The other day I commented on a post in one of the groups I’m in about gaming. During the short discussion they mentioned that they played Rocket League.
I have a kind of love hate relationship with that particular game. I actually deleted it during the winter. I was trying to look into doing streaming on occasion.
However I could go dozens of games where my team members block my shots. This is why I ended up deleting it. It was effectively making it impossible to play. I look for a specific window of opportunity, and take my shot, but if that window is closed because the ball is moved by a team member, or they are in the way, I miss.
However because it’s a game I’ve played for years and can really enjoy at times, I thought I’d install it again. Give it another go, thinking that playing with autistic team members, it may be easier. Especially as autistic people will understand the need for specifics more clearly.
For me without teamwork and defence, my ability to play reduces to the point I may not get a chance to take a shot. I may end up playing several games but not actually getting to play any of them.
I do hope to socialise more and find my joy in gaming again. I had lost that, mainly because of hiding in media so long, I want to get that feeling back one day. Especially as gaming has been a part of my life going back to Space Invaders, Pong and Packman.
The reason for this post is I discovered something that I didn’t expect when setting up Rocket League. I changed my “clan tag” to TEAM and the team name to mylifeautistic. So it would be “Team mylifeautistic”. However the word autistic was banned for profanity. I understand trying to reduce hate speech, but banning “autistic” is not the way to do that. It stops autistic people being able to express themselves and potentially being able to socialise. Autism and autistic are not bad words, and it’s really risky for it to be considered as such ... especially if that becomes more common online.
All our best and love
Ross Fraser and Jeni Dern
Words – Ross A Fraser
Graphic Design App – Canva