I have said before that we disabled gamers out there long to play games ourselves. We want the same experiences we know others are getting, and just watching a Let\u2019s Play isn\u2019t enough, as it is still someone else\u2019s experience. This remains true, but that doesn\u2019t mean we don\u2019t still watch Let\u2019s Plays, to get from some games what we can. We love video games, after all. So, if you\u2019re a let\u2019s player out there, or someone who is thinking about starting a Let\u2019s Play of a game, this one\u2019s for you. You see, there are things you can do, things some Let\u2019s Players already do, that make things just a bit better for us in the visually impaired category. I want to talk about those things, and also give some mention to a couple folks who already set pretty good examples. A quick note before we begin, though. This really applies to any disability, though the examples I give here focus on visual impairment. <\/p>\n
A lot of what playing games for people is, or at least what it should be, is knowing your audience. As your viewership grows, so does its diversity. As word gets around about you, you\u2019ll attract various different types of people. Maybe, just maybe, one of these types is visually impaired. If you get a message in a comment, or in live chat, from a visually impaired viewer who enjoys your content, consider doing what you can to give them the best experience possible. In an ideal world, it would be great if all let\u2019s players did these things automatically, but that\u2019s not the world we live in, so doing them in response to learning that you have that audience will suffice.<\/p>\n
Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, read the text. Even today, many games rely on text-only dialog and story events. If a blind person is watching a let\u2019s play, they obviously wouldn\u2019t be able to read and appreciate these things without your help. Imagine playing an incredible game like Undertale and not being able to read any of the text, or see any of the graphics. Suddenly, the game goes from being the wondrous experience it is to a collection of sound effects. Undertale lives on its story. Take that away, and you essentially have nothing.<\/p>\n
Next, be descriptive. We know your audience is likely primarily composed of sighted people, but we\u2019d like to know what that cool thing that just happened was as well. You can disclaim it by saying you\u2019re describing something for your visually impaired viewers if you feel it\u2019s necessary, and no you don\u2019t have to describe absolutely everything, but when an especially neat, or even an especially awful thing happens, it would be nice, and you will be appreciated for it. Again, we know we\u2019re not your only audience. We get that it would take a lot to describe every single room you enter, and every single character you meet. The goal here is to simply provide us as much of the experience you\u2019re having as you can, as you do automatically for the sighted folks who view your content.<\/p>\n
Keep in mind that both of these things involve you. They require interaction which, I can\u2019t stress enough, should be a staple quality of any content creator. We blind folks are not likely to watch playthroughs without commentary unless we\u2019re doing it for a second to get a taste of a game\u2019s audio. If you are one of those people who stays involved, if you do communicate with your viewers, great! These are just a couple ways you can keep us involved.<\/p>\n
Now, a couple shoutouts. These are people who, for whatever reason, already do the things I\u2019ve described. They set great examples for Let\u2019s Players out there, and should be checked out if that\u2019s what you\u2019re looking for. First, there is Darksyde Phil, who can be found on www.twitch.tv\/darksydephil where he streams gameplay almost every day. That gameplay is uploaded to his Youtube channel, www.youtube.com\/dspgaming Phil is a colorful individual, and most certainly not PG rated, but he is very considerate of his audience. He reads most, and sometimes all game text, and he ensures subtitles are always on for the hearing impaired as well. Check him out if you want examples of these things with some colorful humor thrown in.<\/p>\n
Second, a channel that actually exists for the soul purpose of describing gameplay to the blind. I introduce you to Audio Described Gaming, found at https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UC0liuqhnIvfLbMeL-g3THoA
\nThis individual sadly hasn\u2019t uploaded a new video in a few months, but has several playthroughs, including the previously-mentioned Undertale, that might interest any blind gamer out there. This guy does it all, actually taking the painstaking time to describe every room, every character, and every major in-game moment, along with of course reading the text. He\u2019s a true soldier for us, and I am not alone in wishing he had more content to offer.<\/p>\n
That about does it for this particular blog. For my blind readers, I hope I have accurately described the things we\u2019re looking for, and maybe that I introduced you to a new Let\u2019s Player you didn\u2019t know about before. For everyone else, I hope I gave you something to think about in case you ever considered doing a let\u2019s play of your own. Thanks for reading, all, and as always, continue to be awesome!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have said before that we disabled gamers out there long to play games ourselves. We want the same experiences we know others are getting, and just watching a Let\u2019s Play isn\u2019t enough, as it is still someone else\u2019s experience. This remains true, but that doesn\u2019t mean we don\u2019t still watch Let\u2019s Plays, to get […]<\/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":[317,316,314,315,91,284],"class_list":["post-340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-audio-described-gaming","tag-darksyde-phil","tag-lets-plays","tag-undertale","tag-video-games","tag-youtube"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340","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=340"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":341,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions\/341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}