I can’t tell you how encouraging it is to see the comments that are posted on my blogs and opinion pieces whenever they go up. I’m glad to know that there are lots of people out there that care about the idea of game accessibility. As I continue my work on DAGERS, I wanted to give a brief update. Things have been going incredibly well. This past month, I received my first two free review copies of games: Rayman Legends for Wii U and Diablo III for Xbox 360, direct from Ubisoft and Blizzard respectively. That’s right—I’m now in direct contact with several game developers. Wow. In addition to these two companies who have already sent me games, I have a whole list of companies who are either interested in working with me or who are already working with me by sending me press releases and the occasional review copy. Here are some names that any gamer should recognize:
Ubisoft
Blizzard
Epic
Namco Bandai
Signal Studios
Sony Computer Entertainment
Tripwire
Wargaming
Activision
This list includes just a few of the big companies that have been so helpful. They have expressed that they really believe in what we are doing at DAGERS and want to make the content on DAGERS richer and more complete.
While this marks a major milestone for me, I want to stop and thank the GI community, which has been behind me ever since I was an intern at GameInformer. It also marks a huge uptick in my responsibilities on my own website. I want to tell people that even though I do not blog as much as I used to, I am still an active part of the GI community.
I also wanted to send out a call for anybody who may be interested in partnering with me. If you’re interested in freelancing for me and you have experience gaming with a disability (either knowing a disabled gamer or being a disabled gamer yourself), I would be interested in looking at anything you send me. I’m also looking for one or two dedicated writers to help me expand the site’s content on a more permanent basis. There are two roles that need to be filled: (1) I need someone to help me sort through all of the press releases I get and publish appropriate news stories (kind of like what GI’s own Mike Futter does, but on a smaller basis and directly related to game accessibility), and (2) I would really love it if somebody could come alongside and partner with me and focus on three areas of gaming—mobile, DLC, and free games (e.g., through PlayStation Plus). Both of these positions would only require light writing. While I can’t pay, I might be able to offer the occasional free game as well as resume building and a chance to work in the game industry. Both of these positions would be strictly “do whatever you can,” since I know other people have jobs and lives they need to lead.
But this blog post was not meant as a help wanted ad. It was mainly meant as the sincerest thank you to the GI team. Thanks for helping me get started. I couldn’t have done it without you.
For more articles on game accessibility, please visit DAGERS, or find us on Facebook or @dagersystem.