[games_access] Whinge and whine

Mon Mar 26 12:28:45 EDT 2012

Simply: I felt that single comment made, on a public video, was not a fair reflection of all the hard work gone by of other people dating back before most of us had an interest (Pong days onwards). That doesn't take away my admiration for AbleGamers at all. I do believe the site is very impressive and the forum the most inclusive that's out there so far. I do think gaining the ear of any developer from wannabe-designers, sole coders, indies to main-stream is a great thing - and AbleGamers is doing that. I do think getting press is great news. The awards are good news. I do think AbleGamers was the first professional looking site to cover a broader range of accessibility issues for a broader range of disabled gamers. I just didn't like that comment. That's all.

Barrie

From: Steve Spohn 
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2012 4:56 PM
To: 'IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List' 
Subject: Re: [games_access] Whinge and whine

Interesting tactic, trying to call out AbleGamers on the public list. You forgot some of the information, so I'll fill in the blanks for you.

This video was not produced by us, it was produced by the American Association of people with disabilities, which is basically the largest umbrella organization for the general disabled community in America. The reason they produced this video is because Mark Barlet and the AbleGamers foundation won the Hearne award for excellence in leadership, because we're starting to get game accessibility noticed by the mainstream media and public. We shot over two days with approximately 14 hours of video, and it was only a 4 min. piece of which we didn't get more than 2 min. of what we shot.

In 2004 finding information to the extent that AG covers mainstream videogames, has a level of connection with developers, and roots into the industry was extremely difficult. I'm talking information that is not fragmented by specific disability, specific need, or even worse talking to caretakers and not the disabled individual. Heck, Barrie, in 2008 when I was looking for information on gaming with a motor impairment disability AbleGamers is what Google gave me a full page result on, I didn't even hear about OneSwitch until I joined the organization.

Do you know how many quad controllers, quad joys and Quises the ablegamers foundation has sold to people in need? Do you know how many people we have referred to DeafGamers and AudioGames? Tons. Why? Because if AG can't help them, we send them where they can get help. 

So, here's my suggestion. Instead of trying to mince words and whine over how an award that Mark and AbleGamers won didn't mention anything other than the award winner, maybe you should celebrate the fact that game accessibility is beginning to push hard. 

And my final suggestion, to you, Barrie, is to stop trying to rain on accomplishments that are made by AbleGamers. It's gotten to the point where I don't post what we are up to or do on this list because if I do there is a snide comment or no comment at all about the accomplishment. Meanwhile, when SpecialEffect does something good for the movement, do you see me on here complaining about how you didn't mention AbleGamers? How AbleGamers was first or does more or any other put down? No. You don't see that. Because there's no point in putting down each other.

You want to help the movement? Stop quibbling over who's getting the press and who's saying what and focus on helping the disabled individuals who need the help. Because you know what. They don't give two flying rats WHO started it all as long as they get help! 

Steve Spohn

Editor-In-Chief

The AbleGamers Foundation

www.ablegamers.com - community site

www.ablegamers.org - foundation website

www.gameaccessibility.org - learn the basics of game accessibility

Skype ID Steve_Spohn

From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of John R. Porter
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2012 11:31 AM
To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List
Subject: Re: [games_access] Whinge and whine

To be fair, I think we need to draw a distinction between the existence of resources for accessible gaming and infrastructures to support the community of disabled gamers.if I don't think anyone would argue that the former didn't exist prior to 2004, but these sites (such as the specific sites you reference, Barrie) very much focused on providing solutions to gamers more than opening a dialogue, not to mention the fact that they tend to be rather sharply fragmented along the lines of certain impairments or certain types of adaptations.

So while AbleGamers obviously didn't start the entire movement, I think it is probably fair to say that they were the first to do what they do: serve as a hub for gamers, developers, and others to come together in a single, coherent community setting to engage in discussions related to issues of game accessibility. When I watched the video, this was the message I took away from it. Perhaps the specific framing of the comment wasn't the best and may have underplayed the prevalence of these smaller, specialized sites, but then again I think we all know how easily this sort of thing can be lost in the editing process (especially when you aren't actually in charge of the video).

-John

On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 7:59 AM, Richard (AudioGames.net) <richard at audiogames.net> wrote:

Yes... well... ditto that... maybe Mark would like to elaborate on that (if you're still here?)?

I can imagine that this is just "one of those phrases" to spice up the documentary. Sander and I used a sort of similar quote in our Gamasutra article on game audio frameworks* : "surprisingly little has been written in the field of ludology about the structure and composition of game audio. " - which unfortunately hurt some fellow game audio researchers in maybe a similar fashion. Even though I still believe it is factually true, I would now have used a lot more nuance.

At the end of the day, the IGDA-SIG was the first real organized attempt at tackling game accessibility issues. Proof:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_accessibility

(BIG WINK)

Greets,

Richard!

*http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3509/ieza_a_framework_for_game_audio.php

On 26-3-2012 16:38, Barrie Ellis wrote: 

  Forgive me for a public whinge - but seeing this latest AbleGamers video did get my goat a little: http://youtu.be/BM8iNa87-Po at 1:17 minutes in. Really?

  I remember prior to AbleGamers c.2004, and it wasn't too hard to find sites dedicated to accessible gaming (e.g. QuadControl, AudioGames.net, PCSgamer, PDG accessible controllers, DeafGamers, OneSwitch and more besides). It's possible Mark really couldn't find them, it just comes across in the video like AbleGamers started the GameAccessibility movement.

  Whinge over.

  Barrie

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