0. WoW for disabled players... 11/23/2006 05:50:48 PM PST
When making video games, most companies do not take into consideration disabled players... This is understandable as we are in the minority to say the least and there are many different levels of disability.
However, this does not mean that compaghies cannot take steps in which to make games more user friendly for the disabled. Simple things that do not take away from normal players but add to the disabled like "adding customizable controlls" to their games... Letting the player customize his controlls to his/her preferances.
I myself am 32 years old and suffer from "Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type II" (Illlness that resembles "Muscular Dystrophy " and is progressive in nature) and am on a respirator. In the past I could play almost any video game with no problem and was actually quite good at it... However, in time my illness progressed and I began to lose motor control of my arms as my muscles became weaker and weaker and my body slowly started to deform itself.
At this point RPG games like "Final Fantasy" became very important as they were the only games I could play. Unfortunately console controllers have become so complex and have so many buttons including those darn analog joysticks (that I cannot use) that I can no longer play most of these games. Also, console games have taken a turn towards a more "action" type of play making games like "Resident Evil", "Silent Hill" and now even "Final Fantasy" (with it's 12th installement that features a more action type fighting/battle system) impossible for myself and many other disabled players to play.
However, WoW differs from all of these games!
I started playing WoW last March, a friend of mine bought the game and after playing it for two weeks he gave me his free 10 day pass and convinced me to try it... I had of course heard of the game but never bothered to try it myself. I figured that such a complex game that also involves communicating with other players would be impossible for me to play.
(I cannot use a keyboard at all. My hands are now severely deformed as is the rest of my body and I play using only one hand and a small track ball.)
I tried the game and to my surprise, I was able to play it and have been playing it ever since! This game is extremely handicap friendly! The controlls are customizable and it is possible to play using only a mouse/track ball. Because the game can also be played in a "windowed" mode, this lets me have an "onscreen keyboard" (a small keyboard on the screen inside a window that I can type with using the mouse cursor) minimized at the bottom of the screen that I can pop up over the game and communicate with other players when I want/need to.
Most if not all players have no idea that I am disabled unless I tell them, I can hold my own in most situations. Sometimes (because of my illness) my arm may get tired faster but because of the "fallow" option, I can fallow a player on whatever quest/dungeon we are on and help out with his/her targets when battles occur.
This is also a great social experience for me. Because of my illness, it is very hard for me to leave my own home, I do not get the chance to meet many people. Since I have started to play this game, I have met so many kind and friendly people!
For all these reasons, I wanted to applaud Blizzard! I don't know if they did this on purpose but they created a master piece of a game that is accessible to everyone including most disabled players! It should be noted that Blizzard have been doing this for quite sometime... All of their past games including "Warcraft" 2 & 3, "Diablo" 1 & 2 and "Starcraft" have all been handicap friendly in that you did not need to use the keyboard to play!
Blizzard... Thank you for making your game accessible to us disabled players! Please keep up the trend with all your futur games.
8. Re: WoW for disabled players... 11/23/2006 08:10:16 PM PST
Q u o t e: When making video games, most companies do not take into consideration disabled players... This is understandable as we are in the minority to say the least and there are many different levels of disability.
However, this does not mean that compaghies cannot take steps in which to make games more user friendly for the disabled. Simple things that do not take away from normal players but add to the disabled like "adding customizable controlls" to their games... Letting the player customize his controlls to his/her preferances.
I myself am 32 years old and suffer from "Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type II" (Illlness that resembles "Muscular Dystrophy " and is progressive in nature) and am on a respirator. In the past I could play almost any video game with no problem and was actually quite good at it... However, in time my illness progressed and I began to lose motor control of my arms as my muscles became weaker and weaker and my body slowly started to deform itself.
At this point RPG games like "Final Fantasy" became very important as they were the only games I could play. Unfortunately console controllers have become so complex and have so many buttons including those darn analog joysticks (that I cannot use) that I can no longer play most of these games. Also, console games have taken a turn towards a more "action" type of play making games like "Resident Evil", "Silent Hill" and now even "Final Fantasy" (with it's 12th installement that features a more action type fighting/battle system) impossible for myself and many other disabled players to play.
However, WoW differs from all of these games!
I started playing WoW last March, a friend of mine bought the game and after playing it for two weeks he gave me his free 10 day pass and convinced me to try it... I had of course heard of the game but never bothered to try it myself. I figured that such a complex game that also involves communicating with other players would be impossible for me to play.
(I cannot use a keyboard at all. My hands are now severely deformed as is the rest of my body and I play using only one hand and a small track ball.)
I tried the game and to my surprise, I was able to play it and have been playing it ever since! This game is extremely handicap friendly! The controlls are customizable and it is possible to play using only a mouse/track ball. Because the game can also be played in a "windowed" mode, this lets me have an "onscreen keyboard" (a small keyboard on the screen inside a window that I can type with using the mouse cursor) minimized at the bottom of the screen that I can pop up over the game and communicate with other players when I want/need to.
Most if not all players have no idea that I am disabled unless I tell them, I can hold my own in most situations. Sometimes (because of my illness) my arm may get tired faster but because of the "fallow" option, I can fallow a player on whatever quest/dungeon we are on and help out with his/her targets when battles occur.
This is also a great social experience for me. Because of my illness, it is very hard for me to leave my own home, I do not get the chance to meet many people. Since I have started to play this game, I have met so many kind and friendly people!
For all these reasons, I wanted to applaud Blizzard! I don't know if they did this on purpose but they created a master piece of a game that is accessible to everyone including most disabled players! It should be noted that Blizzard have been doing this for quite sometime... All of their past games including "Warcraft" 2 & 3, "Diablo" 1 & 2 and "Starcraft" have all been handicap friendly in that you did not need to use the keyboard to play!
Blizzard... Thank you for making your game accessible to us disabled players! Please keep up the trend with all your futur games.
10. Re: WoW for disabled players... 11/23/2006 08:10:36 PM PST
I will kick myself in the rear when I complain about WoW. Things like this puts me back on the straight and narrow. Sometimes we don't realize how good we have it.
13. Re: WoW for disabled players... 11/23/2006 08:21:11 PM PST
What would be cool, is if Blizz then used some of this money they get from having a bajillion subscribers, and donated a buttload of it to charities >.>
