Damien and others,
I know I'm behind on this. I tend to skip over a lot of posts depending
on subject, but a conversation or two over the last few days got me
thinking about this.
First thing's first. The reason the game you mentioned said 6:00 is that
many people refer to directions using the face of a clock. Not a digital
one that flashes numbers, but an analog clock that has an hour and
minute hand that goes around a circle. Without going into a lot of
detail that will probably just confuse you, no insult at all intended
there, saying an enemy is at 6:00 probably means behind you.
I wanted to touch on the more generalized concept of spatial awareness,
however. Many, though not all, audio games use spatial awareness as a
foundation of playing the game. It wasn't until more recently that I
realized this isn't always practical for some. In the past, the people I
had run into who had poor spatial concepts or skills also had other
cognitive issues and I suppose, without even realizing it, I lumped the
two together in my mind.
I'm one of those who have always had decent spatial awareness, or mental
mapping as Damien said. In fact, I used the term mental mapping before I
knew a more correct term. I've always thought the reason I could do this
so well had to do with having a little sight when I was younger, thus
helping my brain to develop decently in that area. But really, when I
map something in my head, it's more like picturing a miniature version
of the space as I understand it. For example, I can sit here on my bed
in the bedroom and picture the entire layout of this apartment,
including where furniture and other large items are. I can even picture
the basic layout of a house I lived in over 15 years ago, and using that
mentally plan how I could get from any one point to any second point, in
either place.
Anyway, I've recently been talking to someone I now consider a good
friend, and this person struggles a lot with any kind of spatial
awareness. Their general intelligence, though, is totally fine, with no
other cognitive difficulties that I'm aware of. Likewise, reading
Damien's message here, I don't see any hint of cognitive delays and that
just confirms to me that I need to very much rethink that subconscious
connection my mind has made. Unfortunately, this is common in the blind
community. If a blind person isn't out walking everywhere, taking public
transit all the time etc, they tend to be seen as either dumb or lazy.
If a person admits they can't figure out on their own how to get to a
place two blocks away, they're often met with shocked disapproval or
worse. I mentioned to this friend that the house I used to live in had a
very large, wide open kitchen as the center of the house and they just
groaned. In fact, a different friend who sadly has since passed who had
similar struggles and would get utterly disoriented in that kitchen. She
could be standing by the fridge, and no matter how many times we had
shown her before, could not figure out how to get to a bedroom that was
probably 10 or 15 feet away. Looking back now, my then roommate and I
could have handled that situation very differently and more gracefully.
We just could not understand why she wasn't getting it.
The fact is, for whatever reason, there are those who, in addition to or
because of blindness, literally don't have the mental ability to
understand spatial concepts. It's not that they don't want to, or that
they just haven't been taught right, but their brain quite literally
can't process that kind of information. I think there might be some
connection between that and never having sight, but it also seems to be
a lot more complicated than that with certain eye conditions playing a
part. The best parallel I can think of us for those of us who have no
memory of sight, having someone try to explain colors to us. We can
memorize certain things, red is hot for example, but our brains don't
have the ability to bring what that color looks like into our minds
because there's no concept of vision or varying colors to build on.
This sounds very similar to what you're dealing with Damien. I would
never discourage attempting to learn, and if you can find a way that
works for you, that is totally awesome. If you can't, though, please
don't think that it means you are stupid or any other negative thing. It
could simply be that your brain isn't wired to be able to process
spatial concepts for whatever reason, and you should stick with whatever
methods work for you.
For those of us who do have that kind of spatial awareness, I really
hope we can all be understanding and not wave off these types of
limitations as stupidity or laziness or anything of the sort. I'm
talking to myself here too. As for those that find these 3d or 2d audio
games overwhelming and confusing, I hope you can find others that work
for you. Side scrollers come to mind, as those generally only have
forward and backward, sometimes up and down. This entire thing has me
pondering ideas for emersive audio games with excellent storylines that
don't require the ability to navigate as a primary skill for gameplay.
Christy
On 7/27/2020 1:15 PM, Damien Garwood wrote:
Hi,
This will be quite a long message, because I'm starting to realise
just how complicated spatial awareness can actually be.
This is a thing I've been struggling with for years. I only managed A
Hero's Call because following a beacon is like playing a reflex game.
It says north, you turn around until it says north. Even then though,
someone had to tell me that. I have no real understanding as to what
that means or where I'm going. In fact, during times when you can't
rely on beacons to get you places (like the goblin campsites and so
on), someone actually had to do that for me!
As for Tank Commander, if it weren't for Raul's playthrough, I would
have never beaten it.
Same in the real world, I always struggled with mobility. When I
learned a route it was a case of remembering a set of instructions.
That's why I often call it the "Bop-it dance" or the "Robot's dance".
Think about it...Walk 20, turn right, walk 10...Just a glorified
algorithm.
If someone tells me to try and do the route in reverse, I wouldn't
have a clue.
You tell me to turn right, and I can do it. You ask me what's to the
left of me, or what direction are the stairs from my front door, I'd
have no idea, without physically going there. When my mum used to tell
me to get out of the car and walk round the back, I wouldn't know what
direction that was, because once I'm out of the car my direction has
changed. And then there's the big one. If cars are moving forwards
then why do they pan left to right? Or, if I'm sat in a vehicle that's
reversing, why does it feel like it's moving forwards? What am I told?
Surprise surprise, it's to do with directions again. And they all have
one thing in common - it's the direction your facing.
I always thought that, although I could move in a given direction, I
always struggled when I faced a different direction to what I'm used to.
My mum disagrees, and puts it like this: I don't have any "mental
mapping skills". Thinking about it, I guess I can say that's accurate.
I never know where I am relative to other things, or where they are
relative to me (Unless of course I can reach out and physically touch
it).
I guess that's why I wasn't taught other forms of navigation. compass
directions are just a series of meaningless words to me. All I know is
that the compass has something to do with the sun.
And don't even get me started on the clockface...When I tried 3d
Velocity and it told me there was an enemy at 06:00, I actually went
looking in the manual for a way to check the gametime! Of course
there's nothing in there, then someone corrected me and said, no, it's
referencing direction, not time. As far as I know, I hit a button on
my clock or computer and it tells me the time. What on earth has that
got to do with directions? I guess the only thing I can think of is
that they say the past is behind you and the future is in
front...Headache tablets anyone?
I've also seen things like turning to 90 or 160 (they just sound like
arbitrary numbers to me). Eurofly deals with latitude longitude and
altitude. There just seems to be so much to consider with space.
I'd just say give me an x and a y coordinate. But then I've seen that
in different ways (0 0 being bottom left in some cases, and top left
in others, and then someone told me that could also refer to the
centre under some circumstances as well). Also I've had disputes in
the past as to whether the Y coordinate represents forwards and
backwards, or up and down. I always thought z was up and down, but
they'd argue that when you're talking 2d, y is up and down. But I
thought if you're working with 2d, you're talking about something
that's flat (unless of course you're playing BK3!)
Then, as if that wasn't enough, even my certainty about up and down
came into question a few months ago when I learned that the world was
just a big ball. In that case, people on the other side of the ball
would say that their up was our down...And then they told me the earth
is spinning, so our directions are always changing anyway...Sheesh!
Thank goodness we don't have that level of complexity in games!
Honestly. Sometimes I think I ought to have a physics degree if I'm
going to understand all this! And there was me thinking that spatial
awareness was meant to be a basic skill.
As it is, I'm determined to learn this. I've gone six or seven years
without any mobility training now because I just can't get my head
around it. Now I'm trying again, and I thought that if I can
understand how these games work, maybe it will improve my mental
mapping skills and thus my mobility training, and stop everyone
getting impatient with me and telling me what an idiot or slow learner
I am.
Cheers,
Damien.
On 27/07/2020 04:08 pm, Luke Hewitt wrote:
I've found myself, that practicing has actually improved my ability
to navigate in games.
When I started with shades of doom and gma tank commander, I was
having trouble, and it wasn't until I thought out the physical
spacial awareness test myself that I managed to get my head around
the idea, since my own comprehension of space is actually pretty crappy.
What I do do though, both in games and rl, is to use landmarks as
guides, sound sources, smells, and working out what direction I have
to go from such and such is often a good way around.
A hero's call I can't speak about as I've yet to get into that game,
but I know in shades of doom, using the sound sources of the
corridors and many of the tools already provided like coordinates and
the reminders of where I've gone before, helped considerably.
All the best,
Dark.
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