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K-I-S-S-I-N-G AbleGamers Talks to Blizzard!
So before we jump into this interview, I want to tell you how much work it took to get it. As you know, AbleGamers is not a power house of gaming news, and to be honest, we are okay with that. We reached our as early as 2005 for an interview, but we could never get a call back. So once every 3 or so months we sent a request in, and our inboxes would remain empty (well except for the male enhancement pills and home mortgage offers). I mean, think about it, we were a site for disabled gamers, and there is this game with like a trillion subscribers, why would we not want to talk to them, if Blizzard were supportive of what we were doing, others would follow. But, our inbox was empty (darn Canadian Pharmacies, get out of my inbox).
So when Stephanie and I got a chance to go to GDC this year we thought about how we could get Blizzard to notice us, so we devised a plan. The details were simple; we made t-shirts that were critical of Blizzard’s inability to return emails to AbleGamers. The second part of the plan was to get word to Blizzard that these shirts would be worn… Well what do you know, two employees of Blizzard showed up to our event, and they came with a peace offering… They promised us a contact in Blizzard, and after a few emails to them, we got one!
Right off the bat we got an interview with J. Allen Brack, Production Director of World of Warcraft. This is the first interview in a long happy relationship. Enjoy it AbleGamers, it took us a long time to get to it.
Mark Barlet, AbleGamers.com - You may, or may not know this; the IDGA has estimated that 9% of the gaming population is classified as disabled. Given that, the gaming industry was a $17.9 billion industry in 2007, which means a slice of $1.611 billion left on the table for games that are not friendly to the disabled. So the first thing I would like to ask would be; do you think that accessibility in the games important?
J. Allen Brack, WOW - Accessibility is definitely important to us and is one of the hallmarks of our approach to game design. We put a lot of hard work into making great games, and we want as many people as possible to be able to enjoy them.
Our goal for every Blizzard Entertainment game is to make the user interface both simple and powerful. With World of Warcraft, for example, we have a dedicated U.I. team that gives players tools to customize the U.I., and a gigantic social community has formed that creates interface modifications for different play styles. We work closely with this community, and we also work to maintain the integrity of World of Warcraft while offering players lots of U.I. customization and accessibility features.
MB - As the current top dog in the MMO space, are there measures that are in place within the World of Warcraft team, and Blizzard to advocate features for the disabled?
AB - We think the best way to serve the needs of our community is to give them extremely flexible tools to customize the U.I. Within World of Warcraft itself, controls can be modified to be as simple or complex as you wish. If players are looking for more than what the default U.I. provides, they can download add-ons that change certain audio, visual, and U.I. elements -- or create their own add-ons. The U.I. design team is always reviewing numerous third-party mods and developing new interfaces for all types of players. We actively seek community feedback on user-interface mods and accessibility issues, and our community team regularly passes information from discussions on our U.I. forums to the game’s developers.
MB - Given that many gaming PCs now have extra CPU cycles laying around, hardware manufacturers are starting to take advantage of them, for example, the TrackIR from Natural Point, it is a device that lets you control the mouse via your head. Are there plans to integrate these types of technologies into WOW, and future games? If not, why not, since Natural Point claims it can be coded easily with little effort.
AB - We’re constantly evaluating technologies that we think might be a good fit for World of Warcraft -- in fact, we currently have a TrackIR in house that we’re researching and testing. However, it’s too early to determine whether we’ll support the TrackIR natively.
MB - Blizzard has always been kind to forum users who need support for disability issues. However, the security program used to catch bots has banned several users who are simply using gamepads. What protocols are in place to forgive truly disabled gamers when they are accidently banned?
AB - We fully support the use of gamepads to play and enjoy World of Warcraft, and we’re not aware of any cases where a player has been banned solely for using a gamepad. However, if a player were to use a gamepad to activate macros that automated gameplay via unauthorized third-party software, that person could get banned, as that violates our Terms of Use.
I can’t go into detail on our security methods, but players can contact our customer-service team if they feel they were mistakenly banned, and we will reconsider the case.
MB - Some disabled gamers have reported success with support on this (the above question), and other have been, somewhat coldly, ignored, Is there any training in place for your CSR’s on dealing with issues like banned gamers, where disability is an issue?
AB - As mentioned above, I can’t discuss too many details, but if a player contacts us and feels their ban was not justified, our customer-service representatives will conduct a thorough investigation on the reasons for the ban. Also, senior and lead CSRs will review situations for any player that has been banned. We also have internal security tools we use to carefully review the activity of any player suspected of cheating or using unauthorized third-party software. Our CSRs do their best to ensure that all the proper criteria are met before any action is taken against a player.
MB - Blizzard has publicly stated Voice Recognition software is “legal” only if the user programs one button push per command. Although, in game, we can type a macro that activates two trinkets, changes target, then fires a spell with one button. Why are gamepads and voice software not allowed to do 3 to 5 actions that could be replicated by a macro?
AB - Gamepads and voice-recognition software are indeed fully supported in World of Warcraft. However, to prevent cheating and exploits, we do not allow external software to perform automated tasks within the game. That’s why we recommend players use the in-game scripting tools when creating macros. To address your specific example, we recommend that you assign your voice-recognition software or gamepad to activate a key press, and then have that key trigger a macro within World of Warcraft. This way, you can map any World of Warcraft macro to a particular voice command or gamepad button.
MB - Auto targeting was removed from all modifications, like Decursive and Healbot, awhile back. Blizzard obviously felt those modifications made the game too easy or automated. Was any consideration given to those who needed the feature? For example, clicking on a friend and casting on their target was much easier to some then clicking tab to change targets.
AB - Regarding Decursive and Healbot, we felt that their earlier incarnations automated gameplay too much. There are lots of great mods available now that allow players to click one button for targeting and then another button to heal. There are several other reasons why certain functions are not permitted in mods. First and foremost, we forbid any functionality that could lead to cheating or that violate our Terms of Use.
MB - Modifications have always been an important part of World of Warcraft. Not too long ago many mods were limited to working out of combat. For instance, a mod that allowed hunters to switch automatically out of aspect of the cheetah when hit was very useful to those with slow reaction time or the use of only one hand. Are there any plans to revisit this issue and allow more to be done during combat?
AB - Currently there are no plans to revisit this specific mod for hunters. We carefully review the third-party mods that are available and do our best to ensure they aren’t automating gameplay too much or making it so players never have to interact with the game world. We also actively seek community feedback on U.I. mods and accessibility issues, and our community team provides regular feedback to our developers on hot topics within the community’s U.I. forums.
MB - We have discussed many different ways in this interview that technology can adapt your games to be more handicap friendly. However, we all understand things like auto targeting, macroing, and the like can be abused by non-disabled gamers and farmers. Do you believe exceptions can be made for gamers who can absolutely, without a doubt prove they need help to play? Perhaps even by a doctor’s letter as proof. Please elaborate on why or why not.
AB - We try to avoid creating multiple sets of exceptions and rules for the various forms of third-party software. We do this to maintain a fair playing experience and even playing field for the World of Warcraft community.
For that reason, we can never permit third-party programs that completely automate the gameplay mechanics within World of Warcraft. We fully support the use of authorized third-party add-ons, macros, programmable keyboards, gamepads, and so on, but we definitely do not allow software that could exploit the player base or fully automate gameplay without user intervention. There is a minimum level of player interaction that is required while playing World of Warcraft.
MB - Finally, with all the different disabilities out there, it is a daunting task to create a fix to help all of them. Some Blizzard features such as click to move and increased mouse speed greatly help the movement impaired. Other games have features such as subtitles for the hearing impaired and alternate coloring for the colorblind. Are there any new features in the works to help the disabled play WoW?
AB - Great question. World of Warcraft currently supports subtitles and chat bubbles, and we’re looking at additional ways to improve the chat bubbles, such as possibly increasing the font size.
Several members of Blizzard Entertainment’s different development teams are colorblind, and we’re researching and looking at alternate coloring methods for text boxes and chat bubbles for our colorblind players.
We want our games to be enjoyed by as many people as possible and we are completely open to additional ideas and feedback from our community of players with disabilities. If there are particular hardware and software packages that are used commonly, for example, we’d like to hear about them -- and the best way to reach us with such ideas is through the World of Warcraft UI & Macros or Suggestions forums at www.worldofwarcraft.com
Thank you for talking with us today...
Special thanks to Steve Spohn, Sr. Contributor at AbleGamers for helping come up with some of the questions. Steve is a World of Warcraft fan, and had a lot to ask them. Look for more of Steve's work with other Blizzard products.
...you can map any World of Warcraft macro to a particular voice command or gamepad button.
I haven't played WoW, so I'd like to know if this is a valid solution?
We carefully review the third-party mods that are available and do our best to ensure they aren’t automating gameplay too much or making it so players never have to interact with the game world.
This is a difficult problem, knowing how to separate those that need help from the cheaters.
it is entirely possible to macro almost everything in that game. In fact, you don't even need a third party device in order to macro most commands in game. There are also programs like, auto hotkeys and voice buddy, that will allow you to macro one command at a time. The important thing to remember is if you macro more than one action at a time, you may be banned.
There are also game pads like the one our chief uses, they allow you to macro the entire game on little buttons centered around your hands. If you have any more questions let us know!
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