As anyone who has been ahnging about on audiogames.net will know, I have recently downloaded the blind square ap for my Iphone.
For those who don't know this is a satnav system which uses the maps from the foursquare social network, however Blind square is unique as satnavs go because it's main function isn't planning routes, but letting you know where you are and what is around you. Thus, when walking along it speaks information of what road your on, which way you are walking, the address and also nearby items on the foursquare maps such as shops, cafes, government or educational buildings etc, and points these out to you in clock directions with distance, eg "sandwich place, sub way at 11 O.clock, 10 meters" obviously blind square isn't the first tool of this type (I tried a trekker myself), however it does have the advantage of not requiring any extra equipment than the Iphone, and being very simple to use, as you walk and it speaks, indeed using the belt hook of the surviver case I have for my phone I don't even have to worry about headphones sinse I can attach my Iphone quite securely to the strap of my shoulder bag which I pretty much carry everywhere, meaning it's thus very close to my left ear and I can leave my lug holes free for information.. However, I didn't write this message just to discuss the advantages of blind square, but to note an interesting fact. Blind square provides almost exactly the same information as the directional commands in swamp, or come to that, in the city map of gma tank commander stage 2. Obviously there are differences, sinse the sattelite navigation system is accurate only to within the nearest 5 meters, and also where as in a game like shades of doom or swamp I'd be reliant on other information such as footsteps sounds, object locator, overhead minimal graphics (if present), , etc to do the actual physical moving around obstacles, in reality I tend to rely on my guide dog Reever plus my senses for that, however on a general level I did find the fact and use of general location information quite interestingly similar. It is obvious that playing games develops certain skills, for example if a person plays a stratogy game they naturally become better at analytic thinking, managing resources etc, while action games can improve reflexes, split second decision making and reaction speed. Also manifestly if a person is using their screen reader/ios device/web browser to play games, they'll become much more familiar with it quickly, I have said before how I learnt browser navigation through playing games like ashes of angels and legend of the green dragon, and certainly getting used to Voice over and the Iphone was much more fun with king of dragon pass, albeit I think I sort of jumped in at the deep end there :D. This has been known mainstream for a long time, but the very striking similarity to navigating with a satnav ap such as blind square, the informational content it gives being so similar to that in 3D audio games does make me wonder if perhaps it would be worth allerting some Vi related agencies of the point. I also mention blind square because four square is rather fun in the way that you get points for going to specific locations, which is fun. One intrinsic problem with Vi mobility is people are often not willing to go out and explore the environment or go to different places. This could be expanded into something that actually encouraged people to explore the environment around them a little more, perhaps even one tied to an rpg. Either way, I do think this is one area where audio games and real skills very much combine and it'd be nteresting to see what advantage could be taken of this, both for making people aware of audio games, and maybe if any ios developers were interested creating some games to help people with their mobility. All the best, Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
