Slightly OT, but Minecraft was a godsend for my kids during lockdown. AFAICS, they made no distinction between playing with their mates in a virtual playground from playing in a physical one. The interactions seemed identical and definitely helped them socially in that time.
I can never be thankful enough to Minecraft and it's creator Markus Persson for helping my daughter discover the joys of online gaming and overcoming her social anxiety.<p>She now plays Destiny 2 mainly but the other day as walked into the lounge I found her back in Minecraft.<p>I remarked why she was playing that on her PS5 - she just smiled.
Most "people with autism" prefer being called autistic by the way. The "with autism" label is mostly being pushed by parents of autistic children and autism organizations that aren't actually headed by any autistics (those also frequently use the "puzzle piece" symbol, which originates with Autism Speaks, an organization run by parents of autistic children that wants to find "a cure for autism", which some autistics consider a white washed form of eugenics).
This is from 2016. It probably needs a year tag. Definitely Minecraft has been know to help build friendships, at least among my friends. We’ve known this for a good while, to put it one way…
The subject of the article, Autcraft, is still going strong I believe<p><a href="https://www.autcraft.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.autcraft.com/</a>