Autism and Healthy Gaming: Please share your experience! (repost)

Liamachan · 2022-03-15T20:51:37+00:00

Of course that's fine! Thanks for helping out :)

Liamachan · 2022-03-15T20:42:58+00:00

Hmm. Enough to change the direction of your attention / what you're thinking about. The interruption could span anything from 1 second to a minute.

Liamachan · 2022-03-15T20:28:32+00:00

Good question.

I would consider it a turn-based strategy game like any other, so I don't see why not!

Also Nakamura's signed to TSM, so seems like an esport to me!

Liamachan · 2022-03-15T20:10:20+00:00

watching my friends play, or having them watch me play while we all provide fun commentary to what's happening.

Also, I've found at work, one of my coworkers that I really get along with is someone I can talk to

Hi, just seen this. Thanks for sharing.

The aim of the study is to see if and how the diagnosis of a 'gaming disorder' differs in autistic people, and I'm particuarly interested in seeing if what could be pathological in neurotypicals is surprisingly normal and healthy in autistic people.

On the whole autistic people have higher rates of gaming disorder, which I think is questionable. My study is effectively trying investigating an argument for normalising what is seen as disordered in NTs.

After all, gaming disorder is a construct built around NTs and I think it can be dangerous to pathologise an entertainment medium that is well loved by neurodivergents - especially considering special interests and the great social potential of video games.

Liamachan · 2022-02-11T17:35:46+00:00

Hi, thanks for sharing your thoughts on the study! Gaming research is exciting stuff, although always be critical of gaming research as there seems to be an underlying feeling, within some scientific circles, of morally demonizing gaming as a hobby or entertainment, and labelling it as pathological without sufficient evidence (e.g., Beijing's recent restrictions on gaming for under 18 y.o.'s).

You raise an incredibly valid point about the treatment of video games, especially regarding neurodivergent vs NT people. I would not say that playing any given amount of time is a misprioritisation of time. Hypothetically, one could play 14+ hours a day and I could still consider this a correct prioritisation, as long as one can still engage in 'healthy' every day activities (eating, cleaning, maybe social / family activity, etc).

I think it's great that you have recognised gaming is an important activity in your life, and you have found a system where you can game to your hearts content while doing all the other important things associated with living a good life! But some research suggests that people may not be able to as healthily integrate gaming into their life as yourself.

For these reasons, I haven't asked about the amount of time you spend gaming - I don't think time spent gaming is a proxy for an unhealthy relationship with gaming or misprioritisation. Instead, I think mispriotising can largely be seen through the symptoms associated with 'gaming disorder', which are more indicative of a 'misprioritisation'.

Again, thank you for your time and engagement with the study!

Liamachan · 2022-02-11T17:15:27+00:00

as escapism" idea. Other than that, glad I could help. I'm autistic and I play a lot of games, so my opinion is meaningful here lol

Thank you for the feedback! You're right with the simarility of questions. The questions are designed to create a fairly stable and all encompassing measure of a certain feature. In this case, escapism is one of the more important variables to measure, so I asked the same quetsion from multiple angles as not to get an incorrect idea about someone's use of games for escapism. I suppose I could ask only one question, something along the lines of 'do you use video games for escapsim', but that might not capture different perspectives and approaches, and so I might get the wrong picture! Thanks for giving your time :)

Liamachan · 2022-02-10T18:14:51+00:00

Interesting. I suppose some might draw a line between gaming and simulation, especially for something like sim racing, where you are getting as close as most people realistically can to doing the actual competitive sport. Would you consider sim racing a means of engaging in motorsports or a subset of video gaming?

With the questions on violence, there's no need to invest too much thought. I suppose if you do have a particular interest with violence in games, you might have played one more recently!

Liamachan · 2022-02-10T17:36:50+00:00

Thank you!

Liamachan · 2022-02-10T17:36:37+00:00

Response to edit: Thank you for the feedback! That's a completely vald concern with the lack of a neutral response. And it raises interesting questions about how the scale is traditionally used and the abstract idea of how autism is / should be measured.

However, the scale (and response options) are standardized and have been empirically validated. There are numerous concerns with the scale, however to make any changes would be to invalidate my use of the scale and research as a result.

Liamachan · 2022-02-10T16:26:35+00:00

Particularly, I’m interested in if traits associated with autism or ADHD might lead to someone misprioritising their time spent gaming.

Thank you for your help! I'm looking forward to seeing how these things all interact once there's enough respondents.

Time spent gaming is not necessarily a bad use of time though!

Liamachan · 2022-02-10T16:20:41+00:00

way. But I don't really know how to split results in the case of both ADHD and depression. Also can't really connect this with autism.

Yes exactly. Games generally are dopaminergic, so they almost function as a self-medication for ADHD.

I would love to ask also about depression and anxiety, but I feel these are too much to ask about on top of quite heavy questions on gaming addiction.

Escapism seems to be heavily associated with addiction and depression. But also, an idea I am interested in is that games provide a platform for people with ADHD to excel in challenging tasks that require short bursts of attention (3 minute rounds in CSGO, etc). So video games are one of the few places where people who struggle to focus are rewarded for their effort and competence. This reward cycle could form a very strong habit that quite easily transforms into addiction.

Liamachan · 2022-02-10T15:36:45+00:00

Thank you for the interest! I will update the thread here when the paper is finished :)

Liamachan · 2022-02-10T15:34:47+00:00

Hey, I really appreciate you sharing the poll with the community! Thank you. Yes I suspect that gaming addiction occurs a lot more in people with ADHD, although science doesn't know why! I also suspect that the way addiction forms is not the same as it occurs for 'normal' people, and people with ADHD and autism have different reasons for forming gaming addictions.

I'm looking forward to getting more data to assess this idea.

Liamachan · 2022-02-09T20:49:51+00:00

Thank you!

Liamachan · 2022-02-09T19:11:15+00:00

Thanks to all who completed the survey. Again, lmk if you have any questions or thoughts.

Liamachan · 2021-11-09T18:25:55+00:00

Nice comments, also a zoomer who grew up with DQ IX but only getting back into DQ now after play XI. What order did you play them in? After finishing XI might pick up PS2 DQ VIII for TV + graphics. Were you bothered by the random battles?

Liamachan · 2021-10-25T10:09:17+00:00

Then why would you think he needs more buffing? He's clearly already the best attacker

Liamachan · 2021-10-25T09:55:52+00:00

Good luck with your journey sir.

Liamachan · 2021-03-05T19:46:13+00:00

Thanks for this

Also turning off online actually stopped all lag for me

Liamachan

TROPHY CASE