Hi Tom.
What you say about demographics is perfectly true, however there are several
points to considder.
Firstly, even if we assume that all older blind people over the age of 60
(which if I remember rightly is roughly %75 of all blind people), will only
be interested in traditional games, there are far more (and imho far
better), examples of those sorts of games than just Azabat available,
however sinse Azabat have this image of only appealing to computer novices
and have got the backing of the rnib etc that's all people here about.
Take blackjack.
Azabat are selling blackjack for 13.5 usd. For this you get a game with
comparatively few sfx, and recorded speech.
In fact the only bennifit I can see in azabat blackjack is the use of
graphics.
Che however has a far more interesting version of the game available for far
less where you can play against others online.
if the online aspect is too complex, equally good free versions exist, and
personally I don't think the ability to run directly from the cd, ---- which
seems Azabat's main selling point, is worth the money (especially sinse it's
not difficult to setup a shortcut key for someone to use (which would
actually be easier, no chance of dropping the cd ;D).
So, even in that field things are covered.
Then however is the point that in fact not all people over 60 are
automatically useless.
I've for instance encountered players in core exiles who are in their 60's,
and the lady who lives next door to me uses her pc to do some quite complex
things with art and pictures, despite being in her 80's.
Heck, my dad is over 60 and loves racing, tank or plane sim, and puzle games
(if he lost his site he might very much enjoy some of the racing audiogames
available).
I actually thinkorganizations like the rnib are far too! insistant on
promoting people's helplessness.
Pluss if they are like the Rnib they simply forget that that %25 of younger
blind people even exist!
then, there is the fact that you mentioned, that it won't be so long before
some people who grew up in the 60's and 70's start losing their site as
well, and certainly they will want computer games to play (I've made the
same arguement to the rnib about recording more sf and fantasy books, though
they've not listened).
My point is, even with the demographic, things are stil i think far too
overblown and unknown about, and it really is a situation we should try to
alter.
Beware the grue!
dark.
---
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