[games_access] Article: "Blind Teen Amazes with Video-Game Skills"

[hinn at uiuc.edu]

Hi everyone --

This just came across the AP newswire:

http://www.salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?wire=D8BJVNJ81.html

Blind Teen Amazes With Video-Game Skills

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By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press Writer

July 27,2005 | LINCOLN, Neb. -- Brice Mellen is a whiz at 
video games such as "Mortal Kombat."

In that regard, the 17-year-old isn't much different from so 
many others his age.

Except for one thing: He's blind.

And as he easily dispatched foes who took him on recently at 
a Lincoln gaming center, the affable and smiling Mellen 
remained humble.


"I can't say that I'm a superpro," he said, working the 
controller like an extension of his body. "I can be beat."

Those bold enough to challenge him weren't so lucky. One by 
one, while playing "Soul Caliber 2," their video characters 
were decapitated, eviscerated and gutted without mercy by 
Mellen's on-screen alter ego.

"I'm getting bored," Mellen said in jest as he won game 
after game.


Blind since birth when his optic nerve didn't connect 
because of Leber's disease, Mellen honed his video game 
skills over the years through patient and not-so-patient 
playing, memorizing key joystick operations and moves in 
certain games, asking lots of questions and paying 
particular attention to audio cues. He worked his way up 
from games such as "Space Invaders" and "Asteroid," onto the 
modern combat games.

"I guess I don't know how I do it, really," Mellen said, as 
he continued playing while facing away from the 
screen. "It's beyond me."

Mellen knows this much: He started playing at home when he 
was about 7.

"He enjoyed trying to play, but he wasn't very good at 
first," said his father, Larry Mellen. "But he just kept on 
trying. ... He's broken a lot of controllers."

When the question of broken controllers comes up, Mellen 
flashes a smile and just shrugs.

"I used to have quite a temper," he said. "Me and 
controllers didn't get along very well."

Now they get along just fine.

While playing "Soul Caliber 2," Mellen worked his way 
through the introductory screens with ease, knowing exactly 
what to click to start the game he wanted.

He rarely asked for help. Once the game started he didn't 
need any help.

"How do I move?" an exasperated opponent, Ryan O'Banion, 
asked during a battle in which his character is frozen in 
place.

"You can't," Mellen answered before finishing him off.

"That's what happens. It's why I don't play him," O'Banion 
said after his blood-spattered character's corpse vanishes 
from the screen.

How Mellen became so good is a mystery to his father.

"He just sat there and he tried and tried until he got it 
right," Larry Mellen said. "He didn't ever complain to me or 
anyone about how hard it was."

Mellen hangs out any chance he gets at the DogTags Gaming 
Center in Lincoln, which opened last month. Every now and 
then someone will come in and think he can easily beat the 
blind kid.

That attitude doesn't faze Mellen.

"I'll challenge them, maybe. If I feel like a challenge," he 
said, displaying an infectious confidence. "I freak people 
out by playing facing backwards."

There's nothing he likes better than playing video games, 
Mellen said.

He will be a senior in high school next year. After 
graduation, he plans to take a year off because he wants a 
break from school.

When he does go to college, Mellen wants to study -- what 
else? -- video-game design.