Hello everyone. I've been following this thread hoping that common sense would prevail and am happy to see somebody like Charles come forward and present the case for those of us who were disappointed in Tom's decision in such a patient and rational manner. Not everyone who opposed Tom's changes did so in an unjust or unreasonable way. It doesn't mean that we're spoiled brats who are upset at not getting what we've wanted. What Tom expected was just unreasonable and unfair to those of us who have both paid for something and been very patient waiting for. What do you think would happen if airline pilots decided to take their passengers to destinations the pilots thought would be more fun to fly to? Florida would certainly seem to be a destination of choice this time of year for people here in Ontario Canada. However, if I were taken there right now, I'd resent it because I'd miss out on the Easter festivities my family and I are enjoying over this long weekend. The pilot who took me to Florida has decided, wrongly in my case, that I'd rather be in Florida since he would rather fly me there. Keeping somebody accountable isn't the same as being a whining spoiled brat. I could just as easily flip that around and propose that this industry is full of developers who, like the pilot who flew me to Florida, have god complexes and presume that everyone should be happy with what they themselves want. We see that many times from people who go ahead and do something they presume will be helpful to us but isn't. Have you ever been taken to the wrong place by somebody who was trying to be helpful but didn't have a clue where you actually wanted to go? I've been late for a couple of classes at university including one where I was presenting due to somebody assuming they knew where I wanted to go. I grant you that the south building of the Erindale campus has far better eating options than the Kanev lecture centre I was actually heading for. Florida has sunshine and inviting beaches rather than sidewalks covered in sheets of ice. However, I would much rather be here now than in Florida and would rather have been in the Kanev centre all those years ago for very good reasons.
It's not at all that I don't appreciate where Tom is coming from with this. Quite the opposite in fact. I've often found that projects started out of a simple desire for fairness or from an honest commitment can end up turning into real chores to complete. I'm going through that right now with the guide I've been working on for the past two years. A lot of blind people get personal computers and don't receive the knowledge they need to make effective use of them in their personal lives. In Ontario here, we can tap into government funds to get such computers. However, the training provided leaves many people unable to properly maintain their computers or use them for more than basic reading and writing. The government considers all other uses of their computers such as the Internet, games, online shopping, etc, to be superfluous. People are often left discouraged to go beyond what they've been taught for fear of getting into trouble which they must then pay to have somebody come out and fix. They aren't told of all the accessible games and other software such as Winamp that we on this list largely take for granted. Two years ago, I started working on a guide to try and fix this with the assumption that people already knew the basics of the Windows operating system or whatever system they chose to use and I could concentrate on those areas like the Internet and tuning into Internet radio stations. The guide was much more about making people aware of all the possabilities their computers opened up to them. Last Summer, I took what I had up to a centre on Lake Joseph set up for blind people and consulted a number of the guests about what I was doing. They indeed liked my personal friendly approach to teaching this stuff. However, there was a big problem. Well over half of them would be stuck unable to make use of the guide. They didn't have the basic knowledge of Windows which I presumed they had received as part of their training. They needed to know about how to run programs, files and folders, what the desktop and startmenu were, how to use the control panel, etc. They needed to know how to crawl before they could walk. Needless to say, I was thunderstruck. We're quite fortunate in Ontario to have the funding we have and despite that, people are being left without such basic knowledge. Things are worse elsewhere across Canada and apparently in the US and UK as well. In many places, computers just aren't provided for any kind of personal use. To make my project at all useful to a staggeringly high proportion of my potential audience, I was going to have to give those people who didn't know or weren't motivated enough to make use of manuals and online help a crash corse in using Windows. This was absolute drudgery for me as people in regular contact with me can attest. It was all too easy to procrastinate or work on other sections of the guide instead. However, the end result will be a more useful and complete guide for people. To encourage more people to make extensive use of their personal computers and the Internet was my dream. Teaching them the absolute basics of Windows has been a spirit-sapping nightmare. Finding a way to interject the same sort of personal touch into that as I have in other sections of the guide was a mental workout like nothing I've tried to do before. I could have just decided to ignore what the people needed and write what I wanted to. I was under no commitment other than my sense of honour or morality to finish the guide at all. I could decide tomorrow to simply stop working on it and move on to something else. However, there's such a thing as a work ethic. It is within my power to do a good job with the guide and I'm morally obligated to see it through having commited to doing so. I may very well work a little on other ideas for future projects. However, my primary focus must be the guide until that project is complete. Many people are hoping to use my guide and learn to make better use of their computers. I hope it leads to many more blind people having a good idea about what's out there for them including accessible games. Let's get this clear. I am painfully aware of how much we need every game developer we can get in this community. The last thing I want is to lose Tom as a game developer. I wasn't about to launch a long and protracted campaign against him if he decided or still decides not to complete the sidescroller. I won't even demand my money back. If Tom truly doesn't have the will within him to keep the commitment he made to finish a game similar to what I paid for, I'm not about to sue him to kingdom come or hold a gun to his head. Make no mistake about it though. If we were dealing with any other business environment out there, you would see law suits for similar things. In this situation, we're essentially held over a barrel to a large extent. People with the unique combination of game experience, programming knowledge, creativity and such are in extremely short supply. This is why I am overall prone to err on the side of being walked over and making allowances for accessible game developers which I would never make when ordering meals at restaurants or deciding what show to watch on TV. I can always go to another restaurant if I'm unsatisfied with service or change to a different channel. That isn't possible to do in this case. Tom is the only hope I have of seeing a good sidescroller in the near future. Once you make a commitment to people, there's no painlessly throwing it aside when the going gets tough. If I did that with Audyssey Magazine every time I would rather have watched a movy or spent time with friends and never met a deadline, nobody would have thought much of the magazine. I wouldn't have had a staff of volunteers or had game developers put serious effort into providing good content for the magazine. They wouldn't have taken me seriously and rightly so. I took the same approach with the marriage which failed after five years of sincere efforts to make it work. Had I decided to pull out when things began to look less than rosy, it would have perhaps lasted a year. However, since I stuck it out and treeted it like the serious commitment it was, my friends and family respect my efforts and decision for the mature act that it was. Because I do everything humanly possible to be responsable and keep promises I make, people will treat me like the 33-year-old adult that I am. If something proves to be beyond my capabilities, people will know that I don't turn away from things lightly. I don't expect Tom to put his family life at risk in order to keep his word. I would have cheerfully waited for James North to complete the game for as long as it took and certainly extend the same to Tom. He should take all the time he needs in order to do a competent job without risking health or sanity. All I require from him is a sense that progress is being made and that I can trust that I will eventually receive the game. Because Tom has repeatedly changed his mind and drifted away from doing that, I naturally have less faith in seeing that happen. If he completes the sidescroller, I will feel that he has fulfilled his commitment to me and be far more inclined to support his future projects by pre-ordering them since he will have demonstrated his ability to follow through even in unusual and adverse circumstances. It would also make me far more likely to recommend that other people interested in supporting the creation of high-quality accessible games do the same. People should be under no illusions that unusual stressful circumstances are what Tom has faced. The projects he decided to rescue aren't easy and he has suffered a great deal for mistakes James made when it came to setting deadlines for release that he couldn't meet. Tom's very open approach did quite a bit to give me confidence when he wasn't openly considering altering the game beyond recognision. If Tom completes the sidescroller, it will go a very long way in bolstering my trust and admiration for him. I will also be more willing to pre-order games being produced by other developers since I've had a positive experience doing that in this case. Whatever ultimately happens here, I hope that all game developers find me to be a supportive and fair-minded community member. Both customers and developers need to do their parts for everyone to walk away from this happy. Developers need to do everything possible to meet commitments they take on and not set goals or deadlines for themselves which are unreasonable. If they treat us with respect as people and customers, we need to do the same for them. That means recognising that they have lives outside game development and making room for the complications that can cause. I've seen too many people roasted over the coles for circumstances beyond their control. That's inexcuseable. There has been a lot of needless hostility for no good reason at all over the past day. This hostility was directed both at Tom and at those of us holding a very reasonable position and expressing it in reasonable terms. I didn't come out attacking Tom. I merely pointed out what natural results his decision would incur upon him. I was certainly frustrated and vexed by once again seeing the last shred of hope I held of having a completed sidescroller yanked away yet again. However, as a creative person myself, I could absolutely sympathise with the rock and a hard place Tom finds himself in. Where he now sits isn't a very fun place to be. I've been there myself. What should other game developers take away from all this furor? For one thing, I don't think the answer is to totally clam up and not tell the community at large anything at all until games are totally finished. A flow of information from developers is, I think, absolutely essential to keep a community of loyal fans in place to purchase games when they emerge and grow the potential customer base. Extensive efforts and money are put into that process in the sighted world. Developers don't make enough in the blind community to spend on advertising so they need as much free press as possible. On the other hand, I think it has become clear that it would likely be best if they didn't set any release dates ahead of schedule. Tell the community what you're working on but not when you hope to be finished. Also, don't take any pre-orders until you're absolutely certain that you have the ability and the will to finish a game as described. Not everyone will appreciate being hijacked and taken to Florida despite the sunshine there. Sometimes, we all have to write on that blackboard. Let's all try to approach things with as much fairness and good will as we can. Have a good Easter weekend, everyone. Michael Feir Creator and former editor of Audyssey Magazine 1996-2004 Check out my blog at: http://www.blindspots.net/blog.php?user=13 --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. 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