[games_access] my research

Tue Dec 5 09:00:03 EST 2006

Hi Eelke,

So much to take in - and so little time to do it justice...

Web-site is looking great: 
http://www.eelke.com/research/accessibility.html - really good content. 
There's a few broken images that need fixing, and I'd prefer not to have two 
scroll bars for content, as on my lap-top viewing is a bit of a pain in the 
arse. Otherwise - great!

Assist mode examples - Maybe Destruction Derby (1995 PSone) would be an even 
better example than Colin McCrae, with it's steering self-correcting assist 
aid on Novice. This helps you to keep facing in the right direction to stay 
in the race.

Slow examples - Maybe mention The Pyramid or Archaist as free-ware examples.

Maybe worth adding a Starting and quitting game pattern to take into account 
people being trapped by games? Especialy head-tracker users.

This stuff is all really good and deserves to be developed futher. The 
proposal idea sounds like a definite way forward, as does the book and so 
on. Time is a factor for me at present, but I'd definitely support this as 
best I could...

The one-switch FPS idea sounds very feasible, good luck with it! Making it 
fun will be the trick. I'd recommend having a look at Shenmue I and II at 
the QTE (Quick Time Event) sections, and even the one-switch darts game 
which is great. Might be of some use.

Things are definitely looking up at present. We need to pull it all together 
some how...

Barrie
www.OneSwitch.org.uk

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eelke Folmer" <efolmer at unr.edu>
To: <games_access at igda.org>
Sent: Friday, November 17, 2006 6:29 PM
Subject: [games_access] my research

> Sorry if people receive this twice I think i only send it to the book
> discussion list.
>
> Hi,
>
> I have been silent in many of the ongoing discussions mainly because I
> was too busy with teaching / organizing our new game engineering
> curriculum. I teach computer graphics this semester which is a lot of
> work but so much fun, for their final projects almost every group is
> creating a game and I asked them to consider creating a one switch
> interface to their game, I'm curious if something cool rolls out. I
> only teach one course in my second semester so I finally hope to do
> some research.
>
> Just a quick update of what I'm working on:
>
> - Interaction design patterns: I've updated my site on interaction
> design patterns for accessibility (or also called accessibility
> patterns). I put it in a wiki which was quickly spammed by German
> watch sellers (can you believe that?). I'll work on some verification
> mechanism to prevent spam. If you know some patterns that should be
> listed here or existing adjusted drop me a line. owyeah the address:
> http://accessibility.eelke.com
>
> - I started developing a mod (dubbed adaptive-assist-mod for
> halflife2) for half life 2 which will turn it into a one button "rail
> shooter" so physically disabled gamers or cognitive disabled gamers
> can play it e.g. this mod uses a lot of my assist modes pattern which
> I initially developed for usability (e.g. auto aim, auto face enemy,
> auto reload, auto hide/dodge, and to some extent auto move if i can
> get it working with the way points in HL2 maps). Its still very
> experimental but for me its a nice experiment to see what would be
> required make it one button accessible. If accessibility spans the
> spectrum between 1 button and fully controllable I'm sure some new
> accessibility/usability solutions might pop up that will benefit any
> player.
>
> I hope to finish this mod in the 5 week winter break that will come up
> in 3 weeks from now). I'm hoping I can show a demo at the
> accessibility arcade at GDC. I am kind of motivated by the success of
> Reid's closed captioning mod. Don't tell game designers what to do but
> show them how it can be done. Some hard data about implementation
> costs will also more easily convince them. Especially in these times
> where game sales are the key to survival and developers need to expand
> their markets.
>
> - Research proposal:  I was hoping that at the next msn/phone/skype
> meeting can we discuss some ideas for a joint NSF research proposal?
> I've been talking to some people here that work in web accessibility
> and they were very positive about funding possibilities in this area.
> IGT (one of the biggest slot machine manufacturers in the world & the
> company that pays for my research) are also very positive about
> accessibility features on slot machines (some of their slot machines
> have up and down buttons for lowering the machine so people in
> wheelchairs can gamble to, they're even considering some "magnifying"
> options for their tft based slot machines (the majority of gamblers
> are people aged 50 and up). I'll leave in the middle whether people
> should gamble at all. But I agree that everyone should have equal
> access to paying tax on stupidity. ;-)
>
> Anyway I was hoping we could come up with some sort of joint proposal
> that allows us to do research in gaming and accessibility. Writing
> proposals takes an enormous amount of time and I think with regard to
> game accessibility research we have arrived at a point where "the word
> is out" and many people have good ideas for making games more
> accessible that need to be explored further. For example if I finish
> my mod for half life 2 I'd like to develop a mod for other genres of
> games e.g. RTS (age of empires 3) which will help develop new patterns
> & increase our accessibility/usability solutions knowledge base. I'm
> going to hire graduate assistants to help me out.
>
> Getting funding is also important as it "justifies" our research & can
> increase the visibility of our research.
>
> I was hoping that we could come up with some proposal between now and
> 6 months from now. Let me know what you think of this / and if you'd
> like to cooperate I'm a newbie with regard to writing NSF proposals
> but i'm gonna dive into it very soon.
>
> ~Eelke
>
> ps there is no games workshop on CHI 2007 this year (too bad because
> last year's workshop was fun). But I saw this workshop which is kind
> of related to games and accessibility (I don't know any one of the
> organizing committees) http://www.vocal-input.org/
>
> ps2 sorry for the long email (i hate reading long emails myself but 1
> long is better than 10 short ones i guess.).
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Eelke Folmer                            Assistant Professor
> Department of Computer Science & Engineering/171
> University of Nevada               Reno, Nevada 89557
> Game Quality         usability|accessibility.eelke.com
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> -- 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Eelke Folmer                            Assistant Professor
> Department of Computer Science & Engineering/171
> University of Nevada               Reno, Nevada 89557
> Game Quality         usability|accessibility.eelke.com
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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