Comments on: Easy Accessibility (or, How to Keep 12% of Your Audience) http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/easy-accessibility-or-how-to-keep-12-percent-of-your-audience/ MMO game development Thu, 22 Jul 2010 20:09:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Expert Novice http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/easy-accessibility-or-how-to-keep-12-percent-of-your-audience/comment-page-1/#comment-47658 Expert Novice Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:09:32 +0000 http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/22/easy-accessibility-or-how-to-keep-12-percent-of-your-audience/#comment-47658 Stroke of Genius though, sir. Nice work, and thank you. However, I'm thinking you got your math wrong on the color blindness bit. 50% of the population is female, so 8% of men would be 4% of the total population. 8% is likely closer though. Girls don't play MMOs, lol. Stroke of Genius though, sir.
Nice work, and thank you.

However, I’m thinking you got your math wrong on the color blindness bit. 50% of the population is female, so 8% of men would be 4% of the total population.

8% is likely closer though. Girls don’t play MMOs, lol.

]]> By: weirwood http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/easy-accessibility-or-how-to-keep-12-percent-of-your-audience/comment-page-1/#comment-138 weirwood Sun, 02 Dec 2007 18:48:30 +0000 http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/22/easy-accessibility-or-how-to-keep-12-percent-of-your-audience/#comment-138 I've just spent an entire afternoon looking for a way to swap mouse buttons in games that don't have this support. So far, without luck. After reading this, the only conclusion I have for games that don't support it is that they can't have a single left-handed programmer on the dev team. I’ve just spent an entire afternoon looking for a way to swap mouse buttons in games that don’t have this support. So far, without luck. After reading this, the only conclusion I have for games that don’t support it is that they can’t have a single left-handed programmer on the dev team.

]]> By: Tzing http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/easy-accessibility-or-how-to-keep-12-percent-of-your-audience/comment-page-1/#comment-85 Tzing Mon, 12 Nov 2007 12:00:41 +0000 http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/22/easy-accessibility-or-how-to-keep-12-percent-of-your-audience/#comment-85 Really interesting. I've never thought about user interface this way. Really interesting. I’ve never thought about user interface this way.

]]> By: DavidW http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/easy-accessibility-or-how-to-keep-12-percent-of-your-audience/comment-page-1/#comment-54 DavidW Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:52:34 +0000 http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/22/easy-accessibility-or-how-to-keep-12-percent-of-your-audience/#comment-54 My personal favorite accessibility issue is when developers tie their key layouts to vkeys rather than physical keys, not realizing that when users with alternate keyboard layouts play the game, W,A,S an D are going to be scattered all over the place. I remember trying to play Minions of Mirth, which had this issue; to its credit the game did support custom keymaps, but the feature wasn't well supported. After dinking around with it for a while I was able to get WASD mostly in the correct place under my left hand, but I had somehow "lost" my D key and couldn't bind anything to it, so I had to keep doing 270 degree turns when I wanted to head right. Just as you said, I didn't make a stink about it; I just wandered away and never came back. At least Turbine got this one right: vkeys for typing text in the chat window and physical keys for movement. Amen! My personal favorite accessibility issue is when developers tie their key layouts to vkeys rather than physical keys, not realizing that when users with alternate keyboard layouts play the game, W,A,S an D are going to be scattered all over the place. I remember trying to play Minions of Mirth, which had this issue; to its credit the game did support custom keymaps, but the feature wasn’t well supported. After dinking around with it for a while I was able to get WASD mostly in the correct place under my left hand, but I had somehow “lost” my D key and couldn’t bind anything to it, so I had to keep doing 270 degree turns when I wanted to head right. Just as you said, I didn’t make a stink about it; I just wandered away and never came back.

At least Turbine got this one right: vkeys for typing text in the chat window and physical keys for movement. Amen!

]]> By: Eric http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/easy-accessibility-or-how-to-keep-12-percent-of-your-audience/comment-page-1/#comment-50 Eric Tue, 23 Oct 2007 22:46:05 +0000 http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/22/easy-accessibility-or-how-to-keep-12-percent-of-your-audience/#comment-50 A fun game to play with this post is "find the math errors and flawed mathematical assumptions." I count four! :) But anyway, it's safe to say there's a large number of affected players and leave it at that! It's also worth noting that if you don't use DirectInput (and use messages instead), you don't need to do anything to flip the mouse buttons; they get flipped for you automatically! A fun game to play with this post is “find the math errors and flawed mathematical assumptions.” I count four! :) But anyway, it’s safe to say there’s a large number of affected players and leave it at that!

It’s also worth noting that if you don’t use DirectInput (and use messages instead), you don’t need to do anything to flip the mouse buttons; they get flipped for you automatically!

]]> By: Azaroth http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/easy-accessibility-or-how-to-keep-12-percent-of-your-audience/comment-page-1/#comment-48 Azaroth Mon, 22 Oct 2007 12:49:20 +0000 http://www.eldergame.com/2007/10/22/easy-accessibility-or-how-to-keep-12-percent-of-your-audience/#comment-48 The last thing you need to be doing is adding any undue amount of frustration atop the heads of your players. That special concern paid to accessibility could also be an indirect selling point for certain segments of the population after the fact, which is important. MMOs are really an honest product in that your profits rely heavily on how happy your customers are AFTER their purchase, and how long they're happy with your product and the ongoing service. This is a great thought, and in all honesty something I probably would have overlooked. The last thing you need to be doing is adding any undue amount of frustration atop the heads of your players.

That special concern paid to accessibility could also be an indirect selling point for certain segments of the population after the fact, which is important. MMOs are really an honest product in that your profits rely heavily on how happy your customers are AFTER their purchase, and how long they’re happy with your product and the ongoing service.

This is a great thought, and in all honesty something I probably would have overlooked.

]]>