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Meet the most hardcore gamer on the planet.

G

ghst

thanks for the laugh
it began with a seemingly unremarkable post on the overclockers.co.uk (uk tech retail site) forums, bitching out dead space 2's lack of customisable controls:
gareth170 said:
hi

i payed for dead space 2 today. installed it and ran the game. went to settings, controls , to custom them, and guess what!!! theres no way to have the walk forward on a mouse button... it makes me so mad that game companys don't make they games fully custom controls....

if they can have the fire assigned to a mouse button, surely they could of assigned to a mouse button...

so now i can't play this game and i wasted £25..
Click to expand...

after being questioned about his picky-ness to the tune of "dealwithit.gif", the guy explained that due to a disability, he couldn't use his hands. dumbstruck, posters started questioning how exactly how could he play games without using his hands?

his answer:

gareth170 said:
with my head

picture6uo.jpg


(smiley emoticon)
Click to expand...

(http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18236540)

demonstration videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVwGFkrxtPE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVo0LJW1z20
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZJCAJRuI7E

since posting, the thread has (understandably) gone viral, spawning a 25k strong petition for universal customizability in game controls, and even elicited an apology from visceral with the promise to make amends.
VisceralGames said:
Hi Gareth,

I'm a developer from Visceral Games Australia, the studio responsible for the PC port of Dead Space 2. Sorry to hear about your issue - I've spoken with a few key people here and we'll do our best to include a fix for it in the next patch.

In the mean time, please PM me.

Cheers!
Michael
Click to expand...
in most places this story has turned up there has an outpour of suggestions for more suitably advanced trackir-based solutions to his problem, with the somehow surprising revelation that aslong as developers remember the importance of customization, he doesn't see it as a problem at all, and has been gaming like this for twenty years.

we're every one of us a waggling nintendoglet when measured up to this guy. bow your head in respect.
 
K

kittens

Unconfirmed Member
That's so awesome and so amazing. Thanks for posting.
 
T

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Mad props to someone who can actually play effectively like that.

Also, wasn't there a poster around here who was neurotic about mapping walk forward to their mouse?
 
H

HisshouBuraiKen

Member
Fucking awesome, good for him for bringing an important issue to the forefront and massive respect for not letting his disability slow him down!
 
R

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
Whoa, that's awesome. Does the guy elaborate on what other kinds of games he plays? I'd be curious as to what he likes. People like him also tend to be pretty good players once they adapt to how they need to control games. Also, Visceral has been knocking it out of the park when it comes to dealing with fans recently.
 
L

Lonely1

Unconfirmed Member
Nice story. But he can still use glovePie for that sort of things, you can map anything to anything with that program. Although I agree is an unnecessary hindrance.
 
G

ghst

thanks for the laugh
RoboPlato said:
Whoa, that's awesome. Does the guy elaborate on what other kinds of games he plays? I'd be curious as to what he likes. Also, Visceral has been knocking it out of the park when it comes to dealing with fans recently.
Click to expand...
i put a link to the thread into the op, it's 31 pages he's pretty active in it.
 
T

timetokill

Banned
Damn, is there a video showing how he plays games like that? That's crazy stuff. Serious kudos to him for not letting his disability get in the way of what he loves to do though.
 
G

Gen X

Trust no one. Eat steaks.
The_Technomancer said:
Mad props to someone who can actually play effectively like that.

Also, wasn't there a poster around here who was neurotic about mapping walk forward to their mouse?
Click to expand...

I used to always configure the right mouse button to walk and instead of using WASD for moving I used the arrows and the surrounding keys. It was only once I moved to consoles that when I went back to PC I just couldn't be bothered configuring.
 
A

Alex Connolly

Member
What a great story. And more to the point, it's damn nice to see a major dev respond so quickly and positively! Good on you, Visceral.

While it's outside of the developer circle, I picture Kotick receiving a similar email and replying:

"To Gamer.

How about whistling? Given that a go? Because you're whistling Dixie if you think I'm organising that kind of update.

B. Kotick."
 
A

AniHawk

Member
A coworker of mine played in a Brawl tournament with just his left hand and his face because his right arm had been amputated due to cancer. I think he got to the semifinals until he made a mistake and rolled out of the ring (he always played as Yoshi).
 
N

Neiteio

Member
This truly is amazing. And it really makes me hope for universal control customizability. Really, we should be able to adjust everything -- controls, HUD, etc. It should be standard that every game have a neatly organized options list, straight-forward but in-depth, where you can tweak things to your heart's content, save copies of your custom settings for easy access, and quickly return to default on any option should you mess up.

Also, cases such as these show the merits of advancing controls so that they don't require movement. There's a place for motion gaming, yes, absolutely, but whether it's disability, advanced age, illness, injury or whatever, there should also be ways to get all the functionality out of a game with minimal physical exertion. I don't know what kind of solutions are available that would allow, say, all the playability of Uncharted but without using your hands or arms. But whenever it's possible, accomodations should be available for people like this gamer.

Just my two big-hearted cents.
 
B

big_z

Member
im still confused how he's able to play the games with his chin. you only got two buttons and mouse movement which is for most games not even close to enough buttons to do shit.
 
W

Wario64

works for Gamestop (lol)
Visceral should revoke that dog-girl's copy of Dead Space 2 and give it to this guy with a custom version to accommodate his disability
 
S

ShockingAlberto

Member
Disability or not, it always floors me when PC versions (or hell, even console versions) don't offer 100% customizable controls.

I mean, why the fuck not? What harm does it do your product to allow me to put jump on a trigger or crouch on Q?
 
L

Lonely1

Unconfirmed Member
big_z said:
im still confused how he's able to play the games with his chin. you only got two buttons and mouse movement which is for most games not even close to enough buttons to do shit.
Click to expand...
My mouse has 6 buttons.
 
G

Gravijah

Member
bdizzle said:
stuff like this makes me sad. Hopefully one day science will be able to cure these types of debilitating illnesses.
Click to expand...

Dude seems to be doing OK, I wouldn't let it get you down too much! :)
 
R

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
ghst said:
i put a link to the thread into the op, it's 31 pages he's pretty active in it.
Click to expand...
Cool, I didn't see the demo videos at first. He's a hell of a lot better at racing games than I am.
 
S

Seda

Member
sorry if this is dumb but...


how does he type in his threads? if there some speech-to-text compatibility somewhere I'm not aware of?
 
S

seat

Member
I totally agree with the guy. Customizable controls should be standard, particularly with PC games. If a particular game is multi-platform and I want to use a 360 controller and HUD, I should be able to without question or hassle on PC. Sometimes I just don't like using a mouse and keyboard.
 
B

big_z

Member
Lonely1 said:
My mouse has 6 buttons.
Click to expand...

mine has eight, but only two of which you can hit with your chin. side buttons are useless when chinning it since the mouse slides away.
 
L

Lonely1

Unconfirmed Member
big_z said:
mine has eight, but only two of which you can hit with your chin. side buttons are useless when chinning it since the mouse slides away.
Click to expand...
True, but 4 of mine could probably be accessible with the chin for some as skilled as this guy.
 
TheUsual

TheUsual

Gold Member
Always amazed of what people can do. Nice to hear that Visceral is going to try to accommodate to this.
 
R

RustyNails

Member
Dude's hardcore. Makes me feel stupid at bitching about other minor stuff, really.

Maybe they should make that head tracking tech from cameras into movements for persons such as Gareth. Tilt head forward, move forward, tilt it back, move back, etc.
 
D

DrBo42

Member
RustyNails said:
Dude's hardcore. Makes me feel stupid at bitching about other minor stuff, really.

Maybe they should make that head tracking tech from cameras into movements for persons such as Gareth. Tilt head forward, move forward, tilt it back, move back, etc.
Click to expand...

TrackIR is a great tool for that sort of thing, but it's not widely used outside the flight sim genre.
 
B

_Bro

Banned
Pylon_Trooper said:
What a great story. And more to the point, it's damn nice to see a major dev respond so quickly and positively! Good on you, Visceral.

While it's outside of the developer circle, I picture Kotick receiving a similar email and replying:

"To Gamer.

How about whistling? Given that a go? Because you're whistling Dixie if you think I'm organising that kind of update.

B. Kotick."
Click to expand...
Things people say.
 
I

isny

napkin dispenser
I really thought that the OP quote was a troll post, what with the terrible grammar and silly complaints! Such a great twist, really calls for one of these...

First I was like, and then I was like!

hes_serious.gif
 
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