I wish I could help in any way possible... -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Thomas Ward Sent: 30 November 2010 19:34 To: Gamers Discussion list Subject: [Audyssey] Mainstream Access was Bavisoft
Hi Dark, Yeah, I know. To be honest I'm just about fed up with talking to and listening to mainstream game companies for that reason. Although, I'm very aware of copyright laws I'm pretty much ready to say if I want to play Super Mario Brothers, a Star Wars game, etc just go ahead and write the thing and say to heck with copyright laws. After all Nintendo, Lucas Arts, won't pay attention to us now, and the only thing that actually gets their attention is copyright infringement. So bring it on. What's the wworst they can do besides fining me and getting a judge to make me stop production of said game/games? I'm willing to bet that they wouldn't be too willing to drag such a case through the courts. Yeah, on the surface it might seam like a simple case of copyright infringement, but if they do that to me I can turn around and counter sue the company over civil rights violations. It is the kind of explosive case that would get plenty of media attention, negative publicity for them, and since it is a civil rights issue could go all the way to the Supreme Court. Most companies don't want to bring that kind of negative media attention upon themselves. "Today, Nintendo sued a blind developer for creating free clones of Nintendo's classic arcade games such as Mario and Megaman for fellow blind PC gamers. According to Mr. Ward he wrote the games because the games are currently not accessible in a blind friendly format, and he repeatedly tried to contact the company over access issues but got stone walled. He says he plans to counter sue Nintendo over civil rights violations, and take it to the Supreme Court if necessary." Great. I'm not sure such a news paper article or new broadcast would help the company's image. Its that kind of negative publicity that has them wanting to cover their butts, because it will make them look like jurks and smear the company's name. Although, I'm not sure that kind of negative publicity would effect most gamers though. I remember the recent court case where a blind kid sued a major game company and the opinions on Game Spot, Game Facts, etc were pretty negative towards the blind guy. They were in fact downright hostile about the whole situation as they felt that blind people don't need to play games, that we shouldn't demand access, and we should go make our own games or something. I have no idea if the general public shares this view, but it is really a civil rights issue, and one that needs to be addressed. Either they make the gmaes accessible or the allow third-paryt developers like myself to create accessible versions for limited distribution for blind gamers. Thing is I'm all for a diplomatic solution. I'd love to sit down with these guys and talk access and help them find ways to resolve the issue. however, it seams like that solution has failed, and that the only thing these companies will listen to is money or being ssued to hell and back over it. Fortunately, for me I know a major crisis is coming that will kick them in their complacency. The baby boomer generation that holds a huge amount of wealth in this country is reaching retirement age, and a lot of them started out with the Atari 2600 and graduated to game systems like the Nintendo Wii in recent years. What is Nintendo going to say in 10 years when a 70 year oldman or woman can no longer play that Wii and they happen to be a large majority of the citizens on planet earth with a large portion of the wealth? Cheers! On 11/30/10, dark <[email protected]> wrote: > This is again why I am convinced that smaller, indi games companies are the > way forward as far as game access goes rather than Lucas arts or similar. > > As Karl marx himself said 150 years ago, the overriding principle here is > prophit, and prophit isn't a thing which pays any attention to the good of > anyone, ----- and only takes into account their wants or desires to an > extent that they may generate more prophit. > > While it's possible that, if in 20 or 30 or so years when gamers start > losing their vision the major companies will take notice (and even then > probably not), I doubt very much it'll happen in the mean time. > > Btw, it is probable George himself may have had a different opinion, not > because I think anything particularly good of him, just because I've found > generally speaking that if you speak to someone who actually takes time, > trouble and pride in designing and creating things, they are much more open > ad receptive to change. > > I'm not saying all small developers are saints, ----- they aren't, and I've > certainly had my share of people telling me to bugger off when I suggest > access changes, but I would say the majority are at least interested, and a > good part of the interested ones will actually do something useful. > > Witness the recent changes in Core exiles interface which resulted just from > a reasonable conversation with the developer and a bit of give and take. > > Beware the Grue! > > Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. 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