I know that lots of games have an option to choose from things to say. I just thing there should be a game based around social communication specifically, with the ability to gain points from getting a smile or eye contact right, and with Messages Like: GREAT EYE CONTACT! When yah get it right
Joined: Apr 24, 2011 Posts: 1983 Location: Twilight Zone
Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 4:05 pm Post subject: Social skills video game
Great idea! I would love to play such a game. It could have different levels for different situations. The more complicated a situation, the harder the level, and the more points you could earn.
Attention computer geeks! There's a money making opportunity here for whoever comes up with a good social skills game.
Joined: Feb 23, 2012 Posts: 410 Location: East England
Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 4:22 pm Post subject:
I have lost count how many times I wish I had a visible selection of options to select a sentence from like in games such as fallout, skyrim and many, many RPGs...... _________________ Female, 16
Knowledge is knowing that tomatoes are fruits. It takes wisdom to know not to put them in a fruit salad.
Joined: Dec 21, 2011 Age: 33 Posts: 402 Location: Most likely work. Sigh.
Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 6:49 pm Post subject:
minervx wrote:
gta: san andreas
where else did i learn to shoot prostitutes and steal cars
True life skills my friend. Through that game, I also learned that pedestrians are EXTREMELY likely to jump in front of moving cars for no apparent reason.
I always did want to make at least 1 game, it isn't the reason I got into programming but I thought it would be fun.
Unfortunately my math skills probably aren't the best for someone who wishes to do something like that.
Sounds like a good idea though, maybe someone else with more skills in the are of game development will see this and take on the project!
There's always dating sims... Sorta close? Then there's games like Persona/Shin Megami Tensai, where you get to be in virtual high school and have virtual social interactions. Persona reminds me somewhat of real life, in your dealings with friends, except it's a bit...dumb. "You decided to go to school." Me: "WTF, I didn't even press any buttons." Personally my favorite game ever is Shenmue, great social skills there. I learned everything I know from Ryo Hazuki, and he is the reason I am the man I am today. Oh wait...
Ryo is badass, he's straight to the point, no time to talk about his feelings and stuff, just "Yeah so I'm looking for the man who killed my father, tell me stuff." _________________ Too kawaii to live...
Too sugoi to die!
While I love the concept, in my opinion, I only see it working under some (preferably all) of these conditions:
1. The game should be first person, or at least have a function that switches between first and third-person. For me, it's easy to observe a conversation because the cues are passing me by and are filtered by the people in question, whereas conversing with someone has the cues trying to reach my brain directly. A video game that does both would allow analysis *and* practice attempts.
2. The game should, without a doubt, have motion support controls. I was initially thinking of the Wii, but upon heavier thinking, Kinect for the 360 would be much closer, since your body is the controller and we do have to train to use our bodies when socializing.
3. The game should definitely come with a microphone (maybe specific to the game or USB) and/or have voice-recognition software/tone-of-voice coach built in. I can't speak on behalf of all Aspies, but, from my experience, lots of conversational missteps of mine have occurred not because of what I said, but how I said it. Most of the time I wasn't even aware of how it was coming across for it to have turned into a misstep in the first place, so having something like this would increases awareness levels of it.
4. While it's debatable whether or not a plot is necessary, there should be at least streamlined objectives and/or levels to go through. That way, the player can progress through the game and feel that their social skills are improving. Even a social skills "checklist" or "records" within the game would cover this well.
5. The game shouldn't have any cheats. At all. While, based on my anecdotal experience, there are multiple ways to process a skill that might be effortless for others, none of them were simply given by entering a "code" into your brain - same goes with this game.
6. I have played a few dating sim games, and there's one thing I can't help but notice one key element that was missing - reaction times! You're given as much time as you need to take the info given and process it, leading to near-correct answers all the time because of it (there's still room for error, but it's smaller). Except that for conversations IRL and/or in real time, you're only given a few second window to formulate a response. Maybe there could be a range of difficulty settings where the easiest setting could be a large amount of time (10secs?) and the hardest setting mimic the actual flow of conversation reaction times.
There are more ideas, but I think they might be best for another post.
Joined: Dec 21, 2011 Age: 33 Posts: 402 Location: Most likely work. Sigh.
Posted: Sat May 19, 2012 2:07 am Post subject:
AScomposer13413 wrote:
While I love the concept, in my opinion, I only see it working under some (preferably all) of these conditions:
1. The game should be first person, or at least have a function that switches between first and third-person. For me, it's easy to observe a conversation because the cues are passing me by and are filtered by the people in question, whereas conversing with someone has the cues trying to reach my brain directly. A video game that does both would allow analysis *and* practice attempts.
2. The game should, without a doubt, have motion support controls. I was initially thinking of the Wii, but upon heavier thinking, Kinect for the 360 would be much closer, since your body is the controller and we do have to train to use our bodies when socializing.
3. The game should definitely come with a microphone (maybe specific to the game or USB) and/or have voice-recognition software/tone-of-voice coach built in. I can't speak on behalf of all Aspies, but, from my experience, lots of conversational missteps of mine have occurred not because of what I said, but how I said it. Most of the time I wasn't even aware of how it was coming across for it to have turned into a misstep in the first place, so having something like this would increases awareness levels of it.
4. While it's debatable whether or not a plot is necessary, there should be at least streamlined objectives and/or levels to go through. That way, the player can progress through the game and feel that their social skills are improving. Even a social skills "checklist" or "records" within the game would cover this well.
5. The game shouldn't have any cheats. At all. While, based on my anecdotal experience, there are multiple ways to process a skill that might be effortless for others, none of them were simply given by entering a "code" into your brain - same goes with this game.
6. I have played a few dating sim games, and there's one thing I can't help but notice one key element that was missing - reaction times! You're given as much time as you need to take the info given and process it, leading to near-correct answers all the time because of it (there's still room for error, but it's smaller). Except that for conversations IRL and/or in real time, you're only given a few second window to formulate a response. Maybe there could be a range of difficulty settings where the easiest setting could be a large amount of time (10secs?) and the hardest setting mimic the actual flow of conversation reaction times.
There are more ideas, but I think they might be best for another post.
This is a super great post in my opinion. For me, as a female aspie, I think numbers 5 and 6 are the most important. (Although perhaps male aspies have the same troubles...idk.
Thanks for posting so much detail. Yours is a very well thought out post.
While I love the concept, in my opinion, I only see it working under some (preferably all) of these conditions:
1. The game should be first person, or at least have a function that switches between first and third-person. For me, it's easy to observe a conversation because the cues are passing me by and are filtered by the people in question, whereas conversing with someone has the cues trying to reach my brain directly. A video game that does both would allow analysis *and* practice attempts.
2. The game should, without a doubt, have motion support controls. I was initially thinking of the Wii, but upon heavier thinking, Kinect for the 360 would be much closer, since your body is the controller and we do have to train to use our bodies when socializing.
3. The game should definitely come with a microphone (maybe specific to the game or USB) and/or have voice-recognition software/tone-of-voice coach built in. I can't speak on behalf of all Aspies, but, from my experience, lots of conversational missteps of mine have occurred not because of what I said, but how I said it. Most of the time I wasn't even aware of how it was coming across for it to have turned into a misstep in the first place, so having something like this would increases awareness levels of it.
4. While it's debatable whether or not a plot is necessary, there should be at least streamlined objectives and/or levels to go through. That way, the player can progress through the game and feel that their social skills are improving. Even a social skills "checklist" or "records" within the game would cover this well.
5. The game shouldn't have any cheats. At all. While, based on my anecdotal experience, there are multiple ways to process a skill that might be effortless for others, none of them were simply given by entering a "code" into your brain - same goes with this game.
6. I have played a few dating sim games, and there's one thing I can't help but notice one key element that was missing - reaction times! You're given as much time as you need to take the info given and process it, leading to near-correct answers all the time because of it (there's still room for error, but it's smaller). Except that for conversations IRL and/or in real time, you're only given a few second window to formulate a response. Maybe there could be a range of difficulty settings where the easiest setting could be a large amount of time (10secs?) and the hardest setting mimic the actual flow of conversation reaction times.
There are more ideas, but I think they might be best for another post.
This is a super great post in my opinion. For me, as a female aspie, I think numbers 5 and 6 are the most important. (Although perhaps male aspies have the same troubles...idk.
Thanks for posting so much detail. Yours is a very well thought out post.
Glad you appreciate it!! Ironically, I wrote it at the time of night when I don't usually do a lot of thinking Anyway, being a male aspie myself, I do share some of the problems, and while there are key difference between male and female aspies, the only way to make the game cater to both would be to focus on the similarities but create enough room to acknowledge the differences.
Speaking of which, more points on the way
7. Like cheats, glitches are a no-no, especially if they're graphical ones. You need to capture an environment down to the last detail (as far as the graphics can go without taking away from everything else), and considering the target market would be those who want to practice social skills, there has to be extra care taken to provide that environment to those who have a sharper eye for detail elsewhere!
8. Conversation topics - this is probably going to be the most difficult because of the wide range of them. I'd say prepare the AI for almost any topic to make conversation out of it, even if normally that wouldn't be the case.
9. Sandbox mode - I might have mentioned this earlier, but it does take a lot of elements to form a good conversation and, by extension, a good conversationalist. Give the player the ability to test how to build on certain skills in such a way that they won't be penalized outside of the original "objective" mode so their skills can be sharpened for the real conversations!
Again, that's all I can think of right now. Maybe there's more to come?
Glad you appreciate it!! Ironically, I wrote it at the time of night when I 
Anyway, being a male aspie myself, I do share some of the problems, and while there are key difference between male and female aspies, the only way to make the game cater to both would be to focus on the similarities but create enough room to acknowledge the differences.
