I'm legally blind with retinitis pigmentosa. As my vision decreases over time I've had to change up the types of games I play. All of my sight is in the very center (<20 degrees total) and it's really difficult to play twitchy multiplayer shooters -- I still do ok; the majority of my kills coming from strategy (lots of long narrow hallways), listening to footsteps and recognizing common chokepoints to hopefully find a target. Most would probably feel bad to know a blind guy killed them :D. In games like Quake and UT I turned the FOV up to ~120 to fish-eye the screen, sacrificing my ability to shoot long distances for close quarters brawls.
I'll suffer through a single player fps if I like it enough, but a lot of times I have to watch a walkthrough on youtube for segments w/ low light levels or particularly complex geometry (Assassin's Creed and Deus Ex:HR were tough to finish, but I did!). I have to recognize that games such as Amnesia, Dead Space and Alien Isolation are just too dark and nearly impossible to get through...unless I blast out the graphics with gamma adjustments, then it looks too ugly :(.
I started specializing in turn-based and/or real- time pause mechanics to allow enough time to maximizing my strategy and tactics. Titles like Civilization, XCOM, Unity of Command, Jagged Alliance, Space Hulk, Blood Bowl, Banner Saga, Invisible Inc., Crusader Kings 2, Door Kickers, FTL just to name a few. Any kind of builder or creative game that allows me to play at my own pace is great with such limited vision, like Banished, Cities: Skylines, Kerbal Space Program, Space Engineers and Minecraft.
The diversification of video game genres is so awesome right now; partly thanks to the indie market and the wide range of interests for gamers of all ages and backgrounds exploring so many gametypes and mechanics. It'd be an interesting idea to have a way of advocating for games based on certain disabilities.
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