Hi Michael,
many thanks for such a comprehensive reply. Do you live in England by any chance? Cheers Mani > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:39:32 -0500 > Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Accessible Mainstream Games > > Hello Mani. I've been an intermittant listener of In Touch for years. A very > well-done show indeed. Your arrival on this list is most timely. Tom Ward > has just galvanised things with the release of his first public beta level > of Mysteries of the Ancients. That's woken the list up for certain. Che > Martin is another developer you'll definitely want to chat with. Quite a few > of the people currently developing accessible games either had sight or have > it. All of our developers have their own interesting stories. As the creator > and former editor of Audyssey Magazine, I got to know several of them over > the years. People get into this for the passion and interest in what they > do. We've certainly come a long way together since I published the first > issue in 96. Ron Schamerhorn's the current editor and has a somewhat better > grasp on the state of things these days. Life has pulled me in some > different directions but I still keep an ear on things and try to help where > I can. I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have about past > developments. > > You'll find quite a range of oppinion here concerning what constitutes an > accessible game. I'm happy to see that you've already gotten a few > responses. There are plenty more to be had as the debate is one of long > standing in this community. There is a stronger sense among sighted game > developers these days regarding the use of sound as more than window > dressing. That's going to eventually pay off for us but I don't believe > we're anywhere near that point yet. > > Personally, I'm from the old school which says that a game can only be > counted as accessible if blind people can truly play it as it was intended > to be played and have access to all information. They shouldn't be > handycapped in any way in terms of how far they can get with a game due to > being blind. Sight brings an incredible amount of information very rapidly > to a person. To be accessible, a great deal of thought must go into the > sound of a game as well as the interface. That means I don't view arcade > games designed for sighted people as technically accessible. We're just not > privy to all the information. Playing something via shere memorisation and > luck just doesn't count for me. Other people have fun doing that sort of > thing. There was a fellow who is now world famous due to his skill in > playing Mortal Combat.As a child, I used to be more in the "if I can have > fun with it, then it's accessible" camp. My father would take me to arcades > and we'd try to play the videogames together. He'd desperately try to > describe things as fast as possible and I'd be in charge of the controls. It > was certainly fun at the time and there was a good degree of cameradery. > However, when you take all the bells and whistles away, I was just following > my father's instructions as quickly as possible. I eventually tried a game > on my own and found out just how much of the experience I was missing as I > got obliterated due to having no idea of the game situation. When you > reduce a game to purely responding to sound cues and memorization, it stops > being at all the same kind of fun that sighted people enjoy. > > There are a number of tragic cases of games which are almost accessible and > could easily have been made so to the benefit of all players whether sighted > or blind. The most disappointing one during my editorship of Audyssey was > the North American version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The questions > were printed onto the screen rather than read out loud as they are in the > show and apparently in the UK version of the computer game. A very > disappointingly inaccessible Christmas present for our family. Other games > like the You Don't Know Jack series are again very close to being > accessible. In fact, for the earlier games in that series, nearly all of the > game was. There were some visual questions making reference to pictures > though. Also, there were the jack attacks which flashed up printed clues and > information which had to be matched. With some elements like that, it simply > can become impossible to accomodate. You could have a trivia game with > questions all read aloud and no visual questions but it wouldn't be You > Don't Know Jack. The same goes for such elements in many video games. We're > simply too small a market to be worth a company's while. That's the major > problem. > Michael Feir > Author of Personal Power: > How Accessible Computers Can Enhance Personal Life For Blind People > 2006-2008 > www.blind-planet.com/content/personal-power > > A Life of Word and Sound > 2003-2007 > http://www.blind-planet.com/content/life-word-and-sound > > Creator and former editor of Audyssey Magazine > 1996-2004 > Check out my blog at: > www.michaelfeir.blogspot.com > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Mani Djazmi" <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 11:11 AM > Subject: [Audyssey] Accessible Mainstream Games > > > > > > Hi, > > > > > > > > my name's Mani Djazmi and I'm a reporter on the In Touch programme at BBC > > Radio 4 in England. I'm currently researching a feature on the > > accessability of computer games for blind and partially sighted people. > > The impression I'm getting is that mainstream games generally aren't very > > accessible so bespoke ones are being produced. Is this fair? Do any of you > > guys play mainstream games and how do you find them? > > > > > > > > I look forward to hearing your thoughts and knowledge. > > > > > > > > Cheers > > > > Mani > > > > > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > > Check out the new and improved services from Windows Live. Learn more! > > http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/132630768/direct/01/ > > --- > > 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]. _________________________________________________________________ Check out the new and improved services from Windows Live. Learn more! http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/132630768/direct/01/ --- 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].
