Ludic Representations of Suicide Livestreams in the Japanese Videogame NEEDY STREAMER OVERLOAD

Abstract

In this article, we argue that suicide livestreams serve as a communicative appeal to correct (mis)representations of the suicidal individual through footage that will immortalise the suicide by doing a highly visible, multilayered performance of suicide. While these (mis)representations apply to the specific suicide, they are embedded in larger societal contexts. As suicide livestreams are a highly public form of suicide, they address their audience on non-individual terms that frame the livestream as a critique of social structures. To argue these points, we conduct a close playing of suicide livestreams in the Japanese adventure videogame NEEDY STREAMER OVERLOAD (NSO). We argue that NSO’s ludic representations of suicide livestreams are critical of societal discourses surrounding the hikikomori (shut-in) phenomenon and the stigma of mental health through the menhera (mental health-er) label. NSO criticises social constraints surrounding failure to integrate into society and dismissal of women’s mental illness through its representation of suicide livestreams. However, this videogame’s representation of the suicidal process prescribes an individual critique, suggesting that the issues of hikikomori and menhera are not societal, but individual. This tension invites players to question their own involvement in the videogame’s events.