Dad Quits His Job and Starts Minecraft Server For Autistic Son
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by
Ree Webster
All fathers want to make their sons’ dreams come true, and for some, that involves quitting work and creating a Minecraft server where like-minded kids can gather for some online entertainment…
Autcraft is a private, whitelisted Minecraft community built for autistic children, their families, and their friends. The server has simple rules, such as ‘no bullying, no griefing, no stealing,’ and a small group of moderators keeps it in check and safe for members. The community includes a survival arena and hide-and-seek minigame modules, to name just a few features.
When asked about the severe and general concept being his, Duncan responds by explaining it’s more than just a server to play games. It’s a place to play games that extend into real life where kids on the spectrum can feel comfortable making their first friends. Here, they can interact with one another online, where friendly connections can be developed prior to meeting in person.
What is Autcraft?
Autcraft is, at heart, a Minecraft server that invites like minded individuals to deep dive into the many things the game, and its community have to offer. The virtual realm is supposed to be the happiest place on Earth where group members can gather. Instead of being likened to a fraternity or even a bustling school hallway between classes, where groups of kids gather and vie for social status using all manner of excentric tricks and tactics, the Autcraft server is a community where members can find refuge from the regular stresses those with Autism must face daily.
In addition to engaging content, group games, and group chat, all primarily designed for fun and to encourage communication, members also gain access to therapeutic tools such as a ‘bully board,’ where participants note down their own experiences with bullying and what they did to overcome the issue. The community also lists helpful contacts, including the numbers for general helplines in the UK, the US, Australia, and Canada.
The Inspiration Behind Autcraft
Duncan used to be a web developer but gave it up to run the server full-time. While the benefits of this move were clearly evident, one major conflicting factor was the loss of earnings. However, Ducan was able to make up the difference by selling cheap in-game items and upgrades, accepting donations from fans, followers, and supporters, and providing his almost 150 Patreon members with additional perks.
Stuart “AutismFather” Duncan says he is always ready and willing to help those helping the community and is only ever a private message away.
However, being the main moderator of such a group is not as straightforward as most typical online forums, chat rooms, etc., required. In many instances Duncan is there to be visible, in others, he must be the pillar of support members maybe looking for. Duncan recalled:
“For the first two years I was talking to two kids per week who were suicidal,” he says. “Eventually my work suffered. I’d be talking to my boss and I’d say ‘hold on a minute, this kid needs me.'”
Duncan first realized his first son was Autistic the very first time the youngster sat up on his own. It was clear his motor skills were abnormally uncoordinated, and this turned out to be the primary symptom of his condition. Despite the extreme difficulty with specific simple movements, the son could hold and use a Wii remote ideally. He’d even win races in Mario cart, and eventually, Ducan upgraded him to try a standard gamepad.
This milestone was the birth of an idea that started as a spark of imagination and rapidly grew into something bigger than anyone initially thought possible. Soon, Duncan and his two sons began their daily Minecraft hobby. As their love for the game quickly grew, Duncan, who was already well known as a pillar of the local community, realized that others could also benefit from joining the community, and thus, decided to open up their online haven to other families living with a loved with who has autism.
Why Minecraft Is Effective For Children With Special Needs
There’s a lot of speculation as to why children on the spectrum appear to be more attracted to Minecraft, but no solid theories or conclusions. The trend has become so popular amongst kids that the number of adults playing the game has also increased but mainly due to parents wishing to find out more about the games their kids are playing, rather than their being a bomb in adult players themselves.
One of the factors is thought to be predictability and familiarity. For example, author Keith Stuart, who wrote a novel called ‘A Boy Made Of Block’ inspired by his autistic son’s experience playing Minecraft, explained:
“The key thing about Minecraft is it allows you to be creative with very fixed rules and systems. My son relies on predictable systems…
“Unpredictable things like everyday life are very scary. In Minecraft you pretty much know whatever you’re gonna get. You take your stone and wood and you make a pickaxe. There’s this sense of freedom in the game as well. There’s no mission structure, no one is yelling at you to go down some corridor. You can overlay your behavioral needs on top of the game.”
Luckily Stuart was somewhat of a gamer growing up, so picking Minecraft came quick and easy, which not only gave him a overwhelling sense of connection with his son, it simultaneously rewarded his efforts as a parent by making him feel like a real father, spending real father-son time together. He added:
“Minecraft was massively important to us. When he was young he had a very limited vocabulary and a very limited way to express himself. He never had the patience to play Lego or paint, he found team sports perplexing—he just didn’t really get it. There was just something about Minecraft that instantly connected him. He immediately understood how he could build a hut or a castle. He started to learn new words. He went from a vocabulary of 10 words to a vocabulary of words like ‘obsidian.’ He loved being there, he wanted to share it with me.”
Others Families Thoughts About Autcraft
Setting up their own sever allowed the family and followers to avoid the often abusive and explicit communication that typically happens between players in multiplayer games online. Whilst communication can add an element of fun to some games, others quickly turn vulgar, and can notoriously turn exciting gaming platforms into uncomfortable places of hate for many players. For those with autism communicating in these groups can be a worrying and daunting prospect, to the point where most would simply rather avoid the situation altogether. This will typically lead to the child continuing to play alone, and likely being highly depressed at the outcome that’s seemingly unchangeable and out of their hands.
“They feel like there’s no place else for them.
“They come back and they’re like ‘we autistic people, we as a community, are the nicest bunch of people.’ No matter how bad someone makes you feel somewhere else, you can come back here and end up feeling better. It’s kind of depressing that you don’t get that anywhere else. You don’t understand why you can’t go to any other server and get that same feeling.”
Duncan keeps the community safe by enforcing a strict vetting process on those attempting to join the server. If any red flags pop up the application is denied. The father wishes we lived in a society where it would be possible for such a community to monitor an police itself, but he’s under no illusion that is even possible and therefore vows to continue his efforts to help those with autism find new inspiration and support via his dedicated Minecraft sever specifally designed for those with the hard to treat mental health condition.
A twist, and huge coincidence, which likely adds more credibility to the whole concept, is that Duncan too was diagnosed with austism but as an adult. He recalled how some hidden ailment had bugged him most of his life, but with less severe symptoms compared to many others, no diagnosis was ever reached. Fortunately his role as father remained largely unaffected, instead, his diagnosis only served to get him more involved in the worldwide community, which gave him more credibility and an overall better understanding of those similarly affected.
“I went through life thinking there was something wrong with me…
“Just that people weren’t like me, and I didn’t get it.”
Duncan notes that autism isn’t the only topic children join the community in search of support. He mentioned the plight of a girl who’s transitioning, and talking with him everyday. Her father doesn’t understand, and dialog fails him, the hope is that through the community support, members like the young girl may find the correct dialog to start a meaningful conversation. Autcraft is safe space designed to facilitate such conversations, and to provide the support from those who understand from experience, not text books. Of course, not everyone is comfortable with trusting all their thoughts and anxieties with a random group of people who play the same game as them, so there’s still work to be done in order to bridge that gap and normalize the process in much the same manner as traditional therapy. People with autism are all unique, and almost like a reflection of this uniqueness, Minecraft allows players to express themselves in a seemingly endless amount of ways. Duncan concluded:
“Having a place with people who are totally different from you, but know what that feels like, is empowering. When parents reach out to me and say ‘my kid won’t stop smiling, he finally found a place where they belong.’ I say ‘you know what, your child did that themselves.’ They went out and said ‘hi,’ and built stuff with people. You have a really great kid. They just needed a place where they could feel like a really great kid.”
