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General Accessible 3D First Person Games Questionnaire
The following questionnaire is regarding 3D first person games such as
Audio Quake, Shades of Doom and Monkey Business.
I would appreciate it if you could answer the following few questions.
They should only take a few minutes.
Thank You.
Name:
NIcol
Age:
28
1. What level of vision do you have from a rating of 1 to 5? 1 being
no vision at all and 5 being 20/20 vision.
1
2. Do you enjoy playing accessible games?
yes
3. If you answered yes to the last question, do you play accessible
games on a regular basis?
If yes, please state approximately how often.
yes on week days 2 hours per day; on weekends 5 to 8 hours per day
4. Have you ever played an accessible 3D First Person game?
If yes, please state witch.
yes monkey business and shades of doom
5. What do you think about the current accessible 3D first person
games out there? Is there certain things you would like changed to
improve their accessibility?
Please state the name of any games and the changes you would like to
see.
monkey business: I would like to see an improvement in the ledge level.
the only thing I would really liked to be changed, if my next step ahead
is going to cause me to fall to death my end key should tell me drop off
meaning I'm going to fall if I proceed 1 step ahead. At present, the
look keys delete end and page down doesn't mean anything to me on the
ledge level. It only says ledge all the time and sometimes it says
nothing; just making a blurp sound; that doesn't help me at all. The
instructions file of monkey business said: this game will ad a level of
excitement to your accessible gaming experience; the ledge level is
everything else than exciting. It's tressing me up because I'm falling
to death when I expect it the least. You can keep the layout of the
ledge level as it is, you must just give an indication with the end key
whether my next step, if I should proceed ahead 1 step, would cause me
to fall to death. If my next step won't cause me to fall to death then
it can say ledge meaning I can proceed ahead. If for example my end key
says: drop off then it still leaves a challenge in the game because
then I need to figure out how to turn my character so that I can again
proceed ahead and at the same time progress on the level. IN other words
if my page up key tells me 50 64 and my end key says drop off and I
turn my character till it says ledge so that I can proceed, then I must
also make sure that I'm moving for instance to 50 63 and not for
instance to 51 1. so I really just need an indication in the ledge
level if my next step will cause me to fall to death or not.
I also feel in monkey business there should be a way to collect health
points and extra lives. You can Still make a challenge to find it,
but at least allow the gamer to collect health and lives. For example
after collecting a certain amount of coins you earn health points or
an extra life.
6. Do you have surround sound speakers? If yes, please state whether
they are 4.1, 5.1 or higher.
no
7. Do you prefer to be able to load a game up via the command line or
via menus?
I prefer menus
8. Do you prefer messages in the game to be conveyed via speech or via
non-speech sound?
It depends: When I pick up a coin, the coin sound tells me I picked it
up so no speech message is required. But if I loose a life then I need a
message telling me so otherwise if I just hear a sound I'll be confused
if my arrow keys suddenly does nothing until the game starts again. If
it's a non speech message I would say; the sound must be descriptive
enough to inform me what's happening. My look functions should always
tell me in speech what's ahead, to the left or to the right of me.
that's the easiest way for me to know what's ahead of me.
9. Are you ok with having to learn the meanings of non-speech sounds
or do you just want to get into a game straight away?
When I played a game such as dark destroyer or tdl games' maze game
for the first time I had to learn the sounds to understand the game, but
with a game such as monkey business or shades of doom it was never
necessary for me to learn game sounds. For me, if a sound in the game
give out a clear message I know what to do; it's not necessary to learn
that sound beforehand, such as a mud border in front of something then
that mud border tells me there's something ahead. I don't have to know
how the mud border sounds like before entering the game environment. But
for example in the maze game if I don't know how the strength pill sound
sounds like I would never know it's a strength pill and I would not be
able to open doors. I know the maze game is not a 3d game but that's
just an example of a game where I have to learn game sounds beforehand.
Mb and sod is the only 3d games I know, with them I don't need to learn
game sounds.
10. Do you prefer games wich have lots of background sounds or do you
find them distracting?
I love background sounds, it gives more fun to the game. I should say: a
game must always have a feature to turn some background sounds such
as music softer if at times I can't manage in the game if they're too
loud. Like in shades of doom you can control the volume of the music or
turn it on or off. IN monkey business the extra sounds such as in the
jungle level never distracted me to proceed in the game.
11. What queues do you think should be included in a 3D first person
game to help you navigate and to comprehend your surroundings? E.g.
compass/sound of footsteps etc.
It's always important to have a look function describing what's ahead
of me, to the left of me and to the right for example if my end key
tells me drop off then I know one step ahead will cause me to fall to
death, drop off to the left of me but not ahead of me tells me I can
proceed at least 1 step.
12. If you were designing a 3D first person game, how would you go
about designing a 3D environment so that it was accessible to a blind
person?
I would design a 3d game that's in the daily environment like a kid
going to school, a man going to the office. If the kid goes to school
for example, I would say: there must be play ground where you move your
character. When there's a jungle gym you should then be able to press a
keystroke for your character to climb on. And another keystroke for your
character to slide down a slide. If the bell rings for class time and
you are still sticking around on the playground, you loose a life. If
the bell rings, you go into class. While the teacher is giving a lesson,
you jot notes down by typing it into the game. if lunch time comes, you
go to hostel. There must be certain keystrokes to navigate your knife
and fork around your plate to collect the food in the plate. Or
keystrokes to pack clothes into your cubbord. If a man goes to the
office and his phone rings, press an action key like spacebar to answer
the phone. Whatever the man at work is saying over the phone you type
it into the game. What the person on the other side of the phone is
saying, must be a voice heard in the game. I would say a feature that I
would add to 3 d games is talking. If someone talks to you in the game
environment, you should be able to talk back by typing. for example if
someone talks, immediately a text box should come up allowing you to
talk back by typing. After typing what you are saying and you press
enter, you should then hear your character speaks what you just now
typed. If you press escape the text box dialogue closes and the person
talking to you gets the message that you're ignoring him. I would really
say we need a 3d game giving the gamer an idea of the challenges facing
people in daily normal life such as a kid at school or a man at the
office.
---End of Questionaire---
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