No Barriers to Fun!

We met our friend Giddeon at the AbleGamers Accessibility Arcade in Atlantic City, New Jersey. When he first sat down with the AbleGamers crew, Giddeon didn't want to play any games. He told us that with his disability gaming was difficult. Giddeon has a rare disease that caused the growth of his arms .. Read More
A Window to the World

Shepherd University invited the AbleGamers Foundation to come on campus and do one of our Accessibility Arcades for the students and local disabled community. The event was a roaring success with hundreds of children and adults coming out to see the technology and in some cases experience gaming the first time. Read More

About the AbleGamers Foundation

Since 2004, the AbleGamers Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity, has served more than 56 million members of the disabled community by advocating greater access in video games. Today, AbleGamers is a leader in the development of equipment, programs and services to those living with disabilities, hardships, and quality-of-life issues that are a result of chronic illness or trauma. It is our goal to ensure that all people, regardless of their disability, can use gaming as a tool to have enriched social experiences with friends, family, and the world at large.

Wow Cataclysm Causes Cataclysmic Catastrophes

Written by Steve Spohn

Published on 08 December 2010

wow-cataclysm

{sidebar id=1}The third expansion to the ridiculously popular World of Warcraft, Cataclysm launched yesterday supplying the 14 million WoW subscribers with additional content, new areas to explore, new races to play, and the highly anticipated revamp of the world launched six years ago. The world literally fractures, creating a great flood and allowing adventurers to take to the skies for the first time where it all began.

“But Steve, I could read about this on any other site.” Yes, you could. However, World of Warcraft boasts the largest population of disabled gamers in mainstream gaming. Launched around the same time as our organization, Blizzard has become one of the most interested publishers in what we do and the population you represent. From their inclusion of colorblind options that AbleGamers helped push to the mod-able interface WoW sports, Blizzard has created one of the most inviting environments for the disabled community in AAA gaming.

Some of the new content does present some interesting new challenges. For one, the new race of Worgans presents some interesting colorblind problems in the new starting area. Quite a few of the new quests for the baby werewolves take place in a green mist; those with difficulties seeing different shades of green or telling the difference between certain shades of green and red should avoid this area.

Another interesting dilemma is in one of the most progressive areas of the game. The water zone is a completely submerged city and questing area where mobs are all around you, literally 360° of fighting. This can complicate matters for those with motion impairments as rotating the camera quickly or even moving your character in all directions can be difficult. You can completely avoid this area for your entire WoW career but there are some pretty cool events in the underwater world, don't discount this area if you don't have to.

There are some pretty new variations on the same thing we've seen over the past six years. One quest reminded me of guitar hero by pressing the correct sequence of buttons as the screen tells you to do so. This expansion features man eating sharks and out-of-control elephants, as well as lots of new ways to get experience without picking up poop in Nagrand.

However, one thing that is substantially different with Cataclysm as opposed to the other World of Warcraft expansions is the level of excitement. Yes, there is a large population of gamers who play wow, around 14 million to be exact. Yes, they will sell millions of copies well before Christmas. And yes, the game will continue on for many years. But as someone who has many friends who play the game and as an internet video game journalist, there is a definite air of dissent among the ranks.

Many people are growing tired of the same treadmill simply being extended, which is completely understandable. Gamers tend to have very short attention spans; we want something new and exciting as often as we can get it. There is a reason they say some of us are video game addicts. Still six years is a very long time to be at the top of the food chain in the video game industry.

Between Blizzard moving an incredibly large portion of their staff away from the juggernaut title over to a yet unannounced MMO and a slowing growth rate, could World of Warcraft be coming to an end?

Both experts and hard-core fans alike agree WoW is a long ways away from shutting down servers. And as a disabled friendly game, we certainly hope they continue on for many years to come. Even at that, most believe it will be the company itself that kills the top dog of games with something else new and amazing their developers comes up with.

Only time will tell, but you have to ask yourself, even though the likes of Ultima Online and Ever Quest are still going today, they are a long way from their former glory, can it be much longer until World of Warcraft yields the next big thing?

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0 #1 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Wow Cataclysm Causes Cataclysmic Catastrophes — ladydawny 2011-02-08 12:42

Great article, loving WoW. As a new gamer I find it much less stressful than aion and the addons make things easier for me.
Tried aion again tonight and found the difference, lack of content and so boring after WoW :-)

Not so much of a grindfest, you don't have to dedicate your whole life to it to get anywhere either.
Can see what u mean about the starter area for Worgens.

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