Video games often offer a sort of wish fulfillment in their escapist fantasy – while we’re in a game world, we can be a knight or a rebel, a pirate or a soldier; to borrow from David Bowie, we can be heroes, even if it is just for one day.

Sports video games offer many people an even deeper sense of wish fulfillment – many of us enjoy sports and enjoy playing them but know we simply aren’t talented or able enough to play them at even a proficient amateur level. For disabled sports fans like myself, sports video games bridge that gap in unique and often compelling ways. I can’t run, I can’t throw, I can’t swing a bat … but I can still select a pitch and locate it as long as a chip takes care of the physics and energy and motion involved.

I’ve been both a baseball and baseball video game fan for a long time, and have played games ranging from Baseball! on Odyssey II and simulations (including, but not limited to, Earl Weaver Baseball) on my Apple IIc to the most recent baseball games released for consoles (MLB 11 The Show is the best of the current crop, but that’s a topic for another article) to give you an idea of how long I’ve been interested in these games.

Over the years, I’ve noticed that most of the games have been good, even when technological limitations resulted in managerial simulators, and that some were great (I’m thinking specifically of EA’s MVP Baseball 2004). Every game had flaws, but they were entertaining and provided a wide range of play options for different gamers – I could manage franchises, draft players, change ticket and concession prices, and pitch a game or two when I wanted. Or I could jump in on the Home Run Derby and ruin someone’s swing for the second half (and that’s more true than not – most Home Run Derby participants experience a significant drop in second half power). There were endless ways to play these games – season modes, franchise modes, simulation, arcade action, individual games, etc.

And to date, the single worst baseball video game I have played, dating back to the Odyssey II and the Atari 2600, is 2K Sports’ Major League Baseball 2K10.

Even though there’s an incredible list of things wrong with this game ranging from accessibility to interface design to accommodating different play styles, there are some things right with it and we’ll address those first since it won’t take long. The single best feature of 2K10 is allowing players to only play key moments when in My Player mode. Instead of playing entire games, 2K10 simulates a game until your avatar is on the mound, at bat or facing a fielding situation, then returns you to the action. It’s a fantastic idea for that game mode and it’s well-implemented.

Then there’s the rest of the game. Instead of starting players at a menu, it starts players with the option to play a quick game. Unless players know to press the Back button on the controller, it’s more likely that they’ll enter an online session than actually accomplish the goal they set out to do. The interface requires players to move and hold the stick in various directions while selecting options, instead of selecting items from a list. The menu graphics, particularly when the player’s bit-mapped mentor is providing guidance, look more like something borrowed from Leisure Suit Larry than anything from the current generation of AAA console titles (the graphics in actual gameplay are fine). Even something as simple as Quit can mean multiple things in this game – while it usually means return to menu, that isn’t always the case. Frankly, 2K10 is a slow-moving nightmare of both usability and accessibility and rather than spend more time explaining how this game fails as a game, let’s move on to why it’s difficult for disabled people to play (especially compared to MLB 11 The Show).



Accessibility Issues / Concerns

There’s no shortage of concerns, so let’s start with subtitles. Part of the joy of baseball is the play-by-play. A veteran announcer brings vast knowledge and experience to the game and explains what’s going on and, more importantly, why. Deaf gamers can get this experience when watching baseball games on TV with closed-captioning, but they cannot get it in Major League Baseball 2K10. There are no subtitles and there is no option to enable them. When the gamer’s in-game mentor is speaking, the text appears in an exceptionally small size at the corner of the screen – it’s difficult to read even if you can hear what’s going on, but the size of the type makes that nearly impossible.

Is it possible for a deaf gamer to play 2K10 without subtitles? Yes, it is possible, but 2K Sports has left one of the most fundamental and enjoyable parts of the game completely inaccessible to deaf gamers and that is an unacceptable omission. It is worth briefly noting that, although it was released more recently, MLB 11 The Show actually does subtitle in-game announcers calling the play-by-play so it is not only possible to include subtitles in a baseball game, it has been done.

Players with mobility concerns will also face difficulties – pitching involves holding and moving both controller sticks in certain patterns. Fielding involves tracking the ball and quickly moving to it, then pushing a button to throw the ball to a fielder to get the runner out. Batting involves timing pitches and watching their motion to determine whether it’s likely to be a strike and, if so, swinging at it. While timing is true for any game to some extent, it is a cornerstone of a baseball game and can present gamers who have precision concerns with severe challenges. Players with use of only one hand will find some obstacles in this game, because pitching – as one example – requires using both sticks at the same time. Alternate controller layouts are very limited and don’t offer any solutions in that respect.

Gamers with a form of color blindness fare somewhat better – while red and green are used to convey meaning in the game, they are typically used with other contextual information like arrows to indicate improved or diminished statistics and abilities.

As one final note about accessibility in 2K10, the developers adopted a rather unusual stance with achievements – many, if not most, achievements can only be earned if the player is playing at Pro difficulty or higher. Gamers who want or need to play at a less difficult level will find that they can adjust difficulty levels, but that the developer effectively punishes them for doing so.



Mobility: 1
Visual: 3
Hearing: 1

My original purchase price: $29.99
Recommended purchase price: Avoid

At A Glance

Precision: Timing, rapid and complex stick movements and pressing buttons is crucial. Recommend rating of 1 out of 10.

Deaf Gamers: The announcer play-by-play is a fundamental part of baseball. That play-by-play is not subtitled in this game. Recommend rating of 1 out of 10.

One-handed: Some game features require using both sticks simultaneously. Limited controller layouts do not provide a particularly sound option for gamers with use of only one hand. Recommend rating of 1 out of 10.

Subtitled: No option to enable subtitles and they are only provided when a specific character is speaking. That character’s subtitles are in an unacceptably small typeface size. Recommend rating of 1 out of 10.

Color Blind: Red and green are used for meaning at the same time, but generally only indicate improvement or diminished skills. Recommend rating of 3 out of 10.

Checkpoint / Save System: The game saves automatically after each game. Recommend rating of 5 out of 10.