Do you love gaming? Do you enjoy helping gamers achieve various tasks? DO you write FAQS and/or guides for fun or profit? then please read.

[killer_beast_56]

Hey guys,

Ok, I'll get right to the point, and try to make this as simple as possible. I'm a totally blind gamer. In fact, there are tons of us out there, and we love gaming just like the rest of you. However, there's a little problem. Most games are quite difficult for us to play, for obvious reasons. There are some genres we can tackle with little difficulty, such as fighting, and rhythm games. This is because of the amazing sound design these games contain. Take Mortal Kombat x as an example. Devs did an incredible job with that game, just take a listen to the fatalities, with your eyes closed. You can clearly hear everything. haha.

 

One huge problem we face, is lack of game menu guides. There are FAQ sources out there, but few actually contain guides to let us know how to do anything in a game. Again using MK X as an example: there is a lot in that game we were able to piece together through help from sighted gamers, or through trial and error, but there's still a ton of stuff we've yet to figure out in those menus. If people can help out with this, either by owning the actual games in question, or through shareplay, it'd be much appreciated. Sadly, even Game FAQS aren't always the answer. many of them contain tons of ascii art. That's just horrible where screen readers are concerned, it's a pain to figure out what that stuff means. Trophies are yet another issue, even for fighting games, sometimes they require the gamer to access options and settings we've no hope of finding. THen of course there are the tons of unplayable games we'd love to play, I for one love narrative-based games, but can't play many of them successfully due to huge, and inaccessible 3D worlds, or not knowing what to do in certain sections etc. Again, shareplay, and/or walkthrough guides that guide a gamer through the level can greatly help with this. I dunno if anyone would be willing to help, even if yall can't help free, there's no reason why something like this couldn't be monetized in some way, either through some sort of business model, or through donations to contributers based on the project and/or time it takes to complete whatever it is we need done. Most game companies won't help us, they claim they don't have the experience, or that it would be too costly for them to pursue, which are mostly excuses. There are some exceptions, like Skullgirls developer. Those guys did made some amazing accessibility tweaks to PC version of the game, and even this newest PS4 version will include voiced story mode. I can't wait! Making games accessible isn't as difficult as it probably sounds, all that's usually needed are audio cues in the right places. Anyhow, if anyone's even a little interested in such a project, let me know! I know for menus especially, there are tons of blind gamers that'd love, and probably pay, for something like this. Having a menu guide for a game shortly after launch? TO a sighted gaming community, it's something you take for granted. Look at screen, figure out what to do. We don't have that luxerry, so to us, it'd be huge, as we can then open up the text file with screen reading software on our pc, and scroll through it as we make our way through the menus. This probably sounds like a huge chore to you, but hey, we love gaming like the rest of you, and we'd do anything to be part of the experience as much as possible. K that's bout it. hopefully this'll generate some interesting discussion!

[Superbuu3]

Firstly thanks for posting and I feel kind of bad for the fact I never even considered this problem.

 

I got a guide request topic:

 

https://psnprofiles.com/forums/topic/26728-any-games-people-need-video-guides-for-read-1st-post/

 

I'm not 100% sure what you're requesting, if you can specify post in that topic, but be aware I do about 5 projects at the same time. Those are the games i'm willing to do, if the games require no installs and/or small I can get some videos talking you through everything that you need and i'll short list them. Again explain clearly what is needed though, i.e. do you want me to explain what each menu option does.

 

My walkthroughs I think for the most part I state exactly where and what you should be doing check my youtube, I don't spoiler games as I play blind myself:

https://www.youtube.com/user/superbuu3

 

I like to help people out but like i said not 100% clear what you want, if I can help out i'm willing to. I'm confident now to talk through explanations if they're needed so don't worry about that and if you check my most popular videos, most people said I explain things clearly. Again I might not be able to do this, but I'm more than willing to try.

 

EDIT: I think it might be helpful if you post examples of what you need.

Edited May 26, 2015 by Superbuu3

[Jounochi]

I'd be down to help if I am understanding you correctly.

 

You basically are needing a guide for main menus (In order that they come in) and in-game dialogs that are not verbally spoken (text based).  Is my understanding correct?  If so just let me know what games you are interested in and I can get a text document prepared for the games menus ASAP in whatever format you would like it.

 

RPGs though sound like they would be a no go though.  What genres are you looking into?

[killer_beast_56]

Thanks guys! Appreciate the responses. Yup menu guides are definitely the most important for us, without knowing those, it's kinda difficult to do anything else in the game. lol. But it all depends on how much time people have available. Narative-based games is what I'd really love playing independently, but extensive and detailed guides would need to be written for something like that. Close your eyes and try playing something like walking dead, you'll see what I mean. Fighting games are a strong possibility though, we can play those just fine, all we need are actual move and combo lists. Mortal Kombat X is one I'm really playing a ton lately, a guide for that would be awesome, as there aren't any full guides out there yet. I've noticed people are losing interest in Game FAQS, which is a shame, I used that site extensively in the past. I'm also trying to finish Sound Shapes, some of those beats I can't figure out, due to the way they were designed. Death levels will be impossible so I won't even try those. Another fighting game coming out today is Ultra Street Fighter IV for PS4, I'm sure some of those menus changed somewhat, I never played Ultra version of the game. If it were up to me though, I'd play everything. hahaha. I always download the free PS plus games and try them out, but they're rarely playable. BTW, MK X players, if yall wanna get some casual matches going, let me know. I could use the practice and matchup experience, even if I get owned. again, thanks for the interest! Much appreciated.

[Quikdrawjoe]

So you want guides for people who are visually impaired?

 

EDIT:  political correctness

Edited May 26, 2015 by Quikdrawjoe

[Jounochi]

I could help with some of the fighting games.  Unfortunately I do not own any of the games you mention (MKX and Street Fighter) but I do have DoA 5, Blazblue, and Persona 4 Arena.

 

This would actually be a good feature for the site as well actually.  Don't know where it would be put but it would be handy to have for a lot of people.

[hyappatuhyakuchu]

How does blind gaming work? And sorry for sounding like an ignorant, but how can you even navigate on the web?

 

And obviously, we all love gaming.

[killer_beast_56]

lol, that I guess you do, else you wouldn't be here. hahaha. as to how I navigate, easy. I use screen reading software. It's kinda funny to me that people still haven't figured this out. If you guys take a closer look at your iphones settings, you'll find something called voice over in there. turn it on, see what happens. Android has something similar, called talkback. Then there's PS4, did you guys know it now includes partial Text-to-Speech functionality? It only reads party for the most part, still, it's better than what we had before, which was nothing. I guess, in a way, yall are blind as well.
 

I don't actually mind the question, it's just rather interesting to me people don't notice these things. As for the games, Blazblue menu guide would be awesome, whatever menus you can type would be appreciated. BTW there's an example of accessibility done totally wrong. Blazblue has the most annoying character select screen ever created, then there's the audio itself. All mono, which makes tracking your opponent more difficult than it needs to be. then of course you have these games that are randomly accessible due to design choices devs made. Street Fighter X tekken, when you scroll through character select, you can hear the names of the chars spoken as they're highlighted. Another one is Resident Evil 5. I'll let yall figure that one out. hahaha.

[Kittet3]

Hmm, interesting. Another question if you don't mind. How does open-world game works and what kind of guides would be beneficially to those games? Or are those games basically hopeless? Would directions like "Hold left analog stick to 15 degrees for 3 seconds and then turn it 90 degrees" be doable? I'm trying to figure out how open world games could be accessible when it's so easy to mess up one thing and get totally lost

[Goekie]

Are you able to detect on which side you are standing when playing fighting games? Naturally this would greatly affect your input commands

[hyappatuhyakuchu]

Thanks for the reply.

 

Well, I don't know any blind people, so I'm not really familiar with what they can or can't do. And I don't have a Iphone, or even just a phone. I'm still curious about how navigating on the web works. I mean, there's a lot of icons and notification icons and stuff you can't read. Do you have to read the entire screen to know where you're going? And yes, I have seen that function on PS4, but I don't speak English so the machine isn't really understanding what I'm saying.

 

And same with Kittet3, I'm curious about how it works in an open-world game. Even in a fighting game, wouldn't the opponent just always sneak behind you?

 

PS: I could also help, I have many many fighting games.

Edited May 26, 2015 by jeandeve

[killer_beast_56]

Yes, we can. because as you move around in the arena, you can hear sounds panning accordingly. This works for most games, Skullgirls, MK, SF, but there are some like Blazblue that are all mono. This is horrible when it comes to more advanced stuff like footsies, because it's very difficult to calculate ranges and such. There's this blind dude, got sponsored to evo, made it to finals in his pool. Open world is just a nightmare to play, because yes they are very precise. Of course if devs are willing, anything can be improved. Let's say you needed to find an item. Now let's say game had an accessibility setting, and we turn it on. Once we start approaching the item in question, we'll hear the sound of the item get closer and closer to the player. SO if it's a coin or something, it'll make a clinking sound. It'll also be panned accordingly, so we'll know ok, go a little left, right, etc. There are actually many accessible games created for the blind, but due to lack of man-power they can be rather simplistic compared to video games.