Re: considering selling our audiogames via steam
I know I'm a little late to the discussion here, but I want to argue in favour of steam. Contrary to popular belief, Steam is functional, if partially, with NVDA. It just takes patience, which I will say bluntly, doesn't seem to be forthcoming with certain people. I will attempt to address some of the issues listed above, but forgive me if I miss anything.
@Dark
You stated in your first post on this discussion that "people have used ocr and screen guess work and obscure Nvda addons and god knows what else". I know you go on to state that sighted people don't have to expend "that much effort" and in doing so I will acknowledge that you are quite correct. However, I notice flaws in your and other people's arguments that I will address here.
The first flaw I want to bring up is the fact that I have never, in the time I've used Steam, had to use any "obscure NVDA addons" or "OCR& quot;. In fact, you don't have to modify NVDA at all to use Steam, it's Steam that needs modification (in the sense that you only need sighted help for disabling what I considered to be a far too overprotective security system called Steam Guard.) Once the account is set up and the security system/captcha's solved where necessary, the steam system is pretty much totally usable. Game invites, downloading, removing, adjusting launch options etc are all possible and easy enough to get going.
@Ironcross32
Although I know your post is one of opinion - clearly identifyable in your use of the words "the most inaccessible client I know of", I am not surewhether you've looked at the steam or the skullgirls guides. This is because they pretty much disprove the theory that you have to have any vision at all to use steam.
@daigonite
Whilst I greatly admire your perseverence with Steam and screen reader usage, especially consi
dering your sighted background as well, Steam does require the use of flat review to get it to work with NVDA. Once you get flat review as a concept it's not too hard, but it can be a little tricky at first.
@everyone
Whilst I acknowledge that it can be difficult for a lot of people on here to use Steam for whatever reason, I also think that, if tackled in the right way, it could become a more viable distribution platform than Guide Dog Games. Whilst I'm really not a fan of the name (at least at present), I understand that the concept is the same. However, AVG (which I refuse to uninstall due to me having no knowledge of a better alternative at this point in time) has had no end of problems with the client. Steam, however, causes no such issue and consequently works 99.9% of the time. If there is a problem, it's rarely, if ever due to the distribution platform, but normally (for me at least) due to my internet connection at the
time of launch.
Additionally, Steam does have an offline mode, unlike it's smaller, currently blind-centric competitor. This means that if ever I want to play Mortal Kombat, Skullgirls or any other game of my choosing on the go or without an internet connection, I can do so. That in addition to it supporting Pay Pal makes it a clear front runner at the current moment.
I know GDG is currently in the process of trying to get off the ground as well, so I am aware of the fact that these quibbles may be ironed out in the future. As a result, I won't rule out the relative underdog completely, but will say that I believe it'll be some time before it comes up to Steam in level of functionality and ease of use.
I cannot currently speak for whether the voting system and the greenlighting strategies employed by Valve are as difficult to work with as you say, but I understand that it could present a problem.
I will conclude this post by saying that whilst I appreciate what has been said and why it has been said, in what capacity I can, I also believe that Steam could be a viable distribution mechanism for those who can and choose to use it.
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