2006-10-17 06:53:04

Hi

I am looking for any blind or sighted people who are interested audio games, as well as audio game developers, to participate in a short survey.

Also I am currently developing a new survival horror audio game, if you are interested in play testing it, please let me know

The survey can be completed at:

www.student.ljmu.ac.uk/cmpmfran

Thanks :0

2006-10-17 07:08:35

Hi,

Welcome. After people filled in the survey, could you perhaps post a link here with the results? Thanks.

Richard

2006-10-17 09:23:02

hi.
that sounds like a good idea, i wouldn't mind participating.
i'd also like the opportunity to play that horror survival game mentioned, is it in development now, or is it ready for release.
thx

Pay my respects to grace and virtue,
Send my condolences to good,
Hear my regards to soul and romance,
They always did the best they could.

2006-10-17 15:12:20

The game is in the beginning development stages. If you enter your email in the questionnaire and state that you are willing to participate in testing I will contact you when the testing phase begins.

I will post the results once i have enough participants.

Thanks
www.student.ljmu.ac.uk/cmpmfran

2006-10-18 08:30:27 (edited by cx2 2006-10-18 08:33:07)

Completed the survey. I should just point out that the use of a screen reader with games is heavily dependent on the game. If it is self voicing there is no reason to use a screen reader at all, such as with Tank Commander or Shades of Doom. However in the cases of Lone Wolf and perhaps one or two others a screen reader is usable with it.

And I don't think anyone uses Narrator as a screen reader, even the microsoft blurb when you start it states it is there to assist in system configuration.

I didn't check the roleplay or MMO boxes under audio games because audio games in these categories don't currently exist, even though I do play a lot of muds that could be vaguely considered in this category. I hope this doesn't interfere with your results.

Just a quick note, as someone who's done surveys before in this type of research it may be of help to you if you included a section for any other information we wish to contribute at the bottom that is relevant. Things like the muds I mentioned, and other things perhaps like from time to time my sister and I play mainstream games "cooperatively" where she uses her sight and the mouse and I can either use the keyboard or just offer advice depending on the game.

Oh, and I'm very glad someone on a games development course is taking an interest in audio games. There is a lot that can be done to make mainstream games inclusive without hindering the experience of sighted players, and possibly even enhancing it in some cases (like a move to 3D audio).

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

2006-10-18 09:35:59

hi.
i completed the survey last night, however i found it hard to understand what it was asking me to do, e.g the check boxes weren't labbelled, i checked stratagey, adventure, and a couple of others i like, but the rest of the survey didn't make much sense.
my screen reader didn't pick up on any messages that stated what i was supposed to be checking for or anything.
and what were those raido button boxes for?
thx

Pay my respects to grace and virtue,
Send my condolences to good,
Hear my regards to soul and romance,
They always did the best they could.

2006-10-18 15:30:05

I'm afraid I also found this problem with non labled check boxes, and sinse I'd prefer to give correct information in this kind of survey I'd rather not risk mucking things up.

would it be possible to have a basic text questionaire which might be E-mailed to you?

Also, this would allow people to include qualifications to their answers as CX2 said.

I'd stil be very interested in helping in any research or game developement your doing though.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2006-10-19 08:58:37 (edited by cx2 2006-10-19 09:02:32)

Odd. Seemed to work fine for me with Jaws 4.51.

The only confusion I found was the use of the word "visualisation" in a question with the answer "No, I have no light perception". I have no useful sight now, but I find "visualisation" like the soundscape in Lone Wolf that allow you to imagine images very helpful. On the other hand "visuals" are of no use.

Maybe it isn't handled so well with other screen readers, I don't honestly know. I just know in Jaws the check boxes were coming first on one line, followed by the answer they relate to after it. I've encountered them tied together on the same line before, but more often than not I find them in this layout anyway.

Edit:
I think the were you blind from birth or some other cause was a bit vague too. Perhaps it would have been more help to say "At what age do you consider yourself to have become..." with a few choices for things like partially sighted, blind, etc. I know people who were born with partial sight but consider themself to have become blind later on, I believe it's not uncommon for this sort of thing.

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

2006-10-19 10:58:55

I have had quite a few replies now, but more are welcome, thanks to everyone who has already participated.

I tried giving all the form objects descriptive names for accessibility, but I will add proper labels soon for people having still trouble with them.  Alternatively you can PM your email address and i'll send a text based questionnaire if you prefer?

I may rephrase a couple of the questions to clear any ambiguity:
The screenreader questions are used to determine the most popular screenreaders used and how often users play non self voiced games.

cx2, There are a few RPG audio games, such as Kaze no regret a Japanese game released for the sega saturn, but as you have not played any you are correct to not check the boxes. smile

The visualisation question was referring to abstract graphical visualisations. i.e. randomly generated graphics that change depending on game events. This question is mainly aimed at partially sighted, legally blind and sighted people, to see if they thought that it would improve the audio game experience over just a blank screen.

I may add a box so that other revevent information can be contributed, but you can also reply to this message if you want to add something. Thanks

2006-10-19 13:09:53

Unfortunately, I don't believe this board has a private messaging system, but I don't mind giving my public address here anyway. You can E-mail me on: dark at Xgam.org. Could you also please give your mail a subject title I can recognize, sinse that address does tend to get a lot of spam. I'm sorry if this sounds like a complaint, but it has happened in the past that people have sent me things and I've accidently deleted their messages.

I hope I can help in your research.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2006-10-20 09:04:18 (edited by cx2 2006-10-20 09:05:08)

If you use the email link not far under someone's name you can get the forum to send an email for you. This discloses your email to the recipient, but does not disclose theirs.

This is assuming you have the forum settings set to allow this, and not to either disallow email to you from members or to have a direct email link instead. Allowing the forum software to send you messages on the behalf of other members is the default setting I believe.

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