Re: should accessible steam games be added to the database
I wholeheartedly disagree with Figment's assessment that Steam games should just be wiped off of the Audiogames forum, simply because there are a couple accessibility hurdles to overcome. Steam has command parameters and options to make it more accessible, and I don't see those challenges as anything more than the hurdles people went through to play Japanese games (changing system settings, installing language packages, etc). Given that some accessible games are already coming out for the Steam platform, it seems short-sighted to exclude the entire platform as a whole, simply because Steam isn't the holy grail of accessibility. Do I wish it worked better? Of course I do, but I and various others have learned to use Steam, which obviously means it's not a task unsurmountable.
I could see a separate category for Steam games, but to out right alienate the platform because of some shortcomings would do a serious disservice to several of us on the forum who ha ppen to love the games we play on Steam. Would you have games like A Blind Legend and Skullgirls alienated simply because they are hosted via Steam, even though every effort has gone to make Skullgirls accessible, and ABL is nothing but an audio game?
If we start filtering games by "partial accessibility", the question becomes all too mercurial. What might seem pretty accessible to me may not be so to another person, and vice versa. If a game functions well with Super Nova but not with JAWS, am I within my rights to proclaim the game as unplayable? And if I can do so and possess the ability to remove the game from the forum, might I not be robbing someone else of the opportunity to play a game which, to them, might be perfectly acceptable? Should games which are playable by those who have some slight degree of vision be ostracized because they are inaccessible to those of us who have no vision, but are perfectly accessible to them?
I refuse a Draconian measurin g stick, wherein all things are subject to a specific criterion. What works well for me may not do so for you, an what works well for you may not do likewise for me or the next guy down the line, but if we start closing our doors to adversity and diversity, our gaming community will be very small. We need to embrace what's available,. Doing so will only broaden our game library. Throwing away everything which doesn't meet every specification for perfection can only constrict our growth as a gaming community.
Kai
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