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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.
> 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."
It's a good thing to make a change to something that makes it explicitly more accessible to the disabled but if that change also makes it worse to play for the able bodied then that is reverse descrimination. That to me is political correctness at its worse. What about the able bodied majority who find it easier when they are able to use more keys. should we all go around and change every gui so it can be used with a one button mouse and three keys on the keyboard? no! we should make it accessible to all
Not pander to a minority that might be some hundreds of people among millions of players. The producers arent in this for free.
Macro buttons/programs. They're either time consuming to set up(programs), or expensive, but so is all the other specialized equipment for someone that's severely(as TFA's subject) disabled.
The other answer, of course, is that these customers are a very small portion of the consumer base. While it sounds cold, it would be a bad marketing decision to hold the game back because someone couldn't play it(due to a lack of ability on their part).
Look behind you...
I hate to say it, but the gaming company has control over how their game works. If they feel that they will get more profit this way, then they have the right to do so, unless it causes some kind of damage or harm.
How hard would it be to offer an accessability patch which might be available for a small fee?
I can't see any reason that sort of thing would be unreasonable.
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Is there not a different way to set up the game controls to allow for a simpler or older style control set to be used with the new interface?
If not, then there should be.
This does not just affect disabled people, but it also affects older people and the casual, non-computer proficient gamer. Even people who prefer a simpler interface. This affects a significant portion of their user base.
Here's another reason I dislike online-only games. You're forced to endure the updates they provide, good or bad. If you don't update, you can't play. At least with a single-player game, you can decide if you want to apply the next patch/update/enhancement or not.
"Content" publishers want control over everything. Well, guess what? *I* want some control as well.
There really is nothing good to report on this game update.
Maybe that's because you're biased, haven't done much research, and happy people don't make a fuss: they're busy playing.
This brings up a fairly interesting, and much broader question of balancing the needs of few with the desires of many. Without having read the article (I would be loathe to break a Slashdot tradition), I imagine that the change in the control scheme was implemented to, well, make it better, or to accomodate the "New Game Enhancements," whatever that may mean. Let's say that these changes make the game experience better for 99.5% of subscription-paying players, and shut out entirely the remaining 0.5% comprised by the disabled players. Is this a problem?
It's difficult to argue that mandating accessibility requirements - especially such that would detract from the possible quality of the game for non-disabled gamers - is a great idea, particularly since we are talking about playing a game instead of something like wheelchair-accessible buildings. On the other hand, I can of course sympathize with someone who must be hard-pressed to engage in interactive entertainment due to his disability, and has now lost access to something he had previously enjoyed. What do you guys think?
"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it." - G.B. Shaw
They changed the controls so that it will be more compatible with consoles. Wouldn't a console controller be easier to control with a disability? (well more so than a keyboard and mouse setup)
You'd think as someone with a disability you'd look for a solution rather than expecting the company to do so for you. You can't expect them to know and account for every possible disability.
Also, the NBA, the NFL, most soccer matches, Jenga, Twister, horse-shoe tossing, darts, snooker, being an airline pilot...
Look, being disabled means there are some thing you are not able to do. That's unfortunate, but the alternative is to limit all human activities to those things that quadraplegics can manage.
Paging Harrison Begeron...
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
There's not much in common between a mass-market PC game intended for the general public and a military aircraft intended only for use in combat operations. At least in theory, everyone should be able to play SWG, especially if it didn't call for any particularly intense control schemes when it was originally sold to the plaintiff.
The thing is that I have a gamer friend who fell down a flight of stairs. Games are the only thing that distracts from the pain. What's the difference between porting WoW to linux, and adding a custom interface for people with limited mobility? We are all one accident away from loosing our livelyhood, our gaming, our collegues, and our health. One shitty game of Nethack doesn't replace that. Were something to happen to you, I think you'd see things differently.
The fact that one guy can no longer play the game using only two digits doesn't really invalidate the update in my opinion and is rather silly. You can't really have a MMORPG catering to a target group of one.
At least in theory, everyone should be able to play SWG
Where do you get that theory from? There aren't many computer games that can be played by blind people. Should all the ones that can't be taken off the market? Should it be illegal to produce games that cater to the bulk of the population? Sorry but this is absurd.
I've got sympathy for the guy losing his favourite game, of course, but that doesn't mean the makers have done anything wrong in not ensuring that every existing player, no matter how extreme their circumstances, can't be locked out of it.
Suppose they put the price up, would that be wrong because it excludes people who could afford it before?
To summarise the summary of the summary: people are a problem. ~ h2g2
1). It should, by default, be recognized that certain audiences can't realistically play ANY game, much less pre-NGE SWG or post-NGE SWG. Point is the original game was playable by the plaintiff, while the post-NGE game is not. Asserting that this is somehow related to blind people's ability to play games(before or after patches) is the only absurd argument here.
2). Since when did SWG ever cater to the bulk of the population? *P
At least in theory, everyone should be able to play SWG
Why? Do we have to modify every form of entertainment so two fingered people can use them? Tennis? Football? Giving someone dignity an quality of life doesn't mean that all of us can only do activities that severely disabled people can do.
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I think what most of the cold-hearted, 'so what' pricks are missing is that for 2+ years SWG *did* accomodate disabled play by accomodating alternate game styles... a person could be one of many non-combat professions, most of which could be played along side the faster, more reflex-demanding combat professions while still contributing significantly to the overall gaming world.
In their effort to create a one dimensional, accessible game they've removed this accessibility... thus making the game inaccessible to long-time subscribers.
A relation of mine had MD and playing games was one of the few things he could do that put him on a level playing field with the vast majority of us.
I'm not saying that all games should be developed to allow access to all with every conceivable disability - for one thing it's impossible - but if small minor (and cheap) changes can be made to a game, then I can't see a reason not to.
Think of it in terms of buildings. Some old buildings are completely unsuitable to convert to wheelchair access, narrow doors, steps all over the place etc - not even cost effective to try to sort them out. New buildings are much better, open plan, elevators etc - so it's not that hard to go the extra mile to stick in the odd ramp etc (in fact most have been designed now not to even need that).
There are loads of small things that can be done. Deaf gamers get mightily pissed off with games that don't have subtitles (or just have them missing on cut-scenes). Not that much effort to add them is it? (Look at HL2 for a game that has made the effort)
WTF is wrong with a 'Playable by disabled person' sticker on the back? We already have them for 'playable by 18+', 'playable on ninja-PC' and all manner or random shit - just have a look on the back of the box, disk space, sound card blah blah (does anybody have problems with sound compatibility any more)?
How about if somebody came up with some teeny little icons and allowed them to be tucked discreetly on the back - 'subtitles throughout' or 'Full control with mouse only'? If anything they might shift more units - god help you currently if you have a specific problem and are trying to pick a shiny game off the shelf and wondering if you'll be able to play it.
It's not a requirement for developers. It's a requirement for SOCIETY.
If it were possible to add something to Tennis or Football that would allow a two-fingered person to play without changing the game for able-bodied people, then yes.
This is not about Tennis or Football. This is about a video game, a video game where the addition of a customizeable GUI would allow disabled people to play without having any impact at all on able-bodied people.
Everyone seems to be going to the absurd extreme of thinking "And next they'll want to make Physics PhD programs open to people in persistent vegatative states! And the NFL open to people with no arms or legs!" That is not what is being talked about, and going to such an absurd argument isn't insightful - it's the exact opposite, and it avoids speaking about the very real merits of the issue.
Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
Luckily, the world has enough tall people that some manufacturers are willing to make adjustable seats. --If I sit in a car and can't make myself feel comfortable, I'd write off a possible purchase immediately. So the automotive design departments write the extra paychecks to make their damned seats accommodating to people who are not clones. Aw, poor babies. . .
As for the video game market and disabled people. . .
People complaining about, "That's just how it is. Get used to it," are not being very clever. . .
The whole point of Personal Computing as I understood it when the movement launched a couple of decades ago, was that the Personal Computer would be a multi-purpose tool which could be programmed to the precise needs of its user.
Please consider that.
And guess what?
Despite the mountains of general annoyances and oversights and thoughtless designs, the PC is STILL a multi-purpose tool which can be programmed to the precise needs of its user. Thank heavens!
You can get keyboards and mouse inputs which are highly programmable. In the case of this particular piece of software, however, it sounds to me as though the game itself really needs to be changed. (Actually, it almost sounds as though the new interface was deliberately made to be annoying and very difficult to get around with hardware solutions. So who knows what new madness is going around the Ranch?)
In any case, I'd pen a letter to the guys at Lucasarts asking them politely to spend a couple of days coding some work-around into their interface. Make their interface as highly programmable as possible. (I'd make this standard practice from the drawing board up in all my PC games, but then nobody is asking my opinion.)
Heck, with enough emailing around, you could probably find some hacker interested enough to do it for you for free. Or learn how to hack it yourself.
It's just software after all. It'd be more doable than taking a hatchet to that two inches of thoughtless engineering which cracks my head every time I forget to duck under the doorframe to my back room.
Just my two cents. --And for a third penny. . . What's up with geeks not leaping to solve this problem? Come on, you guys! You get excited about designing a robot which can carry a ping pong ball upstairs, but you're willing to penalize a fellow for presenting an engineering problem which is both interesting and directly applicable to the real world? What's up with that?
-FL
For many wheelchair bound folks, games like SWG, EQ and WoW are the only way they can escape from being tied by gravity to a chair. In those worlds, you can run, you can fly, you can move the hunk of flesh you are stuck in.
What's the difference between porting WoW to linux, and adding a custom interface for people with limited mobility?
Nothing. I expect a company to do neither, nor do I think they should in any way be required to do so. Would it be nice for a company to do either things? Sure. This is a damn videogame we're talking about here, not a supermarket.
Were something to happen to you, I think you'd see things differently.
And laws should be based on the person who's most clouded by personal involvement? There's a reason we don't let victims of crimes try and sentence alleged perpetrators. The fact that people are actually taking this "make videogames accessible to the handicapped" seriously indicates that we've gone off the deep end in this country. Life isn't equal and it never will be.
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