[games_access] Game control question...

[d. michelle hinn]

>On Jan 20, 2008 4:33 PM, d. michelle hinn <hinn at uiuc.edu> wrote:
>>  >On Jan 18, 2008 2:04 PM, d. michelle hinn <hinn at uiuc.edu> wrote:
>>  That's what we now have some funding to do -- at last! It takes
>>  money/time-time/money as you know to come up with these plans, get a
>>  flashy brouchure/investers package printed out, etc in order to get
>>  more money to do things like contacting companies and arranging for
>>  them to have a controller and/or purchase one themselves.
>
>Yep - it's very hard work.  One thought, I shopped my ideas a little
>looking to get help on my hardware and software costs for my current
>projects in the area (estimating ~$5k/year) and was told that was
>*way* below most investors' interest level - even for philanthropic
>grants - and I'd have an easier time raising $1 million for it if I
>could figure out how to spend it.

Heh -- that's interesting to know. And kind of not surprising, sadly. 
Oh, I think we could spend some major cash on hiring people to do all 
kinds of work. What were those investor's names? ;)

>  > I must admit that I'm kinda torn between buying controllers for the
>>  companies that could easily afford to buy one themselves and buying
>>  them to give away to gamers that would actually use them day-to-day.
>
>Totally understand, but I think the numbers work out better if we
>target the industry for awareness first.  Then we just have to
>convince resource centers / insurance companies / disability
>associations that gaming is important enough to help fund for
>individuals :)  Might be worth talking to the people at Child's Play
>for ideas on raising cash to get controllers into the hands of people
>that need them.

Well, awareness has been our purpose and what we've been trying to do 
for most of this decade. But without slick packages (back to that 
whole "ask for millions and you have a better chance" thing) and 
demonstrating how a company can financially benefit from including 
accessibility, that's where we get stuck. It's not that the industry 
on the whole is completely unaware -- indeed more and more know we 
exist. But it comes down to numbers in the end -- we get asked "how 
many more gamers would game if they could game and could afford the 
controllers and how does that even out what we would spend on making 
changes to our, say, control scheme and even increase our revenue 
share." Frustrating...that and we need to provide that, it seems, for 
EVERY type of accessibility feature (ie, how much $$ would a company 
get if they put in closed captioning, changed their color scheme, 
etc). And with different companies having different budgets, valuing 
different game attributes, etc...that's not easy.

Actually Child's Play is already on board to help us out as a grant 
partner. :) But yes...convincing resource centers is another slice of 
the pie -- that's actually my own personal research bent, about how 
access to gaming is important. And I've been collecting email 
addresses for resource centers, etc to learn about us -- because it's 
those groups that have actually been the very groups that don't know 
about us. There's been some conflict of interest as a group because 
we are focused on game devs because of our IGDA affiliation. The good 
news, however, is that the IGDA and the new ECA (electronic consumers 
assn) are friends and that's resulting in the ECA joining in with us 
-- hopefully that will result in some money for an awareness campaign 
that is also aimed at disability groups.

>  > I need to come up with this for the SIG grant and it's a steep
>>  learning curve for me. It's something I need to learn how to do now
>>  that we're playing in the big(ger?) leagues now!
>
>Yep. I'll try to help with what I can.  First off - what are our
>goals?  My guesses would be something along the lines of:
>
>1.) To promote awareness of the needs of disabled gamers.
>2.) To research and develop technologies to bridge the gap between
>disabled gamers and the games themselves.
>3.) To promote the results of research and development efforts and try
>to get enabling technologies incorporated within mainstream games.

I'll get back to this in a bit but, yes, those are definitely three 
main goals. Yeah, I get you when you say that you've not been in the 
main business zone and that university curriculum have, uh, some 
problems. Part of me wonders if game accessibility might get picked 
up as a "challenge" for the participants in Trump's Apprentice show. 
Part of that part of me thinks...well...could it?

>  > Yeah...those controllers aren't cheap -- and I have a completely
>>  broken one thanks to airport security (I've taken it through carry on
>>  and through checked luggage -- doesn't matter, they break it anyway).
>>  But, as you know...it *does* look a little suspicious. However, I
>>  think that they might be better off worrying about the things that
>>  don't look suspicious. I guess!
>
>This I could rant on for even longer :)  Long-haired hackers with
>goatees wearing old T-shirts and blue jeans are also extremely
>suspicious and *must* get the extra special treatment every time they
>get on planes if they have to be allowed on at all.  Might be safer,
>if more expensive, to use FedEx or UPS to ship the thing to a hotel or
>convention sponsor, then back home.
>
>Do you have one that works for the show?

Yep -- luckily I have another and Eelke has one as well. And, yes, 
these things will be going UPS from now on! And, yes, hackers totally 
identify with our airline plight -- I explained this to many at E4All 
and they already understood exactly what I'd been through!

>  > Anyway, I'm asking him if he can fix it for me -- I think he'd be
>>  willing to do so if he and I could come up with a repair fee that was
>>  fair value. I'm sure we can!
>
>Post it if he's got an estimate.  What's broken on it?

Oh just about everything. Basically anything that can be taken off of 
the controller has been so it's all a bunch of wires and broken 
switches, missing tubes, etc. So it's in pretty bad shape!

Michelle