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Audio games for blind players
by Ian Bogost January 4, 2005

The BBC ran a story this weekend on the expanding range of audio games for blind gamers. The article reports that there are at least 50 commercially available titles and at least twice that many shareware and freeware games for blind players, cataloged on AudioGames.Net. These games are more about accessibility than health and medicine, but it's certainly an appealing trend: making more games geared specifically for the blind. Some of the games seem innovative in their own right, no matter the intended player.

Comments (1)

That's the key, really--these games have to appeal to sighted folks as well. I've been playing Doom 3 recently and have thought about how the inability to see (most of the game is very dark) enhances gameplay considerably. It's a step further to make some parts totally dark and have players relying solely on sound (a good 6.1 system or the like would be invaluable).