[games_access] Accessible Game Design Initiative, in planning phase now.

[AudioGames.net]

Hi,

*quote*
The sad fact is that the GD SIG folks will undoubtedly focus mostly on stuff 
other than accessibility.
*quote end*

In my opinion it's simply a fact, not really "sad". I think it's merely 
important to show game designers what the true potential of "accessible game 
design" [1] is for them. In my opinion, Accessible Game Design is not about 
making the game Interface accessible (with accessible input technology or 
with accessible output technology, including the (re-)rendering of 
information and transformation of one medium to another) [2]. It is about 
make the actual game design accessible. This involves new ways of dealing 
with existing game design paramaters (such as adaptive parameters) and maybe 
finding new parameters (which could actually lead to new exciting game 
designs).
For the past few years that I've been involved with game accessibility I 
found that this field is on a gliding scale ranging from "easy game 
accessibility" to "difficult game accessibility". There are accessibility 
issues that are relatively easy to solve but there are also issues for which 
no solution is apparant. I have the thesis that the simple issues are more 
related to the interfaces of games and that the difficult issues are more 
related to game design. And that there is also a relationship between the 
two: sometimes making a game interface accessible will still leave the game 
inaccessible - or not fun (my #6 in my 9+1 Game Accessibility Key Points 
document).

So... I think it is just right that GD SIG folks focus on Game Design (it's 
what the SIG is for). Because I think it is that expertise that is needed to 
tackle difficult game accessibility issues.

Greets,

Richard


[1] see other thread...
[2] which would be Accessible Game Interface Design (with Interface *not* 
referring to the in-game HUD ;)



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Bannick" <jbannick at 7128.com>
To: <games_access at igda.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 3:36 AM
Subject: [games_access] Accessible Game Design Initiative,in planning phase 
now.


> Folks,
>
> Personally, I agree with Michelle and Thomas: this is an opportunity to
> share info.
>
> In fact, what Reid is doing is injecting GA SIG plasma into the GD SIG 
> cell.
>
> The sad fact is that the GD SIG folks will undoubtedly focus mostly on
> stuff other than accessibility. I mean, do we expect them to be different
> than the other 6 billion of us?
>
> At the end of the day, the GA SIG is the only place where academics,
> developers, and media mavens (Mark, you're a victim of your own success)
> meet to discuss accessible gaming.
>
> John the Geek
>
>
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