never thought it would happen, but a new survival horror game - Amy - has you guiding an 8-year-old girl with autism through a disease-ridden city filled with monsters and danger on every corner. Here's an article from back when the game was first announced for PSN only (it's now been slated for release on XBLA and PC as well):

http://www.fearnet.com/news/photos/b222 ... e_amy.html

IGN's description of the game sounded very different, however:

Where exactly does it say that she is Autistic?

Click the link:

That's kind of interesting that they're making a game that specifically states that one of the protagonists is an autistic. I like to think of a lot of the protangonists in the Nintendo games as being autistic specifically Mario and Luigi because they hardly ever talk and are kind of quirky. Luigi's Mansion comes to mind because in the game Luigi never talks, he just listens to E. Gadd while he's talking and nods his head and he also acts quirky throughout the game. Paper Mario is basically the same way along with many other games. I'm not sure if this is intended, but I doubt that the characters were actually meant to be portrayed as being autistic. It'd be nice if there were more characters in video games and movies that are specifically said to be autistic that portray them in a positive way so that people would percieve us in the same way as the characters in the video games and movies.

The "silent protagonist" is a classic video game archetype; countless games have main characters that never utter a single word. It's doubtful that these characters were intended to be autistic, but many of them do indeed act like it. The creator of Pokemon had aspergers, so who knows? I do think it's very interesting that a game with an explicitly autistic protagonist is being made, though. I, too, would like to see more autistic characters, but not over-the-type caricatures like the one in Mary and Max.

According to Wikipedia Miyamoto was Tajiri's mentor back in the 1990s. It appears that Tajiri has great respect for Miyamoto. There are also references to both of them in the Pokemon anime series. It's possible that knowing Tajiri might have influenced Miyamoto when he was producing some of his games and caused him to incorperate more autistic traits into the characters. Miyamoto has a lot of influence at Nintendo and the way a lot of the characters are viewed has changed since the 1990s with the development of the Nintendo 64 and its successors.

This is me being cynical here, but nowhere in those articles does it say how exactly Amy having autism matters in the slightest, or why I should care that she does.

Until I seem some info on how her having autism affects gameplay or story I'll just throw this under blatant publicity grab.

I'd give it a shot it sounds very ground breaking. We have so many games that glorify violence why not make a game that triggers opposite emotions. I don't get offended easily when it comes to violent games. I even like the rush of fear sometimes.

I was talking about control of the actual GAMEPLAY, not the story and the emotions it triggers in the player. Obviously, the character being autistic is going to add to the guilt that the player feels when sending her out into dangerous situations, and will also add a level of depth and mysteriousness not normally seen in video game characters. Strange characters trying to survive together is an age-old horror motif as well.

And yes, I agree that it's nice to finally see a game that does the exact opposite of glorifying violence.

Sounds cooolo. Just hope it isn't too scatty and seizure-inducing, as are most films / games involving little girls.

I remember hearing about this game. I really don't get what the point of arguing is at this point, though. I mean, isn't it just a little silly to start forcing negative hype on a game with nothing to base hype on? I'll be waiting to hear more from this, but I'm going to let the game speak for itself. Oh, and the reviews, but whatever.