This is an interesting video not on subversive gaming, but on subversive game design that I found as part of my research into subversive gaming.

For my subversive gameplay experiment I decided to try and find a commercial game that a visually impaired person could play without having to mod it or buy any special peripherals. I found several forums online where blind people were asking that exact question, their workaround being to seek out a game that you could fully play based on the soundscape.

The common answer: Mortal Kombat for PS3. Which I actually had!

I’ve set the above video to start right at the beginning of a fight to give you the sense of gameplay and soundscape. Try closing your eyes as soon as the fight starts, then rewatching it with your eyes open and see if you really had any idea what was going on.

Gameplay:

Getting into the game blind: easy, you can hit the start button which most people know starts the game. There are audio cues when you click between match types and players, but that only tells you that your selection is moving, not what you are selecting. So as luck would have it I ended up in a one on one match, but I most certainly didn’t pick the character I would have normally. I got Kratos where I normally prefer Raiden.

As the fight sets up to start each character makes sounds as the enter the scene and I felt like I could tell my guy was on the left as I entered first and my sounds seems to come from that side of the speakers.

A voice says “Round One, Fight!” So you know when it starts.

You can tell when someone is releasing a weapon like a chain, but the time between when you hear it and when it gets to you is pretty fast and it would take a lot of gameplay to be able to react to that auditory cue and avoid getting hit. When someone uses ice, fire or magic whatever balls, it’s pretty impossible to hear them coming. When you are getting hit your character does make a lot of sounds which helps and if you know your opponents signature moves and sayings like Scorpion’s “Get over here!” when he catches you with his chain and pulls you towards him, etc it’ll at least orient you to where you are in relation to him. As will your screams.

There are other audio clues like if someone draws a sword or falls on a certain side of the screen you’ll hear that noise on the corresponding ear if playing with headphones, which is helpful.

Overall, as a seeing person, I found playing this game blind to be near impossible to do well. However for someone that deals with vision loss everyday, I can’t speak to their experience, and they most likely would have skills and ways of playing the game that I don’t have/haven’t thought about as a person with near perfect sight.

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