I’ve Burnt My Hand

Written by Joe Martin

April 1, 2010 | 11:09

Tags: #joe-being-stupid #settlers-7 #the-witcher

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again – I’m an idiot. Right now I’ve even got a constant reminder of the fact in the form of a bandage covering the middle two fingers and palm of my left hand.

Important life lesson: When trying to impress your girlfriend by making jerk chicken and homemade cornbread it’s important not to pick up the griddle pan that’s been in the oven for the last 20 minutes unless you're wearing oven gloves..

Fortunately, my hand is now pretty much OK and the burns, while painful and annoying, were only superficial. No lasting damage. On the downside, the exorbitant amount of bandaging and the blisters beneath have had an impact on my gaming life.
[break]
I’ve Burnt My Hand
Jerked Chicken - hot stuff!

Playing action games at the moment is pretty much out of the question, as pressing W and S is pretty much impossible. I can hit A and D, but that’s useless unless I limit myself to playing Crab Simulator 2010. I’m fortunate to be in the position of playing games that can be done with just the mouse at the moment; tottering through Settlers 7 at work and The Witcher at home, both of which can be handled with just the right hand.

Still, the situation has got me thinking about how few games are designed for people with disabilities and so on, from the major to the minor. I’m reminded of Valve’s research into building games for deaf players and Dan Griliopoulos’ problems as a colour-blind gamer, not to mention the occasional sighting of controllers built for amputees. I’ve only scalded my hand and I’m nowhere near having comparable issues obviously, but there’s a certain sympathy borne out of it.

I’ve Burnt My Hand
I see...a monkey!

It’s a shame that there isn’t more support for gamers with disabilities or medical conditions and so on. It’s obviously not feasible (nor really desirable) to have first person shooters designed for play with just one hand, but when it comes to some of the wider issues of proper closed captioning and colour palettes there’s much less of an excuse.

Can you think of any games which offer great support for these situations? Let me know in the comments below.
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