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Video Games and the Blind

The Need for Engaging Audio Video Games

By Kylie NebekerPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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It is no secret that I am a lover of video games. Ever since I was a little girl you could usually find me playing video games—usually, at that age, I was obsessed with a fantasy dungeon game called Gauntlet Legends. Which if you have ever been to any kind of arcade, have a least encountered this once famous fantasy.

But as much as I love video games, I have found myself disappointed with the video game world of late. With new games like Fortnite, Overwatch, and Minecraft, while the quality is superb in each and every kind of game, I cannot play them with the man I love, and that is something I find problematic.

The man I love, he cannot play video games, or at least he cannot play very many. He used to—he liked Sonic the Hedgehog, Assassin's Creed, and Call of Duty. But then there was an accident. He became blind, and as soon as that happened, life changed rather quickly. Especially concerning video games.

In the United States alone, there are an estimated 7,297,100 people living with a visual impairment or are blind. These people are confined to something unknown called "audio games".

While the rest of society is focusing on better graphics, some developers are more focused on sound being the primary force behind games. Audio games are usually based around checkpoints. Getting the player from point A to point B, or, choose your own adventure story games. For instance, the popular game Blindside; the character you played would give you auditory clues about where you were within a generated and simple map but it also combined a horror storyline where what you did would change the outcome.

With new storytelling techniques such as narrative design in video games, I feel that designing a game around disabilities may be an exciting avenue for game developers to produce. While Blindside was horror genre, think of the same kind of game mechanics put into an action game using hidden rhythms—like Dark Souls. Perhaps a first-person shooter would be even made more exciting by the lack of visuals, zombie survivals, for instance, could thrive on that idea. Part of Blindside's success was that it was a game both enjoyed by the blind, but also the sighted.

But games like Blindside also have a flaw, while the publications around such games are widespread, getting access to those games is harder than I expected. While I can go on programs like Steam, or Origin and have every game accessible to my fingertips, popular games like Blindside or others are not easy to locate. In fact, my knowledge on audio games is limited because whenever I have tried to find download links or hard copies of the games to buy, I have been disappointed to find that my access was blocked. Even for me, it is a frustrating experience, and I am not even blind.

In short, I want to be able to have more access to these kinds of games. Not just for myself to play and enjoy, but for people like my fiance who are limited to these kinds of games. I want developers to consider dabbling into these kinds of games while they are also expanding on grand world building and amazing graphics. But what I want most is to be able to sit down with the man I love and be able to have a meaningful moment together sharing in something that we both enjoy—gaming.

Sources:

"Statistical Facts about Blindness in the United States". National Federation of The Blind, June 2018, nfb.org/blindness-statistics.

Leyn, Kadr. “How Many Games Are There in This World?” Quora, 19 Apr. 2018, www.quora.com/How-many-games-are-there-in-this-world.

Blindside the Audio Adventure Game, 2012, www.blindsidegame.com/.

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About the Creator

Kylie Nebeker

A young writer who is just a bit obsessed with her pet Betta Fish, Kaen. Who loves to swim, and illustrate novels.

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