Hello there folks! Now today I was debating on what to post first. I’ve found some really wonderful, and often times nostalgic, games around the webs and via console formats. I’ve also been spending a lot of time working on finding innovative technical improvements in the world of games as well though, and today, that won out as the topic of the day today. A game [ or games if I feel so inclined. ] will come later I promise. Now – onto the good stuff! So it’s not often I’m surprised by technical inventions in the world of games. Let’s face it the Wii didn’t even scare me or shock me that much.

I had this overwhelming feeling that motion control was the way the game industry was headed, but I just hoped they’d keep some semblance of an old control scheme – so much for that. What if the motions on the screen don’t matter though? What if you can’t see at all, and thus, can’t play many games with your friends?

The fact of the matter is though that a young lady from Mountain View, CA may very well have started something that I am totally supportive of. Now I’m not blind, though sometimes with my bad eyesight it feels like it, but I’ve had some blind friends before and I can’t imagine someone who used to be a gamer no longer being able to enjoy experiences of their youth due to loss of sight. This is something that I feel needs to be drastically fixed, and Rupinder Dhillon is taking a step towards making that gaming reality come true.

Today we’re talking about blind gamers and Dhillon has taken a wonderful stride forward with her product called Rock Vibe. She developed the concept during her time in college at UC Santa Cruz. Now Rock Vibe is an extremely cool concept. It works on the idea of sensor vibration in a fitted glove to play their game. A sensor in the glove will let you know when a color is coming up, and when you get it wrong it will make a small sound, as well as if you get it right. Now what does this mean? “Certainly I don’t want yet another music game to clutter my household I’ve already got 20” – you say. Well, sure, you’ve got 20 games that can be shared with your sighted friend while your blind friend has to sit off to the side and imagine that he, or she, is at the world’s worst karaoke concert – but do you have one they can participate with? Probably not.

My point is that games should be accessible to all people, and to exclude someone from activity just because they’ve lost their sense of sight isn’t a cause to say that gaming is dead for them. Gaming can still be achieved, but you just have to know where to look. The Rock Vibe glove looks like an amazing stride forward in the gaming industry, and if the game itself isn’t made, I hope that Dhillon at least gets credit where credit is due and someone picks her prototype up. The vibration glove she uses for this project could impact the way blind individuals can play in the future of games.

Blind people may have the inability to see, but their audio acuity is impeccable. As designers, we need to take this knowledge of the blind anatomy and put it to good use rather than squander it and exclude the visually impaired from the mainstream market. Dhillon is making strides to get kids involved in the music market, but what about other games? I look ahead towards the future and I see a gaming universe that uses her technology for the better. A game based where it can be played via controller for the sighted, and audio cues for the blind. We need to cross technological boundaries we haven’t crossed before. We need to attempt games that can be accessible to all people, and our consoles and PCs need to accommodate them all.

Below is her Kickstarter link. The project will be available for PC, if produced at it’s current level, but I’m hoping for future endeavors. Please folks she has 3 DAYS left on her Kickstarter campaign and she’s about 2,500 shy of her goal. If you have a blind family member or friend, I urge you to check this out. This may very well be the next set of hardware coming out for gaming consoles and making life a little better for blind and sighted gamers. It’s amazing to me that such technology goes falling by the wayside, but that’s why I’m here I suppose. I’ll let her explain the whole process, but I do pray you guys check this lady out. She’s an amazing inventor and she has a wonderful concept that could help not only music games become more accessible, but possibly other games designed for audio cues as well.

Much love gaming nation. Take care and let’s see this world becoming gaming accessible for all!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rupa211/rock-vibe-accessible-gaming?ref=category

You are a player and you’re sitting at home with your friends about to play your favorite game. The game you’re going to be playing is on a console, and that console you own has a controller with about 16 different button inputs attached to it. Everything from the start button the trigger bumpers, which almost come standard now in new controllers, are all present for your available hand’s desires. Now imagine though that you’re a gamer, who has no use of their hands, or no use of one hand – how does this now limit your enjoyment of your favorite game? You can no longer do actions you’re used to – do you preserver and try to overcome? – or do you RAGEQUIT and storm out of the room, ashamed that you no longer can do an activity you enjoyed to your fullest potential?

On today’s Tech Talk we dive head first into the deep underbelly of the game industry and we come up with a rather interesting image. Disabled gamers aren’t able to enjoy console games like most players’ can, and this is a sad, unfortunate truth. In a video provided by AbleGamers.com’s Youtube channel, they give a visual perspective on just how large a scope disabled gamers must deal with in the console market. These individuals are precious and important, because their lives matter, and because they matter we should aim to making their lives as enjoyable as possible. Button remapping could change the game on the way disabled gamers are able to interact with video games, as well as possible one-touch input controllers for one handed gamers, and that will all be discussed here.

Button remapping, for those who are not aware, is a function where a player is allowed to assign an input value to a given button on a controller. PC games are notorious for using them, and are commonly referred to as Macro keys, or hot keys, on most MMO’s or online games.  The problem is, the PC market is only one market. You are then excluding all players who wish to play console games, but can’t due to a physical impairment that they have no control over. The opposition would claim that most console games do eventually come out to PC. True, but not all PC games have Macro settings either, and lots of them require multiple keys, and inputs to perform one task.

I have trolled Youtube forums, and been to many game discussion boards about button remapping and it sickens me when I see comments from people who say that if given button remapping that may “give any player an edge, if it’s presented openly.” So the opinion is, that if designers gave players the open free will to map their own unique layouts to their controllers that somehow – there’d be an uprising of hackers who would learn to dominate the games systems?

Are you kidding me? Disabled gamers are already impaired and all they want is a fair and balanced shot at playing any game just like you. Does that mean the skill of competition may rise up in a Call of Duty game if you give a man with one hand the option to customize his outputs? Possibly – but what does that say about you as a player if you’re the man who gets owned by said player? It doesn’t mean he, or she, cheated the system, it means that given a fair playing field, disabled gamers can be just as good, if not better than able gamers. Now I’m not trying to turn this into a rant, and we’re here to talk tech – not controversy – so I’ll move on. Button remapping is important, and should be thought of as a viable addition to new games.

Most games now come with a pre-determined output setting, or give you an option of a few multiple presets, assuming that these outputs are the norm for folks. I personally have function of both of my hands just fine, but can you imagine the percentage of gamers in America that deal with loss of limbs, malfunctioning digits, muscle movements, and other physical aliments that don’t allow them the luxury to use these presets?  That’s why button remapping is important, because despite the naysayers and the apparent expense behind it to add the functionality, the ends would justify the means. Developers would be helping to serve their fellow man, or woman, gamer in ways we never assumed possible.

Here’s another video on a product that was designed by Evil Controllers [ link in the sidebar.] called the Adroite Switchblade. Granted the one presented here is a prototype and the number he announces in the video would make any morphine strapped gamer vomit in his bedpan at the estimate – but that’s the thing. It’s a prototype. It’s there for an example of what could be a great option in the development of games and hardware. I hope that it makes it to a mainstream market, because it’s very much needed for disabled gamers to feel a part of something very special. Developers have focused so much on the need for motion control that I often wonder if they’ve even considered how many gamers lack that very key principle to the products they devote games to? Easily optimizable controls, HUD display changes for the vision impaired, and well – basically giving a gamer customizable outputs changes the accessibility of a game tremendously overall.

So what are your thoughts? I want to hear from others; if possible, do you feel that button remapping is an unfair advantage to the already disadvantaged? – And if you agree that button remapping should be implemented into consoles – how do you think companies should go about doing something like that to provide an equal playing field for their games? Feel free to watch the videos, comment, and visit the corresponding sites for more info on their causes, projects, and efforts in fixing the industry to help disabled gamers become just as immersed as the rest of us. Next time we’ll discuss money in the market and how much developers lose when we don’t recognize these concerns for the gaming market. Thanks guys for reading and enjoying and I look forward to your opinions!

– Chad K.