I suffer from retinitis pigmentosa, my eyes are pretty bad but I can still see enough to enjoy videogames. I consider myself a pretty hardcore gamer and believe I am quite good at playing them, even compared to people with normal sight. As long as the games arent too bright and text is light on a dark background I can manage quite well. Also text shouldnt be too small ofcourse. Actually, I prefer games where text isnt a very important part of the gameplay.

The games I mostly play are racing sims and challenging action RPGs like Bloodborne, Dark Souls. In almost every proper racing game there is a driving line that can be a helpful tool to fall back on.

Games I have the most trouble with are first person shooters and sports games where you have to follow a ball and at the same time look for open teammates like FIFA, NBA, etc.

Workarounds that work for me are having good (positional) audio feedback from a good surround system or headset. Makes all the difference.

Changing TV/display options/colors helps alot too. Turning off some graphical eyecandy is also pretty useful sometimes. I mean... Those sunflares look nice and all but they're no good if I have to pause the game until the blinding effect wears off.

Then there's the obvious ingame tricks too: Having headlights on in cars, night vision goggles in military games, torches in the left hand in dungeons etc.

Now obviously I'm not blind and can still play atleast some games without too much of a problem. Maybe that's my most important tip: Find out what kind of games work for you. Don't play games you can't play. It will only make you feel miserable, whereas games should be fun!

Feel free to ask or PM me if you want to know anything specific!

I'm legally blind. I'm not a hardcore gamer, but I've played games my whole life. Back in the earlier days I had no issues. Probably because the resolution was so low and I was a kid and thus sat on the floor in front of the TV. These days, there is so much small text that I can't read unless I enlarge it (thank you PS4!) or sit really close to the tv. I wish developers would allow you to resize text when possible.

As far as I know, the most discussion for games (audio or video) happens at http://audiogames.net/ in the forums.

I is quite nice to see other people fighting to stick at their hobbies. I have a few tips for folk that like playing JRPG's or just RPG's in general. These days quite a few games have very simple high contrast mini-maps. So if you get stuck in an area you can just navigate with the mini-map.

For example, Dragon Age II had a very simple mini-map that showed you where stairs and doors are, but it was not overly detailed, which made it very easy to play. Also, the PC version allowed you to have your main character search for loot and items in their general vicinity by pressing r.

I see playing Pokemon is a common thing around these parts. So, if you have low vision and you prefer high contrast text like white on black, I or, if you want to play Pokemon with Generation VI Pokemon in it on your PC with the GBA/BW era of gameplay, you should let me know.

I have found Pokemon games that have all the Pokemon from Gen I to VI that are in the GBA style and are very moddable, so you can change the menu colours and text box colours. I have put a lot of work into modding my games and I can write easy to follow guides if anyone is interested. These are all PC games and do not require emulators or illegal ROMs either. They are very large and expansive and are growing more popular by the day. They are also free and fan made, but they stay true to the original stats and stuff. They are basically GBA games with slightly better graphics and more pokemon.

What I really want in a video game discussion board is lists of games that are accessible in certain ways. For example, games with high contrast maps/mini-maps, or games with block based movement like pokemon. Even though I don't use that, I am sure a great deal of people would find it useful.

Hey man. I have a Youtube channel where I play video games. They mainly center around Pokemon, fighting games, and Left For Dead 2, as those are the most accessible.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoZujToINVP7xax9BTc7s2g

I find it amazing that some people keep the drive to play video-games when their vision deteriorates, as the experience becomes so degraded that I personally prefer not to play.

I started to lose contrast perception around the time The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim came out, and that was one of the first games that I stopped playing because its map is rather low contrast. The last game that I played was World of Warcraft, which is extremely colorful and thus very high-contrast as far as games are concerned. I've heard of a guy who $1, but it changes the experience so much and makes him so dependent on other players that I can't understand the interest in playing it that way.