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Blind and Visually Impaired Community

Full History - 2018 - 12 - 22 - ID#a8q3qc
16
Accessible Video Games? (self.Blind)
submitted by singwhatyoucantsay
I'm legally blind, and lately i've found that I've had to stop playing RPG type games because of how small the text in the game is. I can use my magnification program, but it's annoying to need to pause the game, magnify it so I can read the text, pick my dialogue, the pause the game again so I can close the magnifier, repeat this every time I need to talk to someone.

Does anyone else here play video games, and do you know any that are acessable for the visually impaired, or they work with magnification programs? I can use my magnifier on text-heavy games (like *Stellaris* and *Sunless Sea*) with almost no problemb but games like *Pathologic* give me trouble.
narfarnst 6 points 4y ago
I'm mostly blind and only play three or four games that all work with a screen magnifier.

Civilization V and VI, Minecraft, and Cities:Skylines (which is a city-building simulator).
Badassmotherfuckerer 2 points 4y ago
I also find that Minecraft works really well using a screen magnifier. How easy is Civ V and Civ VI to use with a screen zoom?
narfarnst 3 points 4y ago
It's turn based so as long as you play alone or with patient friends and learn some hotkeys it's really not bad. And, especially late-game, turns take a while anyway.

Also the Civ games have a 'strategic view', which I find way easier to see than the default fancy view.
Amonwilde 4 points 4y ago
Lately I've been using Seeing AI to help me plays games, including the text-heavy Divinity 2. I have no central vision and can only very painfully make out words. I just hold up Seeing AI to the screen for large blocks of text like item descriptions. I sometimes kind of wing it a big with the dialogue answers but it kind of matters less than you think, and I go by the the first word a lot of the time. Like answers starting with "ask" are generally safe. The dialogue in that game is all spoken which is a big help, and I can also pop open the wiki if I get sick of reading power and item descriptions.

It definitely takes more patience to play this way. I recently beat Dark Souls (the first one) and that's a good low vision game, at least my type of low vision, as there's little you have to read except for some item descriptions, and the movements are a bit slow and steady. It's not an inherently easy game, though. I also really like Darkest Dungeon as a low vision game, the characters are huge on the screen and the interface is pretty uncluttered. Also managed to get through Xcom 2 using Seeing AI, just beat it a few months ago.
God-Macabre 1 points 4y ago
Really Dark Souls? Damn. I tried the third game and the first boss messed me up (typical dark souls fashion.) but I guess I can understand that as combat is both basic, slow, but really hard and grinding. Bloodbourne punoshed me too and they say it’s easier? Lol I disagree.
Amonwilde 1 points 4y ago
The third game is harder from a low vision perspective. Everything is sped up and it's more visually distracting with weird trails and stuff. I found the first game to suit me much better and it's generally regarded as the better game overall anyway. Just make sure you run past the first boss in the first game, you're not supposed to fight it right away...
God-Macabre 1 points 4y ago
Next PSN sale I’m definitely thinking about getting it then. :P maybe get a platinum trophy for it too.
ghetopenguin 2 points 4y ago
>if you change the settings in graphics to borderless mode the magnifiers are much easier to use as you don't have to pause the game to enable/disable windows magnifier.
Knight_Knave 1 points 4y ago
Just wanted to second that Darkest Dungeon is great for playing low vision!
WhatWouldVaderDo 3 points 4y ago
www.audiogames.net is a great resource to get an overview of what’s happening in accessible gaming. The forums are one of the best resources, however discussion can become a bit childish at times. Don’t let the name throw you off, there is quite a bit of chatter about games for low vision as well.
God-Macabre 1 points 4y ago
This is good to know! As some who has RP and my eyesight slowly deteriorating and someone who loves videos and been playing from a little kid to now, good to know that this is around. Lately games are getting harder and harder. I don’t even touch multiplayer based shooters like Call of Duty and just stick to single player games.
clevername-here 2 points 4y ago
I’m visually impaired- i play Lego video games pretty much exclusively bc the graphics are chunky and contrasted (easy to see) and no text other than menus, essentially!
Amonwilde 2 points 4y ago
Do you find them to be fun?
clevername-here 1 points 4y ago
I love them!! I play them always in my free time!!
preiman790 1 points 4y ago
Not really the same thing, but you might consider taking up pen & paper RPGs to fill that void. I am completely blind and it really doesn’t hold me back at all. I’d be happy to help you get started.
DertyD1ngo 1 points 4y ago
I play and am legally blind. Shooters are hilarious and I've had a good group on xbox who think it's funny to use me as a decoy. I love RPGs love em so I have my caregiver who games play too she reads them out loud. Using an 80 inch screen helps too.
ralphvonwauwau 1 points 4y ago
You might want to try "a blind legend", it is available for free on google play store, I put it on my cell phone. the home page says it is available on steam and the apple app store as well. - http://www.ablindlegend.com/en/home-2/
drury 1 points 4y ago
There's a slider for UI size in Factorio, and the game itself allows you to zoom in quite a lot to see everything.
FiverNZen 1 points 4y ago
Check out audiogames.net. There are 600 accessible + games to choose from. :)

Edit: a word
BlackKingBarTender 1 points 4y ago
VGStorm games have a bunch of games made specifically for accessibility. I linked ManaMon which is an auditory accessible pokemon type game. VGStorm has others as well.

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