2008-08-03 17:40:39

I recently sent an email to the people who run the mainstream MMO known as "Eve Online" asking about accessibility for people with visual impairments... I had previously sent out one or two mails, not many, which either got no reply or a kind reply and then completely ignored.

Let me say now under no circumstances should anyone else start spamming the company behind Eve with mails asking about accessibility, I'm taking a polite softly softly approach right now. However I have had a very positive response form the lady who is their director of public relations and community. I heard they had a very good reputation for community and support, which is one reason I tried them. The lady in question told me she is involved in something of a crusade for inclusion within cyber communities, but has not stopped to think about access for people with severe visual impairments up until now and will look at some of the web sites I mentioned. I don't expect anything fast, but perhaps over years this might be a way to get our foot in the door. I asked permission to post the reply she sent me, and assuming she does so I will post it here and you can feel free to spread it around with said proviso that noone starts sending emails asking about it.

I want to open up communication channels with the company known as CCP if I can, and I am ensuring I give them every opportunity to engage with our communities rather than making myself some kind of ambassador. I already mentioned AG.net in my first mail and I mentioned Audyssey in the reply.

About Eve:
It's a rare thing, a space based MMO. It allows you to engage in activities such as hunting computer controlled pirates, mine resources, construct items from blueprints using mined resources and research blueprints, engage in massive interstellar wars and so much. It has regulated PVP, in that despite the fact that you can shoot anyone at any time there are "high security" areas of spacein which any aggression against another player is met with deadly force by in game police ships. I understand these areas are big enough so that you can spend your whole time in them should you so wish. It also has an involved corporation system, their version of guilds, and allows you to even build and outfit starbases of your own. Their site is at www.eve-online.com if you wish to look, but please as I said don't spam them.

Fingers crossed that in years to come they might be interested in making either Eve or a future project accessible. I understand they're working on an MMO based on the World of Darkness line of pen and paper roleplay games, which should allow you to take the role of various supernatural creatures in the modern day.

cx2
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To live by honour and to honour life, these are our greatest strengths and our best hopes.

2008-08-03 17:45:13

I can however post my original email. Naturally I removed my name from it, I'm reluctant to disclose this on the internet.

Subject: Playability for persons with visual impairments

I know this is an unusual issue on the face of it, but it is one that no  company in what we among the VI games community call "mainstream games"  industry
has yet addressed. I apologise for sending this to two  addresses, I was uncertain as to which was the most appropriate.

There are communities of young visually impaired games players on the  internet, myself among them. Blind and visually impaired people have  made a number
of their own games, though these are generally one man  operations and are well over a decade perhaps even 20 years behind the  so called "mainstream".
Many more among us have played the online text  games known as MUDs in search for something both more complex and  multiplayer. I myself am a 24 year old
British person, though unusually  among us my sight loss was in my later teens and thus I have fond  memories of many such "mainstream" games though not
of MMOs as these  were in their infancy back then. It is my firm belief that many visually  impaired people would be interested in MMOs, and while naturally
World  of Warcraft garners the most attention any announcement of a mainstream  game being made what we call "accessible" would be a major bombshell  among
our close knit communities and gain much attention.

Of the games already made by and for the visually impaired there have  been quite interesting developments in interfaces using purely 3D sound,  the keyboard
and often the free Microsoft speech API (SAPI) included in  Windows XP and Vista or as an install for prior versions. There has even  been an effort to
adapt the open source engine for Quake known as the  AGRIP or Audio Quake project at
www.agrip.org.uk
. It is also my belief  that any company wishing to develop support for the visually impaired  would find plentiful resources with the potential to make
an almost  seamless experience for those both with and without sight. It is my  personal hope that one day one of the MMO developers will for commercial
and/or moral reasons help us to play the games we wish to, and to be  able to spend time in these games with our fully sighted friends which  would no
doubt join us in many cases.

I am sending this in order to ask if you would be willing at any point  to attempt such an endeavour. There have been many projects in order to  help the
visually impaired with other areas of computer use with there  being a minimal speech output known as "Narrator" available in Windows  as standard, as
well as there being a full version of  what is known as  a "screen reader" (it reads what the computer displays on the screen by  use of graphics interceptors)
on the Mac since OS10.4 I believe and  another system known as Orca built right in to the GNOME desktop system  in Linux. With all this no major company
has made any efforts in regard  to games. The interface techniques are different, but not hard to learn  and our communities would be more than willing
to help you in order to  help ourselves. There are a number of experienced programmers and  developers amongst us and I am sure you could leverage them
for such a  project. With all the previously mentioned efforts from such companies  as Microsoft, Apple and with the high level of use in this regard from
Ubuntu it is combined with your reputation it would be highly unlikely  any rational person would consider you making a move to being a  "specialist disability"
company.

There are millions of visually impaired people around the planet, while  most visually impaired people do tend to be in the older age ranges the  younger
people seem to have a generally high interest in games and  science fiction when compared to those in the fully sighted community.  We are also in effect
a captive audience waiting for someone to  captivate us. I would be very happy were it to be CCP.

This is a serious suggestion, all I ask is you please consider it as  such. Thank you for your time. <name removed for obvious reasons>

cx2
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To live by honour and to honour life, these are our greatest strengths and our best hopes.

2008-08-03 17:54:35

Got permission, here it is.

Edit:
Let me reemphasise, this is not a promise or anything of the kind. Val is simply taking an interest right now, and though she seems very positive we have yet to see what might come from it. Even were CCP to attempt this we should bear in mind this could take some time to appear even in an alpha condition. Still though, first tiny steps.

Subj: RE: Playability for persons with visual impairments

Hi, <name removed>

My name is Valerie Massey and I am the Senior Director of Public Relations and Communication for CCP. I received your e-mail sent to the Community team
because they report to me and I'm on that distribution list. Ordinarily I let them handle the responses but I wanted to reply personally to your note.

Inclusion for cyber communities is a bit of a crusade for me. Later this year, I'll be doing a keynote at a conference in Finland to talk about the various
groups of people that make up our virtual worlds and what steps we should be taking to make sure there's a place and a purpose for everyone.

I have to admit-- and perhaps apologize a bit --that I am part of an industry that is rather short-sighted when it comes to this sort of thing. I'm not
just talking about my own company but all of them. As a whole, game companies don't seem to think further than the obvious. We have our particular demographics
and that's who we target. This means a lot of people on the outer fringe are left with a sense of being ignored or over-looked. In part, it's because we
are so hyper-focused on the obvious that we don't think beyond it; also, some of the changes that would be necessary are believed to be beyond our capabilities
or would require time and resources we can't spare.

I have known this to be true of simple changes that were requested by colorblind gamers, such as changing the shapes of objects or using different fonts
to add more variation to things that are otherwise set apart only by different colors, or adding subtitles for the hearing impaired. There's a smaller
sub-community of EVE players that are physically challenged, some being quadriplegics who use voice control with changes on the client side to maneuver
through the game. The few visually impaired gamers I've known were legally blind but still had the ability to see well enough that if they moved the monitor
very close, they were able to play without any changes to the game. Regrettably, I have to admit that I myself have never stopped to consider what modifications
might be necessary to make EVE Online (or any other games I've worked on) more accessible to the blind.

Thank you for taking the time to write, for opening my mind and getting me thinking. I've bookmarked the sites you referenced and will be poking around
on them to learn more. You've taken a very important step simply by writing and raising awareness. Nothing in the game industry moves quickly--frequently
slipped launch dates make that pretty obvious--but you're on the right track to helping us turn ourselves around and I thank you for that, too.

Fondest regards,
Val




Valerie Massey
<direct email address removed>


Senior Director of Public Relations and Communication
CCP -
www.ccpgames.com

cx2
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To live by honour and to honour life, these are our greatest strengths and our best hopes.