We just got back from visiting Kingsisle, the makers of the fantastic game called "Wizard 101," and we were so impressed with the studios and the people.

 Not only did they let me talk their ear off for 45 minutes, but they let me film, take photos and record audio. After we return home tonight and after I pass out for my first solid night of sleep, we will be editing the film and writing all the articles.

 We talked to CCP and Nexon as well as a few of the big browser game companies, and all of them listened while I explained some of the issues disabled gamers might face while playing their games. Most of them surprised me by being not only aware of the situation, but actively seeking fixes. J Allen Brack from Blizzard remembered ablegamers.com and said that one of the fixes would be put into a patch soon.

 All in all, an amazing time. I want to get home, email contacts and write articles about what I have seen and heard. Overall the developers were receptive to the issues and were excited to look into the fixes needed.

 At Kingsisle, we were able to get exclusive film of a yet-unseen mount soon to be in-game. Needless to say, it was thrilling to see the mount running around in the world while it was being tweaked. We will edit that film this weekend and put it up here on Ablegamers.com.

 Here is one of the screen shots of one of the new broom mounts coming soon: 

 See you soon! Watch this site for the exclusive look at our film of the studio and the yet-unseen mount!

 Beau

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  I will write a more formal article later, after contacting more appropriate people from Nexon, but in the meanwhile I hunted down (almost fan-boy style) Chang Kyu Kim from Nexon to ask him about any updates on two main issues with Mabinogi.

 I wanted to know if they had made any head-way on allowing a player to access the in-game keyboard that loads up when signing into the game, which would help many disabled players communicate within game. Also, I wanted to know if they had allowed text to be re-sized. I play the game a lot and love it, and knew what the answers already were, but I wanted to bring it to their attention in person.

 He knew about the issues, but wanted to forward me onto someone that was better suited to getting me better answers and to look into fixes.

 We had a great talk about the game and I explained the issues again, and exchanged contacts. He was actually really receptive and had heard about the article on ablegamers.com even though it came out before he took the position.

 If we could get these issues fixed in a game that already had pretty decent accessibilty, I would feel great!

 More to come, after more meetings.

 Beau

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 I decided to save most of my information that I have come across for a large article, podcast or series of writings. There is so much to see, and to be quite honest I would have loved to have written every bit of it down but I couldn't keep up.

 One of the highlights from Wed. would be the Browser Based games chat, with 4 of the major developers represented: Big Point games,    Ankama,  Gaia Interactive,  and Schell Games.  The chat was exciting, covering everything from Toon-Town online to the 87 MILLION users of Big Point.

 Afterwards, I chatted it up with some of panel members and Scott Kinzie (Gaia) in particular had a lot to say, or more immediate things to say I should say, about disabled players. His core background told him to always leave in certain accessibility options like color-blind fixes, sub-titles and the like, but he told me right away that they are still working on Gaia online and they are aware of issues like that. 

 By the end , all of the panel members were very receptive, exchanged contacts and chatted it up with me about the site. Samuel from Ankama was fun to talk to, and really wanted me to get a hold of him to start looking into any issues.

 Many browser based games do not seem to avoid getting taken seriously as "serious gaming" but not only are they making money hand over fist, but they are pushing the envelope of what the technology can do, from full 3-D to console interactions. I like the fact that many of them already have some built-in accessibility just by their nature, but there are still many issues that need to be looked at.

 I am looking forward to today! We are starting early and I hope to meet more people to talk to about the site. Its amusing, honestly, some of the reactions that I am getting when I tell people what I am doing there (representing ablegamers.com) and many think I am a charity, or an alien. It's been fun putting the issues into developers minds. Most of them are problem solvers, and seem ready to solve any issues.

 I meet with CCP today (makers of EVE online) to bring up a couple specific issues, to talk about their game, and to see if I can get them to make a special ship that looks just like me. (Missles would come out of my nose.)

 I hope, at least.

 See ya soon!

 Beau

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In preparation for our trip to Austin GDC on behalf of Ablegamers.com, I decided I needed some kind of connection to the Internetz while we talked to developers, gamers and fellow bloggers/podcasters. If I got a good response to a question about accessibility, I could blog about it, take the developers picture and record the celebration!

But, I didn't want to spend 1k on a laptop to just check emails, blog and update my Twitter. I wanted something tiny, something slightly more than an iPhone.

I heard quite a bit about Netbooks, but decided that most of the good deals were gone. Still, I would look into them and hope one day soon to have one. In the meanwhile, I would update things on the iPhone. Then, I happened into Radio Shack to look at blank CD's, and lo and behold there were a couple models available with a 2 year contract, something I knew would be involved. Each model ran basically 300 bucks (they used to be 400) but with the discount the Acer would be 99 and the Lenovo would be 59 bucks.

That's right, 60 bucks.

I signed up quicker than a jackrabbit on a date, and walked out of the door with a fully capable internet mini-book. The trip would be filled with the blog writing and updates that I dreamed of! When I brought it home, Leala about had my head. She wanted to help pick out any laptops, but I explained to her what this would be used for. The 3G network ran great, and the lil laptop ran ever better plugged into our network. She told me I could keep it "...if it ran WoW."  So, I installed it and wouldn't you know it, the damn thing didn't run half bad!

The odd resolution choice of 1024x576 has put a damper on some of the game choices, but for internet blogging, video streaming (including streaming from out NetFlix account!), photo-taking and podcast editing, it is actually performing rather well! I am actually really impressed. You can read an updated review here.

So, minus all the fun stuff it does for browsing, editing and writing, it actually runs a few games pretty well. Granted, these were not made for gaming, but it does run some good enough to mess with. There seems to be a discrepancy with the screen size (the box says 1024x 600 while the PC says 1024x576, which is causing some games to error out) but other than that, I am loving this little 69 dollar toy.

WoW: Warcraft runs not bad at all, and since the screen is smaller the lower detail doesn't look half bad. We got 15 FPS outside and 30 inside! Pretty neat, but we will be loading Dalaran and other areas to see how good it runs in high-traffic areas. Remember, if it doesn't run WoW, I can't have it! :)

Fusion Fall: Testing this out tonight, bit it loaded and ran well before I had to get to bed. A browser based cartoon shooter.

Mabinogi: Errors, errors. Too bad, too. But I did hear that it didn't run well much at all anyway.

Wizard 101: The game errors out. I think it might be the minimum resolution thing, again. I will look into trading this model for the newer one (I think there is one) or for the Acer that has x600 res. I am going to ask the makers of Wizard 101, Kingsisle, what THEY think when I visit their studios on Friday! :)

Ikariam: A great browser based-turn based game that I reviewed recently. Of course it runs great, and will kill more time than the DMV.

Dofus: Checking this one out tonight. Being flash-based, it is supposed to run pretty good!

Free Realms: It runs, actually, but I had to squish things a bit. I messed with the screen settings and got it to run, but it is a bit laggy. The mini-games ran just fine. Not as pretty as it could be, but hell it's A NETBOOK.

FaunaSphere: A great flash-based browser game that I am reviewing. Runs great, looks really cute!

RuneScape: Runs half-OK, but not really that great. The browser games seem to have more issues than the games that run from the installed games. I wonder why that is? (Tech person anyone?)

Here is a list of games I will try and report back on. If you would (owener of Netbooks like me) download some of these and let me know!

EVE, Taikodom, Runes of Magic, Dream of Mirror Online, Ryzom....many others I can't think of right now.

So, I am going to put this lil guy through the paces this week at GDC. I am going to run it hard, and if it does pretty well, I am going to go get a second gig of RAM. I love how easy it is to replace/upgrade the ram and hard-drive, which is a brilliant move on Lenovo's part. Expect a vidcast to be put together when I do that.

Overall, worth the 60 bucks and even the contract. Since we will be getting a beefier gaming laptop next PC purchase, we can just use the anywhere-in-the-world plan we have for that machine. Also, this lil Lenovo runs off of wired or wire-less Internet, even without the plan. All in all, I am excited to be able to do everything I want to do while on the road. I expect many hours to be put on this thing.

Any other users out there (Shuttler!) let me know how yours does!

Now, see you at GDC!

Beau

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