Hi, Well said, Charles. Also see my recent post about Microsoft and game accessibility...
Please be aware that the gaming landscape is changing and the game industry isn't what is was 2 years ago. The E3 is downsizing, game companies are *losing* millions, games are getting smaller instead of bigger (for example: episodic games, casual games) due to money issues, 'precedural' coding/game development and player-content-creation is getting bigger and bigger - again due to money issues (Spore is a great example), the urge to innovate has never been bigger since "the standard gamer" isn't the 29 year old 1st shooter gamer anymore and the market is too satitated with the same games, serious games (the political, educational, medical, etc. application of games) is getting huge, ludology and game studies are gaining more and more ground, gamers are getting older and older (and with that come more disabilities), etc. etc. So please be aware of these developments when making up your opinion that the accessibility of computer games is not an issue. And here is one very important point: With all the developments stated above, games continue to spread to new types of (old) media. Like you said, internet is one and I fully agree with your fear about text-based games eventually being replaced with multimedia-based games. Another medium is digital television, where you can now also play games. It so happens that several countries have firm laws about accessibility concerning these types of 'older' media like television. For instance in Great Brittain, there is a clear law that says that digital television *has* to be fully accessible for everyone (also see: http://www.digitaltelevision.gov.uk/dtvbenefits/accessibility.html). Which means that every public digital service broadcast channel must make their services accessible to everyone, including their games! Although there is always a factor of 'reasonably accessible', it can very well happen that if 100 blind people complain about a certain digital television game not being accessible, they can sue and actually have a case and win. And that's why the accessibility of digital television is currently a very interesting development to follow. And if for instance a government product such as a campaign of some sort includes an inaccessible online webgame, most countries have web accessibility laws that make it possible to sue the government (or actually the company that sold the game to the government) as well (also see: http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060428/buscaglia_01.shtml). Greets, Richard http://www.audiogames.net ----- Original Message ----- From: "Charles Rivard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Gamers Discussion list" <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2006 6:05 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Gaming Section Live! > Think of it like a lottery. A slogan is used to get people in Arizona to > play the lottery that would apply quite well here. > > "You can't win if you don't play." > > I think that his reviews should be sent, and we should try to look at it > possitively. They won't make modifications if no interest is shown. If > they do make such modifications, and it actually pays off for them, there > ya > go! If it doesn't pay off and they don't show further interest, at least > an > effort was made. > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "ari" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "Gamers Discussion list" <[email protected]> > Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2006 1:20 AM > Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Gaming Section Live! _______________________________________________ Gamers mailing list .. [email protected] To unsubscribe send E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can visit http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org to make any subscription changes via the web.
