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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.

1 of 387 comments (clear)

  1. Reminds me of .hack // sign by geddes · · Score: 4, Interesting
    One of the coolest moments of .hack // sign (for those of you not in the know, hack sign is an anime that takes places in a MMORPG) is when you find out that one of the main characters and leaders in the virtual world is, in real life, handicapped. She has a very interesting monologue explaining how going onto the virtual world was the only way she could feel free.

    I think that one of the great things about technology is that it is the great equalizer. As technology advances, fewer and fewer people will have to live with a "disabled" status since we can build machines to help them.

    If I were disabled, I would spend all day's in the MMORPGs. I can only imagine how liberating it would be to be equal with everybody else, and not have people immediately take pity on you upon sight. This man, who now has lost his access to this world that had once been a major part of his life, has my sympathies, and I urge the galaxies people to find out a way to accommodate him.