Why are a lot of traditional gamers autistic? By autism, I don't mean people I don't like but actual, medical autism.
>>44391211
Could you quantify "a lot"?
>>44391231
Anyone who does anything he dislikes or disagrees with.
>>44391211
Presumably because it's a hobby in which you're not expected to interact with large groups of people too often, and it's generally accepted to be somewhat eccentric/atypical/abnormal. If you have trouble with social interaction, then a hobby where people don't expect amazing levels of social interaction is a good place to be.
I've been asking myself that for the last week or so, having run into at least one really hardcore autists on /tg/ lately.
I guess it's the structure of it that appeals to autists, but the problem is of course that in real life, there's not nearly as much structure to it, and it comes down to social dynamics.
But autists can still connect on a basic level with other people by discussing canon or rules, but it breaks apart when it goes beyond that, so they stick to rules lawyering in absurdum and discussing canon from a black/white standpoint that has no real
place in roleplaying or traditional gaming.
Autists are theoreticists that like to do thought exercises whether they'll actually ever happen or not, like arguing that a system is terrible unless the weapons are 100% balanced, despite the fact that actually acquiring a "best-craftsmanship axe" is infinitely harder than getting a regular common-quality two-handed weapon, or that you won't go up against that theoretical fully-armoured meat-beast in an average game, or that sometimes, someone just want to play a certain character. The very idea of separation between in-game characters and meta-rules knowledge seems alien to them.
There was seriously one of them that argued that fire spells doesn't set fire to the environment unless it specifically says so, and if it does, it breaks the game, despite the fact that it only can set fire to things at the discretion of the GM.
So I don't think it's that many traditional gamers that are actually autistic, because they can't really function when it comes to the gaming, but they sure as hell take an interest.
>>44391211
Vaccines.
>>44391231
>Could you quantify "a lot"?
I'm not OP, but I'd expect that he means "to a noticeable degree", whereas you don't usually notice autists "in the wild" unless they're full-blown screamers.
So "a lot" may not be that many, but it's enough to be noticeable, so it's "a lot" compared to most other contexts.
>>44391211
Huh, if I didn't think self diagnosis was a load of crap, I'd be tempted to say that I might be autistic based on that picture.
>>44391283
That's pretty much it.
I'm somewhat autistic myself. I work full time, have gone to college, been in several relationships but there are quite a few things I can't handle on my own (that I don't want to get into) and some of it includes socializing with large groups of people.
It's (usually) a safe enough environment for myself to have fun with a gaming group. Plus getting into character is one of the few ways I can open up to groups people instead of being mostly a recluse. Like, I have no problem chatting iwth one to five or so friends at a time but public speaking or large crowds bother the shit out of me.
>>44391354
>So I don't think it's that many traditional gamers that are actually autistic, because they can't really function when it comes to the gaming, but they sure as hell take an interest.
That's never been one of my problems. It bothers me to follow too strictly to rules a lot of the time
I can't wait for the rise of narrativist games to push all the autists out of the hobby.
Number crunching fucks.
>>44391515
Wait, so it's only autismo if I learn things by number?
>>44391515
Why would they do that? Wouldn't they just be all autismo over the aspects of narrativist mechanics? Or just constitute a large enough market block that the games they like wont truly vanish.
>>44391211
I don't understand the bit of the pic with "insistence on sameness".
Send help.
>>44391354
>argument...
I have seen some really stupid arguments here on /tg/. Over the most irrelevant shit like you describe. I saw a bar fight in Kansas start over two guys disagreeing over wether it was 3,or 4 years ago that the bar owner had moved to town. A punch was thrown and soon 12 people were trying to kill each other.
Point being; people get hung up on silly shit sometimes. And decide to argue it to the death. Its not a "gamer" thing. I doubt it is autism either. Its just a dickhead thing.
>>44391269
I said quantify, not qualify.
I'm very autistic according to the picture on OP.
That's quite distressing.
>>44391515
Narrativist games will never push roleplaying games out of the traditional games market. A lot of people prefer a firm ruleset that they can then tinker with, or make judgement calls on.
Most games are in-between FATAL and two or more people playing make-believe together with no aids whatsoever.
>>44391638
>"insistence on sameness".
Basically, a hate of change. Full-blown autists seriously stick to their routines. This means that if they're using soap, it has to be the same as they're used to. And if they're going to school each day, they go to school each day, at the same time, whether mom has made breakfast or is lying in a pool of blood in the bathroom or not.
And so on.
The thing is, autism is a spectrum, so a lot of people are actually "autistic" to a degree or another. Most aren't what we would call "autistic about it".
Autism is basically "autism" when your autism becomes a problem. I probably qualify for all the things in OP:s image, but I'm not crazy about it. Yes, I enjoy having all my underpants being of the exact same make, model, and colour, if I had a choice, but I'm almost willing to go "Eh, CLOSE ENOUGH".
A full-blown autist wouldn't. They'd have serious issues with it. I once met an autist that was sitting watch while the rest of us slept, and he spent two hours staring out into the darkness, standing on the same spot. A friend of mine who couldn't sleep because he was creeped out was like "Hey, you should probably do a perimeter check, no? Walk around a bit, check the other windows and doors."
The autist agrees, walks one full circle around the house, and goes back to the exact. Same. Spot.
>>44391211
Because they want the rules to be explicit and written down. In Magic or Catan or whatever, the rules are written down. In going out for drinks with friends, there are stil rules, but they're not written down or talked about and you have to use social intuition to know what they are, which is something not everyone can do.
>>44391375
/thread
You, sir, deserve a medal, but all I have is this.
>>44392325
>copyright 2005
Is it because that meme is as old as that year, I wonder?
Protip: To avoid autists, play games that involve social and use Voice instead of Text for internet games. You can readily hear your average autist via voice by their inability to breath through their nose and lack of social skills.
>>44391645
See, in that bar fight, the guys are drunk. However, most autists will start asinine arguments at the height of sobriety.
>>44391645
It's not about the argument, but how you argue it beyond absurdity, that the technicalities take precedence over the utility and application.
Two drunk guys getting into a fight with eachother over something silly isn't the same thing as someone arguing that canon is canon and therefore is the objectively right way to do things, or that the rules are X and therefore the rules are X and therefore X with no room for interpretation of application.
Yeah, people get hung up on silly shit, but autists tend to raise silly shit themselves and argue far beyond the point where others have stopped caring. There's no reason or rationality to it just is.
I get what you're saying, I'm just saying that there's a clear difference.
>>44392206
No, I literally meant the little stickmen, Anon, not the phrase.
>>44391401
It's a spectrum disorder so you probably have it if you're willing to take a place on the fringe. As someone who has been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome by someone who was considered qualified to make the call I like RPGs as a way to hangout with people without many of the complications of following the "unwritten rules" that I tend to miss.
As tg and 4chan likes to misuse autism so much I wouldn't waste worrying about it, Anons will yell autism at each other while arguing that the person they're calling autistic is wrong because the word they used can mean something else if you take its 16th century meaning and will ignore anyone who tries to point this out.
>>44392325
>winrar is you
>cockmongler
>intraweb
>heug
What do you think
>>44392623
Man, you would hate playing with my group. All of us have known at least two of the other people for a decade or more, we have tons of unwritten rules that we really only notice when bringing someone new into the group.
>>44394056
na na na. I think he's talking about the unwritten rules of social etiquette, rather than the house rules of any RPG.
>>44394388
I meant what I said, I'm not talking about changes to the game or rules, I'm talking about essentially a meta game understanding of how to do things separate from any system.
If I was talking about house rules, that would make my entire statement completely retarded.
I don't know OP, I got into the hobby by vector of being interested in history, playing 40k for a while and then coming on /tg/ and making a home here after 4chan being recommended to me by a friend.
If I had to guess based off my observations of the lower-functioning members of my group I would say most commercial collecting-based products appeal to us. Escapism is deeply satisfying to those who fail and are often marginalised in real life. The idea that one's intelligence could be their defining feature rather than charisma or skill (regardless of wether the subject in question is particularly clever) is also deeply intoxicating to many individuals on the spectrum.
>>44392623
Ah good old Arseburgers, we used to be our own thing but we're on the spectrum now. It's a funny old life seeing everything not like atypicals do, to not want to be lonely but desire no company and all sorts of other silly notions.
>>44394056
>unwritten rules
These are the worst I live through rule sets, the author of John Dies at the End put it quite well though perhaps unintentionally, "Do you ever feel like life is a quick, violent dance and that everyone knows the steps but you?" Well it's not quite that, if more like everyone's got an etiquette guide in their pocket and you don't.
Same reason why autists flock to video games or anime.. Autists get bullied, so they run to safe havens for those bullied, i.e. "Nerd shit".
Same reason autists flock to other "nerd" interests. Autistic people feel no shame in being interested in something which is not popular. They often like number crunching and things with lots of rules and fine details. For tabletop games in particular, there's also the fact that, as was mentioned in this thread, eccentricity is acceptable or even encouraged in TTRPGs. the social interaction happens in small groups, and it works very differently than ordinary social interaction.Speaking as an autist myself,TTRPGs just sort of make sense to autists in a way that the rest of life often doesn't
>>44392116
Same here, anon. Wanna come over to my place and not cuddle?
>>44395485
Only if you offer candy in an unmarked white van with tinted windows.
I will accept no substitutes REEEEEE
>>44391211
>identifying with the characters
Jokes aside, I think it might be because you can socialize in small groups with shared interests while also having generally accepted facts to fall back on for discussion. Can sorta autopilot conversation and that's nice sometimes to be able to dofor me anyway.
>>44391231
Interestingly, the concreteness of thought which this post demonstrates is a hallmark of the subject under discussion
>>44391354
>But autists can still connect on a basic level with other people by discussing canon or rules, but it breaks apart when it goes beyond that, so they stick to rules lawyering in absurdum and discussing canon from a black/white standpoint that has no real place in roleplaying or traditional gaming.
Are you talking about 2hufag?
i have clinical asperger's rate
>>44396742
7/10, where do I subscribe?
>>44391354
I know what game you are talking about, and fuck you. Your opinions are stupid and wrong.
>>44391211
Am I autistic if I do nearly all of those things but with complete self-awareness?
>>44396833
Are you not depressed if you happen to be aware of your consistently sad affect?
>>44391515
>turning RPGs into full-blown make-believe will push out the autists
ITP: zero self-awareness. It's like saying LARP has less autists because it has less rules.
>>44391211
It's not that a lot of people who are traditional gamers are autistic, its that traditional gamers tend to be more accepting of autism.
Most people who I know have autism are really high functioning who use role-playing and tabletop games as a means of social interaction they would otherwise have a really hard time with.
ITT: /tg/ trying to deny that they're not social rejects
>>44391211
>No real fear of dangers
>Apparent insensitivity to pain
According to pic, autists would make viable candidates for the super-soldier program.
>>44399895
Well the communication problem could be somewhat problematic. That can generally be covered however. As an addendum though, the soldiers will be REALLY fucked up if they return to normal society on retirement.
>>44399895
The army actually had a trial program during the Vietnam War to test that idea.
>>44392206
Are you infering that the American House of Congress is currently being ran by literal disabled people?
Autists are usally unable to break into normie society, but mistake this as a problem with society and not their inability to interact with people, and so turn to various alternative parts of society, like niche hobbies, they mistakenly believe will be more conducive to their 'tism.
I think he problem is that a majority of people are"autistic"(aka displaying symptons, hardly a prolem)0
>>44391211
Those graphs/charts are fucking stupid. Actual autism is pretty damn obvious because the kid/adult sticks out like a throbbing, swollen, gangrene thumb. Using those qualifications, EVERYBODY could be autistic.
>>44391664
That creates an immense quantity.
>>44392325
Damn that is a dusty old meme you polished up.
>>44391211
That top row could just read "laughs at wrongthink things" and "isn't a little bitch."
>>44396722
Anon, autism does not equal intelligence, nor does it equal logic.
>>44403424
I don't know about you, but I didn't think nearly any of them applied to me at all.About the only thing that could is the whole "difficulty interacting with others" thing, which is often totally unrelated to autism.
Also, I don't think they're saying "if you see this symptoms in YOUR CHILD, they have AUTISM". I think they're just saying "oi, be aware that this is how autists behave".
>>44399895
You just need to make the instructions very accurate and clearly phrased. If you can do that, you can pretty much take over the world (insert inappropriate giggling).
>>44391211
That pic. If we're going by that pic, then 70-90% of the population is autisti-- holy shit, my psychology professor was right..
>>44391354
>>44391515
I tried to really get into role-playing and the narrative, but I quickly realized just how important theory of mind is. I can barely imagine being a friend or family member in a common situation, how am I supposed to become a fantasy hero who doesn't exist?
>>44404218
It's easy cause fantasy heroes are formulaic and predictable. They will never get into a morally dubious situation or dragged into a mega-plot orchestrated by five angry women.
