[games_access] The Human Controller

[Barrie Ellis]

Hi Eitan,

I've read through your thesis "The Human Controller"...

Had these thoughts...

Didn't like some of the language used. "Suffering from - impaired people - 
handicapped". All pretty crusty old terms with negative connotations.

Not sure about the controller analysis in Chapter 1 - there's been Driving 
controllers and light guns since the 70's for many games consoles - which 
are fairly natural feeling interfaces and have been popular in the past.

"Even if it is possible to remap controls it is not always advisable to do 
so. Frequently part of the fun of a game is the interface, and changing it 
without forethought is potentially detrimental. In the pervious example of 
Wii Sports tennis part of the fun is actually swinging the controller as if 
it were a racket. If this functionality were changed to pressing a button 
then much of the game's charm and fun would be lost.". I'm not happy with 
this statement personally - I'd like to see multiple-layers of accessibility 
(much like Dimitris "Parallel Universes" theory). Why can't a four player 
game of Wii Sports allow player 1 to use the Wii-remote - player 2 to use a 
standard JoyPad - player 3 to use a single button and player 4 to use an 
adapted Wii-remote with blue-tooth stereo head-set to relay personalised 
timing sounds (think of live singers having a click track that only they can 
hear) in an ideal world? You mention this type of thing later as if it's a 
good thing - so I find this early statement a bit overly negative.

"Games have evolved tremendously over the past few decades, as advancements 
in technology have led to amazingly realistic and engaging offerings, while 
shifts in player demographics indicate the widespread popularity of video 
games. Despite these changes many different disabled groups are still unable 
to play most titles due to inaccessible UIs.." - Would argue that too. I'd 
agree that most Blind gamers would be in that boat (those with very little 
usable sight) - but a better statement might have been "many different 
disabled groups are faced with deeply frustrating barriers with many 
main-stream games". I know Deaf gamers might struggle at certain points of 
certain games - and gamers using a single button frequently have to rely 
upon a friend/helper to take on extra controls and so on - but they can 
still play.


Chaper 2

"Game controls should be as simple as possible, but no simpler." - Not 
really sure what you're saying here.


2.5 "a rhythm title like Guitar Hero which focuses on music will not work 
for the hearing impaired, and it is probably not possible to make an 
accessible version." - I don't agree with this. Deaf gamers as a whole 
covers a very broad range of hearing ability. There will be many deaf gamers 
perfectly able to play Guitar Hero. Even those unable to hear at all might 
enjoy such a game - did you see Deaf Gamers 8.5/10 review score: 
http://www.deafgamers.com/07reviews_a/gh3_x360.html

But aside from this, I frequently found myself in full agreement with the 
majority of your thesis - and did enjoy reading it. Thanks for making it 
publicly available.

Barrie


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eitan Glinert" <glinert at mit.edu>
To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" <games_access at igda.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2008 10:50 PM
Subject: [games_access] The Human Controller


> Good news, everyone! In a surprise twist, I'm graduating! I know a lot
> of you are interested in my thesis, so you can check it out at
> web.mit.edu/glinert/www/thesis . I'm happy to answer questions about
> it, and I welcome feedback (both positive and negative). Special
> thanks to Dimitris, Eelke, Michelle, and Reid for all their help
> answering my questions over the months.
>
> In case you're not sure whether it is worth reading, here's some more 
> info:
>
> TITLE: The Human Controller: Usability and Accessibility in Video Game
> Interfaces
>
> ABSTRACT:
> Despite the advances in user interfaces and the new gaming genres, not
> all people can play all games - disabled people are frequently
> excluded from game play experiences. On the one hand this adds to the
> list of discriminations disabled people face in our society, while on
> the other hand actively including them potentially results in games
> that are better for everyone. The largest hurdle to involvement is the
> user interface, or how a player interacts with the game. Analyzing
> usability and adhering to accessibility design principles makes it
> both possible and practical to develop fun and engaging game user
> interfaces that a broader range of the population can play. To
> demonstrate these principles we created AudiOdyssey, a PC rhythm game
> that is accessible to both sighted and non-sighted audiences. By
> following accessibility guidelines we incorporated a novel combination
> of features resulting in a similar play experience for both groups.
> Testing AudiOdyssey yielded useful insights into which interface
> elements work and which don't work for all users. Finally a case is
> made for considering accessibility when designing future versions of
> gaming user interfaces, and speculative scenarios are presented for
> what such interfaces might look like.
>
> Eitan
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