[games_access] Game control question...

[Michael Ellison]

On Jan 20, 2008 9:35 PM, Reid Kimball <reid at rbkdesign.com> wrote:
> >I haven't read this whole thread but I suggest we can make GA an
> >easier sell by saying they work for everyone, not just the disabled. I
> >got as much email from foreign language players who wanted to use
> >Doom3[CC] to learn English as I did from deaf players.

I totally agree that the goal should be to make games accessible to
everyone and that that line of thinking also sounds the best, but to
achieve that and include disabled gamers requires a real focus on how
disabled gamers play when it comes down to implementation.  Input
remapping in games is a good example - developers take a general
approach and do it well, but it falls apart when it hits the
limitations of custom controllers. Even with closed-captioning,
subtitling is more common in games and does well for foreign gamers.
My wife and I often play video games and watch movies together in
other languages to practice - she can actually even understand them :)

Businesses look for broad solutions that solve a problem for the vast
majority of their users at the least expense.  I don't currently have
a reference for the meme, but I've been told to provide a solid
solution for "90%" so many times in my career that it's got to be
written down in someone's management book.  And for most things that's
actually a good, sound business plan - it just sucks when you're in
the other 10%.

On Jan 20, 2008 9:35 PM, Reid Kimball <reid at rbkdesign.com> wrote:
> The idea of game accessibility for the disabled is foreign and scary
> for developers. Yet, the Nintendo Wii has made the concept of game
> accessibility... accessible to developers.

I think a lot of it is they specifically targeted a different market
than most game companies - casual gamers and party games - and did a
really nice job.  I've played the Wii at parties and it was fun, but
really wouldn't want one for myself with the titles I've seen so far
(unless I got an SDK) - they just aren't the types of games I
generally play.  I am *very* interested in their controllers
though....

On Jan 20, 2008 9:54 PM, d. michelle hinn <hinn at uiuc.edu> wrote:
> That being said...the most interesting thing about my recent
> discussions with Emotiv is how little they have considered their
> product to be an accessibility tool

I so want to tinker with one of these.  My first thought looking at
BCIs is how much they could have helped victims of Parkinson's in my
own family if they had come out earlier.  My second thought is that
it'd be cool to pwn n00bs with my brain 8-)  I've been trying to
justify the cost of one as a toy for years - I hope Emotiv succeeds in
the consumer market and brings the price down for a usable system.