London: Non-violent video games which capitalise on engaging storytelling have pro-social benefits that could ultimately be helpful to clinical disorders such as autism, says a study.

"The motivation to engage in and enjoy video games corresponds with principles that apply to human motivation in general," said lead researcher Daniel Bormann from University of Freiburg, Germany.To test the role of in-game storytelling, the researchers randomly assigned participants to play one of two video games.

In the first game Gone Home, the player slips into the role of a female American college student, arriving home after a year abroad.The player comes upon an empty house and has to use various clues to figure out what happened to her missing family members.For the control condition, the game was against the Wall, in which the player has to climb up an infinite wall by interacting with the bricks, in surreal but human-made surroundings.

The researchers feel that long-term work on narration in video games could yield promising opportunities."If further research could reveal how exactly in-game storytelling affects theory of mind, clinicians and software developers could utilise this knowledge to develop tools to aid the treatment of disorders characterised by social-interaction impairments, like autistic disorders," Bormann concluded.The study was published in Social Psychological and Personality Science.

http://post.jagran.com/video-games-to-cure-autism-1428907944

As somebody who has autism, I certainly hope video games don't "cure" it.

I don't consider it a disease, it's part of who I am. :)

That's a really good way of looking at it, and glad to see somebody embracing who they are :)

I'm not autistic but I fall within the spectrum and I find it easier to empathize with fictional characters.

Yeah, it's definitely not a disease.

Most people just think that everything diverging from the norm is some kind of malfunction or disease that needs to be "cured". They don't even consider that those people are perfectly fine with it and don't want to be changed.

Was just about to comment that autism isn't a disease, and that It can be simply cured, but good to know that you guys beat me to It.

It is absolutely a disease..... Millions of people struggle with it everyday. Just because some people are ok with it does not take away from its impact. I am glad that Curl is ok with it though and that is defintely a good way of looking at it :)

Classifications are not important if a person accepts what's essentially a part of him/her. Acceptance may then turn into appreciation of ones differences and individuality.

What good does it do if they're getting vaccinated anyway.

Amezing news to those with autism