Right right. I agree that accessible games need a place, and that place should be ... of course, web based. I argue, though, that Audyssey's function is to do that. Audiogames.net filled a niche that Audyssey didn't because, and no offense Audyssey guys, Audyssey sort of dropped the ball, Lost steam, whatever. But now, Audyssey is seeing new life, so we can move all the audio games stuff to Audyssey and make Audiogames.net a place to go for industrial leaders for information on audiogames and game audio. How neat it would be to get the Game Audio Institute involved. They just might care enough, and right now, game audio is a big, big field in games. I want to see the accessible games supported, as I said, I just don't know that that support ought to come at the expense of industry-wide information which is going to include our games. I mean look at it this way. It's been often written on this list and others that we don't have features because developers don't care to incorporate them. Well, some developers are making their games, or parts of their games, accessible by accident. There's a part of a game called Mass Effect 2, the planet scanning section, which I can play because there are audio cues. I think that Mass Effect 2 therefore deserves a section in the forums of Audiogames.net, even if it isn't given a place in the database.
And there's another thing. We keep going back to this, and I feel it's my fault for not making things clear enough. I mean, I know I'm not very good at that some times, so here's another try. If accessible games whose primary method of play is a screen reader or SAPI and not audio cues are going to remain on Audiogames.net, that could turn out just fine, even if bigger concerns got interested, but if they're interested, then it seems to me that they need to get a good overview of Audiogames, simply by going to the site. If you go to the site, you see the news feed, then you see a huge list of many, many games. I argue that all of those games should be stand-alone audio games (standalone meaning not a mud with a soundpack or a text adventure that would be essentially unplayable without a screen reader, or a browser game of similar styling.) I say this because the search function could include all of those things, if you wanted, but you shouldn't have to go to the extra work to find Audiogames on Audiogames.net. You should have to go to the extra work to find soundpacks for muds, mods for games, and accdessible text adventures, because they are slightly unrelated side categories. I understand that this would be a major overhaul, and frankly I don't see it ever happening. Not only is everyone relatively set in their ways, both in our own community and the world at large, even though you, Dark, put up most of the updates, you probably can't just make a major site decision like that. Still, even if it doesn't happen on Audiogames.net, maybe someone will take this point and run with it. I can't afford to buy and host a domain right now, or I'd try to do it, as is my eventual goal, but maybe someone can, and if they can, then I'll help them as I can. Right now, sighted folks are making tentative progress in improving game audio. Eventually, there wouldn't need to be an "Accessible games" idea for games, if we could make it common practice to add accessibility features into mainstream products. I'm not saying in two years, or even in five, or ten. But eventually, if we play our cards right, if we work together, if we stop demanding and start asking and showing how things can be done, if we invite them into our world rather than trying to change theirs, then maybe we can make a huge, huge difference. It's idealistic, and maybe changing Audiogames.net wouldn't accomplish this. Certainly registering our games on Indie development sites would also be a step in the right direction, as Dark recommended. Maybe even if we miss one step, the others will catch the sighted world up. My primary goal here is to provide food for thought, and I ope your brains have left this message, this topic, full of good ideas. Signed: Dakotah Rickard On 4/18/13, dark <[email protected]> wrote: > I agree Decota there is indeed a difference betwene audio and accessible > games, but I do not agree that difference is as easily quantified as you > suggest, since to me something like alteraeon with the soundpack, lone wolf, > > king of dragon pass or smugglers because! they feature sound and spoken > feedback, whether that is sapi or by your screen reader are still at least > partly audio games. > > this is however to me still quite legitimate, since it is still possible for > > people using the catagorization system on audiogames.net to separate audio > games from textual ones, or even those that involve! text quite easily by > using the search function, since such catagorization information is added > when i create entries. > > Equally, remember that if we were just! talking about games played through > sound there are actually not a few inaccessible audio games. For example > games that use an audio feedback but feature a graphical main user interface > > such as vib ribbon on the playstation, zombies scream on the iPhone, and > indeed all the rythm action games such as guitar heroes, rockband etc. > > such games feature sound as their main gameplay component, but their main > interface and kews are entirely graphical. This makes them inaccessible > (albeit some blind people have had success playing them by trial and > error). > > while I do very much take your point, and in fact agree, it sstrikes me your > > idea of excluding audiogaems.net to just! audio games only and removing all > > of the spoonbill games and anything else with text wouldn't work, > particularly since as I said, there are still! audio games that are not > accessible. > > i'd recommend myself a different approach, by having indi developers of > audio games register on the same sights such as gamehippo which other > developers of graphical games use. So that for example when a person looked > > up indi developed fps games, they'd run across swamp and shades of doom > beside all the graphical ones. That would strike me as a much more > legitimate way of achieving the end of not! making audio games exclusive to > > blind people, but also preserve the access aspect. > > I do! think accessible games need their own site and promotion, simply > because there is no where else on the net that will do it, but that doesn't > > stop people from going out into other gaming situations and promoting audio > > games elsehwere either. > > Beware the Grue! > > Dark. > > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > [email protected]. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to [email protected]. > --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
