Older Gamers, More Accessible Game Features? 54
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?"
Well, this is very true (Score:2)
It is EXTREMELY poor for readability. Perhaps it dates back from the old days of DOS when you just had one font size so webdesigners never adjusted to the fact they could adjust it. Perhaps all webdesigners got perfect vision. Perhaps webdesigners all work with very low resolutions on really big screens.
Whatever the reason as I get older I am now totally de
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Most web designers know that God Almighty Himself wants every single web page to be written in a 5 point font so that the layout of their precious advertising doesn't get broken. Apparently they will burn in the hellfire of damnation for eternity if they don't do everything in their power to pr
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The Mozilla browsers have the ability to set a "Minimum Font Size", which I use. I wouldn't be surprised that Opera has something similar.
I have young-ish eyes (not perfect but near vision is not where I have my problems), but just because I can read rather small fonts doesn't mean I want to.
It does tend to mess some sites up, but usually it's no loss. (For example, the much-linked-by-Slashdat "Escapist" gaming m
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That is exactly why I don't play alot of console games anymore. I believe that you should have access to all the levels in the game from the very start. How many times have you not completed a game simply because you couldn't get past a certain level, or a certain boss. I have a life and don't have the time to fight the same boss 20 times to either get lucky or figure out some obscure pattern to follow to kill em. I paid for the game, let me decide how to p
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We like gaming, we have money, but we don't have the time to beat some ridiculously set and very abirtrary threshold to beat your stupid boss or what ever. Developers! get a clue! we like gaming and you are killing it for us! Christ I go back to playing Enduro on my GBA Activision cart or Gyruss on the C64 and have fucking blast.
Why will they not listen to us? All that money involved and thier biggest market keeps getting ignored...
how sad is that?
Markimus of K.
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VIRTUAAAAAAA RAAAAACINGGGG!
Reader vs. Author Control of Web Site Appearance (Score:2)
Firefox, minimum font size (Score:2)
Not To Mention... (Score:2, Insightful)
From the Gamecube manual:
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wtf? skin? hurt?
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wtf? skin? hurt?
Chafing maybe?
You know, from.. uh.. repetitive movements.
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Once, I was on this big gaming kick (playing the same game over and over for several days). I developed this hardened area on the skin of my thumb. My Dad said it was called a "callous" and was apparently pretty common back when people were poor and ate dirt. So, yes, I guess your skin CAN be hurt by video games.
-Eric
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Game-induced impairments (Score:2)
My Dad (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
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.
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.
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I'm not hard of hearing, but I always turn on game subtitles when available because it makes games faster. Why should I sit through a minute of dialog when I can read that same information in 15 seconds? If a developer cares about story more than presentation, they'll make sure subtitles are available and each line of dialog is skippable to the
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Good approach, makes a lot of sense.
Nonetheless it is sensible that game creators consider this and plan ahead. People using consoles can't choose screen resolution - it'd be a tad expensive buying a 60" TV just to be able to read the subtitles of the conversation you can't hear..
Similarly, historically a lot of console games have been very restrictive in where/when you can save. I suspect this is largely due to limited resources for saved games, but also programmer laziness (or, more formally, time/budget
It's a matter of priorities (Score:2)
That being said, it *is* nice to have some of those accessability features, even if you don't really need them. Subtitles/Closed Captio
Did he consider the impact on multiplayer games? (Score:3, Insightful)
Sounds familiar? Right. We call that "cheating" today.
It's not that I want to look down on aging people. Hey, I'm myself starting to notice that I start to lose my edge. I can't compete with 16 year olds anymore, and I'm saddened by the prospect of not being able to even beat the next Burnout at all anymore. My reaction is getting slower, my eyes ain't what they used to be, but hey, that's ok. I get old, and I'll play what's there for me. No biggie. I'll be as good as I am.
Toning down the game to make it "accessible" would feel like cheating to me. Multiplayer or not. In multi, it's even more blatant because, well, what would keep a non-disabled person from using those tools as well? In single, I'd feel like I cheat myself.
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Re:Did he consider the impact on multiplayer games (Score:1)
Ira
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Well, if the authors were to add "disability features" like auto-aim then the easy answer is not to allow those who use them to play against players who play the game without the aids. Sorta like leagues.
But I don't even think this is necessary. I don't own a Nintendo DS (yet, at least) but I und
Upcoming titles (Score:4, Funny)
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I have taken a few of these courses, they're great! The best part is [zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz]...
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Hey You Punk Kids, Get Off My LAN !! (Score:2)
my first thought (Score:2)
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Not just an issue of aging (Score:2, Insightful)
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Retirement servers (Score:2)
Twitch games and reaction times (Score:1)
http://biology.clemson.edu/bpc/bp/Lab/110/reaction
It's a pretty good literature review on the various studies done on Reaction Time and the various factors relating to it. Some pearls:
Many researchers have confirmed that reaction to sound is faster than reaction to light, with mean auditory reaction times being 140-160 msec and visual reaction times being 180-200 msec (Galton, 1899; Woodworth and Schl
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There was also a study comparing ordinary drivers to racing drivers. Under normal circumstances the reaction times of both groups was the same, but as the speed/pressure went up the ordinary drivers exhibited the expected degradation of reaction times - while the racing drivers reacted faster and faster commensurate with the s
I am a gamer with physical disabliites. (Score:3, Informative)
I also have speech and hearing impediments, so I don't use Teamspeak [goteamspeak.com] or any voice communications. I tried it once in Day of Defeat [dayofdefeatmod.com] (original version) and obviously, no one knew I was saying (even my friends whom I talked to!). Hearing is another problem since I don't hear well with my analog bone conduction hearing aid (mono -- one microphone and can't determine audio directions). I love games that use closed caption/CC and suititles like in Half-Life 2 [halflife.com] games (only use the dialog ones) and F.E.A.R. [whatisfear.com].
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I don't use a joystick when I fly in the BF games.
(I just crash a lot
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Neural Interfaces (Score:1)
IGDA (Score:1)
Also [shameless plug] this year's Retro Remakes [retroremakes.com] Competition (scroll down till Competition to see the rules, or search the news to find the games entered) was held with disabled gamers in mind. At least in that community, accessibility is kept in mind.