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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aberzanzorax" data-source="post: 5957509" data-attributes="member: 64209">I'm going to nominate (spoilers below): [spoiler] Call of Cthulhu. On top of drawing from literature (which may or may not be art in this case). It evokes a very specific type of horror - the horror of insignificance and inevitable extinction of man. The books themselves (especially the older ones) may not have excellent graphic artwork (drawings/pictures), however, I think (as I'd posted this distinction earlier) that both the game itself and the experience reasonably good players and GMs have while playing the game qualify as art. The books, taken as a whole, address real world phenomenon, but from a fantastic perspective. With the analagous "what if" situations placed in our own history (what if Hastur was influencing the holocaust, what if the seas in costal new england towns were full of monsters making life that much harder) we can, in some ways, reflect on that history with new perspective. The experience of playing is one of chills and the devolvement into insanity for the characters. By examining adversity and the weaknesses of the psyche, playing the game compels emotion and loss, and may also highlight vulnerabilities and strengths of the human mind. Playing Call of Cthulhu, at its best, results in an experience, an immersion, into the challenges and discomforts (and perhaps teaches some tolerance, understanding, and even appreciation of remaining strengths and resiliences) of those who suffer from mental illness. In my doctoral training in clinical psychology, I came to understand that most (not necessarily every) psychiatric disorders are extremes of normal ranges of emotion and thought. A "normal" person may be fastidiously clean or disgustingly sloppy. An "abnormal" person may have compulsions that cause their cleaning to be disruptive to their lives or may live in a house that is unsafe, unsanitary, and perhaps may lose their home due to it being condemned. The single most important factor that establishes whether someone has a "disorder" or "problem" is if their behavior or thoughts are negatively affecting their lives.  Much like wearing a blindfold for a day can bring those with sight some hints of what being blind is like, so to can Call of Cthulu (again, at its best) bring those who are brave enough some understanding of what it is like to live with a psychiatric impairment that affects their lives. To play Call of Cthulu is to learn the uncomfortable truth: that there is no "sane" and "insane"; there are only thoughts and behaviors...and they can be useful, neutral, or harmful...though the more extreme they are, the less likely they are to be neutral. Call of Cthulhu is art because it is an experience that plays with the limits of the human mind and understanding. [/spoiler]</blockquote>

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