I can't quite express the shock and bile that this article literally provoked with me. I have a reason or two to be invested in this, though I'd love to think that I would be anyways. I'm both a fat chick, and disabled. The one easily has been associated with the other. Among some of my medical issues, I have several neuromuscular diseases that have resulted in partial paralysis with repetitive motion(such as walking, or any other 'continued' type motion, including brushing my own hair). My legs and arms routinely gimp out. I'm in a wheelchair if it's more than a very few steps. I need lots of help with my routine life. I'm also in severe neuropathic and musculoskeletal pain, due to nerve damage, chronic muscle spasms, spinal degeneration, et al. I only preface my rant with all of this in order to prove a point relevant to this topic:
I have spent copious amounts of time online in various MMORPGs, from the very inception of Everquest, to the beginning of WoW, and have tried most of them in between, including the mostly 'social' ones. I have learned the game mechanics, as much as I'm able, and have participated socially, as much as I've been so inclined, at various times in my life (It's funny how that's decreased drastically in increments from EQ to WoW), and I have paid into the economy with the subscription fee associated with each. I have not, at any time, been an MMO addict, in that a pixelated game could ever interfere with my perception of 'real life', and its priorities.
I have, however, used these games as a form of escapism from my pain and discomfort. To say otherwise would be a blatant understatement of the facts, and why? I don't see using an MMO, either one of the more strategic 'hack 'n slash' fantasy or sci-fi types (WoW, AO, Runescape, Eve Online) or a social (Sims Online, There, or Second Life) venue as being an unhealthy coping mechanism for a disabled person. We often spend so much of our time in a house, trapped inside of bodies that don't work, or are screaming silently with pain. To be able to thrive, leap, dance, run, and maybe kick some butt in a pixelated body is liberating. Never mind the opportunity to interact socially, unhindered, in the aesthetic form of our choosing, because isn't that what we -all- like to do?
What this all essentially means is: Microsoft wants to nerf handicapped people.
I'm barely going to get into the fact that Microsoft has alluded to the fact that they want to dig into my socioeconomic and medical data, because that both defies belief and insults my intelligence on a level to a degree that I truly believe they'll be reamed by people much bigger and badder than I am. (And I mean that on a less than literal level to any smart asses out there. =P )
I'm going to imagine, for a moment, that I actually had the motor skills to play CoD6 with my best guy friend and his cool crew, Team Drunky. *Team Drunky moves in to engage the enemy with a tactical strike, having decided against the comedic, but less effective death-via-precision-supply-drop. A skirmish begins. Ferret likewise is out the gate, sniping at the opposing clan, but glances over his shoulder, unfortunately, at Nixon, who is slovenly shuffling in his general direction, in a cold sweat, upper body graced with an ill fitting flak jacket, an M16, that she cannot lift, sparking as it drags along the pavement. Ferret groans inwardly as he faces the dilemma of whether to join Team Drunky, and live, or whether to try and save his soon-to-be and as-good-as-dead friend, whose right leg has now completely ceased to work. "Save yourself, you idiot! This is completely fruitless!" Nixon yells, right before catching one dead between the eyes. Sadly, Ferret was relieved. Team Drunky was relieved. The opposing team was sorta relieved.
Apparently Microsoft and America were relieved, because another fat person was kept off the net... back into the obscurity of their dark living rooms, in front of the television... where they belong... or something.
Slashdot Mirror
I can't quite express the shock and bile that this article literally provoked with me. I have a reason or two to be invested in this, though I'd love to think that I would be anyways. I'm both a fat chick, and disabled. The one easily has been associated with the other. Among some of my medical issues, I have several neuromuscular diseases that have resulted in partial paralysis with repetitive motion(such as walking, or any other 'continued' type motion, including brushing my own hair). My legs and arms routinely gimp out. I'm in a wheelchair if it's more than a very few steps. I need lots of help with my routine life. I'm also in severe neuropathic and musculoskeletal pain, due to nerve damage, chronic muscle spasms, spinal degeneration, et al. I only preface my rant with all of this in order to prove a point relevant to this topic:
I have spent copious amounts of time online in various MMORPGs, from the very inception of Everquest, to the beginning of WoW, and have tried most of them in between, including the mostly 'social' ones. I have learned the game mechanics, as much as I'm able, and have participated socially, as much as I've been so inclined, at various times in my life (It's funny how that's decreased drastically in increments from EQ to WoW), and I have paid into the economy with the subscription fee associated with each. I have not, at any time, been an MMO addict, in that a pixelated game could ever interfere with my perception of 'real life', and its priorities.
I have, however, used these games as a form of escapism from my pain and discomfort. To say otherwise would be a blatant understatement of the facts, and why? I don't see using an MMO, either one of the more strategic 'hack 'n slash' fantasy or sci-fi types (WoW, AO, Runescape, Eve Online) or a social (Sims Online, There, or Second Life) venue as being an unhealthy coping mechanism for a disabled person. We often spend so much of our time in a house, trapped inside of bodies that don't work, or are screaming silently with pain. To be able to thrive, leap, dance, run, and maybe kick some butt in a pixelated body is liberating. Never mind the opportunity to interact socially, unhindered, in the aesthetic form of our choosing, because isn't that what we -all- like to do?
What this all essentially means is: Microsoft wants to nerf handicapped people.
I'm barely going to get into the fact that Microsoft has alluded to the fact that they want to dig into my socioeconomic and medical data, because that both defies belief and insults my intelligence on a level to a degree that I truly believe they'll be reamed by people much bigger and badder than I am. (And I mean that on a less than literal level to any smart asses out there. =P )
I'm going to imagine, for a moment, that I actually had the motor skills to play CoD6 with my best guy friend and his cool crew, Team Drunky. *Team Drunky moves in to engage the enemy with a tactical strike, having decided against the comedic, but less effective death-via-precision-supply-drop. A skirmish begins. Ferret likewise is out the gate, sniping at the opposing clan, but glances over his shoulder, unfortunately, at Nixon, who is slovenly shuffling in his general direction, in a cold sweat, upper body graced with an ill fitting flak jacket, an M16, that she cannot lift, sparking as it drags along the pavement. Ferret groans inwardly as he faces the dilemma of whether to join Team Drunky, and live, or whether to try and save his soon-to-be and as-good-as-dead friend, whose right leg has now completely ceased to work. "Save yourself, you idiot! This is completely fruitless!" Nixon yells, right before catching one dead between the eyes. Sadly, Ferret was relieved. Team Drunky was relieved. The opposing team was sorta relieved.
Apparently Microsoft and America were relieved, because another fat person was kept off the net... back into the obscurity of their dark living rooms, in front of the television... where they belong... or something.
I've often