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Disabled Fans Shut Out of Galaxies
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.
Video games aren't like public buildings, you shouldn't need to make the handicap accessible.
That they were before is great... but they're not now, sad, sure, but move on, it's just a game.
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There are plenty of other games which don't rely on keyboards AND mice...
Here is one that has always been handicapable!
http://www.nethack.org/
MoM++ - A Classic Expanded - [Master of Magic 1.5]
http://mompp.sourceforge.net/
You can play Anarchy Online one handed no problem. I do it all the time with my baby daughter falling asleep in my lap. Perhaps he should try AO.
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Very true. But in this case it seems that SWG started off as something he was able to do. And I can only guess that disabled gamers put a lot of research into finding games that they can actually play.
But if a game you're spent you hard-earned cash on suddenly becomes unplayable because of something out of your control (like the devs assuming that every single gamer can either handle the changes or doesn't mind their money suddenly becoming wasted) then it's bloody annoying.
On the other hand, it's increasingly apparent that games are aimed towards the majority. Games that you get into because of a main factor often have it (or a sequel) changed 'cos it'd gain more sales. As long as the money comes in, who cares if people can actually play or enjoy it.
Tiggs
"120 chars should be enough for everyone..."
Thought I would respond here...
Basically there are no ways to simplify the controls or the interface. SOE/LA really screwed up the interface for the game, even long time (well abled) customers find the new interface a freaking nightmare. (Most of us say it requires 6 hands to play now).
Here is an example if you are a Jedi...
Find NPC to attack.
Click or press 6 to tell the system you want your right click skill to be your defense stance.
Click your Right Mouse button to activate it.
Click or press 8 to tell the system you want to activate your blaster blocking.
Right Click Mouse to Activate.
Click or press 7 to tell teh system you want to hit harder
Ricght Click Mouse to Activate
Click or press 3 to tell system your want your right click attack power to be lightning.
Left click on target to start attacking it.
Right Click to Activate ligtning. (Timer Rolls)
Click or press 2 to tell system to use Choke
Right Click to choke target
Left click many more times or hold it down
Do all this whil staying in a 5m range of target using your wasd keys to chase target and then repeat several times all of the above - since all the items above are on short timers and have to be reset, several times even in a simple battle with an NPC of your own level.
Oh, and with the NGE you also have to keep your cursor hovering over the targer at all times, as this is their idea of a 'targeting system'. It is like a sick joke and bad interface version of 1992 Duke Nukem.
Sounds fun uh? Not...
In the old system, you targeted NPC and clicked how you wanted to attack it. You did NOT have to the click on the power and then right click to activate it (redundant UI concept from hell, and in current form is buggy and many times the right click power never fires as you have both mouse buttons down at same time and system gets confused).
Truly imagine a system with no character or creature collision detection and yet they are trying to strap on a targeting system. It is an insane idea at best.
Also, in old system you could also walk and navigate and everything with the mouse and one hand, using the cursor keys or wasd was not necessary but available. (Now you find that even more complex games like CoH are 100 times easier to play and at least have a better line of site, collision detection, and more realistic targeting system.)
The old SWG was a great game that they never let it fulfill itself, the original designers had a great vision that is now completely gone. It was probably the first MMO that had no need for quests or developer created content as such. Players created their own. They made their own adventures and their own content. From Player Cities and housing to guild ran quests. All of which is now worthless, and they are moving the game to a quest based system fully, but yet using crappy beta code for line of site and targetting to make it 'seem' like a FPS.
As for the people saying that a disabled person has no rights here, they are not listening and are really cold hearted and minded.
What if I sold someone here a condo in a building that had wheel chair ramps and such and they bought it because it was easy for them to get in because they are disabled, then a month later, I replace the ramps with stairs and tell them tough luck. Do you not think they would be a little angry? Or should we just tell them to learn to walk or move? Not fair.
Even if this does not fall under the disabilities act, it does fall under bait and switch laws. PERIOD.
(This post is not all directed at the poster I am replying to, it was just a good place to jump into this conversation.)
So why not have both? Why alienate such a large group of people.
Because they're afraid that more players will stay with the old version, and it'd be pretty humiliating for a corp to be faced with such objective proof that "newer" != "better".
Sony tried to have both, and released Everquest2 while EQ1 was still running. They attribute some of EQ2's disappointing results to that choice. Looking at http://www.mmogchart.com/ EQ2 still doesn't have nearly the subscribers as EQ1 (although I don't know if this is confused because of Sony's combined-subscription plans).
The concern of auto-cannibalization is greater for an franchise property like Star Wars. The marketplace might support niches for several kinds of online games based on spaceships, androids, and laser-pistols, but there can only be one "Star Wars Online" at a time. To be THE StarWars game carries automatic value, independent from the quality of the specific game.
The publishers wanted to shift to target different customers, but didn't want to dilute their brand by continuing the older service. Thus, the many existing subscribers suffer because Sony hopes to replace them with 5x the number of 15-21 year-old males.
(This will turn out to have been a losing gamble- if they wanted online twitchy StarWars combat, they should've tried to improve StarWars-Battlefront2 with a more compelling and persistent online service. Instead, they're making a pale WoW-clone in a StarWars skin)
They've said they're working on making it easier for the disabled... This is a non-issue.
I'm not suing anyone.
Yes, my wang worked/s.
The nerves that go into your man-member, and those that control your legs are different, so I was safe.
No reason to lie.
A lot of the posters here seem to forget a few tiny details: - Star Wars Galaxies has had this disabled-friendly interface for 2.5 years, ever since it came out. - No one ever complained about the interface. It was 100% customisable, and actually quite user friendly for non-disabled people (like me. - The 'new and improved' interface is described as horrid by almost everyone leaving, and most of those staying. Most heard comment is that the new interface requires 3 hands to play. Linna
The ironic thing is that a large number of disabled could do most, if not, all of the things you listed above. Society seems to enforce the thought that they can't. Which lends itself to a self-fullfilling prophecy.
For the record, I was born with Spina Bifida. I've competed on international levels in swimming and wheelchair racing. I've completed marathons. I did the Boston Marathon in 1 hr 36 mins. I've gone canoing, hiking and camping throughout my life. I've played both basketball and rugby in a wheelchair. It's not a stretch to say that both sports are probably far more aggressive and challenging than their "abled" counterparts. I can dance and I put over 90% of the so called "able" to shame on a dance floor.
You may think that I'm some sort of super disabled. That I'm out of the norm. The fact is I've met many more people with far more severe disabilities that can do much of what I've listed and many more things that I haven't. For example, skiing and rock climbing.
What keeps most disabled from doing more in their life is what keeps the abled from doing the same. The chief difference is that we also have a society that dumps it's ultra-low expectations on top of that.
I will gladly take the exact opposite opinion:
The new game enhancements are atrocious. The interface is horrible. The combat, while more exciting, is still "stand-there-and-click-the-next-attack", but the click/keyboard press order has just been changed around a little. Ohh.... and the fact that you have to keep your target in the crosshairs in a non-collision world is ridiculous.
The game is pretty much hollow now. The servers, compared to a year ago, are ghost towns of their former selves. I'm a HUGE SW fan. In fact, the only reason I even started playing an MMO was because it was a Star Wars MMO. Nevertheless, Sony and Lucasarts managed to completely screw up the one hobby I truly enjoyed playing in my evening free time. I survived the combat upgrade ok, but the NGE is completely off the wall. The Sony track record of "Hey... let's screw over our veteran players" is why the majority of the veteran SWG players have left the game! The game is dumbed down enough to where my 4 year old would probably enjoy it.
You can read (in mind-numbing detail) all about why I left SWG here: Clicky.
-- Stu
/. ID under 2,000. I feel old now.