Role playing games in general

I've not played MUD (Multi User Dungeon) games myself but did play social AD&D (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons) games with real people about 15 years ago. There are at least two aspects which may, I think, be useful therapeutically. The first is: there is a set of rules, if you break them your character is likely to get killed! This 'teaches' the relevence of rules, however realistic or abstract, and the consequence of actions - which can then be generalised to real life. The other is dependent on how much the 'person' wants to play 'in character' in the game: there are character attributes like 'alignment' (good vs evil), 'lawfulness' (lawful vs chaotic) etc. These can be useful in exploring how someone feels about playing in a certain character. I think use of these 'games' could be very effective in helping someone to express and explore how they feel, and, in a more sneaky way, to reveal things about themselves that they are not willing to otherwise.

It could become a standard therapeutic tool in future (remember, I said it first, lol).

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