Online gaming communities for people on the spectrum?

[Bezintine]

I personally am not on the autism spectrum (as far as I can tell), but I work with an agency that provides community outreach for adults with varying disabilities, many of them on the autism spectrum.

Being a gamer myself, I'm aware of the phenomena of this weird kind of stigma against autistic people, which contributes to a lot of online bullying and harassment. I'm sure you're all familiar. The word "autistic" has basically replaced "retarded" as a pejorative for being stupid.

In any case, some of my clients are subjected this kind of harassment to a point where they don't even want to play their favorite games anymore! I get it, you're always going to encounter ♥♥♥♥-heads online, such is life. But it sucks that my guys feel like they can't even do the thing they enjoy without being a target. Many of you may say they should "have a thicker skin," and I invite those people to spend some time with an autistic person and try to make that happen. It can be a whole process just to get some of them to put their shoes on sometimes.

ANYWAY, I came here to reach out to all you fellow gamers who give a ♥♥♥♥, and ask for any leads to online gaming communities that provide a more supportive environment for people with developmental disabilities. Something along the lines of the good old WoW guilds, like with all the organization and familial relationships? But SPECIFICALLY for disabled men and women who just want to play some online games, and not have to worry about feeling left out or bullied.

The agency I work at is a pretty awesome, supportive place, but only a handful of them actually play video games, so starting our own group might not hold up well until we had more people involved. Any help or info would be appreciated immensely!

[ShelLuser]

First, kinda offtopic IMO to use the Steam community to ask for leads to other communities. Comes across as a bit rude; as the name of this discussion forum implies this is meant to talk about the Steam community, not others.

Second I also don't agree with you. In online communities everyone gets treated the same (at least at first) and it doesn't matter if you're a boy, girl, want to account as something else and everything else doesn't matter either. Of course what does matter is how you behave within said community.

Or.. to put this different.. if you're someone who tries to be a part of a community then hardly anyone will have an issue with that. If you try to misbehave in a community and then quickly push some disease or disability as an excuse for your actions then yeah, people won't like that. But that has nothing to do with being disabled or whatever, but the way you misbehaved in that community.

See... most people I know who are having a few personal issues don't want people to know because for them gaming is an outlet. Something to get away from reality, not some platform they need to use to put even more attention on themselves.

[Bezintine]

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

First, kinda offtopic IMO to use the Steam community to ask for leads to other communities. Comes across as a bit rude; as the name of this discussion forum implies this is meant to talk about the Steam community, not others.

Second I also don't agree with you. In online communities everyone gets treated the same (at least at first) and it doesn't matter if you're a boy, girl, want to account as something else and everything else doesn't matter either. Of course what does matter is how you behave within said community.

Or.. to put this different.. if you're someone who tries to be a part of a community then hardly anyone will have an issue with that. If you try to misbehave in a community and then quickly push some disease or disability as an excuse for your actions then yeah, people won't like that. But that has nothing to do with being disabled or whatever, but the way you misbehaved in that community.

See... most people I know who are having a few personal issues don't want people to know because for them gaming is an outlet. Something to get away from reality, not some platform they need to use to put even more attention on themselves.

I'm surprised at this answer... I think this blatantly ignores just how bad people can be online, and then automatically presupposes that the autistic individual is the one misbehaving. I'll admit, I was maybe overly excited to help and get help. I can see how my post would look fanatic here. So let me back waaay up here and try this again.

Firstly, I see your point. Perhaps I kept things way too vague, I've kind of had to make that a habit for the sake of protecting people. So I've taken that aspect overboard. I came here to look for Steam groups SPECIFICALLY, unless of course someone happened to know of another and decided to throw that out there in passing.

I think you and I would agree on your second point though, I don't think poor behavior should be excused on any front, regardless of WHO you are. One of the main things we work at in this agency is instilling the idea of treating others as you would wish to be treated. But that's kind of the point of why I came here.

I came here to look for a SUPPORTIVE community. Now maybe this begs to be dragged from obscurity too, seeing as how it's subjective to define what is and isn't supportive. But first I'd like to paint a quick scenario.

If someone with a developmental disability, or who is "neuroatypical" etc., is placed in a social setting (online or otherwise) their differences in social cues or habits may be promptly noticed by someone who is neurotypical. Sometimes it can be pretty obvious.

Now that being said, is anyone obligated to change their behavior when talking to this person? Of course not. However, I don't think it helps to outright ignore what makes them different, and react impatiently if it's not something you're used to. They could be on their best behavior, however you or I would define that... and STILL get harassed. And yes, it does happen. It happens to anybody, not just people with disabilities! I could go on about personal experiences, but I'm going to get back to the point.

My goal, ideally, is just to find a group of people who would understand some of the finer points of atypical behavior so that when a situation arises-- say, someone says something off-kilter, but harmless (obviously a lack of picking up on social cues), and instead of someone saying "Dude, STFU" or "GTFO", a patient individual can just say "hey that's not okay, did you mean to say this?" and they could figure it out and move on. Any "misbehaving", however defined, can be handled however the group sees fit, that's up to them.

That's all I'm looking for. The reason I specified an Autistic online community was because I figured maybe a community like that would be more understanding of some of the personality quirks involved. I'm not trying to put anyone on a pedestal here. This goes just a little bit deeper than "personal problems" dude. And these people deserve the right to enjoy their outlet just as much as anyone else.

I've always trusted the Steam community. Kinda disappointed that's the answer I got here. Just looking for a good group with good people.

[🜂∴🜏 Cassie]

Hey, I understand where you're coming from, OP. My husband was diagnosed with Asperger's in his late teens, and learning how to function in work and social life was difficult for him, especially in the beginning.

He suggests visiting Wrong Planet[wrongplanet.net] for a community of people who share the same struggles. I'm fairly sure there are plenty of people there who also play video games as a hobby, and it would be helpful to share experiences with each other.

People online tend to be a lot more harsh than they are in real life, probably because the anonymity and lack of face-to-face communication makes it much harder to see the other users as people with feelings. Even for neurotypicals, that can be a struggle.

I hope you and the people you help can find what you're looking for.

[Bezintine]

Originally posted by Sylfr:

Hey, I understand where you're coming from, OP. My husband was diagnosed with Asperger's in his late teens, and learning how to function in work and social life was difficult for him, especially in the beginning.

He suggests visiting Wrong Planet[wrongplanet.net] for a community of people who share the same struggles. I'm fairly sure there are plenty of people there who also play video games as a hobby, and it would be helpful to share experiences with each other.

People online tend to be a lot more harsh than they are in real life, probably because the anonymity and lack of face-to-face communication makes it much harder to see the other users as people with feelings. Even for neurotypicals, that can be a struggle.

I hope you and the people you help can find what you're looking for.

I am SO ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ grateful for this. Thank you. This is perfect, and exactly what I'm looking for. I cant wait to introduce this to my clients. I guarantee he'll find some gamer groups here, Steam or otherwise. Best wishes to you and yours, and thanks again!

[Fairy ❤]

Hey Friend - this is a SUPER late post but wanted to say thank you for posting this. I'm a mental health professional and also fellow gamer. I found this when *I* was looking for safe gaming communities for one of my clients on the spectrum. I appreciate someone else asked - I'm also looking for communities now in 2023 to provide to my client.

[Dieter]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion