[games_access] Sid Meier and Barry Caudill Sit Down WithAbleGamers

Tue Jun 26 02:59:38 EDT 2007

100% in agreement with you. Perhaps with the new IGDA page - a "How You Can 
Help Now!" page could be a good start with some useful contacts and some 
example letters. Perhaps a petition such as the Closed Caption one and then 
for us to contact influential groups, web-sites and individuals putting them 
our way.

I don't know about you lot, but I think the most important thing we need to 
do to pull all our work together is to get our IGDA/Accessibility web-site 
going. We need it easy to follow and to have place holders for the important 
stuff missing. I think most other things need to be secondary at this 
time...

I'll take a look at the WIKI when I get a chance and update a little, but we 
certainly need to be doing this as a collective. Any news, Michelle on us 
getting the go ahead for the main site?

Barrie
www.OneSwitch.org.uk

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Reid Kimball" <reid at rbkdesign.com>
To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" <games_access at igda.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 2:06 AM
Subject: Re: [games_access] Sid Meier and Barry Caudill Sit Down 
WithAbleGamers

>I thought the interview was great because it highlighted a big
> information gap between the disabled and game developers. I wish we
> could attract a larger following of disabled gamers and empower them
> to contact developers and give them the needed info. A large community
> of disabled gamers advocating for themselves can contact more
> developers than we can since we are such a small group and don't have
> the luxury of national exposure. Even if we did, it's still hard to
> reach everyone. It wasn't until Valve software received a lot of
> requests for the game script did they think of adding captions to
> their game. I get the feeling sometimes, maybe I'm wrong, that when we
> approach developers, they think we're trying to sell them something
> and get turned off and tune out. Yet, if we could get a whole
> community of hundreds, thousands of disabled gamers politely
> expressing the difficulties they face playing the next Splinter Cell
> or Ratchet and Clank game and then point the devs to our solutions, it
> could have a positive impact.
>
> -Reid
>
> On 6/25/07, Ioo <ioo at ablegamers.com> wrote:
>> Thanks for the plug...
>>
>>
>> Mark Barlet
>>
>>
>> Barrie Ellis wrote:
>> > Great interview, cribbed from AbleGamers:
>> > http://ablegamers.com/content/view/41/63/... We should get in touch
>> > with them too I think...
>> >
>> > Barrie
>> > www.OneSwitch.org.uk <http://www.OneSwitch.org.uk>
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> > Written by Mark C. Barlet
>> > Saturday, 26 May 2007
>> >
>> > I have been working on getting able gamers an interview with the
>> > legendary Sid Meier for over a year. Sending my first inquiry to
>> > Firaxis on May 18, 2006. At the time we received a positive response,
>> > but it seemed the activities around Railroads! caused our interview to
>> > be derailed. So I was all excited when a little over a month ago I was
>> > able to get the attention of the folks at Firaxis again. In short,
>> > Ablegamers was able to get an interview from Firaxis, but Sid was to
>> > busy for the interview. I admit I am disappointed, the views of
>> > someone as legendary as Sid would help the plight of disabled gamers
>> > all over the world, because when Sid talks, game developers listen. He
>> > was able to give us an opening statement, and for that I am grateful.
>> >
>> > That being said, Barry Caudill, Executive Producer, Firaxis Games sat
>> > down with us. Now I admire Barry a l lot, and he and I have a lot in
>> > common, he is a musician, as am I. He also started life as in the
>> > Quality Assurance department, and I have been in QA for 12 years,
>> > currently heading a QA department here in the tech corridor of
>> > Northern Virginia. Someday I hope to have Barry's job, just don't tell
>> > him.
>> >
>> > I am still holding out for an interview with Sid...
>> >
>> > Sid Meier:
>> >
>> > Hello AbleGamers!
>> >
>> > We're happy that Mark approached us for an interview. Its been a great
>> > introduction to your website and the start of what we hope to be a
>> > mutually beneficial relationship with your community. We want our
>> > games to be played and enjoyed by as many people as possible, and
>> > we're always looking for ways to achieve that goal. Firaxis has a very
>> > active and vocal fan community and the thoughts, ideas and concerns we
>> > hear from them have a big impact on the games we make. We invite you
>> > to become part of our community and look forward to hearing from you.
>> > Stay Civilized,
>> >
>> > Sid Meier
>> >
>> > *Ablegamers:* Do you take into account this large disabled segment of
>> > the US population (comparable to other nations as well) when
>> > developing games?
>> >
>> > *Barry Caudill: *We do make attempts to accommodate as many people as
>> > possible when designing our games. For example, we did include the
>> > ability to map any key to any action when we were developing Pirates.
>> > Mostly we work to support the predominant control systems available
>> > (keyboard, mouse, gamepad, joystick) wherever we can so people can
>> > choose what they want to use where it makes sense. We would be
>> > interested in hearing more about what the disabled community needs
>> > from our games.
>> >
>> > *AG:* Do you think that the disabled demographic is an underutilized
>> > market for mainstream games?
>> >
>> > *BC:* I have no frame of reference from which to answer this question.
>> > I think you'd be a better judge of that.
>> >
>> > *AG:* What is Firaxis Games doing to support the people with
>> > disabilities within the gaming community?
>> >
>> > *BC:* There is such a wide range of disabilities which makes it
>> > challenging to know exactly what players with disabilities need in
>> > games. We've made some accommodations with keyboard mapping, better
>> > user interfaces, and more graphic visuals and sound. Again, we're open
>> > to hearing more from disabled folks in the gaming community, we want
>> > everyone to enjoy our games
>> >
>> > *AG:* When you take a game into beta testing, have you ever
>> > intentionally brought people in that are disabled?
>> >
>> > *BC:* No we haven't specifically looked for people with disabilities
>> > for our beta testing teams. We want folks who are passionate about our
>> > games - we don't ask questions about their physical and mental
>> > abilities when looking for testers. Having said that, there may well
>> > be folks with disabilities on our beta teams, they just haven't
>> > identified themselves as such.
>> >
>> > *AG:* I know a few that would help (*Wink*)
>> >
>> > *BC:* We can always use more help (wink right back atcha ;) and we'd
>> > welcome your participation.
>> >
>> > *AG: *Simple changes to game interfaces, such as the ability to custom
>> > map actions to the keyboard or other input devices on the market (many
>> > for people with disabilities), or alternatives to the drag and drop
>> > (very hard for many) could make games better gamers with disabilities
>> > as well as those without.
>> >
>> > Do you think it is worth a developer's time to add these features to
>> > games?
>> >
>> > *BC:* I think we are in favor of adding anything that helps people
>> > play the game - provided it doesn't somehow hamper the overall
>> > intended game experience.
>> >
>> > *AG:* Nate, my partner in crime on AbleGamers.com, has a
>> > motor/muscular disorder; he says the best way for a fully able bodies
>> > person to understand what it is like to suffer from tremors or tactile
>> > issues is to try imagining the following scenarios: That one or both
>> > of your arms has fallen asleep, how well could you play the game? That
>> > you are shivering from the cold, how would that affect playability?
>> >
>> > Imagining that, would you still want to play the games you loved? If
>> > so, how would you do it?
>> >
>> > *BC: *I don't have a clue. It's incredibly hard for me to imagine
>> > exactly how I would feel under such circumstances and it's equally
>> > hard to imagine not being able to play the games I love. If Nate has
>> > some ideas to share with us we'd like to hear them.
>> >
>> > *AG:* Let me ask you something that has stumped me. There are 7.9
>> > Million people in the US who have a vision-related disability, with
>> > 1.8 million unable to see at all (according to the US Census Bureau),
>> > do you think main-stream gaming industry could do a better job trying
>> > to make games accessible to the visually impaired? Any ideas how?
>> >
>> > *BC:* The mainstream gaming industry is a very visual medium so it's
>> > definitely a challenge figuring out how to create the full game
>> > experience for the visually impaired. I think there could be an
>> > alternative kind of game designed around auditory clues or other forms
>> > of sensory perception. Games like this would probably require some
>> > form of private funding to get off the ground.
>> >
>> > *AG:* In addition, before we go, we at AbleGamers.com want to thank
>> > you for your time, I am sure that you are a very busy man with the
>> > expansion to Civ4 and maybe a Railroads! expansion also being worked 
>> > on.
>> >
>> > So my last few questions:
>> >
>> > Has this interview made you further consider the issue of people with
>> > disabilities and how they play video games?
>> >
>> > *BC:* Yes it has. I'm looking forward to hearing more from the
>> > community with ideas on how we can make our games more accessible.
>> >
>> > *AG:* Will you factor that thought into currently developing games, or
>> > future works?
>> >
>> > *BC:* It will remain a part of the design discussions and we will do
>> > our best to make accommodations where we can.
>> >
>> > *AG:* Any final thoughts on this subject?
>> >
>> > *BC:* Thanks for the interview and keep the feedback coming.
>> >
>> > *AG:* What are you working on now? What can we look forward to from
>> > such a famed game designer?
>> >
>> > *BC:* We're working on a game that could very well be the best game
>> > we've ever made. Stay tuned for more details soon!
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Last Updated ( Saturday, 16 June 2007 )
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
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>> > games_access at igda.org
>> > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access
>> >
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