Yes, Shaun, it's true. Mainstream games are always designed for players with a standard set of abilities and it might stay that way. But what's the problem here? Many researchers assort and disseminate game accessibility guidelines. But the problem here is not that industry don't want to follow guidelines. Developers have no ways to accomodate different needs without severely limiting the gameplay.
There's universal accessibility in architecture and technology, but when it comes to games, it seems something utopian. Because it's not just about transmiting the information, it's about engaging different players with different abilities and needs. I'm beginning my Master's and all the research work I have planned is about inclusive gaming. This is a preliminary phase, in which I'm reaching the blind and low vision community. We have many ideas to explore. I expect I can show you something soon that will give you hope regarding inclusive gaming. David G -------- Mensagem original -------- Assunto: Re: [blind-gamers] Games for everyone De: Shaun Everiss Para: [email protected] CC: I actually agree here. While a lot of blind people do dabble with video games, some more successfully than others for me, I play text games and audio. Due to my timezone to actually play any online game for any measurable length of time is impossible unless I have a blank day. Most of my days are full of something in the morning which means I can't stay up all night to play as I once did. Most games are sound based. The sighted are not interested in blind games without graphics as a rule and while smart devices have more inclusive hybrid type games, and while we can play some on consoles and some emulators there are still scarse hybrid games on windows with exceptions of a few experiments like the blind eye, long ded, teraformers which is no longer in development and a few others. Visual novels made with renpy to some extent can be accessible, so are games like sequence storm and code7. Some even have had some success with fligh simulator but for windows unless you use steam which can be hit and miss, there are vary few games we can play with our sighted peers and while we have a few, most of these are not online at all. Even with the audio and text game industry its not huge, it started with a hiss and a raw but its slowed down a lot, some bits either do not exist or are basically stopped. You can do only so much with sound after all and there are no mainstream games per say for us right now. It would be good for inclusive games on a grand scale but its unlikely to happen, and while I'd never say never it may take a while, before it happens if it ever does. In fact its my view, that probably all the issues with blind people in general may be solved before we even get this mainstream issue with games handled to a satisfactory level but then I may be off my rocker. I do know that its likely I won't live to see that change though. Then I may be wrong. If the industry wants to move it can. I have seen the net as a whole move from dialup to fibre in 10 or so years, I have seen books and music, tv and streaming services take over pirated content and standard tv. Now if we could push some of this energy to games and other things like security programs and software, and a few things like that maybe we will see things appear. This aint saying its not appearing but games move slowly, so slow you can't see things move. On 22/12/2019 1:51 am, Luke Hewitt wrote: Hi. I'm looking at the survey, but one question I have, is what do you mean exactly by "video games" here. Most gaming I do is either via audio or text games, especially online gaming. I do play standard graphical games occasionally on older devices with games that are still visually simplistic enough for me to handle, with limited vision, but these are mostly on older consoles like my Snes or retro remakes, so there is no online component, plus I don't play these half as often as audio or textual games these days. So, before I complete the survey, I'd please like a little qualification on what you mean by "video games" here, since some people use "video games" to simply refer to games with graphics, where as some people refer to all computer games, be they text, audio or whatever as video games. I would also suggest you make it clear on the survey exactly what sort of games your talking about as well, otherwise you could end up with erroneous data. All the best, Dark. On 20/12/2019 17:46, David Gonçalves wrote: Greetings, I’m David, a new member of the group. I hope that you are all doing ok! I'm a researcher and developer from Lisbon, Portugal and I'm currently working with the blind and low vision community to create games that can be enjoyable for players with different levels of vision, for instance games that can be played and enjoyed by the whole family and mixed-ability groups of friends. Maybe you can help me. I’m asking volunteers aged 18 or older to answer some online questions. If you’re blind or have low vision and you like to play games (videogames or tabletop games) you can help me, answering the following short Microsoft Form questionnaire: https://bit.ly/2r3XZKJ<https://bit.ly/2r3XZKJ?fbclid=IwAR2bcMsSEoqhHaRMD9azZSVoHO-qbivxUGqQrSxert11lXg2pa5u4SgkLPs>. If you’re sighted and you have a close relationship with someone blind or with low vision who likes to play, you can also help me by filling this second questionnaire: https://bit.ly/2PBBPJv<https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F2PBBPJv%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR28HWE_qWMKgK1jy-dsMTgMsN3yCP2POBsgjDba_u2hLZc0NEz9cLcSr0Y&h=AT2QLGqjPrO5VkqQnG2ggCd4y6rDfnQT056fkg04Q1A7ataImWdg_goY3B3Pix3OhnUokWDaMXuTSTF87HcadTbTbesXOIz8Kqjf_OlZ7Zg7wQNS975L5m2VaExEpu0fsGvcA6V9QIqZXYZltEUYqzh4LLQiFPn8VA>. If you're blind or have low vision, you can further help, sharing this second survey with your sighted friends. Counting on you! Games must be for everyone! If you're interested and want to know more, you can message me. Many thanks and best regards! David G -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#121485): https://groups.io/g/blind-gamers/message/121485 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/69213173/21656 Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/blind-gamers/leave/607459/1071380848/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
