🫣 Meeting new people can be scary. That's why online gaming communities are a great way to start if you have Level 1 Social Skills and want to farm some XP! 👾

In this episode, I bring back Kaylee Lopez, an anthropologist who writes about gaming and game communities. We discussed why communities are important and how you can use them to level up your social skills IRL 💬

🏰 From self-esteem to safety, communities can serve many different purposes. Fortunately, whether they're online or in-person doesn't dramatically change the impact they can have on you. Having a group of people who want to be with you and support you can help you become more secure in yourself and with others 😎

🖥️ You can use online social spaces to try new social skills that you're too afraid to test in the real world. By giving your avatar the behaviours you'd like to have yourself, you can safely test what it would feel like to be someone different 🦸 Someone you want to be 🫅

You'll even get to see how people react, and how you can react to those reactions (and so on) 🤩 After rinsing and repeating, you'll start incorporating those characteristics into your real life. There are forms of therapy (including TTRPGs) that are based on this model. The fact that it's not "the real you" is irrelevant. You'll still grow and develop into the person you want to become 🙌

As time goes by and you start feeling more confident both in your skills and with the people in your community, you can go from text-based interactions to audio, video, and maybe even in-person meetings! 🤗

🫡 So what are you waiting for? Are you going to accept this new Quest? 🙂‍↕️

🎧 Listen now and start leveling up your social skills online! 🦾

👾 FREE GUIDE: WHERE NERDS REALLY MEET THEIR PLAYER 2 🕹️

Based on hundreds of surveys of nerd couples and singles. Download it at https://datelikeanerd.com/reality

📱 Have questions? Join me on Discord! https://www.datelikeanerd.com/discord

Related Episodes:

• Find Love Through Online Games, with Kaylee Lopez
• The Tolkien Association: Where to Meet Nerds, with Vir
• Gamify Your Dating Anxiety, with Michael Berger
• Find Your Nerd Community: Where to Meet Nerds, with Jose
• The Twitch Streamer on Discord, the Nerd Love Story of Luna and Jason
• Beat the Fear of Rejection Through Your Gamer’s Journey, with Dr. Daniel Kaufmann
• IRL Lessons from Video Games, with Dr. Daniel Kaufmann
• Dating In The Tolkien Association, with Jose
• How to Make Nerd Friends, with Pete “Belmont”

Timestamps for lazy nerds:

• 00:00:00 Intro
• 00:01:19 The Value Of Communities
• 00:03:46 Becoming Secure Through Communities
• 00:06:09 IRL vs Online Communities
• 00:08:09 How to Meet People in Online Games
• 00:10:35 Developing Social Skills
• 00:13:19 Who You Want To Be
• 00:15:00 Staying Safe
• 00:21:05 Contact

Contact:
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