Dragon Gaming Packs Enters the Fray

{sidebar id=1}Let’s face it; most companies (and sometimes most corporate people) just don't get what it is to be disabled.  They put out these gadgets and technology that we can use for our purposes, but that's not really why they were designed.  No corporate bigwig understands what we need to help our community.

Enter Peter Mahoney; he’s the Senior Vice President & General Manager of the Dragon Business.  You know, Dragon NaturallySpeaking?  He is the guy in charge of Nuance’s venture into voice controlled gaming.  He also has a 12 year old daughter with disabilities.  To say he understands our community and its problems is an understatement.

“My daughter and many of her friends are disabled,” said Mahoney. “I get to see how technologies are used for special challenges that were designed for everyday,” he continued in our interview on Friday.

Mahoney sat down with AbleGamers’ Steve Spohn on Friday to talk about Nuance’s desire to make a difference in the voice controlled gaming area.  He was very forthcoming and honest about just how new they are to pleasing gamers.  “This is something entirely new for us and we’re definitely not settled on pricing, games, or configurations. From the research we did with many gamers, we determined the 30 to 50 most useful commands available in 12 of the most popular games on the market that blended new and old titles.”

They picked the games based on feedback they received from studies to determine what games we would like to play, but they plan on adding more.  He was very quick to explain the $75 package includes Dragon naturally speaking 11 as well as a license for three of the games they currently offer.  Dragon gaming currently works with:

• Call Of Duty Black Ops
• Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2
• Flight Simulator X
• Mass Effect 2
• Medal Of Honor Tier 1
• Pacific Poker
• Rainbow 6 Vegas 2
• SecondLife
• Splinter Cell Convictions
• Star Craft 2
• Warhammer 40,000
• World of Warcraft

It’ll cost you an additional $29.99 to purchase another 3 games or you can purchase the standalone software of the Dragon gaming without Dragon 11 for the same price of $29.99. The pack will work with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 and above. Unfortunately, they don't currently offer the ability to buy just one additional game, you buy three more or none, but Mahoney stated they had been getting a lot of feedback suggesting the ability to buy as many or as few licenses as one wants, might be best.  (Duh)

Currently, there is no way to use the software for games other than those supported by the system.  “We have a lot of plans for the future,” Mahoney added. “We automatically update the commands as often as possible and we will be adding more games.  I don't think that we did a good enough job in this first release to enable ‘hands free’ gaming but that's certainly something we're interested in working with AbleGamers and your community on making better.”

“A small company in the UK that helps us with making command sets is designing these packs to help gamers be more efficient in their favorite games.  It's not about making it completely hands-free but about making the game easier for those commands you would need to take your hands off the keyboard to do,”  said Mahoney.

Bonus for us, they actually want to work with you and our community.  He said what they have not done is make a “generic command set creation tool” and that's what he believes we would benefit most from.  And he's right, they designed this for gamers that want to be more efficient or be faster not more abilified (that's not really a word but it should be).

“Dragon has become a mainstream product,” confessed Mahoney.  “The assistive technology side of our user base is exponentially smaller than it used to be But it is by no means less important than it ever was.  It is the group that has the keenest need for the product and the disabled community is the community that will push the envelope on what our product can do.”

Mr. Mahoney said it’s very early in their first foray into the gaming market.  Nuance doesn't know what it will take to make this the best voice activation program in the world but they're trying to figure that out and they want our feedback to do it.

The main difference between Say2play, VAC and the others vs. Dragon gaming is that you can type in the chat window using the same program. As someone who uses Say2play, I can tell you one of the shortcomings of that program for the use of someone physically disabled is that there is no way to communicate with your teammates.  You need to choose between using commands and talking to your game mates.

Truth be told, Dragon gaming pack isn’t a heck of a lot different than your typical Dragon NaturallySpeaking program if you take the time to add each command for the game you want to play.  Say2play is a much cheaper option if you're not interested in the ability to type at the same time as issuing commands.

However, Dragon gaming packs are going to be advancing rather quickly. You can imagine they will be adding as many games as they can to entice more of us to purchase the program. Not to mention the Dragon 11 engine is incredibly accurate even for someone on a ventilator, which alone might be worth the purchase price.

But I think the main thing we need to look at here is Peter Mahoney is a parent of a child with disabilities.  He understands what it's like to deal with a world that wasn't made for people who aren't status quo.  Between his personal life and the newfound friendship between our organizations and Nuance, you can bet the software will morph into a more “hands-free” voice controlled system.  Peter is the first really high up corporate individual to not only say they understand the disabled community, but would actually fit in with the other parents and caretakers who visit AbleGamers every day get advice on how to help their loved ones.

Is the Dragon gaming pack worth running out to buy?

Probably not for everyone.  You can purchase just the gaming pack for $29.99 but you only get three games, and if you go with one of the competitors you can play any game you want.  The real reason for you to buy the software is to be used in conjunction with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10/11.

The ability to talk to your teammates and friends while you are gaming is incredibly important.  The combination of a voice recognition software program and voice-activated command program is worth a look.  The real question you need to ask yourself is: Do I want to pay $75 to be able to type in games such as World of Warcraft while also issuing commands to make my gaming experience better?

That's what it's really all about. Making your gaming experience a little bit easier and a little bit better with technology that wasn't necessarily made for us but can made to be useful.  Every article you read from me is thanks to Dragon NaturallySpeaking. It would literally take days to type out as much as we produce on an on-screen keyboard, one letter at a time.