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Disabled Fans Shut Out of Galaxies

Posted by Zonk on from the how-to-make-friends-and-influence-people dept.

Ant writes "Wired News' Game|Life reports on Nick Dupree, a disability rights activist and writer who is confined to a wheelchair with severely limited mobility. He used to use one thumb and an index finger to play MMORPG Star Wars: Galaxies. This limited mobility was more than adequate to play the game when it was a sandbox-style adventure, and he was a devotee of the game. With the New Game Enhancements, he is no longer able to play because of the reliance on keyboard/mouse combinations and the action-style combat." There really is nothing good to report on this game update.

4 of 387 comments (clear)

  1. WTF? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Someone cry him a river. It's a video game. You play them with stuff. I don't see "Playable by a disabled person" as a requirement for developers.

  2. SWG=joke by seabreezemm · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    The game is poorly designed, poorly programmed and intended to be poorly played. The quests are a joke and the most repetitive, boring and unimaginative I have seen in any game to date. SOE has one thing on their minds and its not good game play but rather how fast they can milk the public for a game that should have been scrapped long ago. Do yourself a favor and stay away from this stinker.

    --
    Karma: a simple way of silencing those with unpopular views regardless how correct or just that view might be.
  3. Re:Tough crowd by BushCheney08 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Good idea. And then they could also put a little wheelchair icon over the characters head. Polite people would know to take it easy on him, while the assholes would go all Yoda on his ass...

    --
    Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
  4. Re:It's all well and good one way by MrBandersnatch · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I am most certainly not your buddy. Anyone who refers to someone with such a severe disability using the words, whining leech, most deservedly should be sworn at, right before being hit by a clue-by-4. Im not trolling. Im ANGRY! Not just with you, but with the number of people who share your attitude to people with disabilities. To be FORCED to leave your home and family (and quite possibly any form of independence you have established within those limited confines) is somewhat more than a SLIGHT drop in quality of life. "Boring"? Id personally consider that to be extremely traumatic.

    Remember it costs money to leave people with disabilities unsterilized (Oh, yes! The USA beat Germany to THAT one); it costs money to provide the medical aid to help a disabled child to survive; It costs money to help people with disabilities to live outside of institutions; and it costs money to give disabled people equal rights as those enjoyed by the able bodied.

    At the end of the day ALL the legislation Dupree fought for did was to remove the REQUIREMENT that at the age of 21 people with severe disabilities would be institutionalized. Did YOU have to worry about that happening to you at 21? Of course you didnt. Do you think its right that people with severe disabilities should have to?

    Sweet deal? Im sorry I called you an idiot. "Moronic fuckwit" would seem a more apt description.