By Dalen Lewin
Lamp Staff`
JACKSONVILLE — Sight does not always determine one’s ability to play video games. The sad thing is that I am one of the few blind people who believe this to be possible.
Most of the sighted people have the same reaction as the blind people: “Oh my gosh! How are you able to do that?”
I do not find that particularly offensive. It is just a little off-putting when somebody who has the same visual impairment asks me that question. When sighted people ask me, it is obviously no surprise. It is just sad that more blind people do not give video games much of a chance.
“It was pretty cool,” said Chance Brow, a gamer with whom I recently played a videogame. “You didn’t actually have to see what you were doing. You just knew. I tried playing similar games with my eyes closed to see what it was like, and I got my butt kicked.”
There is one thing he was missing — headphones. They are essential to fully hearing the game.
“I think it’s really cool that you don’t allow vision to spoil your time from enjoying a game,” said Adrian Washington after I played a video game with him.
Mich Ryan, a fellow visually impaired gamer, explained the experience well: “I think that it is great that you can play video games even though they are mostly inaccessible to the majority of blind people. I myself play video games even though they are definite barriers. I hope that in time, video games will be accessible for everyone.”
Hopefully, this finds its way to a blind person somehow. Playing video games is not all that difficult, and I am going to explain how.
I am not able to play every video game. For example, I have tried playing Mario and was absolutely terrible. I even played the audio games version, and I was just as terrible. Maybe I’m just terrible at platformers. However, I can play Sonic, but that is probably because there are far fewer platforms.
However, put me in front of a Mortal Kombat machine, and I will keep shoving in quarters until I win because it is possible for me to do so. I have done it multiple times, not from an actual machine, but from the next best thing, an emulator that acts just like the machine. I can play any modern version of Mortal Kombat just as well.
I can play tournament fighters, but I can also play side-scrolling beat-em-up arcade games just as easily. However, that is because all you have to do is go left and right and press the punch and jump buttons until you win. Modern games are much more complex.
I can play Grand Theft Auto and Assassin’s Creed pretty well, but only the open world segments. I use my headphones to locate enemies and civilians. I know where the attack and block buttons are, and I know the guards’ giant footsteps when I hear them. Even if I am not able to hear that, they have a convenient drummer that plays while they march. All I have to do is aim in their general direction, get close and attack. The same goes for the civilians. They have very noticeable footsteps and, since this is a city, they are everywhere, talking and humming. They are pretty easy to locate.
Grand Theft Auto is a different story. It is even easier to locate people and identify who they are. The cops have a siren and the civilians are either walking, talking or using their phones. The gangster are even easier to locate. All they do is spout gang slang everywhere they go. They are practically telling me to attack then.
In Assassin’s Creed, the fighting is mostly sword-focused and pressing the shoot button only fires the gun when locked onto a target. With Grand Theft Auto, I know where the lock-on button is, and I know how to shoot, seeing as how nobody in that bothers to try to hide and presumes to come after me screaming.
I can also play linear action games so long as they do not involve shooting. I can never get a shot off in Call of Duty. I can knife them pretty well, but by the time I get to them, I am already dead. However, I can play Dynasty Warriors because that is a sword-fighting game. All I do is look for action, aim at it and start fighting.
I can’t play games with massive open worlds with nothing in them. I’m looking at you, Skyrim.
That is a perfect example of a game that I would be able to play if only it had the same amount of action as Grand Theft Auto or Assassin’s Creed, but that is not the case. Even when I get to a city, I have to find my way into the city. There is no way to do so because there are no audio clues. When I am out in the wilderness, I would expect to find a bear or a rabbit or a bandit, but no. It is a wide-open area with very, very, very, very few enemies.
I hope one day to play Skyrim. Despite not being able to play it, I try desperately. The sound design is incredible. The music is incredible. The immersion is incredible. The fighting is intense. The acting is nothing short of spectacular. It is one of the greatest games in the world. Yet, its only flaw is the one that ruins the whole experience for me — the world is so expansive that I can’t find anything.
Some games are unplayable for the blind, but most of those games are some of the greatest.
Assassin’s Creed Black Flag is another great example. It is mostly focused on sea warfare, which, again, is amazing. The battle to take ships is great. The sound design is spot on. The fights are intense and immersive, the canons firing, the swords clashing, the guns booming and the explosions as the cries of war and death are heard all around are absolutely astounding, all of which are brought to a halt when the ship and loot are finally taken over and its crew subjugated.
Too bad the world is too big for me to try to take part in that awesomeness. I can play the other Assassin’s Creed games, though, and I am grateful for that. The sound design for them is amazing as well.
I just want the video game companies of the world know that there is a demographic they are sorely missing, one that loves their work and wishes to be a part of it that can be a part of it — if only given the chance.
Dalen Lewin can be reached at [email protected].
