[games_access] You Can Make a Difference

[Sandra Uhling]

Hi,

in a Xing group we discussed about the Wii games.
The topic was that the market is "saturated"/"sated".

But is this true? There are lots of gamers who would like to play, but
can`t.



It is a good advise that we have to give positive feedback.
I called the company who made the "kunst des mordens" game.
The person was surprised that I was happy about the "accessibility"
features.
She did not know that their game has this.

Best regards,
Sandra

> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-
> bounces at igda.org] Im Auftrag von John Bannick
> Gesendet: Donnerstag, 3. Dezember 2009 11:08
> An: games_access at igda.org
> Betreff: [games_access] You Can Make a Difference
> 
> Folks,
> 
> The SIG does more to make computer games accessible than anywhere else
> I've found on the Web.
> 
> Here's something additional we all can do this month.
> 
> 1. Buy accessible games as gifts (Not necessarily ours, but anyones’)
> 2. Suggest to friends and family that accessible games make good gifts
> 3. And, most importantly, suggest to everyone who’ll stand still for a
> minute that they tell game companies when they’ve bought their game
> because it was accessible.
> 
> Our own 7-128 Software recently released Visit Salem, a travelogue
> game. It includes over 6 hours of audio descriptions, history,
> architecture, music and interviews. It’s also totally inaccessible to
> players who are blind, deaf, or motion-impaired.
> 
> Why? Because it would take an additional 6 months to make it
> accessible. Even with a code base that includes a lot of accessibility
> features and useful guidance from John Oliveira, a colleague and head
> of our Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, and from you and other
> folks I know in the accessibility community.
> 
> I’d love to make it accessible to players who are blind, or deaf, or
> motion-impaired. But the consensus among our management team is that
> there are too few potential sales to justify the effort and expense, at
> least at this time.
> 
> Game margins are razor slim. Electronic Arts lost tens of millions of
> dollars this year, also last year. The difference between profit and
> loss at our small mainstream company is tiny.
> 
> Posts by other colleagues suggest that a few more sales could help pay
> their light bills, too.
> 
> Posts by Barrie, Dark, Mark Barlet, Brian Papineau, and my own
> experience here suggest that some mainstream game companies do respond
> positively when you tell them “I buy your stuff because you make it
> work for me. I buy other people’s stuff when you don’t” (Recent news
> notwithstanding)
> 
> So, over the next few weeks you personally can make a difference by
> bugging people to buy accessible games and for them to tell developers
> when they do.
> 
> John Bannick
> Chief Technical Officer
> 7-128 Software
> 
>