true tom I am adicted to the pc though this is the only market I know
I may get a mobile device at some point then I will probably join the
mobile marketplace.
and yes its fair to say that the pc market for the sighted has shrunk
quite a lot.
At 02:16 AM 8/8/2013, you wrote:
Hi Shaun,
I think you are being overly pessimistic here. As long as there is
someone who is blind or sighted willing to create accessible games
they will always be around. I don't see audio games dying so much as
evolving, changing, and moving away from its traditional roots the way
any evolving technology does. Yes, it may be possible games for the PC
may become a thing of the past, but let's be realistic here. The PC as
we know it is becoming a thing of the past itself in many ways.
Today many sighted computer users are carrying around smart phones
like the Apple iPhone or the Droid phones that are as much computer as
phone. There are tablet devices like the iPad and Droid tablets that
pretty much are hand-held computers for the 21st century. It is clear
this is where the computer industry is heading and in a few short
years it is likely the only place you will find a desktop computer is
in someone's office or other places of business. Otherwise most
average mainstream consumers will have a smart phone, tablet, or
possibly a netbook. However, audio games will have to shift their
focus from Windows PCs to newer markets and probably will.
We are already seeing the results of this in action. Just over the
last two/three years we are seeing a huge explosion of accessible
games come onto the market for the Apple iOS platform, and I look for
that to continue. It is in many ways where our future lies for the
short term and probably for the long term too. I look for most things
to move to smart phones and other mobile devices over the next ten to
twenty years as they replace traditional desktop and laptop computers
in the average household.
There still may be a PC market, but how large it will be is hard to
say. My guess is at first it will be made up of netbooks and laptops
which are already outselling desktop units by quite a big margin. If
audio games are going to continue and survive on that platform our
developers are going to have to give up a few old technologies like
Visual Basic 6 and learn .NET or something else designed for the
modern Windows OS or will be left behind. That's what really concerns
me for the short term, because while I am certain audio games will
continue in the main I see some of our big name developers simply
cease to be a driving force in the audio games community as newer
languages, operating systems, and technologies renders them obsolete.
Those developers who are hanging onto XP with a death grip may hang on
a few more years, and will simply be a thing of the past just like
their favorite OS, but sooner or later someone will replace them in
time.
For one thing there are tools like BGT which can help jump start a new
generation of accessible game developers. They may not be very good at
it at first, as is to be expected, but BGT is probably going to be the
new VB 6 for a lot of new accessible game developers. Its designed
largely for a modern PC so is an obvious place to start for Windows
developers. Besides BGT there is Python, there are the .NET languages,
etc which will likely lend themselves to be decent entry points into
the modern audio games market as well. In short, I see our audio game
developers falling behind, but I see new developers coming along
eventually to replace them. It may not happen over night, might not
happen tomorrow, but sooner or later someone will keep the torch
burning and take audio games in a different direction.
As to your comment about mainstream games moving to consoles it should
be made clear you are only talking about big name developers. You have
totally ignored the topic of indi game developers who are creating and
selling games for Windows, Mac, Linux etc and are a market force of
their own. There are far more mainstream games for PC than console,
and the only reason you probably don't know of them is because you
aren't on Steam or similar service to buy new mainstream games for the
PC. However, I am bringing this up to say that as we are an indi group
ourselves our future is largely determined by the fate of the rest of
the indi games community.
Cheers!
On 8/7/13, shaun everiss <sm.ever...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi denis.
> just read the article.
> Its quite good.
> One of my frustrations I have is actually finding more content.
> I have brought or at least owned or at least played on others systems
> amost 99% of all blind games in existance.
> One thing the article did not touch on was the bgt and other toolkit
> engines making it easier for the average user to put together a game.
> In fact this is the reason I still can find the occational game.
> I am in fact testing one such game series right now called deathmatch.
> And I can appreciate how hard it is to develop games for the blind I
> am not programming it but at the same time I am previding sfx and
> beta testing things as well as extra things.
> I am not even hacking it and its hard enough.
> The article was vary well written and definately an enjoyable read.
> As for a cure for blindness that is probably as far off as a mainstream
> game.
> while some conditions such as genetic blindness and maybe detatched
> retena can be prevented/handled right now.
> at least with my condition once its detatched for long enough ie
> since birth me being 31 there is no way to actually even get that fixed.
> And its all cash for the big companies.
> If anything I suspect that in another hundred years or so we will
> probably loose a lot of the startup developers that have been moving along.
> Most have lives that mean they can't produce that much all the time.
> So I think we may depend on the toolkit engines more and more.
> And even eventually that to may dry up.
> I used to think the blind gaming industry could continue at a sertain
> level.
> And while bits of it are moving quite quickly I have seen the
> gaming industry almost stopped barely ticking over sertainly not as
> fast paced as it was in the beginning and I have been on here since
> 1995 which is vary close to that beginning.
> I do see the end of all blind gaming though.
> We are only moving right now because of muds, web based games,
> opensource games, free games and those created by the engines and other
> kits.
> True there are still a bunch of the devs that still produce
> games, and a few core ones still continue for now.
> What is a major concern is that no really new big names are replacing
> the older ones.
> Once the main comercial devs go, that will be it.
> I don't mean that I will see the end of gaming, I am sure that for
> the next 1-300 years blind gaming will find a way to continue
> slowly grinding along.
> But unless there is some big push wether it be mainstreaming or
> funding, I think its prity much going to die.
> Lets face it, blind game development is not a job.
> Unless you make expensive software brought by governments for the
> blind to use like jaws there is no cash in it really.
> I do think that if the gaming community is to survive that a lot of
> it at least for a while will exist on the iphone and android devices.
> I am not sure about pc users, even mainstream games have been moving
> away from pcs and into consoles.
> some newer consoles like the nvidia shield are supposed to be android
> which in theory means you could run apps but even then, mostly its
> geared for sight.
> In the old days I remember playing audioquake with the jedy quake and
> overkill mods but really never managed to comnplete an entire game
> successfully.
> Its also interesting to note that aprone and swamp and the see monkey
> were not mentioned as that is definately one approach in the next
> direction for the gaming platforms for the blind.
> I suspect that at the end of it all the industry will not die but it
> will probably slump its already moving at least to the outside user
> like myself quite slowly though only those at the core will know of
> its actual speed.
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