Share the Experience, Don’t Take it: Toward Attunement With Neurodiversity in Videogames

Abstract

Videogames increasingly focus on marginalized experiences such as neurodivergence. Specifically, the immersive and embodied aspects of videogames allow neurodivergent people to better explain their experiences. However, current research is limited to instrumentalization, by specifically looking for the therapeutic or educational benefits of videogames. I reflect on ethical questions that arise if we try to communicate the embodied experiences related to neurodiversity through videogames. I argue that videogames with the explicit goal to create empathy or care for neurodivergence can also be restrictive. Instead, I put forward attunement as an intersubjective and nonhierarchic mode of affective engagement with neurodiversity through gaming. An analysis of the videogames Unravel and Celeste helps me to illustrate what attunement in a videogame could look like. I conclude that better understanding neurodiversity through play, means “letting it be” instead of (re)shaping it to be easily consumable in videogames.