E-learning Partial accessibility
Video game ‘Among Us’ as a space for communication
Year of production: 2021
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[Music]
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to start with
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the best way to learn what among us is
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is to play it
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it's you could write a 20-page essay on
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what it is
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but at its core it's it's a it's an
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online
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multi-pair social deduction computer
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game
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whereby you get to play both
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competitively against your the other
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players on the p
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on the on the team and cooperatively
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with the same players
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to achieve some shared goal so typically
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there's up to 10 players on one map
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controlled and with the one with the
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goal
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of fixing a spaceship to let it take off
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on that team there's between one and two
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people
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who are secretly tasked to sabotage that
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and make sure it doesn't go off so they
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have to murder
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enough players so that it's so that the
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actual players are down to one
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okay so nobody knows who the imposter is
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except the imposter themselves
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or imposters you can have up to two on a
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map so basically
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that sounds very simple and i'm there
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are board games based on this
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um secret hitler being one of them um
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that were
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incredibly popular this has just been
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turned into a digital version and has
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proved to be incredibly popular
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so it's cross-platform which is i think
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the key to its popularity
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so therefore someone on an iphone can
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play with someone on an android someone
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on a pc
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um so the real beauty of among us and
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the reason i really really like
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promoting it over other games is because
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communication is such a fundamental
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thing
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for all of us and i've met 30 year olds
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who have poorer communication skills
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than 10 year olds
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because it's not something that's really
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really hit on the head except really an
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informal education sentence
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and we find that the most vulnerable in
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society
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often possess i won't say poor
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communication
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skills but not as refined as those who
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are traditionally more successful
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um so within
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it's it's essentially a game of lying
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but for the best experience i've i've
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spoken to a lot of kids
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who use text who there's an inbuilt text
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system within the game
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where you don't need to you don't need
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to see or hear each other to play the
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game
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however for the best experience you
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usually link it up with a with a
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with a voice with another software like
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zoom
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discard or or google meets or whatever
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else like skype even although i haven't
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heard that being very popular lately
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um and what the rules of the game are
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that while you're playing as in while
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your character is moving around
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there is no communication you turn off
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your camera you turn off your voice
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so therefore all you can see is what you
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can see in this gray area around you you
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can't see anything except what you can
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physically see in the game
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um and then for what for whatever reason
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whether someone finds a dead body
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or just wants to call a meeting to
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discuss it everyone turns on their
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microphone and turns on their camera
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and discusses what they've seen some
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like
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some people may have been with somebody
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else for the whole game therefore they
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couldn't have been the imposter
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you know the imposter could call it and
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say well i was with this person
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there's such a level of unknown
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information
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that all of the players have to come
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together and paint a picture together of
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what has actually happened
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in the hopes that the that they'll catch
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the imposter
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and then after that discussion which is
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typically 90 seconds long
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so there's a there's a time element
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there as well so people not only have to
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get their point across
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like 10 people trying to get their point
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across in 90 seconds
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doesn't happen in our meetings within
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work never mind
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a bunch of young people who are
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connected via phone but somehow
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it works somehow they get it and over
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time they really develop these
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these very specific terms and phrases to
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help paint a picture of what's going on
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um and then there's a vote at the end so
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people can abstain from the vote
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therefore there is no vote so we don't
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know or they can vote on one person
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to to kick them off the spaceship
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because they think it's the imposter
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that person may
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or may not be the imposter so within the
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game then
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um this is where the real value is and i
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suppose it's only as good as the person
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who's
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who's observing and pulling out that
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learning and again i'd strongly advocate
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to play it
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because the best way to get a good
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strong feeling of what's happening so
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it allows you to play on the
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complexities of communication
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things like um to promote people to
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reflect on how they send
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and receive information to even even
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what type of information they're sending
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and receiving
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physically verbally and passively now
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there's loads of other types but they're
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the first things that come to mind
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so physically seeing someone there's an
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element of
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what are they doing what are they are
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they smiling or they're not is does that
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person oh it's like playing poker i
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guess to a degree
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it's kind of like what is their poker
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face how are they how are they behaving
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now versus the last time
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so i know they were the imposter last
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time why are they behaving differently
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now
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so there's so many kind of calculations
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going on in the mind
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and that that that social deduction
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essentially but what are they doing
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physically
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how does their voice sound what are they
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saying and a really important part
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of when you're when you're judging
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anthony is what aren't they saying what
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are they leaving out
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so you get to play on that and and then
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of course as much as possible
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you ask them to apply this to real world
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that's when the real
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fun stuff works because then you get to
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talk about
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things like um dominant personalities
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passive personalities um well say the
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complexities of truth and lies honesty
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and deception
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do you know what is honesty what is
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deception why is it that
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no matter what situation we're in we
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can't really fully put it in the honesty
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box or the deceptive box
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you know in what situation does being
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direct
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really is not it's not a good move joe
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and then that's
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that's a really good one there because
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then you can play on young people who
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aren't maybe living in the safest
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environment
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where you have elements of domestic
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violence where you have an unsafe
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neighborhood you know like we all know
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young people who are grown up in areas
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where it's probably not best to go out
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after eight o'clock
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you know where if if somebody says
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something to you you just agree with
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them you keep moving
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so you can't always stand up for your
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values and morals and this
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there has to be an element of deception
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built into us to survive
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and you pull that out of young people
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and you quickly get young people
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understanding
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something that we all throw about we all
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use the word empathy and we use it far
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too much
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to say that i have empathy it's it's
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it's the one of the most complex skills
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to develop and something that young
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people will be
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will be developing throughout their
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entire life carefully and
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opportunistically is the only way i can
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say that
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i i try my absolute
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best not to turn anything we do into a
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therapeutic session
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into something that would be considered
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a formal discussion
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so as much as possible i try to inject
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as much humor as i can
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so for example like let's just use the
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name
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tom it's like tom was lying to his teeth
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that entire thing
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i absolutely love how you were accused
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for three votes and you somehow weaseled
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your way out of it
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how the hell did you manage that then
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you have tom talking about well i just
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stayed quite
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or i knew if i reacted to you'd know
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well i was lying
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and then you just you push that and you
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push you call someone else and say
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how come how come you didn't spot him
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you spotted him last time what were you
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thinking and again you're just getting
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this informal communication and the
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slagging
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i cannot i cannot emphasize how good
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slagging amongst friends is again it i
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mean i i don't want to get too kind of
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hairy theory about it but the the the
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the
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subtle nuances of communication amongst
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friends are are groups of young people
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that are that are given permission
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to abuse not abuse but but to to throw
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away the traditional rules of society
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and lie to each other and manipulate
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each other which is among us is what
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among us is doing to give them
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permission to just
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just aggressively chase the truth by
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whatever means
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necessary and then when the game is over
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the rules reset
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and you're back to a different set of
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rules which is there which are in life
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um when you get them into that mindset
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they'll hurl
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their hurl accusations at each other and
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they'll
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criticize each other and they'll they'll
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give someone a reflection of themselves
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that they can't that that person might
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necessarily be able to apply to
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themselves
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um so carefully and opportunistically is
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my answer
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um now youth workers are incredibly
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skilled people and they're probably the
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worst in the world for showing those
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skills
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or at least talking about them or are
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representing them in paperwork
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um but it happens like we were just
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talking recently i was i was delivering
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some
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uh let's say simple circuit-based
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training into a group of group of youth
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workers and
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one youth worker said this is going to
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be a fantastic way
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of helping the quieter people in my
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group become the experts over the really
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loud people
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and i said like isn't that one of the
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most significant
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pieces of developmental work you could
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do for a young person who struggles with
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his confidence
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and it's one of the most difficult
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things to represent on a piece of paper
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and justify funding for
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whereas if you say and again if i'm
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going playing computer games with kids
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like who the hell is going to fund that
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do you know but all these subtle
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essential societal rules
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are being followed within these games
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and you also have this opportunity to
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create
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an artificial environment whereby you
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can or
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actually you don't the kids dictate the
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rules and you
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follow them with purpose you then pull
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out
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what are those rules and why are they
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applicable here where else are they
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applicable where else is it completely
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acceptable to lie
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where is it not acceptable to lie what's
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the difference between telling someone
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light their face
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and a lie of a mission what if you knew
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one of your girl
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your one of your friend's girlfriends
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wasn't being faithful would you tell
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them
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you know where is your where is your
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moral compass there and this is all
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coming from a game called among us
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where you lie to your friends you get to
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discuss all these different things
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and one of my favorite things i suppose
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to discuss and of course it depends on
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the young person it depends on his
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circumstances or her circumstances now
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the majority of my experiences with
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young fellas
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just because of the nature of everything
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but it was um
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the right time to tell lies and and how
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that influences you long term
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so i'm a big fan of like
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look i'm not i'm not someone who says
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like if you lie your soul will go a
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certain way or you'll live a bad life or
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whatever
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but i do know and i have a lot of of
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i don't know what the anecdotal evidence
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i guess is the word that if someone is
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okay with lying
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long term that will strongly influence
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their sense of self
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their sense of morals the amount of
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enjoyment they get out of their own
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achievements
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their their their ability to commit to
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things
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and i love playing that out with young
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people saying
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tell me an example of a time when you've
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just consistently lied and how you feel
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about it
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now they'll never give you the straight
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answer first time but you've planted a
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little seed
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you've got them thinking and inevitably
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if you're if you have the opportunity
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to engage with them long term you'll
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you'll pick that conversation up again
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and among us again it's a it's a
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ruleless society
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for 10 minutes online where young people
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get to just vent
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uh first and foremost is probably the
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simplest one when we do youth work
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in person we always have energizers
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it mixed up whether they're simple
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two-minute games
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to take the young people away from the
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developmental work we're doing
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re-energize them and bring them back
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that's the first thing you should be
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using among us as
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yes there's a ton of learning in it but
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don't turn it into a therapeutic piece
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first of all it's an energizer it's
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something for them to engage in and only
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when they give you permission
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to discuss the dynamics that are going
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on within that group do you jump on it
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as a skilled youth worker you'll spot it
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you'll see that opening
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okay don't push the subject because they
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will reject it because this is their
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game
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it's their rules it's their time um and
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at any point they can disengage
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particularly now when they're online
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so seek permission without asking
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judge the dynamic of what's going on
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before you push the subject
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and if it's not common just stay using
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it as an energizer it will come
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kids love discussing lies deception and
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how smart they are
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and this is this is an exercise on who
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can who can be more deceptive than the
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other
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and they're always winners will always
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emerge and competition will always fly
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out there
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and the quiet ones will become the
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experts and they'll become the people
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that
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are giving out the advice so so play on
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that don't push it is my first piece of
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advice
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my second piece well okay that sounds
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really pretentious of me
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but um another thing that i find really
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effective when you're working with young
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people on it
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is the first few sessions are going to
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be really quite they're going to be
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really boring
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because they won't have the lingo they
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won't have the a lot of them might have
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more than yourselves but it's their
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first time
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playing it they won't they won't
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acknowledge that this is a new space
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with new societal rules with new
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permissions to do new things and say new
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things
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so you might have to dictate some of
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that you might have to just aggressively
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accuse someone of being the
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being the imposter even if you have the
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clue and laugh it off
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okay and vote them off and say oh my god
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i can't believe i thought that was you
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because you did this this this
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and laugh it um and then let them vote
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you off or
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have fun if you have another member of
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staff in their play on it you know
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torture them about just call accuse them
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of everything so that you're giving
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young people mission
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say this is a safe space for you to to
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play the
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game you don't have to hold back with
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your level of communication
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you can this is the shared goal here is
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to root out the
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imposter this kind of behavior is
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acceptable here
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okay and then afterwards whether whether
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you're in a place or not you can say
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guys there's news out of rules there now
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we're not online anymore you know
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so so encourage the play by being the
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advocate yourself so of course go away
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practice and
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if you're going to facilitate a group of
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young people if their experts follow
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their lead
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take their advice ask questions and my
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favorite one is always
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i don't know what i'm doing and you're
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running around as the imposter killing
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everyone okay
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and they will absolutely appreciate that
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um so play with them
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acknowledge that it's their rules here
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okay and every game of among us every
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different group
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have a subtle variation on what's
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acceptable in the game
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so they have a different level of skill
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they have a different
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understanding of the game so so use your
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own
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discretion or our ability to assess that
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and
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slot in wherever you think you can um
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but
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constantly remind yourself this is their
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game and i'm here
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as a participant yes but i'm also here
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because i need to observe what's going
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on
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i need to find out what points i can
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pull on subtly
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very very subtly don't be like it often
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happens
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um and sometimes it can come down to how
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quickly you have to report on things or
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justify what you're doing
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but just remember among us is here for a
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good while all right
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and it's going to be here for another
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long time so you don't have to achieve
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everything in the first session
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you don't even have to achieve it on the
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fifth session what you have to do is
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develop a kind of a status quo or or a
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behavior that's
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long-term and sustainable and the
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learning can come over a long period of
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time
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and this is again among us there's only
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one tool in a massive tool
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that you have it doesn't have to be you
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don't have to have an among us group
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you could have a group whereby you start
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and finish it with a game among us and
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you have a topic then in the middle or
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you have something entirely different
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but um it does open quite a lot of
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conversation for other games as well
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so so listen for that and if there's
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another game you know consult with your
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colleagues
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um or whoever it may be and see how that
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can fit in as well
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on a side note i suppose among us it's
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not 100 applicable among us
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but we used to do a lot of work on
15:18
emotional narratives
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on on the theory that that young people
15:23
talk to themselves
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more than they talk to anyone else and
15:25
traditionally young people in vulnerable
15:27
positions have a very negative opinion
15:28
of themselves
15:29
so we did a lot of world building and
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and character creations
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and as we know young people they don't
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write about anything except from their
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own narrative
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so we used computer games like world of
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warcraft or other really popular ones
15:41
regardless of what main topic it was
15:44
bunny in each of these worlds
15:45
there's a set of rules whether it be
15:48
down to a different
15:48
type of physics or a different culture
15:51
or all these various different cultures
15:53
from
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from elves and dwarves and all these
15:56
other magical things
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but within each of those worlds is a new
15:59
set of rules and new set of norms
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and we often asked young people to write
16:03
from a narrative
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that you were in that world that you
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were a particular race so
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you could pull out racism about an elf
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you know so you're you're there you're
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you're kind of lessening the risk of
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offending someone
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but also helping a young person to not
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to have to build their entire world or
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write a story from scratch
16:21
write something about a character you
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know in a computer game and inevitably
16:26
like you could talk about what are their
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values what do they want to achieve what
16:28
are all these different things
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and then essentially what you're doing
16:31
is life story work with a young person
16:32
using a computer again
16:34
um there's so many free to play games
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out there
16:37
where you have to develop a character
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down to what he looks like
16:40
what his strengths and weaknesses are
16:41
her strengths and weaknesses are and and
16:43
what type of play are you going to do
16:45
where do you fit into the other players
16:47
what's your role in the group
16:49
what what you have to depend on them for
16:50
what do they have to depend on you for
16:52
and again that's one of the one of the
16:55
many many
16:56
massive advantages computer games can
16:59
give you
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if you're willing to sit down and play
17:01
them and learn about them it's a huge
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investment
17:03
i'm 32 and i'm still learning about them
17:05
i'm an advocate for computer games
17:08
if they're used properly of course they
17:10
can be used in a negative way but we're
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youth workers that's what we do we take
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what's out there and we
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make it work and play with each other do
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you know like start up without a
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mongoose game in the office
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you know play with each other um give
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each other challenges like go away play
17:24
minecraft together
17:25
like it's 10 quid for a server you know
17:27
build something together in minecraft
17:29
um look at the new emerging computer
17:31
games that are coming out
17:33
and and if it i'm sure the vast majority
17:35
of managers or funders out there
17:38
if you give them the argument to say we
17:39
need to learn this they'll give you the
17:40
time to do it
17:41
and the funding to do it as well engage
17:43
in it reach out to other people that
17:45
play
17:45
get the young people to be the experts
17:46
as much as you can get them in to teach
17:48
you how to do it
17:49
that's i was very lucky to work for an
17:51
incredibly skilled manager
17:53
where i worked in a youth in a youth
17:55
setting
17:56
and he said no matter what you do let
17:59
the young people lead it
18:00
you know no matter what you're doing
18:02
you'll never go wrong if the young
18:03
people are telling you what to do
18:05
you know it's your job to police it it's
18:06
your job to make sure it's within the
18:08
confines of your insurance or child
18:10
protection and everything
18:11
but like nine times out of ten if the
18:12
young people lead it
18:14
you're on to a winner no matter what and
18:16
if anyone discovers the secret to
18:18
representing all the subtle things that
18:19
we deliver on a daily basis
18:21
i'd love to hear them um if i could
18:23
represent half of the positive outcomes
18:25
that i
18:26
managed to help young people achieve who
18:28
knows we might be able to get paid
18:30
a good living wage
18:45
you
“Video game ‘Among Us’ as a space for communication” is is the second part of the interview with Eddie Quinn, who tells more details on ways he is using the video game ‘Among Us’ to communicate with young people, to explore various themes while playing this game.
Watch this video to learn some basics about the game as well as useful tips on how you can use the game in youth work settings.
This video is part of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Digital Youth Work.
Video game 'Among Us' as a space for communication
www.youtube.comAvailable in EN
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