Hi all, I'm Lorenzo Bellincampi, founder of Shard Workshop, an audiogame development project. Maybe someone of you already knows me. This is an interesting topic Jeremy, and I wanted to add the point of view of a developer. I agree with a lot of what you said, especially the part in which you say that you have seen sighted gamers saying "well, they can play text games". We, at Shard Workshop, strongly believe that being blind is much less contraining then what a lot of people think, when it comes a videogaming. I have a strong background as videogamer and I know that the biggest part of the emotions in gaming come from the audio, music and sound effects, so I believe that audiogames could be a lot better than what are now (aside from few examples of good games.) To this end you can read more here http://www.shardworkshop.com/the-project .
As a developer for the blind community I have one big problem: finding all of you. It seems (and is confirmed by a few of you) that the "word-of-mouth" is the absolutely dominant way to learn news, in the blind community. People really prefer to learn things from unofficial sources like perfectly unknown people rather than going straight to the official source, where you can have your info sooner and better. In this way it is hard to spread news and things, and I believe that a lot of times, developers find themselves with very few sold copies just because a lot of people didn't know about the game. I also agre with Charles with the constructive criticism. The Shard Workshop project is very young, but I want it to be future job, so I'm ready to put everything on it and so I'll be clearly ready to learn from you all. I have a lot of ideas for a lot of things (not only the final products), but I'm sure that I can get better with your help. I mean.. it's good for both sides: you'll get better games and I'll get Shard Workshop to live :D In conclusion, if you guys and gals didn't know about Shard Workshop, than check our website @ http://www.shardworkshop.com, it may be what you were looking for. As for the "spreading" issue, we have an official forum too, and we would be very happy to have you all on those boards discussing audiogames! It should surely make our life simpler when it'll come to learn, offer support, and just discuss with you (that, in our principles, it absolutely mandatory). 2011/12/17 Jeremy Hartley <jeremyhart...@comcast.net> > Hello All, > > I have been a member of this list since 2000 or 2001, whenever this list in > all of the many forms was begun. I have also been a business owner, a > professional musician, and now work as a computer trainer for blind and > sighted individuals. As you may guess, since I am on this list, I happen > to > be totally blind, and have been so for my entire life of 36 years. > > Like it or not, we as blind and visually impaired individuals, exist in a > sighted world. Choke it down. Get used to it, and get over it, and get > with it. So, what does this all mean for any of us blind gamers? Plenty! > > Whether we like it or not, we are viewed differently by the sighted world. > Differently? What does that mean. Well, to me, I have seen sighted gamers > say things like, well, they can play text games. Or, well, why do the > blind > even need to play games like us anyway. Ok, that really stings to read > such > comments, but it is due to an ignorance of most of this sighted world. > Yes, > I said ignorance. Not stupidity! Too often, people mix up ignorance and > stupidity, and call it at that. > > So, why should we care? I mean, we have our games written by Jim Kitchen, > draconis, and other devs who are either visually impaired or realize we are > out there, hungry to play games. Taken nothing away from those people, why > shouldn't we as people, not blind, not visually impaired people, just > people, be taken seriously? > > Well, we are in some ways, but not in other ways. I have found that in > order to be taken seriously by the sighted world, we need to show that we > know what we are talking about, enough to capture their interest. Not > everyone can get the point across when it comes to interests and what blind > and visually impaired people are capable of accomplishing. After all, we > all have our interests, pleasures and dislikes. > > So, what can we do? The answer is simple, if one takes the time to put > things into perspective. We all want a lot of the same things, but we go > about accomplishing them in the wrong way a lot of times. > > What it really comes down to, at least for me, is that we really need to > step up and give any sighted game dev a picture of what we are asking for. > If a map is not read by voiceover on the Iphone, why is that? Have we > explored the window with our voiceover cursor? If so, then what can we say > to the dev to make sense of our needs. Does text need to be placed on the > map? If so, what text, and would it be beneficial to have map coordinates > mentioned? Would that be enough? Would it require a whole rewrite of the > app to make things right, or would it be OK to have a few additions made to > the program? > > Guess what. For each app/program/game/whatever, it differs, depending on > the program in question. > > You may think we can't make a difference, but I would like to tell you from > personal experience, sometimes just a nudge makes a difference. But, what > kind of nudge? Sadly, I have to say that when it comes to blind folks, and > yes, because I am one, I am a bit partial to blind folks, but blind folks > must be one step ahead. > > So, what do I mean? well, I mean when it comes to explaining what we > need, > we must be specific. I am sure that many of us have been in the situation > where we have been working with a sighted colleague. We say something > like, > "just go to the file menu and go to save as. > It is amazing how many sighted computer users don't even know about this > simple menu item. But, we have to know each menu item, each choice. We > have to know the difference between a combo box, a radio button and a push > button. Guess what? If you were to ask most of the sighted computer users > what a radio button was, they would look at you with a blank stair. Why > should they know? I mean, a button is a button, after all, is what they > say. Like it or not, we know there is a difference, and when it comes to > developers, we need to make our wants and needs crystal clear. > > Another issue we face is the fact that some of the messages sighted devs > get > from us, well, they aren't the most well written messages. I truly think > that if we are going to present ourselves as a community to be taken > seriously, we must double and triple check what we put on the web, and how > we present ourselves. > > Now, this has a lot to do with what I am about to say, so please do not > think I am picking on any one person. > Let's take something simple like audiogames.net. > > My apologies to the mods of audiogames.net, but I have to say that if a > sighted dev went to that site for the first time, they would have to think > twice. Just as one example, the word puzzle is spelled with two z's and > not > one. Something so small can make or break what someone new sees and thinks > about our quote community unquote. > > Yeah, I know several folks are going to gasp now, saying that I just picked > on Dark, and I gave him no time to defend himself. No! Not at all. Dark > has given a lot to this community. I could have written to him directly, > but I wanted to make a point that we are being wathched, and judged, even > if > we don't know it is being done. I respect Dark, and hope he keeps up what > he is doing. I am bringing up a terrible fact, that all of us, whether we > want to or not, have to choke down! We need to be one step ahead if we are > to be taken seriously. That means checking spelling and the like. > > So, after all this rambling, what I hope to get across is that we need to > do > more than just write ideas to devs. We need to really make an effort to > educate devs. Like it or not, we are viewed as inferior by a lot of > people, > not just game developers, and when we can come to grips with that, we will > be stronger. Do I mean that the world is out to get us? Heck no. Nobody > is out to get us. What I mean in all sincerity is that we need to push our > strengths, whether we like it or not. Let's all focus on what we can do > and > how we can teach others, rather than whine, beg, and scream. Trustm e. It > will work. > > Jeremy Hartley > > > > > --- > 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://mail.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. > --- 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://mail.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. 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