SOLSTICE & CLT Conference 2014

5th & 6th June 2014

Playing Nicely

Ursula Curwen, Edge Hill University

Playing Nicely

autism and

the social aspects of games

http://neverpointless.wordpress.com/

Games as social activity

From Mezoamerican wall game onward (and no doubt before)

• To make social decisions

• Pastimes

• To teach/test skills

• To teach moral/social ideals

• Massively cross cultural phenomenon

Euro Games

• Post war Germany

• Reiner Knizia, Klaus Teuber

• Competitive/cooperative = impossible to win just by crushing the opposition

• Multiple ways to ‘win’ (winning conditions)

• Usually points based“We think of games as charming

historical artifacts, but they are also telling reflections of social values and mores” (Brown 2004)

Forbidden Desert by Gamewright

Cross over culture

• Gaming culture is becoming mainstream

• ‘Casual’ gaming through smart phones etc

• Film/comicbook/tv crossover

• Literature around game culture

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7vyrudcgOQ

http://www.stuff.tv/nintendo/nintendo-finally-coming-your-smartphone/news?utm_content=buffer25c50&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

http://www.twitch.tv/

To much information?

•NTs (NeuroTypicals, Normies) filter information according to the ongoing social situation

•AS (Autistic Spectrum) individuals process information differently and can become “overloaded”

•Computer mediated information can be processed more slowly e.g. not in real time (RT) making it easier for AS individuals to communicate

http://isocial.missouri.edu/iSocial/

Fighting hegemony

Of necessity, we each negotiate more than one setof cultural spaces, and members of particularlysubjugated groups can find it necessary to cloak anidentity in order to pass through (or pass as‘normal’ in) hegemonic social space. Performancein mainstream environments is restricted andrestrictive by definition, and autistics have long feltpressure to study and copy majority social skillsthey do not ‘naturally’ possess.(Grandin and Barron 2005)

Logic and Language

http://idealisticanimals.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/10-worst-fighting-fantasy-covers-of-all.html

• AS people have been pigeonholed

as outsiders (also the definition of

g33k/nerd) yet…

• ‘The impact of the Internet on

autistics may one day be compared

to the spread of sign language

among the deaf’ (Singer 1999: 67).

• There is some suggestion that in

the age of the computer and the

internet that the NT is

disadvantaged

Social Intercourse

• Is video game play a solitary or social task?

• Current research demonstrates achievement, immersion and social motivations.

• ‘Board’ games, face to face, rules, mediated interaction

• A topic of conversation

• Creative space

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/10/08/minecraft-meets-wow-with-the-ambitious-crafting-azeroth-mod/

“It is well documented that children with autism

and it difficult to process more than one sensory

input at a time (i.e., they cannot process what

they hear and see at the same time; Mesibov,

Shea, & Adams, 2001). Skills involving social

interactive processes are often the most

complex, involving the combination of at least

visual and auditory material.”

Smith, Goddard & Fluck (2004)

The Guild

• ‘individual participants can circumvent the geographical constraints of the material world and take a more proactive role in shaping their own virtual community and their position within it’ (Kitchin and Dodge 2002: 342)

• https://minecraft.net/community http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/community/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUcOl3rzIrg

Coming Soon….

• Ongoing projects include working alongside colleagues within the psychology dept on Autism and online gaming.

• Work with hao2 on their ‘openworld’ based training model for young people on the autistic spectrum

• Interviews with AS young people looking at their social interaction within and without the game environment

• Work with “Games and Social Change” network • Work with “CReAM” across Europe

References• http://www.autismkey.com/video-games-enhance-skills-of-autistics/• http://www.cre-am.eu/• http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-01-12-inside-monopolys-secret-war-against-the-third-

reich• Grandin, T. and Barron, S. (2005) Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships: Understanding and

Managing Social Challenges for those with Asperger’s/Autism. Arlington, TX: Future Horizons.• http://www.hao2.eu/• Kitchin, R. and Dodge,M. (2002) The emerging geographies of cyberspace, in Johnston, R.J., Taylor,

P. and Watts,M. (eds) Geographies of Global Change Remapping the World. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 340–353.

• http://learning-creativelearning.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/some-ways-we-used-minecraft.html• Schmidt, M., Laffey, J., Stichter, J., Goggins, S., and Schmidt, C. (In-press). The design of iSocial: A

three-dimensional, multiuser, virtual learning environment for individuals with autism spectrum disorder to learn social skills. /The International Journal of Technology, Knowledge and Society/.

• Singer, J. (1999) ‘Why can’t you be normal for once in your life?’ From a ‘problem with no name’ to the emergence of a new category of difference, in Corker, M. and French, S. (eds) Disability Discourse. Buckingham: Open University Press, pp. 59–67.

• Smith C , Goddard S & Fluck M (2004) A Scheme to Promote Social Attention and Functional Language in Young Children with Communication Difficulties and Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Educational Psychology in Practice: theory, research and practice in educational psychology, 20:4, 319-333,

• http://www.stuff.tv/nintendo/nintendo-finally-coming-your-smartphone/news?utm_content=buffer25c50&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

• http://world.secondlife.com/group/f5580532-4152-6780-5b27-677c4bc29c91• http://www.watchtheguild.com/