AbleGamers Chats with Players at Season's Beating IV

Season's Beatings IV is the largest fighting game tournament in the Mid-West. Players come from all over the country, and a couple from out of the country, to compete in games such as Street Fighter 4, Marvel vs CAPCOM, Blazblue and more. Some where there to experience their first tournament, others were there for rematches against their long time rivals. It really was a place for anyone interested in the genre to come together, make new friends, practice and test their skills. Like I said, it seemed that everyone from every walk of life was there.

After a closer look though, I did see that there was one type of gamer that wasn't represented at the tourney - the AbleGamer.

It really made me wonder about the fighting game community. What did they know about the disabled gaming community? Did they even know it was out there? Did they care? How would they react if they were paired against someone with a disability in a tourney? After taking a second to think on it I decided the best thing that I could do would be to simply ask them about it.

I began walking around the venue and trying to find players who looked like they were in between matches with a few minutes free. I knew I couldn't take up too much of anyone's time. Most people had scheduled matches and had to get in some warm up games, but I only needed a few minutes. As soon as someone said they had a free moment I would immediately thank them and then give them a quick rundown of AbleGamers and what we're all about. Once that was done I tried to get my questions in quickly so they could hurry on with their business.

My first question was really simple. "What would you like to go by?" It may seem odd, but people in the fighting game circuit don't always know each other by their first names. It was one of their first things I noticed. A lot of them go by their gamer tag or some sort of nickname. Most of the players I talked to said they'd like to go by those if I quoted them, because that's how the fighting game new them.

After that, I went straight to the questions that matter to AbleGamers.

"Have you ever played a fighting game with someone with some sort of disability?"

Brian "Burn Your Ego": No, I haven't personally.

Charlie "Grog": No, but I have seen the guy who is paralyzed from the neck down play Street Fighter 4 at Evo*.

Free1UP: Yeah, I did when I was a kid.

Kaal: Yes, I played against the One Handed Terror.

"How would you feel or react if you were paired against someone in a tourney who had to use some sort of custom controller that wasn't an arcade stick?"

Damdai: I may be inclined to think it would be an easy match for me. I think that I would really have to start playing and feel things about before going into anything full force.

Charlie "Grog": I wouldn't want to go easy on them. I think that may be disrespectful. I would play him like I would play any other match, because I know that if I were in that sort of position I would want to be played the same as anyone else. And anyway, the paralyzed guy I saw at Evo looked like he could beat me pretty easily.

Kaal: I may be intimidated when I first when to play them because I know the dedication it must take for them to play is way more than the dedication that I have. Their level of dedication must be huge.

Brian "Burn Your Ego": I know that if he is at a tournament he is making an effort to play and taking them game seriously, so I would really have to take him seriously.

"If having all three kicks or punches assigned to one button or using a turbo button* made playing a fighting game easier someone with a disability would you be okay with them using it, or would you feel like to was unfair?"

Damdai: I would be okay with it. As long as they aren't abusing having it I don't think it would be a problem.

Charlie "Grog": I am okay with them having it. They should have whatever they need to make the game playable to them. It doesn't really matter if you have help on the inputs if you don't know when to use them anyway.

Brian "Burn Your Ego": It's really hard to make a call on the turbo button. I would need to understand more of the mechanism behind it first. I think it is very subjective and really depends on the nature of their disability.

Mokai: I don't really care about it. This is my first tournament so I'm not a pro or anything. As long as everyone is playing and having fun, it's fine with me.

"Why do you think that there isn't anyone at Season's Beating with a disability? Do you think it's because of fighting games or because of something about the tourney?"

Domdai: I honestly don't see many people with disabilities in general so I'm not very surprised that they aren't here.

Charlie "Grog": Maybe it's a travel issue?

Free1Up: I think that they are out there playing fighting games. Maybe they just aren't coming to the events because they're afraid to come out. Tournaments can be very intimidating to people who haven't been to one before.

After this sort of line with questioning with several people I really got a feeling for how the fighting game community felt about the disabled gaming community. I was even able to talk to the top two competitors and the community manager from CAPCOM, who gave very good interviews. They put so much thought into their answers they get their own article.

The first really exciting thing that I realized about the people at this tourney was that they knew that there is a disabled gaming community. Most of the players I met had either personally played or seen someone else play a disabled gamer in a fighting game. In fact, there are two well known players in the fighting game circuit they kept mentioning. The first was Sebastian "One Handed Terror" Jennings, a Chun-Li player whose left hand never developed. The other was Randy "N0M4D" Fitzgerald who has been paralyzed from the neck down since birth. Randy competed in the Evo competition in Street Fighter, and was also kind enough to grant AbleGamers an interview after we got in touch with him. That should happen later this week, so stay on the look out for that. Sebastian and Randy were really inspiring. These guys were known for being good players and pro-gamers first and for having disabilities second. If you'd like to see them in action, I highly recommend checking out their YouTube channels, http://www.youtube.com/user/OneHandedTerror and http://www.youtube.com/user/TheRealN0M4D respectively.

Everyone kept repeating the same message to me while I was interviewing them. They wanted any body who had the urge to play fighting games to be able to do so, even if this meant bending tournament rules to allow it. The general feeling was they would allow for any sort of specialty controller and the use of turbo buttons to any player who genuinely needed it to level the playing field. As long as they weren't getting a distinct advantage over other players by having it, everything was fine.

All the players I spoke with were very welcoming to everyone who wanted to play. One of the interviewees even pointed out the venue itself was very handicapped friendly. It had wide open spaces, no stairs and wide doorways. A few others mentioned custom arcade sticks. They suggested that it may be easier to get a specialty controller for a fighting game more so than other games since they are so popular for fighting games already. A significant portion of the people competing had a custom arcade stick or a modded arcade stick they were using.

From the players I met, it really seemed like playing fighting games drew everyone together. It doesn't matter if you are white, black, Asian, American, poor or rich, disabled or not. Being together and having a passion for games made everyone friends because it doesn't matter who you are when you're selecting your character on the screen. The game doesn't care about your past; it only cares about the upcoming match. The people in this walk of life are some of the friendliest (and most competitive) I've met, and they'd be more than happy to have more players join then, regardless of whom you are physically.

*Evolution 2009 Championship Series

** Normally games are programmed so that if you press button A once, even if you hold it down it down, it will only perform whatever action is performed with button A once. If there is a turbo button, holding down button A will perform whatever action is associated with button A until the button in released. This is banned from fighting game tournaments.