Video game ‘Among Us’ as a space for communication

0:00 [Music] 0:02 to start with 0:03 the best way to learn what among us is 0:06 is to play it 0:07 it's you could write a 20-page essay on 0:09 what it is 0:10 but at its core it's it's a it's an 0:13 online 0:14 multi-pair social deduction computer 0:16 game 0:17 whereby you get to play both 0:20 competitively against your the other 0:23 players on the p 0:24 on the on the team and cooperatively 0:27 with the same players 0:28 to achieve some shared goal so typically 0:32 there's up to 10 players on one map 0:35 controlled and with the one with the 0:38 goal 0:39 of fixing a spaceship to let it take off 0:42 on that team there's between one and two 0:45 people 0:46 who are secretly tasked to sabotage that 0:49 and make sure it doesn't go off so they 0:51 have to murder 0:53 enough players so that it's so that the 0:55 actual players are down to one 0:56 okay so nobody knows who the imposter is 0:59 except the imposter themselves 1:01 or imposters you can have up to two on a 1:03 map so basically 1:05 that sounds very simple and i'm there 1:07 are board games based on this 1:09 um secret hitler being one of them um 1:12 that were 1:12 incredibly popular this has just been 1:14 turned into a digital version and has 1:16 proved to be incredibly popular 1:18 so it's cross-platform which is i think 1:20 the key to its popularity 1:21 so therefore someone on an iphone can 1:23 play with someone on an android someone 1:25 on a pc 1:26 um so the real beauty of among us and 1:30 the reason i really really like 1:31 promoting it over other games is because 1:34 communication is such a fundamental 1:35 thing 1:36 for all of us and i've met 30 year olds 1:39 who have poorer communication skills 1:40 than 10 year olds 1:41 because it's not something that's really 1:42 really hit on the head except really an 1:45 informal education sentence 1:46 and we find that the most vulnerable in 1:49 society 1:50 often possess i won't say poor 1:53 communication 1:54 skills but not as refined as those who 1:56 are traditionally more successful 1:58 um so within 2:01 it's it's essentially a game of lying 2:02 but for the best experience i've i've 2:04 spoken to a lot of kids 2:05 who use text who there's an inbuilt text 2:08 system within the game 2:09 where you don't need to you don't need 2:10 to see or hear each other to play the 2:12 game 2:12 however for the best experience you 2:14 usually link it up with a with a 2:16 with a voice with another software like 2:19 zoom 2:19 discard or or google meets or whatever 2:22 else like skype even although i haven't 2:24 heard that being very popular lately 2:25 um and what the rules of the game are 2:28 that while you're playing as in while 2:30 your character is moving around 2:32 there is no communication you turn off 2:34 your camera you turn off your voice 2:36 so therefore all you can see is what you 2:38 can see in this gray area around you you 2:39 can't see anything except what you can 2:40 physically see in the game 2:41 um and then for what for whatever reason 2:45 whether someone finds a dead body 2:47 or just wants to call a meeting to 2:48 discuss it everyone turns on their 2:50 microphone and turns on their camera 2:52 and discusses what they've seen some 2:54 like 2:55 some people may have been with somebody 2:57 else for the whole game therefore they 2:58 couldn't have been the imposter 3:00 you know the imposter could call it and 3:02 say well i was with this person 3:03 there's such a level of unknown 3:05 information 3:06 that all of the players have to come 3:07 together and paint a picture together of 3:09 what has actually happened 3:11 in the hopes that the that they'll catch 3:13 the imposter 3:14 and then after that discussion which is 3:15 typically 90 seconds long 3:17 so there's a there's a time element 3:18 there as well so people not only have to 3:20 get their point across 3:21 like 10 people trying to get their point 3:23 across in 90 seconds 3:25 doesn't happen in our meetings within 3:27 work never mind 3:28 a bunch of young people who are 3:30 connected via phone but somehow 3:32 it works somehow they get it and over 3:33 time they really develop these 3:35 these very specific terms and phrases to 3:37 help paint a picture of what's going on 3:39 um and then there's a vote at the end so 3:42 people can abstain from the vote 3:43 therefore there is no vote so we don't 3:44 know or they can vote on one person 3:47 to to kick them off the spaceship 3:48 because they think it's the imposter 3:49 that person may 3:50 or may not be the imposter so within the 3:53 game then 3:54 um this is where the real value is and i 3:57 suppose it's only as good as the person 3:58 who's 3:58 who's observing and pulling out that 4:00 learning and again i'd strongly advocate 4:02 to play it 4:03 because the best way to get a good 4:04 strong feeling of what's happening so 4:07 it allows you to play on the 4:08 complexities of communication 4:10 things like um to promote people to 4:13 reflect on how they send 4:14 and receive information to even even 4:17 what type of information they're sending 4:18 and receiving 4:19 physically verbally and passively now 4:22 there's loads of other types but they're 4:23 the first things that come to mind 4:24 so physically seeing someone there's an 4:26 element of 4:28 what are they doing what are they are 4:29 they smiling or they're not is does that 4:31 person oh it's like playing poker i 4:32 guess to a degree 4:34 it's kind of like what is their poker 4:35 face how are they how are they behaving 4:36 now versus the last time 4:38 so i know they were the imposter last 4:39 time why are they behaving differently 4:40 now 4:41 so there's so many kind of calculations 4:43 going on in the mind 4:44 and that that that social deduction 4:46 essentially but what are they doing 4:47 physically 4:48 how does their voice sound what are they 4:50 saying and a really important part 4:52 of when you're when you're judging 4:53 anthony is what aren't they saying what 4:55 are they leaving out 4:56 so you get to play on that and and then 4:58 of course as much as possible 5:00 you ask them to apply this to real world 5:02 that's when the real 5:03 fun stuff works because then you get to 5:05 talk about 5:06 things like um dominant personalities 5:10 passive personalities um well say the 5:13 complexities of truth and lies honesty 5:15 and deception 5:16 do you know what is honesty what is 5:17 deception why is it that 5:19 no matter what situation we're in we 5:21 can't really fully put it in the honesty 5:22 box or the deceptive box 5:24 you know in what situation does being 5:26 direct 5:27 really is not it's not a good move joe 5:30 and then that's 5:30 that's a really good one there because 5:32 then you can play on young people who 5:33 aren't maybe living in the safest 5:34 environment 5:35 where you have elements of domestic 5:36 violence where you have an unsafe 5:38 neighborhood you know like we all know 5:41 young people who are grown up in areas 5:43 where it's probably not best to go out 5:44 after eight o'clock 5:45 you know where if if somebody says 5:47 something to you you just agree with 5:48 them you keep moving 5:49 so you can't always stand up for your 5:51 values and morals and this 5:53 there has to be an element of deception 5:54 built into us to survive 5:56 and you pull that out of young people 5:58 and you quickly get young people 5:59 understanding 6:00 something that we all throw about we all 6:02 use the word empathy and we use it far 6:04 too much 6:04 to say that i have empathy it's it's 6:07 it's the one of the most complex skills 6:09 to develop and something that young 6:10 people will be 6:11 will be developing throughout their 6:12 entire life carefully and 6:14 opportunistically is the only way i can 6:16 say that 6:17 i i try my absolute 6:21 best not to turn anything we do into a 6:23 therapeutic session 6:24 into something that would be considered 6:26 a formal discussion 6:28 so as much as possible i try to inject 6:30 as much humor as i can 6:32 so for example like let's just use the 6:35 name 6:36 tom it's like tom was lying to his teeth 6:38 that entire thing 6:39 i absolutely love how you were accused 6:41 for three votes and you somehow weaseled 6:43 your way out of it 6:44 how the hell did you manage that then 6:46 you have tom talking about well i just 6:48 stayed quite 6:49 or i knew if i reacted to you'd know 6:51 well i was lying 6:52 and then you just you push that and you 6:54 push you call someone else and say 6:56 how come how come you didn't spot him 6:58 you spotted him last time what were you 6:59 thinking and again you're just getting 7:01 this informal communication and the 7:02 slagging 7:03 i cannot i cannot emphasize how good 7:07 slagging amongst friends is again it i 7:10 mean i i don't want to get too kind of 7:12 hairy theory about it but the the the 7:15 the 7:16 subtle nuances of communication amongst 7:19 friends are are groups of young people 7:21 that are that are given permission 7:23 to abuse not abuse but but to to throw 7:26 away the traditional rules of society 7:29 and lie to each other and manipulate 7:31 each other which is among us is what 7:32 among us is doing to give them 7:35 permission to just 7:36 just aggressively chase the truth by 7:38 whatever means 7:39 necessary and then when the game is over 7:41 the rules reset 7:42 and you're back to a different set of 7:44 rules which is there which are in life 7:46 um when you get them into that mindset 7:49 they'll hurl 7:49 their hurl accusations at each other and 7:52 they'll 7:53 criticize each other and they'll they'll 7:55 give someone a reflection of themselves 7:57 that they can't that that person might 7:59 necessarily be able to apply to 8:00 themselves 8:01 um so carefully and opportunistically is 8:05 my answer 8:06 um now youth workers are incredibly 8:08 skilled people and they're probably the 8:10 worst in the world for showing those 8:11 skills 8:12 or at least talking about them or are 8:14 representing them in paperwork 8:15 um but it happens like we were just 8:19 talking recently i was i was delivering 8:20 some 8:21 uh let's say simple circuit-based 8:23 training into a group of group of youth 8:24 workers and 8:26 one youth worker said this is going to 8:28 be a fantastic way 8:30 of helping the quieter people in my 8:31 group become the experts over the really 8:34 loud people 8:35 and i said like isn't that one of the 8:37 most significant 8:38 pieces of developmental work you could 8:40 do for a young person who struggles with 8:41 his confidence 8:42 and it's one of the most difficult 8:44 things to represent on a piece of paper 8:45 and justify funding for 8:46 whereas if you say and again if i'm 8:49 going playing computer games with kids 8:50 like who the hell is going to fund that 8:52 do you know but all these subtle 8:54 essential societal rules 8:56 are being followed within these games 8:58 and you also have this opportunity to 9:00 create 9:01 an artificial environment whereby you 9:03 can or 9:04 actually you don't the kids dictate the 9:05 rules and you 9:07 follow them with purpose you then pull 9:09 out 9:10 what are those rules and why are they 9:11 applicable here where else are they 9:13 applicable where else is it completely 9:15 acceptable to lie 9:16 where is it not acceptable to lie what's 9:18 the difference between telling someone 9:20 light their face 9:21 and a lie of a mission what if you knew 9:23 one of your girl 9:24 your one of your friend's girlfriends 9:25 wasn't being faithful would you tell 9:27 them 9:27 you know where is your where is your 9:29 moral compass there and this is all 9:31 coming from a game called among us 9:33 where you lie to your friends you get to 9:35 discuss all these different things 9:37 and one of my favorite things i suppose 9:39 to discuss and of course it depends on 9:40 the young person it depends on his 9:41 circumstances or her circumstances now 9:44 the majority of my experiences with 9:45 young fellas 9:46 just because of the nature of everything 9:48 but it was um 9:49 the right time to tell lies and and how 9:52 that influences you long term 9:54 so i'm a big fan of like 9:57 look i'm not i'm not someone who says 9:59 like if you lie your soul will go a 10:00 certain way or you'll live a bad life or 10:02 whatever 10:03 but i do know and i have a lot of of 10:06 i don't know what the anecdotal evidence 10:08 i guess is the word that if someone is 10:10 okay with lying 10:11 long term that will strongly influence 10:13 their sense of self 10:14 their sense of morals the amount of 10:17 enjoyment they get out of their own 10:18 achievements 10:19 their their their ability to commit to 10:21 things 10:22 and i love playing that out with young 10:24 people saying 10:25 tell me an example of a time when you've 10:27 just consistently lied and how you feel 10:29 about it 10:30 now they'll never give you the straight 10:31 answer first time but you've planted a 10:33 little seed 10:34 you've got them thinking and inevitably 10:36 if you're if you have the opportunity 10:37 to engage with them long term you'll 10:39 you'll pick that conversation up again 10:41 and among us again it's a it's a 10:44 ruleless society 10:46 for 10 minutes online where young people 10:48 get to just vent 10:49 uh first and foremost is probably the 10:51 simplest one when we do youth work 10:53 in person we always have energizers 10:56 it mixed up whether they're simple 10:58 two-minute games 10:59 to take the young people away from the 11:01 developmental work we're doing 11:02 re-energize them and bring them back 11:04 that's the first thing you should be 11:05 using among us as 11:07 yes there's a ton of learning in it but 11:10 don't turn it into a therapeutic piece 11:12 first of all it's an energizer it's 11:13 something for them to engage in and only 11:15 when they give you permission 11:17 to discuss the dynamics that are going 11:19 on within that group do you jump on it 11:21 as a skilled youth worker you'll spot it 11:23 you'll see that opening 11:24 okay don't push the subject because they 11:26 will reject it because this is their 11:28 game 11:29 it's their rules it's their time um and 11:31 at any point they can disengage 11:33 particularly now when they're online 11:34 so seek permission without asking 11:39 judge the dynamic of what's going on 11:40 before you push the subject 11:42 and if it's not common just stay using 11:45 it as an energizer it will come 11:47 kids love discussing lies deception and 11:50 how smart they are 11:51 and this is this is an exercise on who 11:53 can who can be more deceptive than the 11:55 other 11:56 and they're always winners will always 11:57 emerge and competition will always fly 12:00 out there 12:00 and the quiet ones will become the 12:02 experts and they'll become the people 12:04 that 12:04 are giving out the advice so so play on 12:07 that don't push it is my first piece of 12:09 advice 12:10 my second piece well okay that sounds 12:12 really pretentious of me 12:14 but um another thing that i find really 12:17 effective when you're working with young 12:18 people on it 12:18 is the first few sessions are going to 12:20 be really quite they're going to be 12:22 really boring 12:23 because they won't have the lingo they 12:25 won't have the a lot of them might have 12:26 more than yourselves but it's their 12:27 first time 12:28 playing it they won't they won't 12:31 acknowledge that this is a new space 12:33 with new societal rules with new 12:34 permissions to do new things and say new 12:36 things 12:36 so you might have to dictate some of 12:38 that you might have to just aggressively 12:40 accuse someone of being the 12:41 being the imposter even if you have the 12:43 clue and laugh it off 12:45 okay and vote them off and say oh my god 12:47 i can't believe i thought that was you 12:49 because you did this this this 12:51 and laugh it um and then let them vote 12:53 you off or 12:54 have fun if you have another member of 12:56 staff in their play on it you know 12:58 torture them about just call accuse them 13:00 of everything so that you're giving 13:01 young people mission 13:02 say this is a safe space for you to to 13:05 play the 13:06 game you don't have to hold back with 13:07 your level of communication 13:09 you can this is the shared goal here is 13:11 to root out the 13:12 imposter this kind of behavior is 13:14 acceptable here 13:15 okay and then afterwards whether whether 13:19 you're in a place or not you can say 13:20 guys there's news out of rules there now 13:22 we're not online anymore you know 13:24 so so encourage the play by being the 13:27 advocate yourself so of course go away 13:29 practice and 13:30 if you're going to facilitate a group of 13:31 young people if their experts follow 13:32 their lead 13:33 take their advice ask questions and my 13:36 favorite one is always 13:37 i don't know what i'm doing and you're 13:38 running around as the imposter killing 13:40 everyone okay 13:41 and they will absolutely appreciate that 13:43 um so play with them 13:44 acknowledge that it's their rules here 13:46 okay and every game of among us every 13:48 different group 13:49 have a subtle variation on what's 13:52 acceptable in the game 13:53 so they have a different level of skill 13:56 they have a different 13:56 understanding of the game so so use your 13:59 own 14:00 discretion or our ability to assess that 14:02 and 14:03 slot in wherever you think you can um 14:06 but 14:06 constantly remind yourself this is their 14:08 game and i'm here 14:10 as a participant yes but i'm also here 14:12 because i need to observe what's going 14:14 on 14:14 i need to find out what points i can 14:16 pull on subtly 14:18 very very subtly don't be like it often 14:21 happens 14:22 um and sometimes it can come down to how 14:24 quickly you have to report on things or 14:25 justify what you're doing 14:26 but just remember among us is here for a 14:29 good while all right 14:30 and it's going to be here for another 14:31 long time so you don't have to achieve 14:32 everything in the first session 14:34 you don't even have to achieve it on the 14:35 fifth session what you have to do is 14:37 develop a kind of a status quo or or a 14:40 behavior that's 14:41 long-term and sustainable and the 14:43 learning can come over a long period of 14:45 time 14:46 and this is again among us there's only 14:48 one tool in a massive tool 14:50 that you have it doesn't have to be you 14:51 don't have to have an among us group 14:53 you could have a group whereby you start 14:56 and finish it with a game among us and 14:57 you have a topic then in the middle or 14:59 you have something entirely different 15:00 but um it does open quite a lot of 15:03 conversation for other games as well 15:05 so so listen for that and if there's 15:07 another game you know consult with your 15:08 colleagues 15:09 um or whoever it may be and see how that 15:12 can fit in as well 15:13 on a side note i suppose among us it's 15:15 not 100 applicable among us 15:17 but we used to do a lot of work on 15:18 emotional narratives 15:20 on on the theory that that young people 15:23 talk to themselves 15:24 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 15:31 and character creations 15:33 and as we know young people they don't 15:35 write about anything except from their 15:36 own narrative 15:37 so we used computer games like world of 15:39 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 15:53 from elves and dwarves and all these 15:56 other magical things 15:57 but within each of those worlds is a new 15:59 set of rules and new set of norms 16:01 and we often asked young people to write 16:03 from a narrative 16:04 that you were in that world that you 16:06 were a particular race so 16:08 you could pull out racism about an elf 16:11 you know so you're you're there you're 16:13 you're kind of lessening the risk of 16:15 offending someone 16:16 but also helping a young person to not 16:18 to have to build their entire world or 16:20 write a story from scratch 16:21 write something about a character you 16:23 know in a computer game and inevitably 16:26 like you could talk about what are their 16:27 values what do they want to achieve what 16:28 are all these different things 16:29 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 16:36 out there 16:37 where you have to develop a character 16:39 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 17:00 if you're willing to sit down and play 17:01 them and learn about them it's a huge 17:02 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 17:12 youth workers that's what we do we take 17:13 what's out there and we 17:14 make it work and play with each other do 17:17 you know like start up without a 17:18 mongoose game in the office 17:20 you know play with each other um give 17:23 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