Comments on: Triangulating Accessibility http://www.edery.org/2009/05/triangulating-accessibility/ For those interested in the business of making great video games. Entrepreneurial spirit a must. Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:07:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Max Battcher http://www.edery.org/2009/05/triangulating-accessibility/comment-page-1/#comment-258068 Max Battcher Tue, 09 Jun 2009 02:42:59 +0000 http://www.edery.org/?p=996#comment-258068 Fascinatingly enough, I spent several minutes in The Maw wrestling with a similar problem. I wouldn't call myself an expert gamer, by any means, but I certainly am a widely experienced gamer. Yet at some point my interest to explore in The Maw butted heads with an ignorance as to the meaning of the signage and I wondered why the wall was invisible... Certainly if they had used a locked door metaphor or some similar device it would have been less confusing. But I also appreciate what they were trying to do with what they built. Fascinatingly enough, I spent several minutes in The Maw wrestling with a similar problem. I wouldn’t call myself an expert gamer, by any means, but I certainly am a widely experienced gamer. Yet at some point my interest to explore in The Maw butted heads with an ignorance as to the meaning of the signage and I wondered why the wall was invisible… Certainly if they had used a locked door metaphor or some similar device it would have been less confusing. But I also appreciate what they were trying to do with what they built.

]]> By: Jason Schklar http://www.edery.org/2009/05/triangulating-accessibility/comment-page-1/#comment-257582 Jason Schklar Mon, 01 Jun 2009 06:31:35 +0000 http://www.edery.org/?p=996#comment-257582 Great post -- I can think of many similar examples where only through doing some usability and play testing with diverse groups were we able to discover things like the "some think X means go away, while others think X means go here" phenomenon. Take a great game like Catan. When we made the Xbox Live Arcade version, it seemed like designing a UI that let players know what each player was OFFERING vs. WANTED TO RECEIVE would be a snap. Nope. Not so much. We had to iterate on several designs to help players understand how to complete this most basic task. This meant bringing in players (some of whom had played Catan before, some of whom hadn't) and testing with each iteration. I look forward to checking out The Maw. I love finding (and working on) games that appeal to both casual and core gamers (core gamers tend to also be casual gamers, but with slightly different goals and game play motivations). Hopefully it's something that Liza (my wife) and I can play together. If not, there's always Pandemic ;) Or maybe the next version of Plants vs. Zombies will have a co-op mode. Great post — I can think of many similar examples where only through doing some usability and play testing with diverse groups were we able to discover things like the “some think X means go away, while others think X means go here” phenomenon.

Take a great game like Catan. When we made the Xbox Live Arcade version, it seemed like designing a UI that let players know what each player was OFFERING vs. WANTED TO RECEIVE would be a snap. Nope. Not so much. We had to iterate on several designs to help players understand how to complete this most basic task. This meant bringing in players (some of whom had played Catan before, some of whom hadn’t) and testing with each iteration.

I look forward to checking out The Maw. I love finding (and working on) games that appeal to both casual and core gamers (core gamers tend to also be casual gamers, but with slightly different goals and game play motivations). Hopefully it’s something that Liza (my wife) and I can play together.

If not, there’s always Pandemic ;) Or maybe the next version of Plants vs. Zombies will have a co-op mode.

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