Accessible Game Review - Master of Magic

5/5

A fine old strategy game which runs in a DOS box. It only uses the normal left and right buttons, which is no problem with the footswitch, but switching out of DOS is a pain without a keyboard, so I've bound the middle button to ALT-TAB.

Mouse Bindings

left button - Same as default profile
right button - Same as default profile
middle button - ALT-TAB

To make sense of the ratings look here.

Accessible Game Review - Star Wars The Old Republic

3/5

The only major problem I have is that my targeting speed is a bit slow, since I can't tab target. I also have a slight issue with jumping, which requires me to pull up the onscreen keyboard and click the space bar while running forwards. Lastly, whilst the game will automatically target an enemy who attacks you, it won't move the camera round so that you can actually see what you're fighting.

Mouse Bindings

left button - Same as default profile
right button - Same as default profile
middle button - No change (do not intercept)
In game middle button - Move forward

To make sense of the ratings look here.

Gaming with ALS

For my sins, I am afflicted with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Motor Neurone Disease (MND) as we call it on this side of the pond. We like to be different. Stephen Hawking is probably the best known sufferer of this condition. He has the form of the disease which allows you to breathe and eat after you are paralyzed. That's not the kind that I have.

Still, one thing that we have in common is that we don't wish the disease to define us. Hawking has said that he's not very interested in his disease, and I'm not either. He likes pondering on the deep questions of the universe, I like playing games. Gaming is a good pastime for the disabled. Pondering doesn't need much specialist equipment, though, whilst most gamers never shut up about theirs. So here's a discussion about mine.

My Current Limitations

At present. I can move a mouse, but I can't click it easily as my fingers are too clumsy. I can use a keyboard only with great difficulty. I can move my legs and head. My speech is slow but mostly comprehensible.

Hardware

USB footswitch with 3 foot pedals. I got mine off eBay for about a tenner.

This is useful because I can still move my feet and even though feet aren't very dexterous (by definition) they are fine for pressing pedals. I use this to simulate mouse clicks.

Software for controlling games

The footswitch can be bound to various keys depending on the application, so you can have different bindings for each game. You can do this with the supplied application, but it's a bit limited, not to mention Chinese. What I have done is to simply bind the pedals to mouse buttons 1, 2, and 3 as you can see in the screenshot below (this is binding pedal 1).

The ability to bind the pedals flexibly comes from a free application called X-Mouse Button Control, which will intercept mouse clicks and map them to any keyboard keys I choose. So far I've stuck to pedals 1 and 2 as left and right mouse clicks. But the third pedal is more interesting. By default I have that pedal bound to Page Down, so that I can read eBooks and surf the web easily, but in games or other applications I have it available.

Software for communication 

This is in a separate section because not all games need it, but if you're playing online, especially MMO's then communication is important.

For text input, I use Dasher, another piece of free software, which allows you to input text by navigating through words just using the mouse. With practice you can get up to 30 words per minute. There's a Google TechTalks video showing why it's such an efficient method of text entry here. However, it's awkward for corrections and the function keys so I use the onscreen keyboard as well.

I don't currently play any games in which I use voice comms,and my voice is still comprehensible, but if necessary, Dasher can be set to speak the text I've written, which could in turn be routed to a microphone. I haven't tried it yet though.

Future Plans

Since mine is a progressive condition, I need to consider the end game, namely how I'll control games when I'm completely paralyzed. MND doesn't usually affect the eyes, so I should be able to use eye gaze to move the mouse. However, eye gaze is not ideal for making quick selections. Normally eye gaze systems use dwell clicking, where you need to hold your gaze over the area for a second or two before it clicks. That's a bit slow for MMO's, though it might be okay for strategy games.

So I'll need a better means of clicking. It's likely that I'll have a few muscles working which can be attached to input switches, but if not, I'll still have my brain. I have an Emotiv Epoc, which is a commercially available brainwave reader. It allows up to 4 different brain states to be mapped to keystrokes via the supplied Emokey application. Then, I can use X-Mouse button Control as at present. Moving with my eyes and clicking with my brain. Sorted.

Game Reviews

I'm going to give brief reviews for the games that I've played. I'm not going to review the games themselves, only how easy I have found them to play using this setup. Games are rated out of 5, losing a point for each major infelicity that I come across.

A carebear in Eve Online

Like Gevlon, I'm back playing Eve online. I've played it before, and he's a 3 month noob, but he already has more ISK than me. Ho hum. Anyway, in case you don't know (in which case you probably don't play Eve), a carebear is someone who doesn't like Player vs Player combat much, which is unfortunate in Eve because that's basically what the game is designed around.

I am probably the ultimate Eve carebear, since I've been playing the game for six years, on and off, and in all that time I haven't killed a single other player, and been into lawless 0.0 space exactly once. It struck me that although the majority of players (80% or so) are like me, and rarely venture out of safe space, the majority of Eve bloggers are a motley collection of pirates, griefers, can flippers and scammers. Macho warriors all, I'm sure. My hope, therefore is that I may repurpose the word 'carebear', in much the same way as our gay brethren and sistren have taken the word 'queer' to their collective chests.

So, say it loud, say it proud - I am a carebear!

Young, Shifted and Black

You are young, shifted and black
We must begin to tell our young
There's a world waiting for you
This is a quest that's just begun

(with apologies to Weldon Irvine)

I'm rather enjoying levelling Kododancer through the post-cataclysm world. Even though she was level 20-ish when Deathwing made an appearance, which means that I missed all the spiffy new starting zones. Now, I know that a lot of Blizzards love-slurry has been dribbled over the 1-20 areas, but even the rest of the old world is sticky with it. I got a rattly cart ride from Ashenvale to Stonetalon just so I could join the army. Now that's recruiting. And I've even been phased after saving some group of centaurs from demons. When I'd finished the demons were actually dead. For good!

Generally, though, it's fun playing a tauren druid, a moodrood. It's nice to be able to pick any role in the game and run with it (although Kododancer was born feral - deal with it!) Also it's quite calming and peaceful being a cow. Most of my other characters are scheming wicked forsaken with bony elbows and poison in their back pockets. It's nice to be able to kick back in the Cenarion enclave, and really feel that these folk are PLU. Moo!

I luv Deathwing too

My basic problem with WoW is that I don't like repeating stuff.

I like repeatedly shooting cartoon figures in the face until they fall over in a suitably amusing manner. I quite like repeatedly making the same bit of clothing/food/pretty gems or whatever, because that levels me up in a small way. Elite Super Grandmaster of Flowers! Yakawow!

I even slightly like wandering around picking up the same flowers or bits of rock. It appeals to the hoarder in me. And I like the scenary.

What I don't like is repeatedly going down the same dungeon with a random group of mostly indifferent and occasionally rude strangers to kill a boss that I've killed many times before. Unfortunately, this is known as 'knowing tacs' or 'having the achi', and reached its nadir with WotLK. It's about making sure you've done it plenty of times before, so that you can do it over again. Efficiency prioritised over fun. WoW as a second job.

Happily, though, Deathwing turned up to change all that. I imagine that the normal mode dungeons will devolve into the usual rinse'n'repeat fest for the lootwhores, once the first flush of excitement has worn off. However, the Heroic modes, being really heroic, will hopefully be more like mini-raids, with all the excitement of having to actually worry about dying and crowd control, and getting the giddy thrill of progression. Maybe actually talking to people. That sounds like fun.

I luv Garrosh

I've decided that I love Garrosh Hellscream and I want to have his babies. He's just so masterful, but he obviously has his sensitive side. I encountered him first in an air raid at the beginning of Mount Hyjal, where he was barking orders like a good 'un. but even then I could see that beneath his shouty orc exterior there beat a soft nature-loving heart. Megeara's too much of a bony biatch to notice though. He fell into the sea but was okay. He's so butch.

But then! When his renegade general had just bombed a load of innocent nelf babies and laughed about it, Garrosh turns up and drops him off a cliff for disgracing the horde. "Honor" he said, (misspelling it of course, but thats just orcs for you). And some other stuff, but KodoDancer was too busy admiring his pecs to listen.

He was thinking of dropping Kodo off the cliff too, but he was soon convinced that she was innocent and was in fact a hero of the horde. He's so reasonable. And dreamy. Here's a picture of us holding hands.


Kodo and Garrosh sitting in a tree K I S S I N G