[games_access] Blog: Top 3 Top 3 and IGDA GASIG AwardsCeremony2008

[Thomas Westin]

we could do something like the "First Pengiun Award" but targetet  
towards game accessibility - i.e early adopters of accessibility in  
mainstream games e.g Valve could be nominated for Half-life 2 closed- 
captioning - the thing should be for including access from the start.

the "first penguin award" is given to pioneers in the game industry -  
the very first was given to the founders of Activision

/thomas



2 dec 2007 kl. 13.22 skrev Barrie Ellis:

> Hi Richard,
>
> I understand what you are saying re. the word "Top" - it's a bit  
> obvious - but it's catchy and yes it may not be 100% accurate...  
> But these lists are more specific to the genres than you give them  
> credit. It's not difficult to simplify the controls of a golf,  
> driving or pinball game down to less controls, and to make them all  
> digital if needed. It's some work - but I don't agree that this is  
> much of a stretch. I don't want to ignore blind and visually  
> impaired gamers - I personally just don't agree that those  
> adjustments you mention are the easiest for non-insiders to fully  
> grasp. If you want scalable fonts - you'll equally expect  
> everything fundamental to the game to be equally clear - not so  
> easy either. The colour-blind aspect can get quite tricky too  
> without full and proper advice.
>
> I wouldn't really be expecting main-stream developers to jump in  
> with one-switch access for games - but seeing as some iterations of  
> Everybody's Golf almost already can be played just by pressing X -  
> it didn't seem unreasonable to mention.
>
> I agree we need some kind of IGDA GASIG guidelines - but in lieu of  
> that, and in lieu of sitting on my hands... thought this might be  
> helpful.
>
> I've also added extra links at the bottom of each Top 3 to link to  
> extra help (Game Over, Barriers in Games, Help you Play and us of  
> course).
>
> Ideally - this is a basic list that will give developers something  
> to think about with those specific genres. Can it hurt?
>
> Barrie
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: AudioGames.net
> To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List
> Sent: Sunday, December 02, 2007 11:54 AM
> Subject: Re: [games_access] Blog: Top 3 Top 3 and IGDA GASIG Awards  
> Ceremony2008
>
> Hi,
>
> I got some thoughts about this and it is a bit related to what I  
> wrote in my earlier email concerning incoherent information and  
> stuff. I'll try to explain the best I can. On first glance I think  
> "Excellent! 3 simple key points that developers can easily  
> implement and therefore help to make many games a little more  
> accessible".
> But on second glance, I think these small Top 3 lists are  
> misleading - in the bigger picture of game accessibility. If you  
> put it like this to the outside world, it might seem that these  
> three features (essentially the same three features repeated over  
> three genres) are somehow "the most important" features because of  
> the use of the word 'top' (which somehow refers to the option that  
> there might be more). I agree that these three would makes many  
> games a bit more accessible, but I think there are other features  
> that are equally important and would also make many games a bit  
> more accessible. I guess these three are mostly targeted towards  
> the target group that you work with in real life (gamers with  
> physical and learning impairments?) . For 'my' target group (the  
> group that I worked with most - gamers with visual impairments)  
> none of these 3 features make any difference accessibility-wise.  
> Examples of "easy" accessibility features for them would include  
> "color-blind accessibility" (no colour-communication OR provide  
> alternatives to color-communication), "rescalable fonts",  
> "customizable fonts", "customizable contrast", etc. Why wouldn't  
> these not be in your list? They would make many games a little more  
> accessible and are all very "easy"... ?
>
> But here's another thought about "easy"...
>
> Thing is, I have the feeling that there is no thing such as 'easy  
> accessibility'. When I look at this top 3, your second feature  
> ("Compatibility with Alternative Controllers") is not "easy" at  
> all. It is a lot of work to make a game work with alternative  
> controllers, especially when a certain controller has fewer control  
> capacity than the controllable functions in the game. Your "easy"  
> point 2 is actually my Keypoint 1 [1]. And to make my Keypoint 1  
> work, one cannot play without (my) Keypoint 2 (which is partially  
> your point 1) AND (my) Keypoint 3 ("Interaction Techniques").
> My point: I think many accessibility features have consequences  
> that also need to be dealt with. If you do not communicate this  
> fact to developers, I think that's misleading.
>
> I think a list of accessibility features/requirements/design  
> guidelines is good. I guess it is possible to rank each feature  
> with a "easyness of implementation" (for instance, by looking at  
> how much consequences a certain features has - providing a  
> customizable font setting in Prince of Persia doesn't have as much  
> design consequences as to control Prince of Persia with a single  
> switch-controller).  I also think that once you do that, you get a  
> different Top 3 than you present now.
>
> So...
>
> I think such "easy Top 3" lists are a good idea but should be  
> presented slightly different - not as "The Top Of Them All". And  
> when it concerns "easy", we have to be honest about how "easy" it  
> really is. I think you are doing a great job and am glad with your  
> initiative!!!
>
> Best regards,
>
> Richard
>
>
> [1] http://www2.hku.nl/~mosh/ga/gatheoryshort029.doc
>
>
>
> Anyway - I've also set-up a "Top 3 Accessibility Features" section  
> for particular game genres: http://gameaccessibility.blogspot.com/ 
> search/label/Top%203
>
> Pinball, Golf, Driving games covered at present. I'd appreciate  
> people's thoughts, and also on any suggestions of companies to  
> contact once we have a basic consensus. I realise there's lots of  
> things not covered - this is not the point - it's to try and get  
> some of the simplest concepts with the lowest potential overheads  
> to the people making games (indies, home coders, mainstream -  
> anyone!).
>
> This stuff stands on the shoulders of everyone's work so far - so  
> please don't think I'm claiming this as my baby. It's not. It's  
> ours - so help us to make it useful... Perhaps we should get a  
> standard e-mail drafted (with further links for more help as it  
> stands presently - e.g. Eelke's design patterns - Game- 
> Accessibility.com - our forum? our mailing list and so on....
>
> Enough from me today I think...
>
> Barrie
> www.OneSwitch.org.uk
>
>
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