Cyberpunk 2077 - Gaming can help

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'It Helped Me Embody Someone Else': How 'Cyberpunk 2077' Helped Gene Park Battle Cancer

The Washington Post journalist was diagnosed with cancer in 2022, but found solace in video games

IN 2022, LIKE many gamers, Gene Park booted up Cyberpunk 2077, the latest open-world RPG. The futuristic video game by the makers of The Witcher depicts a world full of neon lights and cybernetic enhancements, and it had recently received a big content update. Controller in hand, Park vividly recalls directing a digital Keanu Reeves to try and stop a murder, all while medical tubes protruded from his body. The tubes plugged into a port on his torso, and they were ready to pump chemicals inside. Unlike the digital augments that buffed his video game character, chemotherapy is corrosive in a way that makes the experience invasive, even as it was helping. Park likens it to having poison being poured into his heart.

Park is no ordinary gamer, of course. Park, 42, has built a career off of covering the medium for readers at The Washington Post, where he has the privilege of meeting gaming's biggest names. He's interviewed everyone from the creator of Zelda, to the mind behind Metal Gear Solid. His work at The Post has helped usher in a more humanistic approach to gaming journalism, one that's accessible to mainstream audiences while retaining his encyclopedic knowledge and appreciation for the medium. What he didn't know was how important that love would become during one of the most difficult times of his life.

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