StaceyPowers

I think I’ve already started a thread on important life skills learned from video games (like how MUDing taught me how to type quickly), but what about really silly/random life skills learned from gaming? When I started playing Red Dead Redemption the other month, I joked that steering the horse was a bit like “steering a grocery cart”—a basic life skill that for some reason I’ve found ridiculously hard my whole life. I’m that idiot in the store who can’t seem to turn their cart in a circle—or at least, I was. Yesterday, I had no problem steering my grocery cart for the first time ever. I just thought of RDR and maneuvered it accordingly, lol. Finally, I am functional at grocery shopping.

As a disabled person, I thought I would start a thread for others to check in who would like to talk about gaming with disabilities or handicaps of any nature. What challenges do you face as a disabled gamer? Has gaming helped you in any way to overcome or cope with your disabilities? I am hoping @LadyDay and @The Blackangel might chime in, as well as others. I have chronic pain issues relating to a structural abnormality in my jaw and spine, as well as executive function issues due to my OCD and suspected ASD (I don't consider ASD a negative, but the executive function issues can be a challenge). @LadyDay and I have talked about gaming with executive function issues a bit in this thread. My pain issues calm down at night a lot of times, so I game before bed. Even though OCD leads to executive function difficulties while gaming, gaming has been a HUGE help in reducing my OCD-related looping/anxious thoughts. As a result, I sleep much better at night. In this way, gaming helps me to overcome one of my difficulties. I would love to hear other stories. You can also ask questions and offer tips in this thread.

That sounds like me. I usually dual wield in Skyrim, but I use conjuration a lot. But I see the atronachs as auxiliary to my swordfighting, not the other way around.

@skyfire @The Blackangel @xXInfectedXx @killamch89 How often do you clean your console?

I think the idea would be an app which would "gamify" real life but be customizable based on one's needs. I too certainly would be angry at the thought of needing to meet unreachable task standards (I have a restricted amount of "energy/willpower units" on many days due to chronic pain), but I wouldn't mind if real life were more ... well, rewarding. Games do well activating a dopamine response, but real life chores do not. And even with my disability, I must rely largely on myself to exist :/ Incidentally, dopamine helps to reduce pain, so anything that spikes it can help me with my life. I often feel better while gaming. I think this is largely because it is night time, but I sometimes wonder if the dopamine effects of gaming also help.

Are you more of a warrior mage, or a magic-wielding warrior? Jack of All Trades = my class in real life, I think 😉 But I wouldn't say master of none ... more like master at systemizing.

Sounds a lot like my list. I'm also curious about A Plague Tale: Innocence.

@DylanC @Alyxx @SpaceExplorer What fighting classes, weapons and armor do you prefer?

I also tend to be a melee fighter, and likewise pair well with a ranged fighter (another melee fighter just tends to get in the way). I am so bad with the bow and arrow, lol. Have you found the gal up in the mountains who gives you practice arrows? I love the Daedric armor. It’s so gorgeous! I levelled up smithing so I can make it for all my followers =D I wear the Forsworn armor you can win as a quest reward. Anyway, what’s funny is that in Fallout, I usually am a sniper, and stay as far away from melee combat as I can. The VATS system makes it so easy. And if you pair up with another sniper (like Boone in NV), you can pick off a lot of enemies before they ever get near you.

Yeah. My worst story is an admin whose real life boyfriend was sexually harassing my friend in-game. So I asked my in-game brother to help her, and he intervened in the situation so my friend wouldn’t have to log out just to stop being harassed. So the administrator permanently killed off his character, all because the harasser was her real boyfriend, and she was that mad at my brother for having a conscience. She then stood around in a public square in-game mocking me for my loss of my brother. Ironically, she and I were sort-of friends before that at one point, and she gave me some good advice about dealing with people and being willing to kick the toxic ones to the curb. Glad I took her advice and kicked her to the curb before that whole thing went down.

Oh, I do. Power strips. But I also only have so much floor space to put them, lol.

How do you mean? I'm disabled too.

Funny. There was another thread about usernames, and I was going to @ you and ask you about yours, and then I found your new thread here. That answers that =D I grew up with the Wing Commander games. I thought those were great! What are your favorite space games, past and present?

I'll be completely honest. While the Borderlands games interest me (especially for their art style and odd sense of humour), I have yet to play one. As a result, I don't think I can provide any useful impressions, save that I will be curious how it does, particularly being as I've heard so many people mention that the second game didn't live up to the first.

Wow, that's really really bad.

Lol, I never seem to do unarmed combat. What makes it fun? Usually I am two-handed melee combatant, but when something like Conjuration is available, I do that too. Summon something to bloody up my enemy, then rush in and finish it off. I'm such a coward, lol. I picked perks all over the map the first time I played Skyrim (I didn't know what I was doing), and my skill trees were useless as a result. I noticed I was mainly using Conjuration and Two-Handed, so the next time through, I saved most of my perks for those as well as Smithing. Specializing in games usually makes you far more effective in combat than being all over the map! So look at it as one of the plus sides of being a poor multi-tasker. Incidentally, studies show that multitasking is an inefficient way to work for just about everyone owing to issues with task-switching. Folks like us just are more aware of its downsides than those who “excel” at it =D

I suspect he thinks of the Dragonborn more as being his pet rather than vice versa. Now, the one I wish I could order around is Barbas. But he's not a "real" follower, so there's no way to tell him to stay. He's great as a tank, but he drives me insane knocking shit over in my house. I've never played The Sims! @Alyxx @SpaceExplorer @kingpotato Any favorite video game pets?

I finished BIoshock 1 recently and just played some Skyrim. Now I'm going to rotate back to playing more RDR.

What did it do?

@The Blackangel Awesome advice, thanks! I use that canned air stuff and just wipe down the outside of the console. To clean my LCD screen, I just use a dry cloth most of the time. I use glasses cloths on discs too.

I've never played Borderlands, though it's been recommended to me a few times. The art style always intrigues me.

I usually buy disposable batteries. It seems like they last a lot longer without needing to be charged, and I don't have a lot of free outlets in the house. I literally have ... two wall outlets in my entire home, and a bunch of power strips.

It’s my name and I’m terribly uncreative.

I also usually work up two or three skill trees for the same reason. I'm often surprised by how many people don't do this.

Let’s not forget about dealing with humans. It’s best to keep real life information to yourself, not just about your identity, but about other aspects of your life as well (until at least you get to know and trust someone really well).