It certainly is for me. I have tried playing a large number of mainstream
games with the equipment and assistance of sighted friends. Even in ideal
cases where it's turn-based and sighted people have plenty of time to
describe stuff, it simply isn't the same as being able to play the game
yourself. Simply too much information is conveyed through sight for that to
happen. I'd love to play countless arcade games, sidescrollers, rpgs like
Oblivion and all sorts of stuff. However, it's just impossible to have a
meaningfully fun experience with these games without sight. At best, it
becomes a matter of memorisation rather than gaming skill. Frankly, I don't
consider memorisation to be fun. It's work. Make me a game that portrays
everything in an accessible and auditory manner and I'll happily fork over
cash. That's worth my time and money to invest in providing it's within my
areas of interest. Even though I'm unemployed, I simply have better things
to do with both than invest in games which aren't completely accessible. I
want fun for my time and money, an shouldn't have to go through extra
headaches and memorisation cartwheels for that fun. I don't at all consider
myself narrow-minded, unwiling to learn, or particularly lacking in skill.
It's a matter of fairness and a level playing field. I won't sacrifice time
towards becoming a robot who remembers precisely the right button to press
at the right time just to fit in with the sighted world. What people like
that guy who won Zelda blind is very impressive and extraordinary. However,
it just isn't the same fundamental experience that a sighted game has with
that classic game. It isn't even cloase. It's rather like memorising an
entire Shakespear play to the point where you can recite it flawelessly at
will. That's just not playing in my book. Another thing to keep in mind is
that developers really haven't offered us the same level of complexity.
That's due to a number of factors not the least of which is figuring out how
to render so much detail in audio form in a way that's intuitively
understandable.
Michael Feir
Volunteer at The Dam
www.thedam.org
2011--
Owner of Silver Smiles
Join and share the silver lining in your life.
Group home page: http://groups.google.com/group/silver-smiles
2010--
Twitter: mfeir
Skype: michael-feir
Author of Personal Power:
How Accessible Computers Can Enhance Personal Life For Blind People
2006-2008
http://michaelfeir.blogspot.com/2009/01/personal-power.html
A Life of Word and Sound
2003-2007
http://michaelfeir.blogspot.com/2009/01/life-of-word-and-sound.html
Creator and former editor of Audyssey Magazine
1996-2004
Check out my blog at:
www.michaelfeir.blogspot.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "dark" <d...@xgam.org>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2011 3:42 PM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] my frustration with the blind gaming comunity.
Hmmm, yohandi, possibly you are being a litle too hasty in so instantly
deciding people's opinions are based only on assumptions or second hand
knolidge.
Certainly, I've trried many main stream games myself, in fact I played
original street fighter and mortal kombat in the arcades when they first
came out.
I stil have many friends, and my brother who are gamers, and have both
watched them play games and played myself.
So, at least in my case, judgement is actually based on experience, and I
imagine for at least some other people on the list it would be the same.
Beware the grue!
Dark.
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