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I propose someone make a video game for people who are simultaneously blind, deaf, lame, and have no haptic perception.
As a challenge, you can add "no sense of smell or taste" and Alzheimer's to the list.
Post edited December 16, 2009 by Miaghstir
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anjohl: My statement, and the logic which follows it, are BOTH correct.

Not correct in the context of blind people playing video games though. There are links in this thread that prove that "Certain mediums require certain senses" does not apply to video games and vision. Even First hand accounts by blind gamers disproving it.
Games for the blind? You know, I think I played one of those...
http://www.moddb.com/mods/blind-monks-society
It's a Source mod that allows you to simulate blindness. Basically, you stare at a black screen and navigate based on audible cues alone. Fun, albeit short...
A literal "video" game for someone who is completely unable to see is a contradiction in terms, but that's no reason why sound-based computer or platform games can't be developed for a blind audience. That said, I suspect there won't be many such games created in the future, just because the target market is so small.
Post edited December 16, 2009 by Prator
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Prator: Games for the blind? You know, I think I played one of those...
http://www.moddb.com/mods/blind-monks-society
It's a Source mod that allows you to simulate blindness. Basically, you stare at a black screen and navigate based on audible cues alone. Fun, albeit short...
A literal "video" game for someone who is completely unable to see is a contradiction in terms, but that's no reason why sound-based computer or platform games can't be developed for a blind audience. That said, I suspect there won't be many such games created in the future, just because the target market is so small.

I don't think anyone is really arguing that specialized games can't be made (admittedly, I made it a point to ignore the battle of self-verified logic :p). I think the main question is if a mainstream game could ever be blind-accessible.
ie. equally fun for both a blind person and a sighted person.
Because, as evidenced in this thread, most of the methods that could make mainstream games blind-accessible are either borderline offensive (turn your blind buddy into a glorified macro!) or would ruin the experience for those who see (additional audio tones to say what button to press in a music game).
They have some specialized games already. Mostly poker/card games. Some chess, too.
Most mainstream adventure games or japanese style visual novels (of the Phoenix Wright variety) are surprisingly accessible to blind persons. Fast moving games, not so much. It's a visual medium, so there's only so much you can do to make it more accessible. The sky's not exactly the limit (blind people ain't driving anytime soon either) , but like closed captioning for the hearing impaired (which doesn't degrade anyone else's experience), I don't think screen reader text on major publisher's more accessible titles is asking a whole lot from a design standpoint. You just dump the script, menus, and some of the action event scripting titles (the onclicks, I forget the name for them) onto the disc. You can hide the menus from everyone else unless necessary.
Still, the chess and board games are really pretty acessible anyway.
You use JAWS, by the way. It's screen reader software. Used with Voice Input like Dragon, many more of these things are in folks' grasp then you might think.
The assistive tech and ludology journals occasionally run stuff on this.
Post edited December 16, 2009 by cioran