Depends on what you consider a disability. I'm legally blind in my right eye so I can never use any of this 3D shit that everyone is wasting time on these days.
The AbleGamers Foundation was recently refused press passes for E3 on the basis that they and disabled gamers "weren't large enough". As a gamer with a disability myself I was a little insulted by this. Also a gaming enthusiast, I'm aware of a number of people attending E3 as exhibitors and press that have a disability. Just because we don't wear a pin that says,"Hey, I have a disability you can't see", doesn't mean we don't exist.
UPDATE: Around 4 PM today AbleGamers representatives were contacted by the E3 organizers and notified they will be provided press passes.
" The AbleGamers Foundation was recently refused press passes for E3 on the basis that they and disabled gamers "weren't large enough". As a gamer with a disability myself I was a little insulted by this. Also a gaming enthusiast, I'm aware of a number of people attending E3 as exhibitors and press that have a disability. Just because we don't wear a pin that says,"Hey, I have a disability you can't see", doesn't mean we don't exist. "
I personally don't have a disability but I think it's disgusting that they were rejected. There a tons of smaller sites that get into E3 so for AbleGamers Foundation to get rejected on the basis of there aren't enough disabled gamers is idiotic.
" The AbleGamers Foundation was recently refused press passes for E3 on the basis that they and disabled gamers "weren't large enough". As a gamer with a disability myself I was a little insulted by this. Also a gaming enthusiast, I'm aware of a number of people attending E3 as exhibitors and press that have a disability. Just because we don't wear a pin that says,"Hey, I have a disability you can't see", doesn't mean we don't exist. "
I'm not disabled myself and while I can understand your spirits being a little dampened by these events, you must remember that E3 is an entirely commercial event. While I sympathise with anyone who has a disability, E3 isn't about representing gaming demographics, it's about getting out information about video game software and hardware to other companies, journalism outlets, and the public, and so when they denied the AbleGamers Foundation access to the conference it wasn't likely that it was because they didn't accept the disabled as part of the gaming community, but rather that it only made sense to prioritise journalism outlets with a larger audience first. With all due respect there's no reason most disabled games consumers can't get the information on E3 through the journalism outlets many other people use.
@crusader8463: You bring up something that many people don't realize. Technically, you would be considered a person with a disability. A lot of people don't just don't think of something as common as a need for corrective lens as a disability. There are many common disabilities that people just don't think of because it isn't as obvious as a wheelchair or a white cane.
I work with a dude who is a quadriplegic and he games. He has good control with hands but not so good with his fingers. He rigged up a modded controller that he attaches this 'button belt' to. The belt goes around his torso that has two large buttons on his sides. So he pushes his elbows in towards his sides and they press the large buttons on the belt. He uses those as the triggers and uses the controller for everything else.
@RE_Player92: I'm dyslexic and have fine-motor skill control issues. Two things that culminated in drawing me to computers as a child and drawing me into gaming. WordPerfect saved my academics. Spell check and not having to handwrite papers was the only way I could have survived elementary school.
Depends on what you consider a disability. I'm legally blind in my right eye so I can never use any of this 3D shit that everyone is wasting time on these days.
"
Just before I say this I want you to understand that I'm not being an asshole.
Is that why your profile picture is of the left side of your face?
" @crusader8463: You bring up something that many people don't realize. Technically, you would be considered a person with a disability. A lot of people don't just don't think of something as common as a need for corrective lens as a disability. There are many common disabilities that people just don't think of because it isn't as obvious as a wheelchair or a white cane. "
It's also one of the reasons I prefer playing games on my PC. It's easier to see things when I'm sitting a few feet from a monitor then 6-10 feet from a TV. Plus if something is too hard to read I can just lower the resolution a few notches, while with console games I'm just stuck not being able to read it. Even with PC games I run into trouble some times though. The hardest ones for me are MMO's, because they have so many things on screen that the text needs to be small enough to fit it all on screen, but half the time I can't read it because it's too small and not all of the games offer a way to increase the text size.
I tend to run games at 1280x800 because that seems to be the right resolution for text size that I can read without needing to strain to do so. If I had a computer chair and could sit in front of my monitor instead of needing to sit 2-3 feet away on my bed like I am now I wouldn't have any problems, but I sadly can't afford a comfortable computer chair so I'm stuck with sitting on the bed.
Also, holding down the ctrl key and scrolling the mouse wheel while browsing the internet is the single greatest discovery for me since ctrl +c/ctrl+v and ctrl+alt+delete.
With all due respect there's no reason most disabled games consumers can't get the information on E3 through the journalism outlets many other people use. "
I agree if you want the news about E3, you can get it anywhere. When your a gamer that doesn't pay attention to most of the coverage because the majority of what is being shown is unplayable to you, you look to someone like AbleGamers to give you the pertinent information.
Also most press aren't going to ask the exhibitors what their company and developers are doing to accommodate gamers with disabilities.
Legally blind, both eyes, gotta get right up on the screen (and here's where it's tricky, since legally blind encompasses a whole range of notseeingness, for me it's about 8" inches from my 24" monitor)... 3D is NOT going to work for me.
Yes, blind, not visually impared, not visually challenged, not differently visually abled (whatever the hell THAT means). Blind. Thank you.
@Gamer_152: I will say that while handicapped (or if you're Bill Veeck, crippled) gamers CAN get their news from a number of sources just like everyone else; the AbleGamers Foundation would likely focus on things that the other sites wouldn't that would directly relate to how handicapped friendly the games and technology at the show are.
" @RE_Player92: I'm dyslexic and have fine-motor skill control issues. Two things that culminated in drawing me to computers as a child and drawing me into gaming. WordPerfect saved my academics. Spell check and not having to handwrite papers was the only way I could have survived elementary school. "
Sounds like you'd just be asking for a free pass. You're dyslexic, not crippled. I have some dominant eye vision shit making me unable to see 3d. Which, when it it comes to entertainment medums, is far more annoying than something fully irrelevant. I can totally see why E3 turned them down, it's a place that is packed as shit and doesn't need a bunch of beggars looking for a free handout.
Depends on what you consider a disability. I'm legally blind in my right eye so I can never use any of this 3D shit that everyone is wasting time on these days.
"
Just before I say this I want you to understand that I'm not being an asshole.
Is that why your profile picture is of the left side of your face?
"
Heh no. That was just how I was sitting when I took the photo, and the lighting on the other side of my face was shadowed. There is nothing wrong visually with my eye. It looks exactly like any good eye, I just can't see well out of it.
Hold up your hand with the index finger in a pointing position and move it behind your head. Then stare straight ahead and slowly move your hands forward and see how far you need to move your hand before you can see it out of the corner of your eye. After you do that bring the fingers together and if they don't match up then you have bad eye sight in one of your eyes. It might be just a little bit, or it could be a lot. When I do it my right hand is about 6 inches further forward then my left because of the bad eye sight in that eye.
I never even noticed it for most of my life, but when I went to get my drivers license I failed the eye exam. I remember being so annoyed, because I had studied for this dam test, but when I went to go take it I didn't even make it to the test because I failed the stupid eye exam.
I need glasses, but they are too expensive and my old ones broke a long time ago.
"Sounds like you'd just be asking for a free pass. You're dyslexic, not crippled. I have some dominant eye vision shit making me unable to see 3d. Which, when it it comes to entertainment medums, is far more annoying than something fully irrelevant. I can totally see why E3 turned them down, it's a place that is packed as shit and doesn't need a bunch of beggars looking for a free handout. "
I'm not sure what to make of your comment. However if you have as severe issues as you claim I would suggest you check out AbleGamers.
Also I don't represent AbleGamers, I just frequent their site and follow their Twitter account, just like I do with GiantBomb and Tested. So I'm not looking for any free passes or begging for anything.
This is an interesting topic. Nice thinking OP. I am not disabled but I know that if somehow I were, I would love to be able to enjoy videogames. @OldGuy said:
" Legally blind, both eyes, gotta get right up on the screen (and here's were it's tricky, since legally blind encompasses a whole range of notseeingness, for me it's about 8" inches from my 24" monitor)... 3D is NOT going to work for me.Yes, blind, not visually impared, not visually challenged, not differently visually abled (whatever the hell THAT means). Blind. Thank you.@Gamer_152: I will say that while handicapped (or if you're Bill Veeck, crippled) gamers CAN get their news from a number of sources just like everyone else; the AbleGamers Foundation would likely focus on things that the other sites wouldn't that would directly relate to how handicapped friendly the games and technology at the show are. "
Also, what?! How can you be blind and still see? You mean, partially blind don't you? I'm not trying to be an asshole, sorry. It's just so hard to think of someone partially blind playing video games. You must REALLY love them, I bet it's hard for you to play for an hour straight without ever getting tired.
"Sounds like you'd just be asking for a free pass. You're dyslexic, not crippled. I have some dominant eye vision shit making me unable to see 3d. Which, when it it comes to entertainment medums, is far more annoying than something fully irrelevant. I can totally see why E3 turned them down, it's a place that is packed as shit and doesn't need a bunch of beggars looking for a free handout. "
I'm not sure what to make of your comment. However if you have as severe issues as you claim I would suggest you check out AbleGamers.
Also I don't represent AbleGamers, I just frequent their site and follow their Twitter account, just like I do with GiantBomb and Tested. So I'm not looking for any free passes or begging for anything.
"
I checked out the site groups, and arthritis and depression are disabilities? HAHAHAHA, I'm sorry but no fucking way, I can only imagine the excitement from the playing with the depressed kids.
" This is an interesting topic. Nice thinking OP. I am not disabled but I know that if somehow I were, I would love to be able to enjoy videogames. @OldGuy said:
" Legally blind, both eyes, gotta get right up on the screen (and here's were it's tricky, since legally blind encompasses a whole range of notseeingness, for me it's about 8" inches from my 24" monitor)... 3D is NOT going to work for me.Yes, blind, not visually impared, not visually challenged, not differently visually abled (whatever the hell THAT means). Blind. Thank you.@Gamer_152: I will say that while handicapped (or if you're Bill Veeck, crippled) gamers CAN get their news from a number of sources just like everyone else; the AbleGamers Foundation would likely focus on things that the other sites wouldn't that would directly relate to how handicapped friendly the games and technology at the show are. "
Also, what?! How can you be blind and still see? You mean, partially blind don't you? I'm not trying to be an asshole, sorry. It's just so hard to think of someone partially blind playing video games. You must REALLY love them, I bet it's hard for you to play for an hour straight without ever getting tired. "
Legally Blind. He says it right in his post. Legally blind covers a range of sight levels. Just like someone who has depression (for example) they don't break it down into wrist cutters and people who dress in black, they just say they suffer from depression.
" Legally blind, both eyes, gotta get right up on the screen (and here's where it's tricky, since legally blind encompasses a whole range of notseeingness, for me it's about 8" inches from my 24" monitor)... 3D is NOT going to work for me."
I know a number of people like this and I think very soon more of you will too. As the Baby Boomers age many will suffer different forms of ocular degeneration. The sort of stuff that corrective lenses can't address. This is another area that technology can help though. The advent of small high-resolution cameras and inexpensive LCD displays means portable video magnifiers are becoming more widely available. Keep a look out for old people with something that resembles a large smartphone or tablet device. That'll more than likely be a digital magnifier.
You'll get a lot of gamers who will discount themselves as being disabled, and others that might include themselves when others might look at the same disability and not think it's worth the title.
When I think "disabled gamer" it can go in at least two ways: disabilities that affect playing the game, and disabilities that affect life in general (but may, or may not, affect gaming).
Er, I've got Tourette's, though not vocal but physical tics, so accidental button presses happen somewhat often. It's not as bad now since I actually stuck with gaming over the years, as I've sorta adjusted myself to it. For instance, I've learned to sprint and then quickly squeeze on the triggers when playing Call of Duty or whatever, which doesn't actually affect game-play. Video games with competitive multi-player used to be more annoying, but I've learned to deal. Oh, I remember a time when I involuntarily stole an item in Oblivion and got thrown in jail simply because of my issue.
Video games and electronics in general serve as good distractions, so they seem to help me a lot, especially when dealing with the frustration of Tourette's.
@Deusx: Yeah, well, that's the deal with blindness... it runs the gamut from 20/200 (the legal definition for blindness - if you see 20/20, look at a sign 200 feet away from you, that's how clearly someone with 20/200 can see it at 20 feet) to "total blindness" (which I put in quotes because none of the blind people I know/have known have "zero" sight - at least some light and/or fuzzy shapes can be seen [that's not to say that it doesn't exist, it's just rarer than most people think])... The problem is that it's really hard to nail down how blind someone is beyond 20/200 (I suppose it's possible, but, frankly, most ophthalmologists don't bother trying) so I don't know where I would "rate."
For me, I just need to get up close on stuff so that it gets unfuzzy enough to work with... and, no, I don't get headaches (though I much preferred a world where text was white on black as the "monitor as a piece of paper" thing isn't nearly as comfortable for me)... I actually slagged off what I was supposed to be doing this weekend to clean up Achievements and played for 10 hours each day...
I've got a Lounge Lizard chair that I swap out for my office chair when I console game (or use a game pad on my PC) and an ErgoTron LX monitor arm with an extra extension so I can pull the monitor out to right in front of my face while reclining in front of the desk. Works great.
Legally Blind. He says it right in his post. Legally blind covers a range of sight levels. Just like someone who has depression (for example) they don't break it down into wrist cutters and people who dress in black there just suffer from depression. "
<snort> Now I need to clean the milk off my keyboard. Thanks. :-)
@SupeRaven: I'm actually really interested in the idea of little LCDs in front of my eyes, the only question I have is if they would work for my vision (since, for 90% of the people, you want to simulate a monitor that sits 3 feet away - which is 2.25 feet farther than works for me)... you would think they could be made to, the only question is if the it would be cost prohibitive for the producers to bother (let's be honest, I've mucked with the "vision aids" in most operating systems since the GUI was born and all of them stink on toast for the most part).
Now, fortunately(?), I don't have a problem with 3D on TV or at the movies (other than the whole, you know, deal that it's not really all that extra good to make up for the cost and hassle), I mean I miss small details and that stuff, but it's mostly OK. But 3D gaming? Not gonna happen for me, son (unless the LCD glasses thing works).
I have cerebral palsy. I have had it all my life, it only effects my legs. I am in alot of pain all the time, I can walk but not long distances so I have to use a wheelchair when I go out. But I have no learning difficulties what so ever so like alot of people to with my condition so I am very lucky.
" @Deusx: Yeah, well, that's the deal with blindness... it runs the gamut from 20/200 (the legal definition for blindness - if you see 20/20, look at a sign 200 feet away from you, that's how clearly someone with 20/200 can see it at 20 feet) to "total blindness" (which I put in quotes because none of the blind people I know/have known have "zero" sight - at least some light and/or fuzzy shapes can be seen [that's not to say that it doesn't exist, it's just rarer than most people think])... The problem is that it's really hard to nail down how blind someone is beyond 20/200 (I suppose it's possible, but, frankly, most ophthalmologists don't bother trying) so I don't know where I would "rate."
For me, I just need to get up close on stuff so that it gets unfuzzy enough to work with... and, no, I don't get headaches (though I much preferred a world where text was white on black as the "monitor as a piece of paper" thing isn't nearly as comfortable for me)... I actually slagged off what I was supposed to be doing this weekend to clean up Achievements and played for 10 hours each day...
I've got a Lounge Lizard chair that I swap out for my office chair when I console game (or use a game pad on my PC) and an ErgoTron LX monitor arm with an extra extension so I can pull the monitor out to right in front of my face while reclining in front of the desk. Works great. "
Oh Ok, I see. Well dude I'm sorry but it is nice to see that you are still able to play for long streches. Also, cool setup, some future shit you got there, is the chair comfortable?? I have many back problems due to my line of work ;(
" I have cerebral palsy. I have had it all my life, it only effects my legs. I am in alot of pain all the time, I can walk but not long distances so I have to use a wheelchair when I go out. But I have no learning difficulties what so ever so like alot of people to with my condition so I am very lucky. "
I really have a lot of respect for people with disabilities, they learn to live their lives differently and come with inventive solutions for stuff I can barely think of being capable myself. Much respect dude.
I'm colourblind. That might sound like it doesn't count, but it renders some games virtually unplayable. I installed a coulourblindness mod into LoL recently and it drastically improved my game.
@Aronman789: So what exactly does that mean she sees? I think that Synesthesia is the coolest thing...especially people who see numbers as colours. That is mind-blowingly awesome.
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