Autistic Social Gaming

Gaming is a common hyperfixation and special interest shared by members of the autistic community, but existing literature on this topic reveals a dearth of neurodiversity-affirming, gaming-positive perspectives; often, games are presented as either risk factors for social withdrawal or tools for neurotypical-normative social skills training. This multi-sited subproject complexifies these premises with ethnographic accounts of the lived experiences of autistic gamers across the simulated worlds of Minecraft, Roblox, and tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs). Sociolinguistic research methods reveal how these online realms cultivate a sense of community among autistic players, through which they can explore new modes of communication, relationships, and identities.

Our first video game of interest, Minecraft, is a site of ongoing neurodiverse-affirming investigation by Graduate Student Director of the ALL Project, Lina Cahill. This work expands on her undergraduate honors thesis “Building Belonging: An Ethnographic Exploration of Autistic Communication and Community in Minecraft.”

As a defining entry in the sandbox genre, the video game Minecraft features block-based, near-infinite, three-dimensional realms that invite players from all walks of life to break, take, and build as they please; like a bottomless bin of well-ordered LEGO bricks, this virtual playground offers a structural framework for boundless creativity. Minecraft is also similar to LEGO play in the special appeal it seems to hold for the autistic community, as evidenced by its numerous autistic- and neuroqueer-centric multiplayer servers and online forums. Alongside sessions of in-game participant observation, 12 adult Minecrafters (with more on the way) were interviewed for this project—each for between 30 minutes and several hours—all of whom self-identified as autistic. An unrestricted sample of neurodiverse perspectives is essential to addressing the core of this phenomenon: What specific affordances does Minecraft provide for autistic gamers, and how do autistic gamers engage with these affordances to form social connections and express themselves through the game? Along these lines, Lina argues that Minecraft liberates its autistic players through its limitations, offering pleasant perseverations and stimmunication systems that, together, foster neurodiverse communities based on collaborative storytelling.

Vivaan Kalura, veteran ALL Project team member and SSCI Catalyst Researcher, explores masking, intimacy, and autistic identity in the virtual world of Roblox, which spans millions of user-created games appealing to individuals of varying identities. 

Masking is a strategy that some autistic individuals employ either consciously or unconsciously to suppress their autistic traits and conform to neurotypical standards. While it is known to serve complex social functions in various situations, it can also be detrimental to the formation of meaningful relationships, which can lead to social isolation. This research aims to determine if Roblox could provide autistic gamers with an authentic environment and whether or not such an environment could lead to greater success in forming meaningful relationships. Based on data collected through participant-observation in this virtual environment and the analysis of social media discourse, several features indicate that Roblox could eliminate barriers to communication for autistic individuals. Role-based interactions in a comfortable environment could reduce uncertainty in social exchanges; games that emphasize teamwork offer players a structured social interaction with a clear purpose; avatars and emotes provide players with extensive means of expressing themselves; and community groups keep members actively involved. To confirm these preliminary observations, future research involves collecting survey and interview data on the lived experiences of autistic adults who frequent Roblox spaces. Findings could advance research in the areas of masking and virtual engagement, promote awareness, and reduce the stigma that many autistic individuals face in the in-person social world. 

Daphne Parker and Everett Jirik, ALL Project team members and SSCI Catalyst Researchers, explore tabletop roleplay games (TTRPGs) like Dungeons & Dragons as sites of language revitalization for autistic linguistic justice,taking a human centered approach and aiming to spotlight perspectives from within the neurodivergent TTRPG community. 

Table-top roleplaying games (TTRPGs), such as Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), offer richly imaginative environments for players of all neurotypes. It has long been established that communities pop up surrounding this shared group activity, and it seems that TTRPGs may have a unique importance for neurodivergent communities. In recent years, due to their apparent appeal among autistic folks, TTRPGs such as D&D have been used in clinical settings in conjunction with other, more “traditional” therapies as a mode of intervention dedicated to improving autistic mental health and social skills. Our research steps beyond a clinical framework to investigate TTRPGs as sites of language reclamation, through which autistic vocabulary and communicative norms are generated and normalized, as well as how this process compares to top-down clinical skills-training. Through interviews with autistic study participants who play TTRPGs, we will explore how autistic communication is valued in these communities, as well as what aspects of TTRPGs are especially appealing to autistic players. Our study is grounded in a framework of autistic linguistic justice and considers the topics of masking, sensory experiences and registers within gameplay. 

We hope that these ethnographic accounts of imaginative subcultural worlds will breathe new life into discourses surrounding gaming and autism.