Older Gamers, More Accessible Game Features?

simoniker writes "Microsoft's Brannon Zahand has been addressing the key issues of accessibility, from all aspects of game development, noting: 'The demand for accessibility will continue to grow as the gaming population ages. As people grow older, mild impairments can become more severe. Also, people are likely to develop new difficulties and impairments as they age. Adding basic accessibility features to titles can help publishers and developers continue to draw revenue from these customers.' Will we have to change how games play as gamers get older?"

Comments

My Dad

[dorath]

My dad has been playing Diablo style games, RPGs, and adventure games since Diablo, Bards Tale, and Space Quest. He seems to have a new title nearly every time I visit.

Vision - Blindness, inability to distinguish colors, blurred Vision, etc.

He plays most of the games in a lower resolution on a 19" LCD, effectively magnifying them. Keeping 1024x768 (or lower) as an option on new games ensures that he'll be able to continue to see the games.

Hearing - Hard-of-hearing, deafness.

Volume up! When it's an option, he usually has the "bubble speak" enabled so it's not just audio. A comfortable set of lightweight headphones can't hurt either.

Mobility - Wrist, arm, leg, and hand impairments.

He saves early, and saves often. He's not as quick as he was, but being able to save games as often as he'd like means that he isn't set back hours at a time if something surprises him and he doesn't react fast.

It seems to me that keeping existing features instead of dropping them will help with at least some forms of accessability.