Dark, I played with Telnet on Jaws, and I can assure you, it probably wasn't any better than Supernova:) It was a pain, I often missed things, and it was tricky. Using a client helped some by providing better alias control and some triggers, but essentially, I had something of the same experience, except there are more Jaws users on A.A. or were at the time, than anything else.
The problem is the same problem but with screen readers: everyone assumes that people use whatever the most popular or what they think is the best screen reader is:) Also too, again, not everyone uses either their own or multiple screen readers well. I have no idea how to help someone on a different screen reader, and beyond a certain point I have to look up things in a Jaws manual or ask someone more knowledgeable to perform advanced functions with Jaws. As to the introductory text argument. I learned to play Alter, and learned to play it well because I read help pages while I regenned and made extensive use of the help -random feature. However, you and I are in the minority in reading text beyond a certain point. The reason web sites break text into such small chunks is that (pardon me while I display a bias against the handicapped) sighted people are growing unable to read large blocks of text. Blind people are beginning to display this trend more as well. I help out on the newbie channel on Alter Aeon and help out catching questions on other high traffic channels. At least 50% and probably a much higher percentage of questions that get asked could be answered by the askers if they only read carefully. I'm not saying all this to say a disclaimer wouldn't be in order, but I doubt if it would really be effective at combatting the trend at all. When I started playing Alter, I did so because I had played interactive fiction for years, and found Alter on the Audyssey list. I wanted something text based. The kids now playing Alter have grown up in a market where sound is the primary distributor of information, not text, and they want sound. Dennis in choosing to make mush-z the primary way to getting blind players into the game has recognized not only the popularity of the client and its sound pack, but by choosing a main method of connecting blind players that he has helped work on, he has a better control over helping out new players. Not all the admin staff on Alter, nor the player base that help out with questions, know mush well, but if an admin, avatar, or newbie helper knows a person is using mush, there's a channel for questions about mush where we can direct them, and there's usually people online who use it, that we can tap for information. I regret the dying of the text game too, but I don't think it can be reversed by a disclaimer. Take care, Jeremy --- 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].
