Hi Dark, Yes, exactly. that's a point I've been trying to make for quite a while now. I want some of the mainstrfeam game players to use the term playable rather than accessible when talking about mainstream games like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter etc because technically we can play them with practice and experience, but in no way is the game 100% accessible to us. I can't pick up Street Fighter IV and access the menus without my wife's help or at least writing it down in braille so I can remember what option is which. That's clearly not accessible in the strictest sense, but is functional if I choose to put extra effort and work into making it so. Calling something usable or playable by no means says fully accessible as most people understand it.
Cheers! On 2/6/12, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote: > Hi Dan. > > While that's absolutely fine and a great creddit to your skills of > persistance and memorization, I'm afraid that as far as myself and > audiogames.net are officially concerned, games which require memorization of > a menue or unusual learning of in game sounds, beatemups included, are not > considdered accessible games. This isn't to say they aren't playable or that > people shouldn't try to play them, or that they can't be extremely good fun, > only that as per the guidelines of the site, a game is only "accessible" and > will only be included in the db or news when a totally blind person can play > it with approximately the same amount of effort as a sighted person, screen > readers or turning on of a compatibility mode not withstanding (provided > such a mode can be turned on without sighted assistance). > > Afterall, theoretically a totally blind person could play absolutely any > game if they spent enough time memorizing every single in game object, how > long to hold the control in required directions etc, thus every single game > ever produced is "playable" it's just that to play them would require > ridiculous and unreasonable amounts of effort on the part of blind or vi > gamers, though obviously some games, because of their sounds or gameplay > structure are more playable than others. > > However, when we say to mainstream companies we want more accessible games > on consoles, we mean "fully" accessible, no need for heavy reading of Faqs > to learn in game text, memorization of menue options or memorization of game > sounds beyond what a normally sighted gamer would do, and all in game > information just as available to a blind player as to a sighted one. > > As I said, this certainly isn't to say that people shouldn't try to play > soul calibur, mk, streetfighter, blazblu or whatever, only that the games > can't really be considdered in the strictest sense "accessible" > > Apart from obviously logical desire for true accessibility in games, the > other reason is that if the accessible gaming community starts promoting > games that require memorization and a lot of shenanigans to play, mainstream > companies will turn around and say "accessible games? ---- we already make > them, so bog off, no speaking menues for you!" > > Something like this actually happened when I addressed Capcom Uk over low > vision access in platform games, their response was "well if you can play 2D > platformers, half of the levels of Mega man x 7 and 8 are accessible, so > we've already done what you want" > > Of course, a game where I could play "half of the levels" is a pretty feeble > access solution really, ---- when I asked them what I did for the rest of > the game that I couldn't play their response was "get someone else to play > those bits" which was down right offensive! > > So in short, I'm quite happy with people discussing how to play mainstream > games, posting recordings or whatever, but as far as officially promoting > the games as accessible is concerned, it's a no no, unless, like something > like sound voyager a totally blind gamer could play them absolutely from the > start as easily as a sighted gamer. > > Hope this makes sense. > > All the best, > > 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://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. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
