Reviews Archives - The Geeky Gimp

Super Sick Blog Tour: Cloud Strife & Depression

Welcome to the blog tour for the book Super Sick: Making Peace with Chronic Illness! I’m excited to host Allison here at The Geeky Gimp. Each stop in the tour features a fictional character who experiences chronic pain or illness. Check out the rest of the tour dates below!

By Allison Alexander

Often, when a book or movie represents a disability or illness, the entire thing is about that illness; think Forrest Gump or The Fault in Our Stars. These characters’ identities are entirely swallowed up by their disabilities. In other shows, characters with illnesses are only there on the sidelines to “inspire” the protagonist, in the way that Tiny Tim’s only purpose in A Christmas Carol is to be pitied by Scrooge.

How HyperDot Got it Right, and the Importance of Accessibility in Gaming

Erin next to text that reads this game is so accessible

My latest vlog is all about an amazing game called HyperDot, developed by GLITCH! It was created with accessibility from its early planning stages, and the developers had many disabled play-testers; they listened to our feedback and reworked different aspects of HyperDot to make it playable for even more disabled gamers.

Featured in USA Today – Accessible Gaming

Erin in her wheelchair smiling at the camera

In May of 2019, I was featured in a video and article about adaptive gaming and the importance of cultural accessibility.

Accessing VR: Don’t Leave Disabled People Behind

Neon outline of a person's head with disability symbols inside. There is a VR beam

by Erin Hawley

After watching a Polygon video titled “VR is Good Now,” I commented that VR games are not accessible for many disabled users, and I worry that this trend toward VR will, like modern console gaming, leave many disabled people behind. While game accessibility is starting to be a topic picked up by major news outlets, there was a long period of time where that conversation was mostly silent. Disabled people talked about it, and expensive or complex solutions were available (expense is part of accessibility, especially for many disabled people living on Social Security Income), but mainstream media was not interested in our needs.

The Xbox Adaptive Controller (XAC) is a fantastic move toward making consoles more accessible and creating mainstream dialog; while its invention opens Xbox gaming to more people, it hasn’t solved everything. PlayStation and Nintendo need to catch up. We still need game design that works better for D/deaf, blind, and/or developmentally disabled people. Games with complex control mapping and button sequences are still an access barrier, even with the XAC. This is why we need to start talking about VR accessibility now, while the technology is still in its infancy. The conversation must be one for today rather than one for ten or twenty years in the future when a major company finally decides to listen to us.

Accessibility Report: HyperX Cloud Revolver S Gaming Headset

Black headphones on a dark blue background

by Lydia Rivers

Note: This review focuses on how the item interacts with my disability. If you wish to read about technical specifications and general features, I recommend Techradar’s comprehensive review. This is not a paid review or endorsement.

Hello everyone! My name is Lydia, and I’m a disabled gamer, writer, and visual novel designer. I’m constantly listening to all kinds of things to help me concentrate and relieve stress; it’s common for me to exceed ten hours’ worth of daily listening to music and other sound-intensive media, whether I’m active at work or sick in bed. I have chronic migraines, dyslexia, and clinical ADHD, so when it comes to a headset, I’m as needy as they get! Numerous symptoms interfere with my ability to utilize most headsets on the market, and it’s difficult to know where to begin because of the chronic lack of information addressing my concerns. Well, I recently purchased a HyperX Cloud Revolver S, and here is my experience for those in a similar predicament!

Accessibility in Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Image of Lara Croft on a tree, a temple behind her, and a sun outlining her face

Shadow of the Tomb Raider was my most anticipated game of 2018; when I read about the accessibility features, that excitement then morphed into a mixture of relief, curiosity, and hope. As games and controllers become more complex, especially with the popularity of VR, I worry that the hobby I take part in right now will soon become a hobby I can no longer enjoy – and Tomb Raider isn’t exactly known for its simple controls or combat. But with aim assist and other features I will explain below, I am proud to share that I am able to play Shadow. And it was easier than any other game of this genre in recent years.

Radical Love: On the Hermana Resist Zine Anthology

A copy of the zine anthology, with a woman and child on her lap. The book sits on a table

I met Noemi over ten years ago through our shared love of zines. Those self-published, personal manifestos served as a witness to our lives, and continue as a source of expression in a world that doesn’t hold space for marginalized people.

Almost two decades after publishing her first zine, Noemi Martinez is putting together the Hermana Resist Zine Anthology; it’s a collection of all her zines to date. She says, “I wanted to document my experience as a young brown crip mother in a little place called the Rio Grande Valley as I dealt with being a single parent, poverty, working/working poor, chronically ill, depression/anxiety and all the feelings in between.”

Learning Disabled and Teaching Tabletop Games

Guest post by James Cole

I have an odd reputation among my gaming friends.

Apparently, I’m a good game teacher.

That by itself is not weird. But if you combine that with the fact that I have a visual processing learning disability, me being a decent teacher is not an obvious connection.

Disability and Ableism in My Hero Academia

My Hero character with light eminating from him

by Michael Meinberg

The following contains spoilers for the show.

My Hero Academia is a new anime about a group of superheroes in training. Like most anime in its genre, known in Japan as shonen, it is action packed, filled with supernatural elements, and aimed at young men. One way that My Hero Academia stands out from its peers is the way it allows its characters to express their emotions in an open and direct fashion. This facet is what drew my attention to the show, and what continues to hold my attention.

Symmetra Needs to Stay Accessible for Disabled Gamers

by Erin Hawley

Overwatch is my favorite video game – I play it every day. What initially drew me to the game was its accessibility, and how every skill level is considered – from people who have trouble aiming, to expert first-person shooters. Overwatch originally prided itself as having a hero for everyone, but the development team is slowly deviating from that mission statement. When I first started playing, I was a D.Va main, a tank hero who can shoot and dive into people. There wasn’t a lot to think about or mechanics to manage with her; aiming was involved, but she was more about mobility and blocking with her defense matrix.