Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / Do YOU Minecraft? [Why Minecraft Effects AUTISM]
Transcript
- 0:00Hey guys, in this podcast. I'm talking to Khan award from a
- 0:03Khan award YouTube channel. He's a good friend of mine that
- 0:07we've been friends for about I'd say good two years now.
- 0:09I'll maybe more so we both do advocacy Canada's awesome videos
- 0:15catered around autism stuff, but he also got a new channel out
- 0:18now on Minecraft and we wanted to talk about Minecraft and the
- 0:20autism community and what kind of doing with his channel on
- 0:23this podcast. I thought it'd be really fun for
- 0:25everybody to just kind of chill out and listen to something a
- 0:28bit different than my usual info video.
- 0:30So Connor, do you want to introduce yourself?
- 0:33Hello. I'm Connor you pretty much said
- 0:35everything there. I'm 21 years old.
- 0:37I got diagnosed with autism at the age of 18 autism spectrum
- 0:40disorder was my diagnosis. And yeah, I just I thought I
- 0:45would be the first one on the internet to make YouTube videos
- 0:48on autism and then I find this channel called the SP world.
- 0:51I'm like damn material. So yeah, I continued making
- 0:56videos and well, I've not stopped and now I've started
- 1:00venturing into Minecraft along at the same time, right?
- 1:03Yeah, so you found the the channel called the as we will
- 1:07then you said oh bugger. Yep.
- 1:09I thought it's videos were all right, you know, yeah, I don't I
- 1:13think is videos that excellent regardless of what a small
- 1:16minority group in the internet can say about it really and then
- 1:20well a few months later I got in touch with you didn't die
- 1:23because I wanted to use you in a talk that I was doing.
- 1:28Yeah, I think is that how we met.
- 1:29Yeah, is that You know, what's really funny?
- 1:32I actually emailed you on a first started making videos
- 1:35never got a reply. Yeah, you know for some reason
- 1:39my my emails people email me a lot I get a lot of emails is
- 1:44very difficult. So yeah, I experience it now.
- 1:46Yeah. Yeah.
- 1:47It's so you know exactly what I so I stuck a thousand I don't
- 1:49even want to only have like me 5,000 subscribers.
- 1:51I used to get thousands of emails a month.
- 1:53It was just nuts. I mean now which is crazy and
- 1:55thousands of thousands and I just can't deal with that's why
- 1:58I have like to have to contents. 10th managers Community managers
- 2:02and a strategist. So it's just crazy.
- 2:04So guns are gonna change for both of us.
- 2:06I'm listen since we met it has is crazy enough.
- 2:11I've liked it is crazy and having like people working with
- 2:14you and stuff. It's crazy.
- 2:16But yeah, it's amazing and I was something I was going to say
- 2:18some when I first met you your channel was obviously super too
- 2:23small you just starting out and and like a lot of people you you
- 2:28actually stuck with it. I'm stuck with it.
- 2:31And now what you have what your current subscriber count?
- 2:33I don't know. I like 3300 is something I don't
- 2:36know. Well, you know for a while but
- 2:40I've been like this all the way I long I've not really cared.
- 2:43Yeah, it's not yet. It's not like you've been
- 2:44putting like crazy hours until like marketing and SEO and
- 2:48buckle now. Yeah, well, which I respect
- 2:50people like you who do but yeah for me for me YouTube just
- 2:53always been a little hobby thing in the background.
- 2:56No and it's it's nice. It's nice to see it growing
- 2:58actually and I I see the same with India and he's another like
- 3:03Advocate YouTuber guy. He's a nice bloke as well.
- 3:06And we like Andy. Yeah, he's a good guy and and
- 3:09says who will be on this podcast soon as well and says we met
- 3:12says when we were in London, we kind of went from my book
- 3:15launch. Not much as before then, you
- 3:18know, I mean, but we were all the wrongs and please yeah.
- 3:22Oh wow, that seems ages ago. It was good fun.
- 3:26And yeah, I yeah, it was really good fun.
- 3:29So getting on with this podcast and that was a lovely
- 3:32introduction and the history of Dan and actually we've got one
- 3:37more bit of History which is quite important to this podcast.
- 3:40Well, of course done we've we've done many things together over
- 3:44the years now including urine a video of mine called we are
- 3:47autism. What was this podcast called
- 3:52don't talk? Yeah.
- 3:53Okay. So what?
- 3:54First I kind of asked me to be in this video called we are
- 3:57autism and it was about like it was everybody every doing a line
- 4:00from a poem that O'Connor wrote about autism when you first add
- 4:03up because yeah and it is fantastic video.
- 4:06Honestly, like anybody who hasn't seen it.
- 4:08Go check out Connor would we are autism it's amazing anyway, so
- 4:12then I was thinking about a name for this podcast when I
- 4:14initially started it months ago and then I came up with we are
- 4:17autism and marketed it got it all out and sink it into the you
- 4:20know the system and then Connor taxpayers of say like, dude.
- 4:24Yeah, I was I was a bit annoyed but at least we will you rang me
- 4:28straight away. Didn't you just say yeah, I did
- 4:30and I was like it was a genuine mistake.
- 4:32But at least now it's called the astral World podcast.
- 4:34Everything's fixed. Yeah, it's called the Oswalt was
- 4:37actually called Asperger's and autism number one podcast by the
- 4:40ask me world and what a name that is.
- 4:42Yeah, we're protect you it's crazy name, but it's the best.
- 4:45It's the most fitting them. So, you know when I could get
- 4:46those completely individual so it sticks out if that makes any
- 4:49sense. Oh, yeah, of course, it does.
- 4:50Yeah. So anyway, so let's go forward
- 4:53so that actually And that nice little dig therefore the name is
- 4:57she was no, it's all good. It was my mistake.
- 5:00And yeah, so what's your Minecraft Channel about then?
- 5:02What are you actually doing on there?
- 5:04So what's happened is I've I first started playing Minecraft
- 5:08in 2011. I went around to a friend of
- 5:10mine house at school and he was just like, oh I've got this game
- 5:13called Minecraft and and we built a rollercoaster on it.
- 5:17And that was it that was enough to sell me.
- 5:19So I went home that night and I was like mum, please going to
- 5:21buy Minecraft because of course Minecraft any like 18 quit or
- 5:24something. So it was it was like 18 went
- 5:27back there and I started playing it on there and everything was
- 5:30getting cool. And then they really Pocket
- 5:31Edition and Pocket Edition was like a really basic version of
- 5:35what happened on computer. This is on the idevice iOS
- 5:39device. Yeah.
- 5:39Yeah, but I like pocket device because of course it was on my
- 5:42phone. I can have it everywhere and
- 5:43also like my pattern stuff and over the years.
- 5:47Well, I started building things and I had this world on my Xbox
- 5:51because of course it was out on Xbox.
- 5:52Yes. I did own Minecraft on every
- 5:54single platform. Form and I've always been a fan
- 5:58of the Disney film Hercules. I've been a fan of Disney as a
- 6:00whole but I really I really love the like the mythology behind
- 6:04Hercules. And on this Xbox world.
- 6:06I have this world where I'd built ancient Greece and I built
- 6:08Mount Olympus and I built this big Temple and but that world
- 6:12also had Diagon Alley and it also had it had had a bit of
- 6:15Wales in it. It had Cardiff because that was
- 6:18based around Doctor Who haven't I seen that is this the one you
- 6:20shouldn't sent me the video of I don't know if you were listening
- 6:23this because What happened with this world?
- 6:26My Xbox got a raised it packed in so I hadn't had none of that.
- 6:31So I thought right. I'll go back to iOS.
- 6:33I'll go I'll play it on my Minecraft because and then it
- 6:35backs it up. So I bought I bought myself this
- 6:37little game controller. So it was like playing on the
- 6:39Xbox because that was always the problem with pocket edition.
- 6:42You have to touch the screen that was a nightmare and I
- 6:45started again. I started building this world.
- 6:48I recreated my ancient Greece, but then I wanted to build the
- 6:51Disney Castle. Naturally, I love Disney.
- 6:55So I thought you know what? I'm going to build it near
- 6:57Ancient Greece because ancient Greece was way out from
- 6:59everything else and I thought right why don't I build more
- 7:03Disney things around the castle and I started building a gray
- 7:06bar from Aladdin. And yeah, and and I'd be showing
- 7:10people these things that I've built and everyone's like, oh my
- 7:13God kind of why aren't you putting these anywhere like
- 7:16because this is the thing I don't do multiplayer.
- 7:18Don't do anything like that. This was literally my own thing.
- 7:21That was just my own little world to escape into To and this
- 7:23is just creative mode. It's not like survival mode.
- 7:26Yeah. Yeah, just creative mode.
- 7:27Even on Peaceful. I don't like anyone to well,
- 7:29we'll get onto that actually. But yeah, so I just created
- 7:33these Disney stuff and I thought I might as well share it but the
- 7:36world because well, I was encouraged by a friend of mine.
- 7:39Well, lots of people in total and yeah, just thought let's
- 7:43share the progress of how it develops because my aim is to
- 7:45get every single Disney film in there.
- 7:48I had to see that I seen this snippet that kind of sent me
- 7:51before you launch the The page and it was just phenomenal.
- 7:54Like it was just outrageous actually shown it as soon as to
- 7:58know me and my girlfriend Emily doesn't know and then I think it
- 8:01was somebody else's heart. I kind of know who because it's
- 8:03kind of odd that I think you know this but I did when I was
- 8:06doing my degree in chemistry, I did my dissertation on
- 8:08Minecraft. I made a teaching tool on it.
- 8:11So I was fascinated by any structure in Minecraft.
- 8:14I just love this so so is the idea that you're going to it's
- 8:18like it's Disney items created in Minecraft.
- 8:22What the channel is? Well, well, yes, but what I do
- 8:26this this Disney World, obviously, it is a Disney World.
- 8:29I call it the Disney verse because it's more than a theme
- 8:33park because when you go to each World, you've not got facades.
- 8:37You've got the entire building but there is the entertainment
- 8:40Factor there. So II do like do build
- 8:42rollercoasters and stuff and I'm a big fan of the musicals that
- 8:45does new do so I built like theaters in and I've got working
- 8:48shows. I don't know if you seen have
- 8:50you seen the working and I have yeah you Show me and that you
- 8:53used to like red brick or something to make different like
- 8:57stages appear in recitation Redstone.
- 9:00Sorry and it's not at this against a new listen to this.
- 9:03Now. I hear you have to check out
- 9:05Connors pages and real and I love Minecraft and I love seeing
- 9:09crazy structures in Minecraft. So common you did a fantastic
- 9:12job and it's Brick by Brick as well.
- 9:13You're not using any mods. You're literally Brick by Brick.
- 9:16I must admit I have started from commands.
- 9:18So, you know, I do the occasional fill this area, but
- 9:21that's it like know. No external programs.
- 9:24I like to look properly build and that's what I want.
- 9:26The video is to be I don't want them to be anything too.
- 9:29Like I don't want them to be too hard to watch.
- 9:31I just want them to be like sit back chilled.
- 9:33Just come play Minecraft with me.
- 9:35Awesome. Okay.
- 9:36So here's a question. So so gaming on YouTube is huge.
- 9:40Right? Yeah, I think gaming on YouTube
- 9:43is the most searched thing on YouTube I think is gaming.
- 9:47So what made you choose to do a channel on Minecraft and any
- 9:51other game? Well in all honesty since since
- 9:56starting to play Minecraft and 2011.
- 9:58I've not played many other games the problem came out as well.
- 10:02So all I can say I can look at my shelf.
- 10:06All I have purchased since 2011 is Lego Dimensions Lego
- 10:10Incredibles another Lego game, which I can't actually read from
- 10:14here. But yeah and Kingdom Hearts 3
- 10:17that has been it. Those are the only three games I
- 10:19purchased since play Minecraft apart from Kingdom Hearts the
- 10:23Three all these are two what they're super related to
- 10:26Minecraft. I mean like it was very similar.
- 10:28Yeah, of course. Yeah.
- 10:29Well, you know, that's my love for logo.
- 10:31It's the whole construction thing and all that what kingdom
- 10:35hearts kind of obviously build into what my world is because
- 10:38Kingdom Hearts is the collection of Disney Worlds, and that's
- 10:40what my channel is. Yeah.
- 10:42So it's literally everything that I love it.
- 10:43I love stuff like that and it's super cool and it was always
- 10:46intrigued because like I don't play many games these days.
- 10:48He's played a lot of games. I mean like a lot of games and I
- 10:52don't play games. Ames in years, I think the last
- 10:54I got really into playing iPad games like Grand Theft Auto and
- 10:58things like that on the iPad, but then it kind of just I don't
- 11:02know I had no time to play games because it takes over in like,
- 11:05you know running full-time YouTube channel that doesn't
- 11:07really give you much spare time between family life and trying
- 11:10to like, you know, live eat and stuff and take care of yourself.
- 11:12So no, I admire the fact that you cannot do this and I love
- 11:15it. Okay, cool.
- 11:17So here's a question. And this is the big one.
- 11:19I think so, why do you think why do you feel autistic people?
- 11:22Gravitate towards Minecraft. Well, it's a nice balance
- 11:27because I like a world where like them for me playing on
- 11:32Peaceful. It means that there's no
- 11:35external factors that affect anything, you know fair enough
- 11:38then maybe yeah, there may be there may be a dodgy update
- 11:42every now and again which can allow you not to play it.
- 11:44But ultimately whenever I play Minecraft I know exactly what's
- 11:48going to happen everything happens the way that I intended
- 11:51to happen. It's a word that can Escape to
- 11:54Witch has that that Comfort it has the security of knowing
- 11:58everything that will happen. You're not going to have any
- 12:00uncertainty in it. And I think that's one thing
- 12:03that a lot of people on the Spectrum will also feel from it.
- 12:06Well, no, definitely I think like that complete control and
- 12:09like that the ability to say. Okay.
- 12:11Well, this is my domain and I can control using it in nothing
- 12:14crazy. Nothing like the said there's no
- 12:16answer to your surprise is gone. And I love that and I'm to the
- 12:18fact that I think that a lot of people on the Spectrum and most
- 12:20people on the Spectrum gravitate towards gaming.
- 12:23Because it's this creative aspect of like passive
- 12:26education, I guess in a way and I find that.
- 12:29Yeah the other thing about gaming which I think is like
- 12:32pretty important for people in the on the Spectrum you go in to
- 12:35escape to a world and by you going in to escape the world,
- 12:40you're not any other like your autism's not holding you back at
- 12:44all from it. Everyone's on an equal Plateau,
- 12:47you know in some ways we're actually kind of more advanced
- 12:50to it because yeah because of the way your brain Yeah, and
- 12:53there are several traits of ours like the the way the logical
- 12:56side of things that allows for us to exceed definitely and
- 13:02another thing like just on the fact that why why Minecraft is
- 13:05popular for the autistic Community because it's suit like
- 13:09everybody like, I don't know. I don't know anybody who's
- 13:12autistic who doesn't really like Minecraft.
- 13:14I'm not saying every in the world who's autistic has a
- 13:16Minecraft game, but just end up most all my friends who are
- 13:18autistic. They're all like Minecraft nose,
- 13:20and I love it and one of the things Me, is that what I'm
- 13:24super old? So I grew up in the 90s and I
- 13:27always forget you're as old as you are.
- 13:29Thanks, Mom. But yeah, so I grew up playing
- 13:32Lego, you know, and yeah, the only the games comes why does it
- 13:36was the Nintendo and then obviously the Super Nintendo
- 13:38came out we had that but so we had like Mario the games you
- 13:41can't even save so that was like not very creative.
- 13:43But I love playing them but the Lego is everything.
- 13:45I had like a like a three foot tub of just Lego.
- 13:49I loved it and to me that transpose is directly into So
- 13:53I've been a lover of Lego since well, since I can't breathe, you
- 13:57know. Yeah and let's face it what you
- 14:00know follow my Lego collection has not slowed down since if
- 14:04anything, it's got more hasn't it?
- 14:05It's crazy. I don't know how you find the
- 14:07money to put onto like then again.
- 14:09I did buy a 1600 pounds skateboard, but but the money
- 14:13drinking I don't I don't go out partying.
- 14:16No spend 300 pounds on a Lego Disney Castle me.
- 14:19I seen it's an omiai cuz I see I was I I see that I'm like Got my
- 14:22Twitter and I was like, oh my God Khan has bought the castle.
- 14:26I Can't Believe It's Not castle for so long and the fact that
- 14:29like the thing is the reason I made the castle on Minecraft was
- 14:32because I couldn't afford it in Lego.
- 14:35So we all kind of links in it all links in actually.
- 14:38Yeah, and now it's all come full circle and have the castle in
- 14:41Lego and on Minecraft. You can't can't beat it.
- 14:44No, that's amazing. And I know I think you're not
- 14:47it's great. And I think you should stick
- 14:49out. It really do it because a lot of
- 14:50people appreciate great design on Minecraft and there's a lot
- 14:53of things that people don't do is they don't do Brick by Brick
- 14:55a lot these Grand Minecraft designers are just like these
- 14:57and mcedit and things like that. Yeah, and it's just not it's not
- 15:02Minecraft Brick by this is the things like currently I'm so I
- 15:06recently like last week I built Pride Rock and I built that
- 15:09Brick by Brick and people really saw the process of how that was
- 15:11done. But now I'm so yes, I have my
- 15:14Mount Olympus, but it was a bit rubbish.
- 15:16And now I'm making it look more like it does in the film
- 15:18Hercules. And of course Mount Olympus is
- 15:20such a big scale thing, and I'm going to Doing that Brick by
- 15:23Brick every single brick will be honestly like is phenomenal kind
- 15:28of unlike and that's another thing I think like that that's
- 15:30like talking about like the abilities of people on the
- 15:33Spectrum lot of people kind of brush past the fact all those
- 15:36playing games not think about a Connors do it.
- 15:38You know. Connor is creating a vast
- 15:41architectural structures Brick by Brick.
- 15:43This is crazy. Yeah this thing what I did
- 15:45Graphics and Design stuff in in in school and and part of my
- 15:49open University degree is designed so, you know, I should
- 15:52be quiet. Golden it, but whenever people
- 15:53look at the models, like one thing that you said to me when I
- 15:56showed you my I grab our Palace you were like what how did you
- 15:59figure out the dimensions for that?
- 16:01And I don't know. I just I just look at a 2D image
- 16:03and I can just I can just picture it in my mind.
- 16:06I can just I can just translate it into a three-dimensional
- 16:08thing and then I just like to make it real.
- 16:11I love that. I love and this is why I like I
- 16:13did that video on autism is superb is a superpower because
- 16:16I've got a similar experience with with chemistry where I was
- 16:20able to balance chemical equations.
- 16:23Just just in my head and I know I have to try out this lengthy
- 16:26table and balance equations and stuff, but I can bomb just
- 16:28simply looking at these they make sense to me and I and a lot
- 16:31of people like, whoa my God, it's not that difficult.
- 16:33But that costs like you're saying, you know, it's it's how
- 16:35your brain works. So we will have a little things
- 16:38built in don't way and we will have a little party tricks and
- 16:41search mine's just converting 2D images into a physical model.
- 16:45Yeah. That's awesome.
- 16:47Okay, so current will happen. Is that because we want to keep
- 16:49everybody on the edge of their seat for ages because I want to
- 16:51get off to your Channel, so as anything you'd like to say to
- 16:54this podcast before you go any plugs any like call to actions.
- 16:57Well, do you want the little exclusive that I told you about?
- 17:00Oh, yeah. Okay cool.
- 17:02Yeah, it was exclusive for the last four weeks out.
- 17:04So this channel is only been going for weeks.
- 17:05Now, I've uploaded five times a week.
- 17:08So Monday to Friday because of how I've done that I filmed two
- 17:11hours and then, you know 5 15 minute episodes, but I found
- 17:14that in doing that I can't really progress as much as I'd
- 17:19like to in a single episode. So I fill it almost to load back
- 17:22so from One there's only going to be three episodes a week.
- 17:25However, they're going to have more time going into them.
- 17:27I'd rather put more time into something to create a better
- 17:30experience than Rush 15 out. So this week I left it at 18.
- 17:34I wanted to make sure I left it in a multiple of 3, so going
- 17:37forward it. It makes sense.
- 17:39So yeah. So Monday Wednesday and Friday
- 17:42on the channel called Connor craft.
- 17:43I realized we haven't actually mentioned the name Connor.
- 17:45I know that man you can you can get to it's on my channel Khan
- 17:48award. But yeah Connor craft it should
- 17:50come up there Connor craft or Autumn and you can so you never
- 17:53can get you on Facebook and Facebook Twitter.
- 17:56I'm at Khan award UK on everything.
- 17:59Okay, dude. Well, thanks for being on the
- 18:01show and like hanging out and telling us all about that.
- 18:04And yeah, so anybody who wants to contribute towards this
- 18:06podcast in any kind of support go check out the patreon page
- 18:09which is patreon.com forward slash that ask me world all
- 18:12generous donations and little kind of advantages here at help
- 18:16move this podcast into the future and you also get
- 18:18something out of it. There's a secret podcast secret
- 18:20Vlog and other kind of cool down low.
- 18:22And stuff on the patreon page. So thanks everybody for
- 18:25listening Connor. Thanks been on the show.
- 18:26And yeah, I'll see you soon.