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An Ethnography of a Minecraft Virtual World for Children with Autism

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An Ethnography of a Minecraft Virtual World for Children with Autism UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE Playful Places in Online Playgrounds: An Ethnography of a Minecraft Virtual World for Children with Autism DISSERTATION submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Informatics by Kathryn Elizabeth Ringland Dissertation Committee: Professor Gillian R. Hayes, Chair Professor Tom Boellstorff Professor Mizuko Ito Assistant Professor Aaron Trammell 2018 © 2018 Kathryn Elizabeth Ringland DEDICATION For all the strong women in my life—for those who have blazed the trail before me, those in the trenches with me, and those following in my footsteps. With much love to my mother and my daughter. ~ And to my son, who gave me my favorite title, “Mama” ii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. ix CURRICULUM VITAE ............................................................................................................... xii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION .................................................................................... xiv 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1 Child’s Play as an Embodied Experience ....................................................................... 3 The Playground .............................................................................................................. 6 How Identity Affects Access to Play: The Disabling Embodied Experience ................ 9 Technology and Play .................................................................................................... 15 1.4.1 Technology for Play ............................................................................................ 16 1.4.2 Technology as an Aid to Normative Play ........................................................... 17 1.4.3 Troubling the Privileged Norms in Technology and Play Research ................... 18 Research Questions ...................................................................................................... 19 Contributions of Dissertation ....................................................................................... 20 Outline of Dissertation ................................................................................................. 21 2 Methods...................................................................................................................................... 24 Field Site: The Autcraft Community ............................................................................ 24 2.1.1 Motivation for Server Creation ........................................................................... 28 2.1.2 Summary of Community Members ..................................................................... 28 Digital Ethnographic Approach .................................................................................... 30 Data Collection ............................................................................................................. 35 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................... 35 3 The Embodied Experience in Autcraft: Inhabiting a Constellation of Social Media Platforms 36 The Embodied Experience, Social Media, and Individuals with Disability ................ 37 Appropriation of Assistive Technology ....................................................................... 38 Previous Research of Social Media for Individuals with Disability ............................ 41 3.3.1 Virtual Worlds and Multiplayer Digital Games .................................................. 43 Exploring the Embodied Possibilities in Autcraft Community .................................... 46 The Infrastructure of the Autcraft Community: A Constellation of Social Media ...... 49 3.5.1 Physical Space ..................................................................................................... 50 iii 3.5.2 Liminal Space ...................................................................................................... 52 3.5.3 Virtual Space ....................................................................................................... 58 Modding in Minecraft & Other Social Media .............................................................. 66 Modding to Create Access to Social Play .................................................................... 67 3.7.1 Specialized Zones ................................................................................................ 67 3.7.2 Teleportation ....................................................................................................... 73 3.7.3 Enhanced Text Chat ............................................................................................ 76 Where is the body? The Placeness of the Autcraft Community ................................... 79 3.8.1 The Embodiments of the Experience Matter ....................................................... 79 3.8.2 Walls Work Both Ways ....................................................................................... 81 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 85 4 Who’s Playing the Game: The Multifaceted Identities of Autcraft Community Members ....... 86 The Identity of Disability & The Social Construction of Autism ................................ 87 4.1.1 Autism Community ............................................................................................. 89 4.1.2 Finding Autism in the Autcraft Community ....................................................... 92 4.1.3 Expressing Identity in Autcraft ........................................................................... 99 Gamer as Identity ....................................................................................................... 100 4.2.1 Gamers in the Autcraft Community .................................................................. 107 The Shape of the Body: How Identity Impacts Access to Play Online ...................... 113 4.3.1 Similarities in Discourse around Autism and Gamers ...................................... 114 4.3.2 A Need for the Intersectionality Lens: Autism, Gamers, and Gender .............. 116 4.3.3 Proving They are Valuable to Others ................................................................ 119 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 120 5 Taking Care During Play: Children & Caregiving .................................................................. 122 Caregiving of Children ............................................................................................... 122 5.1.1 Caregiving and Children’s Play Online ............................................................. 123 5.1.2 Caregiving of Children Online: Risks and Bullying ......................................... 125 Caregivers ................................................................................................................... 129 5.2.1 Caregivers of Autistic Children ......................................................................... 133 Caregiving in the Autcraft Community: Creating Safety ........................................... 135 5.3.1 Autcraft’s Caregiving Infrastructure ................................................................. 136 5.3.2 Mentoring Other and Encouraging Caregiving in Autcraft ............................... 141 Safety as Access to Social Play .................................................................................. 145 iv When Play Becomes Work When the Work is Supposed to Be Play ........................ 150 5.5.1 Children as Caregivers ...................................................................................... 150 5.5.2 “Going Back to Work” ...................................................................................... 153 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 155 6 Toward Topos-Mediated Ludic Sociality ................................................................................ 157 Summary of Findings ................................................................................................. 158 Summary of Dissertation Contributions ..................................................................... 159 A Place to Play: The Embodied Experience & Access to Play .................................. 160 6.3.1 Spaces Become the Autcraft Place .................................................................... 161 6.3.2 What is “real”? .................................................................................................. 161 6.3.3 Topos-Mediated Ludic Sociality and the Able Body ........................................ 163 Safety and Policing of Children in Topos-Mediated Ludic Sociality ........................ 166 Using Topos-Mediated Ludic Sociality as a Form of Resistance .............................. 170 6.5.1 Resisting the Discourse about Autism
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