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/