Any disabled gamers out there?
disabledgamerj2
Kirkland, WashingtonRegistered User regular
Kirkland, WashingtonRegistered User regular
I'm a gamer and I also happen to be disabled and in a wheelchair. I am just wondering if there are any other disabled gamers floating (or wheeling) around this forum. I have spina bifida. Let me know if you're out there. I posted this elsewhere but I was told this was a better page to post this thread on.
disabledgamerj2 on
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He's the only one I know of. Welcome to the forum!
I seem to remember there being another user in a wheelchair about, but honestly, unless you put a picture in your avatar I won't think, "there's wheel chair dude", I'll think "there's frog dude".
Which likely means my choice of username and avatar reflects badly on me.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
It means that you'd push a wheelchair person down the stairs and call him a frog while stealing christmas.
No, it just means you look past the disability.
My mm's boyfriend is blind, like, he doesn't have flesh eyes blind. About the only games we ever play are Scrabble or Monopoly boardgames though. He's tried text adventures but can't really get into them (in his defence, they are really frustrating)
I imagine there's a few, but what's up?
PSN: Bizazedo
CFN: Bizazedo (I don't think I suck, add me).
I could play beat 'em ups blind, I might as well do, I just jab at the controls.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
I try not to let it hold me back, though. The only thing that really annoys me is games that require you to use the wiimote+nunchuck combination (looking at you, Mario Galaxy), which is one of the primary reasons I don't own a Wii.
I have found ways around it when playing the Wii at a friend's house or gaming kiosk or something though (ie. clumsily hold them together, use the nunchuck while my girlfriend uses the wiimote, or just use the Wii Zapper to combine them).
Same. I only use it to explain why I am using x controller versus y controller or that I am very easy to identify in pictures / streams whatever
My friend wants to make a video of the Kinect commercial and all the fun those actors are having only to slowly pan to me, in my wheelchair, watching with a single tear rolling down my cheek ala the Indian from that old commercial. Strikes me as amusing.
PSN: Bizazedo
CFN: Bizazedo (I don't think I suck, add me).
Taught me some lovely things though, yes sir.
Have you looked at something like this?
He could probably play that old dreamcast game.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Channel_5
There are words in there that give the directions.
Up! Shoot! Left! Shoot! Up! Shoot! Shoot!
Also, I want to be a disco space reporter when I grow up.
I've been out of work the last three years, and games are part of what helps me stay sane, since i'm stuck inside most of the time. My only problem is the lack of any really decent games to play that manage to keep my attention. Sacred II has been one i've been playing a bit, as well as Torchlight and the single player Hellgate:London. I'm saving up for Diablo III and Torchlight II, haven't really been able to afford to get a game since I bought Torchlight when it first came out.
One thing about my disability...it's taught me to appreciate the good things in my life a lot more, same with games. I wouldn't have some of the really great friends i've got if it weren't for online games.
It's not new by any means, but would you get into a game like Oblivion? If I had to spend a lot of my time in a game, that would probably be my first choice, as it can be a very long game and quite an adventure.
My old mate here plays Rock Band drums on super hard difficulty. I respect him loads since he also plays halo and world of warcraft, pretty good at it too.
Yup.
Oh, and Space Channel 5 is a problem because there are two kinds of "shoot" (one for aliens, one for civilians)
Also because it's just Simon if you don't have the graphics.
While I'd like to have the option to give my XBox Live avatar or Mii a wheelchair, its absence doesn't really annoy me. I can make those guys look close enough to the real me for me to be happy with the results.
For me it's like this: I don't tend to dwell on my disability. I was born disabled, so it's all I've ever known. That said, if given a chance to have a fully functional and healthy body, I'd take it without hesitation, mostly due to sheer curiosity. There's a whole bunch of things that I'll never get to experience that I'd love to try, from the mundane (cooking, driving, etc.) to the exotic (base jumping, snowboarding, martial arts, etc.).
In terms of games, there are bigger things that annoy me, not only because they affect me directly, but because I know they negatively affect others with different kinds of disabilities. Button re-mapping is only the tip of the iceburg. A color blind option should be available for all games. Fonts should be resizeable. Subtitles should be available for all games, and not just for the cutscenes. Peripherals should be available in both right-handed and left-handed flavors, and foot interaction (like Rock Band's drum kit) should be optional. I'm sure there's even more that could be done.
I'd love to see a disabled main character in a game. The disabled, when they're even in a game at all, tend to fill one of two roles: support (Joker, Oracle, Professor X) or victim (Mass Effect 2 Project Overlord). I'd love to play a game where a character with abilities similar to mine saved the day and won the girl/guy. Probably won't happen, but I think it would be interesting to try.
...wow, I wrote a lot more than I originally planned. Apologies if it got too rant-y.
Have you tried searching Google for a hacked/jury rigged bass drum? I'd do a search myself, but my PS3's browser tends to choke on any site with JavaScript.
I'd think you'd be able to make your own pad for it, depending on how the bass drum is actually triggered. There's some sort of switch there, just depends on if it will work when whacked.
There's got to be a way to play without the pedal. Try contacting Harmonix directly? I'm sure they'd get back to you, they're a really legit company when it comes to customer support.
EDIT: or, if you want to interact with the foot pedal cues in the game, rather than finding a way to ignore them, you could definitely jury-rig something if you felt like investing the time to make it yourself, or get someone to help you out, or both. I think it's kind of old news now that you can actually buy pedals that don't suck, but back when RB first released the included pedal was pretty crappy and there were a ton of DIY replacements showing up on the web. I think the way the included pedal works is just based on making some kind of magnetic connection, i.e. when the pedal is pushed down far enough to make the connection, the game registers "the pedal has been pressed" and it waits until the connection is broken to register "the pedal position has been reset to neutral".
These suggestions may sound absurd, but I'm imagining that you could rig up something to use your mouth to play the bass drum pedal--either (kinda farfetched) something with resistance that you squeeze with your teeth to make connection and release to break connection, or (much more likely) just some kind of microphone-style device that pulses "connection on, connection off" when you pop your lips, beatbox bass drum style.
I'm sure there's many other ways to solve this problem, but this is what's occurring to me at the moment. Bass drum notes can come at you pretty rapidly and consistently in rock drumming, so if you're limited to using your upper body--and your arms are already spoken for by the sticks--I think doing some kind of beatbox microphone setup is the most realistic solution, since you need some kind of input action you can do repeatedly and quickly.
I have an image in my head of someone in a wheelchair playing Rock Band, sat in front of the drum kit, rocking out, with a kazoo between their lips for the bass peddle.
This could be a better alternative: http://www.kinetic.com/channelk-rock-band-mod.asp
See the website for more detail but you basically attach the doorbell button to the drumsticks so you can press it whilst playing along.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
Joker in Mass Effect is disabled? Honeslty never noticed that (haven't played the second one yet)
I think that just as they need to support soundtracks etc to get certification, games should be forced to be fully playable by colour blind people. As much as I could love Lumines, it's completely unplayable for me on some levels.
Yep he has some brittle bone thing that he cant walk without breaking his legs I think. But he seemed fine after being chucked into a spaceboat life raft lol.
No, I'm glad I asked and you responded, because it made me think about how I could add a disabled character to my game. Ultimately, it's a fantasy RPG so it's a bit harder, but it's still a worthwhile exercise.
Your disabled character could ride a floating chair, or just use magic to float around independently. You don't even have to explain it!
A wizard did it!
They are a great company. I actually wouldn't put it past them to send you something for free (good PR and all that), especially if you have already gone out and picked up the game/instruments.
Cool. If you do choose to put a disabled person in one of your games, don't go the FFTA Doned route.
While a floating chair of some sort would be cool, having some sort of kickass mount would be better. "Yeah, I can't walk. It's okay, though, because Battlecat here can eat faces."
It's what I've heard as well, that if you're sittting nothing works.
My friend wants to make a video of the Kinect commercial and all the fun those actors are having only to slowly pan to me, in my wheelchair, watching with a single tear rolling down my cheek ala the Indian from that old commercial (as I mentioned in the prior page).
If it's true, it has to be made (the video).
PSN: Bizazedo
CFN: Bizazedo (I don't think I suck, add me).
Holy shit, that will be gold (if you do film it)!
Yes. Well, any game that significantly depends on color enough to hinder somebody who can't see them like everyone else. I actually created a thread dedicated to this. I know it's not as big of a deal as lowered functionality in your arms or legs, or severely reduced dexterity, but it's still something a lot of people deal with. In this day and age, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to have to resort to hacking your console (thus making it unusable online) to make a game playable. AskACapper had it right. Things like that should have been in the standard mandatory Xbox/Playstation/Nintendo brand support. You didn't put help for colorblind in your tough, fast-paced puzzle game? You don't get to release your game on our console. You don't allow for button remapping? Not on our system. That sort of thing. It would go a long way towards building my respect for a console developer if they did this.
EDIT:
Oh, and if I have to adjust the contrast to unreasonable levels in order to beat even 1 level of your game, you can burn in the darkest, hottest place in hell.