I know that all too well. THe best and most ideal solution is also the least
possible and not merely for the reasons you outlined regarding the hardware
being closed to all but a few. It would take years to develop an accessible
game that would actually capture the mainstream media's attention and by
extention that of the mainstream gaming industry.
Homer: Hey, uh, could you go across the street and get me a slice of pizza?
Vender: No pizza. Only Khlav Kalash.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 07, 2009 10:42 AM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Visually impaired gamer sues Sony Online.
Hi Bryan,
That's just it though. A small time developer hasn't a chance of competing
with a multi million dollar mainstream game company for a number of
reasons. For one reason the major game platforms like the Play Station is
closed to everyone except a select few major players in the game industry.
Believe me I should know. I once looked into developing games for my Play
Station II, contacted Sony about how to go about it, and found out more
than I wanted to know. First of all it costs several thousand dollars to
license, obtain, and use the Play Station platform development kits. Then,
Sony has a certain specification all games must follow in order to qualify
for development on the platform. If they don't meet those specifications
and qualifications Sony will not allow you to release said game for their
platform. So they call all of the shots in terms of what games can and can
not even be released for the Play Station. Then, there are legal
documents, special non-disclosure agreements, etc up the butt to waid
through and sign. in short, after several thousand dollars, several months
of development, lots of paperwork and legal wrangling, Sony may review
your game and decide it doesn't meet specifications, and will not qualify
for official release until Sony decides to approve the title.
Basically, my point is that the Sony Play Station has never been designed
for the casual or small time game developer. You have to be a major
player, big game developer, to even afford the licenses and obtain the
development tools necessary to create a game for the Play Station in the
first place. Even then you have little say in the matter as Sony has to
approve your title, approve any changes that doesn't meet with current
specifications, etc. So if you want to add this or that which might make
the game more accessible but happens to violate their specifications the
game will not be accepted until that feature is removed. sucks doesn't it?
So in my own way I sympathize with this lawsuit. Sony has created an
impossible standard for a small time developer like myself, have shut us
out completely from developing on there platform, and adopted standards
and specifications that take absolutely no consideration for accessibility
features. Unless Sony decides to adopt accessibility the Play Station and
their games will remain as they currently are. Which either by accident or
design happens to be about the most accessible game console out there
right now if you want to work at it. Talk about irony.
Bryan Peterson wrote:
Let's face it people, mainstream accessibility is probably never going to
happen even though the technology is and probably has been there for a
lot of years. Or if it does it's going to take a small time developer
developing an accessible game so groundbreaking that the mainstream devs
can't help but take notice. And even should that happen, let's face it.
The dev or devs might still not be convinced. Or they'd try and find some
way to get the dev responsible for this groundbreaking title to cease any
future development, be it hush money or something else just so they
didn't have any competition. Not necessarily very realistic I'll admit
but who really knows what a big corporation will do these days if they
feel threatened? Even if the developer was not in violation of any
copyrights they might still take issue. And anyway they'd have to develop
said title for one of the major gaming platforms.
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