I originally wrote this for my video game class and wanted to share on my current blog. Edited to clarify more about the game and book Metagaming by Stephanie Boluk and Patrick Lemieux. I highly recommend it as it offers more insight into the Meta of video games. And also expand more on certain parts.
Thinking back to last class on the topic of disability in gaming and watching some classmates’ gameplay of Beyond Eyes, a game where you play as a blind girl, made think about empathy gaming from last week’s class. Beyond Eyes is one of the more sensitive games to portray blindness (and do it through beautiful art) through a realistic way where it depicts the girl’s “vision” when she walks through the area and feeling the objects to tell where she is.
Compared to the Helen Keller Simulator, this is a much better portrayal of a character with a disability. Ironic that a game about blindness, a blind person wouldn’t be able to play this game and enjoy the beautiful aesthetics.
Going back to chapter 3 in Metagaming, about games and disability, Boluk and Lemieux talk about how the Helen Keller Simulator is a poorly made joke. The simulator is a flash game, with a black screen and no sound, and the punchline is that’s the game. Gamers claimed the simulator is not considered a game since it takes out visuals and sound and is not a game in the traditional sense. This meme game leads to a sense of abelism and elitism in the gaming community and dismisses the idea that portraying disabilities within games is possible.
It made me think back to when I was talking with a few friends and coworkers, how gamers and people within STEM fields are in a place of privilege and don’t acknowledge it. It can lead to people becoming ignorant about what people with disabilities go through. Or how they end up either thinking of them as “super crips” (when disabled people overcome a hard feat despite their disability) or using them as “inspiration porn” (reducing disabled people to their disabilities to the point where we don’t see them as people who have other traits and values). And end up portraying people with disability in a game with poor taste, or taking up disability drag for a PR stunt like Hideo Kojima did with the Metal Gear Solid V reveal.
Games that explore disability can be and should be made, but with a conscious and sensitive mind about people with disability. It’s great to use games as a way to gain empathy and understand a simulation of how people with disabilities navigate their lives. Beyond Eyes proves that it certainly can do it in good taste (and you should definitely buy it on Steam right now).
And with a game like the Helen Keller Simulator, there are other possible and sensible ways to portray her disabilities. If the simulator was made onto a console, programmers could use the rumble feature to indicate going near and touching things, have outlines of an object appear in and let the player figure out what it is. Then when the player figures it out, the image of the object appears (similar to what Beyond Eyes does in the above gif). The game could also be possibly portrayed on a virtual reality headset and controllers. Don’t know if controllers with VR can vibrate, but if they do, then that would be more interesting to see a better Helen Keller Simulator on VR.
I feel game developers and gamers should acknowledge their abled body privilege (along with others such as class, race, etc.) to be more aware of how games about disability. And maybe include some other options for gamers who are disabled through blindness or deafness to play. It would make our games much more diverse and have endless possibilities of other games to explore.
Kitsune's Musings 