[games_access] GDC 2008: VERY Bad News

[Robert Florio]

Hi John.  With what you said below I think you hit the nail on the head.

Then we definitely need a web site and a forum.
Robert

-----Original Message-----
From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of John Bannick
Sent: Saturday, December 01, 2007 11:05 AM
To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List
Subject: Re: [games_access] GDC 2008: VERY Bad News

Reid is right.

There are developers right now who want their work to be accessible.

This SIG could right now facilitate that by:

1. Providing, distributing, and publicizing a concise, specific set of 
functional criteria that define what means accessible.
2. Compiling, publishing, and publicizing an annual list of which companies 
and games meet those criteria.
3. Maintaining a forum (The currently rather drifting Game Accessibility 
Project comes to mind) where developers can go for immediate help.

I'm a developer of games that are accessible.
Have shipped 22 different revenue-generating products in a wide variety of 
vertical markets in the last 30 years.
Am neither stupid nor lazy.
And don't see any of the 3 above items.

None of the 3 items should take long to build as a first cut.

And if not from this SIG, then from where?

John Bannick
CTO
7-128 Software


At 02:26 AM 12/1/2007, you wrote:
>Please, can we stop with the negative talk about GDC and the game
>industry? I work in the game industry for LucasArts. Just last week I
>talked to a highly respected programmer and he's 100% behind us and
>wants to talk about what we can do to improve accessibility in our
>games after our current milestone is finished. There are dozens of
>people at LucasArts that support game accessibility. Nintendo totally
>gets it, EA Games totally gets it with their Family Play modes in
>their sports games. Peter Molyneux gets it, Will Wright... the list
>goes on and on.
>
>It's offensive to me when people of this SIG accuse developers of not
>caring because WE DO CARE. The last thing you want to do is insult the
>people you have to work with. It's the quickest way to turn them away
>from our cause.
>
>So, instead of complaining, lets do something about it! First,
>everyone here needs to understand what it's like for developers and
>why it's so hard for them to adopt accessibility features.
>
>1. Limited financial resources - Games are very expensive to make and
>any new features adds to the cost. Before you can add accessibility
>features you must have a game and that's where most of the money is
>spent first.
>
>2. Limited time - Game development is incredibly complex and hard to
>tame. No matter how much extra time gets budgeted into the production
>schedule, it always runs out well before all tasks are complete. When
>this happens, features get cut in order to save the core of the game
>and again, without a game, there can't be any accessibility features.
>Because this usually happens so late, there isn't enough time to work
>on accessibility features before the game has to ship.
>
>3. Limited information - Even if a developer was pro-active and
>scheduled the development of accessibility features into the games'
>development schedule, there's still a major lack of knowledge and
>tools that enable them to do their job. The SIG has been thinking
>about accessibility features for years and we have all the solutions,
>but developers don't yet. We need to make ourselves known and readily
>available to help them.
>
>What can we do to solve these issues? We need to develop our
>relationships with developers and offer our assistance. Our attempts
>to work with GarageGames is a good start. When a new game is announced
>we should contact them and offer our expertise.
>
>We have GOT to get a website up so that we can communicate our
>abilities and expertise to our target audiences (game developers).
>
>But there are technical issues and many of us are volunteers and so
>things move very slowly.
>
>Several of us are writing guidelines for implementing certain features
>but again, this is a slow process. Others are doing research. Going to
>conferences is awesome. Writing articles to Gamasutra is great as
>well.
>
>Eitan is right, we have to "sell" our expertise. It's not that
>developers don't care, they don't know that they SHOULD care.
>
>-Reid
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>
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