Hi Dark, You are absolutely right. We have in large part alienated the mainstream simply by declaring ourselves accessible games, blind games, etc. As you pointed out many games could be adapted to suit sighted players needs. Even if it is nothing more complex than a text based UI.
For instance, you know I am working on a WWE wrestling game, and it will largely be text based. Well, I know for a fact other such games exist like Piledriver and Wrestling League Manager which were written by and played by sighted mainstream gamers. I'm going to take that idea one step forward and add background ambience, entrance music, start and end bells for the matches, and perhaps a few grunts etc when people are slammed, kicked, chopped, knocked down, etc. I'm also considering Jim Kitchens request that I add Sapi 5 support as well. Although, it happens to be accessible there is no reason I couldn't market it to a mainstream community as well, because other than say the Sapi support there is nothing that would indicate that this game is anything other than a straight up text game with some audio for ambience. STFC is another prime example. Although, I wrote it as an audio game I could in theory rewrite it with a text based UI, add screen reader/Sapi support, and market it both to blind and mainstream markets. I'm sure that some sighted players would be just as interested to play it as we are provided I add some text to the screen. It would have at the bare minimum some interests with sighted Trek fans with a text based user interface as I would not be marketing it specifically as a blind thing. Cheers! On 7/16/11, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote: > Hi Tom. > > this is true, and is in fact the reason i no longer played sryth sinse it > seemed the gm was getting far too greedy, sticking in areas that you > couldn't get through without the uba gear from tallys workshop and expecting > people to pay more than the initial subscription which by rights given that > the game had over 2000 should've been more than enough). > > one thought I have had however, is that many audio games can pretty much > double as textual or graphical ones with litle work on the interface. > > People stil pay for gamebooks, text games, interactive fiction or even ascii > games like rogue and angband. > > Given this, if a game like entombed had a basic text interface that printed > on screen output in text, with either a couple of arrows or words to > indicate direction so that people did not have to rely upon the wind sound, > you have a perfectly playable game. > > che could probably do a similar thing with the card room by adding basic > card graphics, ---- though with che the name "blind adrenaline" is a litle > against him in attracting people's interest. > > The problem is however, people would not look at it as a normal game, but as > a "blind" game, meaning it'd need a deal of rewording on it's website to > appeal to others. > > audio games similarly, can appeal to sited people if they are presented not > as "blind games" but as "experimental new games with a revolutionary > interface" Look at what pappasanga as a good example. > > I'd actually be interested to see what would happen if David greenwood > rewrote the description of shades of doom to remove the word accessible and > subscribed it to one of the online download resellers like lulu to be sold > along side more usual graphical games. > > I've had friends who are great doom players who were impressed by the > atmosphere and action in shades simply because! of the lack of visuals, > however the perception that disabled individuals are of another species and > require their own "special" things, be that games, chairs, sticks or > whatever. > > The amount of times someone has been shocked when i explain I use a standard > windows pc with a normal keyboard that does not have braille on the keys or > anything else. > > the sad truth is, if something includes the words accessible, or blind, > people will not even try it. While this is obviously not a good thing > socially, it is a truth that anyone trying to sell audio games to sited > individuals needs to get used too. > > Beware the grue! > > Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
