Problem as I see it is this: There are blind individuals interested in gaming. I don't know how many people are subscribed and actually participate in this list, but I know that not all blind gamers are on this list. The point is, we actually do have a market, it's just small. Also, because of the sighted world's insatiable quest for bigger, better, and flashier graphics, we're kinda boring. Seriously, I've encountered people playing games that are just as repetitive as Pong...no offense to the classic, but seriously. The reason they played it was because it had superb graphics.
We have to compete with that? As I've said before, I've had several sighted friends interested in at least a couple of Audio games. Also, through sighted assistance, I've played mainstream games. It's just that nobody's gonna want to do the inverse, get blind assistance to learn to play audio games. The problem is that sighted people are so used to the mouse that remembering keyboard commands, even one-letter commands, is too much of a hassle, and mouse support for us is not good enough to be equal to that for sighted people...not by a long shot. Signed: Dakotah Rickard -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dark Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2008 07:43 To: Gamers Discussion list Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Out of the games dimension Indeed, there is more of it now, particularly around games like world of warcraft, ----- though interestingly enough if was the atari 2600 game berzerk in 1985 that caused the first gaming related fatality, after someone had a hart attack from playing the game without food or sleep for about 40 solid hours. I don't think it needs to be said again that audio games are several miles behind mainstream, but never catch up? that I'm not sure about. firstly, independent gaming is becoming a lot more common, and while small devs don't have the cash, in my experience they do on average tend to be much nicer than the large companies when it comes to accessibility, ---- John and 7-128 games, and Niels Bauer with the smugglers games, not to mention Matthew yarrows and Sryth are all good examples. I think there's going to be more of this in the future. Then, there's the age question. Most blind people are over the age of 60, where as most gamers are at the oldest about 40. Of course in both cases there are exceptions, but this is the rule. But when the generation who grew up in the 1970's start losing their site, they're going to want games to play, thus there will be more people interested in accessible games. i've made similar arguements to various book producers in the Uk about accessibility in Sf or fantasy titles, ----- though the Sf generation are those who grew up in the 60's with original Trek and Doctor who, but I think it equally applies to gaming. I had a conversation a while ago with some people from the society for the blind in Newzeeland, and brought up the subject of accessible computer games, but they weren't willing to go along with the idea sinse they thought of the blind people they were concerned with were fairly eldily and not likely to be interested in computers or computer games. this is imho one reason why there are more (though in comparison to mainstream games stil not many), games produced for people with motor impairments than visual ones, sinse there are plenty of people of the appropriate age to provide an audience for them. 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]
