Well, folks, the subtitle says it all. I am not a Football guy. I\u2019m not even really a sports guy except for Baseball, but hey, there\u2019s already a blog about that. Today, though, we\u2019re talking about the Madden franchise, specifically Madden 18 as I have not yet tried 19. There\u2019s a lot to say, so let\u2019s talk!<\/p>\n
Electronic Arts did a great thing when they chose to allow Karen Stevens to work on accessibility for them. I\u2019m not saying that just to get on her good side, it\u2019s completely true. Not only does she do good work, but many, many other developers won\u2019t even take the steps that EA has. For all the criticism EA gets, this is one thing they did absolutely right, and something they deserve notice for. Good on ya, EA.<\/p>\n
Madden 18 introduced a few accessibility features that make it easier for the blind to play. These features are perhaps small to some, but they\u2019re extremely helpful. Furthermore, these features were patched in. It\u2019s worth pointing out that adding accessibility features becomes way more difficult and way more costly after the game has already been completed. This means that what EA did here was even more awesome. Maybe there were only a few additions, but this was still a huge step in the right direction for accessibility.<\/p>\n
On the surface, what the additions for the blind amount to are differently-used controller rumbles which give us queues we need in order to play. Whether or not the play we\u2019re executing is a passing or a running play is indicated by a long or short rumble respectively. When a receiver is open and the ball is thrown is indicated by a rumble as well. And the biggest one of all, the kick meter rumbles to indicate when it begins moving, then again for power, then for accuracy. It\u2019s all pretty awesome.<\/p>\n
But more than the features themselves, Karen Stevens took the time to write a complete accessibility guide for the game, which includes written descriptions of all menu layouts, explanations of how best to use the features that were added, and even a list of the quicktime events in the game\u2019s Longshot story mode. It\u2019s an extremely comprehensive guide, and is just as important a part of what was done as anything else. This guide, as well as guides for other EA games which have implemented accessibility features, can be found at www.ea.com\/able<\/p>\n
I think, though, that the most important thing to talk about here is how this game made me feel. This is actually the reason I mentioned not being a Football guy. This is the intangible stuff. Even this blog will likely not do it justice, but hey, I\u2019m gonna try anyway.<\/p>\n
There is a lot I don\u2019t understand about Football. I don\u2019t actually know what most of the play names mean. I don\u2019t know much of the terminology. I would fail a quiz on Football basics. All these things are true. Nevertheless, the first time I took the ball and began to run, spun past 1 defender, then another, and zoomed into the end zone for a touchdown, I felt great. I felt like I had just done something awesome. Something that, before, I would have struggled mightily to do. That\u2019s what accessibility can do for people, and that\u2019s what Madden did for me.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t matter that I don\u2019t typically play Football games, or watch Football, or follow Football. That wasn\u2019t the point. I was playing a game which had been adapted to help those of us who are blind, and doing well at it. What I was feeling is the reason accessibility should be the norm, because it taught me that you don\u2019t have to be a Football guy to experience that touchdown thrill.<\/p>\n
I got that same feeling playing through the game\u2019s well-crafted, well-acted story mode. I felt like I was the star of a really quite good sports movie. It wasn\u2019t perfect, since I still didn\u2019t really know what dialog choices I was making, but there were still plenty of moments when I resonated with the characters, who are portrayed as people, not generic Football robots. I felt good as the protagonist stole the show during his high school years, and I felt sad for him as he struggled to maintain friendships. This isn\u2019t necessarily a review, though I guess I\u2019ve made it clear that I think it\u2019s pretty great. Again, though, we come back to accessibility. Remember, this story mode is riddled with quicktime events. It is thanks only to that accessibility guide I mentioned that I was able to enjoy this as well. An entire section of the game was opened to the blind just because someone took the time to write about it. Pretty awesome, if you ask me.<\/p>\n
As I write this, I\u2019m actually playing through the Madden 18 story a second time, making different choices and enjoying how the story unfolds all over again. I may never get the best ending, but I may indeed get a different one this time, which will be awesome. It\u2019s just a wonderful thing to be able to do this in the first place. Ultimately I feel like what I\u2019m saying is that Madden 18 is a great example of how a few accessibility additions can make a giant impact on our appreciation of a game. I hope that comes across, as jumbled as this blog seems to me. Now then, I\u2019ve gotta go get drafted, hopefully a bit earlier than last time. Thanks as always for reading, and continue to be awesome!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well, folks, the subtitle says it all. I am not a Football guy. I\u2019m not even really a sports guy except for Baseball, but hey, there\u2019s already a blog about that. Today, though, we\u2019re talking about the Madden franchise, specifically Madden 18 as I have not yet tried 19. There\u2019s a lot to say, so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[36,97,60,257,61,258,256,43],"class_list":["post-306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-accessibility","tag-accessible-gaming","tag-ea","tag-ea-sports","tag-electronic-arts","tag-karen-stevens","tag-madden-18","tag-ps4"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=306"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":307,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306\/revisions\/307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}