Category: Geeks r Us
While playing with the free window-eyes from www.windoweyesforoffice.com yesterday and checking out its apps such as hotspots app and the ability for it to be the first screen reader to let us access science material through labquest logger-pro applications... Well I had an idea and wonder if you guys could tell if it would work or not or pass it onto the right people. It would be cool if people would make window-eyes apps to make accessibility overlays for mainstream pc computer games like madden nfl, world of warcraft, and maybe others. They did it with microsoft flight simulator someone made the its your plane overlay and blind and sighted can now play that one together. So why couldn't we have accessible overlays for some or most mainstream games maybe in some instances having the screen reader ask the game or ask the game whats happening now with this or that player? For years we've stuck to playing our specialized audio games. and I think to get the big video game makers attention someone aught to not me I can't program I just have the idea but anyway someone should or aught to come up with an accessible overlay for madden nfl or world of warcraft or both and maybe sell the overlay as a window-eyes app for $10 or $20 or so. maybe even make it free at first. Window-eyes has the ability to click certain spots on screen and even chain commands together and stuff. Most graphical games are point and click, right? so we'd have to strike a balance between what audio feedback the game gives and supplement what it does not give us with the extra feedback we need to play the game in this case thats where window-eyes comes in. what do you all think?
Most mainstream pc games are a combo of point and click, and keyboard use. Some games use only one or the other, but most use both, like shooters, etc. the problem you're probably going to face with making most games accessible is 3 fold.
1. Most games for the mainstream move way too fast for you to get the kind of data you need. Any half competent sighted player would be able to leave you in the dust.
2.there is no good way to convey the Z axis using audio. Many games/game worlds are 3D, where most blind games are only 3d in a very limited sense.
You're not looking up, you're not looking down. You're not shooting at things above you, jumping to reach areas that are above you, etc. Everything in a blind audio game is flat. this is just so far from the case in normal games.
3. Most games would take too much time to adapt, and would add extra financial costs to the project. when most game studios are rushed to complete a game as it is, and when they leave half their ideas/features out of many games just to hit release date, as it is, how would you justify them working on access features, or implementing the tech for someone else to do it at the cost of features more than .005 percent of their market would use?
I'm not saying making mainstream games more user friendly is a bad idea, I am saying though that its a loss leader on the companies part, and that for that reason they're not going to bother.
the easiest thing to make more user-friendly would probably be fighting games.
all that you really need to do is add in some extra sounds for when peoples health dropps below a percentage point, and pay the person that voices the announcer to voice the menus. Most game audio in fighting games is good enough for blind people to somewhat play, though even there, good sighted players can take apart most blind ones.
or how about sports games like football or baseball?
i am not puter savi but i am a consumer with money to burn. talk money to the right folk and you might get something going. perhaps ask to have some basic simple games made accesible. something like pac man, galaga, or street fighter? god do i miss those games!
I'll separate this into the games I've played for long enough that I remember the accessibility of, and the ones I'm unsure of.
Killer Instinct Gold: yes the characters names are announced, no life bars, power levels.
Street Fighter 2 etc for Sega: no.
XMen Versus Street Fighter: characters names are announced, no life bars other than danger. No power levels.
Marvel Super Heroes: character names are announced. Gems are announced, super combos are announced.
Marvel Super Heroes Versus Street Fighter: character names are announced. Counters are announced. Life bars and power levels, no.
Marvel Versus Capcom: characters names are announced, power levels are announced. Counters are announced.
Marvel Versus Capcom 2: nothing's announced.
Capcom Versus SNK 2: nothing's announced.
Primal Rage: nothing's announced.
Street Fighter Ex2: I don't believe anything's announced.
Street Fighter Ex3: characters names are announced. Nothing other than that is announced.
Bloody Roar 2: characters names are announced after they're chosen. Nothing else is announced.
Bloody Roar 3: characters names are announced. Nothing else is announced.
Bloody Roar 4: character names are announced. Nothing else is announced.
Soul series Blade Calibur etc: Nothing's announced though I could be wrong about this for all games.
Eternal Champions: nothing's announced.
Dead Or Alive 2: nothing's announced.
Mortal Kombat 1 and 2: nothing's announced.
Mortal Kombat 3 and Ultimate: only character names are announced.
Mortal Kombat Trilogy: only character names are announced.
Mortal Kombat 4: only character names are announced.
Newer fighting games on the Play Station 3 or Xbox 360 unsure.
in soul blade, and the original soul caliber I don't think anything was announced, but from SC two onward the announcer announced the names of characters either on the select screen, or before a fight, but the characters themselves spoke on the screen.
I remember one of the games announced them during the start of the intro animations as well, but then they switched to cryptic poems about each one for 3, 4, and 5. I think. I know that holds true for 4 and 5.
Mortal combat just announces character names.
injustice announces character names, and has sounds for some things.
I did forget a few things.
In Killer Instinct Gold, when you broke a combo it would tell you you've done so. I believe the same is true if you managed to break an Ultracombo.
In Bio FREAKS, the character names were announced.
In War Gods, the character names were announced.
The main problem you'll have other than those that have already been mentioned is being able to scrape and then parse the graphics displayed to sighted users in such a way that the symantics (the meaning) of them is understood by your program. This would be required in order for said program to convert the information that it has gleamed into something accessible. Nice thought though; I really miss playing Pacman.