Can you play your favourite MMO with one hand? Crude innuendo aside, it’s probably not something you’ve ever considered is it? Well, as I sit here with my arm in a sling recovering from a recent snowboarding accident and one-finger typing with my only good hand, I’m reflecting on just how many games I now cannot play. My PSP is rapidly gathering dust and I’m surprised by how short the list is of Wii games I own that don’t require the use of a nunchuck. Happily though, I’m pleased to say that The Lord of the Rings Online is actually one-hand compatible and I’m even starting to re-discover the joys of the RTS genre via The Battle for Middle Earth II.
But it has raised an interesting question in my mind – when games designers start developing a new title for the PC (just forget consoles, with their two-handed controllers!), do they ever consider that some of their target audience may at one time or another be incapacitated, albeit temporarily, and therefore unable to play their precious purchase, perhaps for weeks on end? And that thought doesn’t even take into account those who suffer from a permanent arm or hand disability – they never even get to play some games at all.
So ask yourself, do the GUI and movement keys in your favourite MMO allow you to play the game with only one hand? If not, are the mappings and layout fully configurable, thus allowing you to do so? It’s worth thinking about, because as I’ve come to appreciate, you never know when you might not be able to play the way you normally do.
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I'm thinking of getting a logitech g13 to use with my mouse, I reckon something that like would be good for when you only have use of one hand as it has plenty of buttons and a joystick style gadget on the right section.
It's a good point you make though. I don't think most game developers think about accessibility half as much as they should do.
I remember getting into Lineage II and suddenly realizing, that I was mostly playing it with one hand (there was little to no WASD-support at that time). It was actually pretty handy (pun indeed inteded) to be able to throw down coffee, cookies, beer or supper down my throat in the middle of actionpacked gaming, without spilling it all over my keyboard because of frentic WASD-fiddling.
These days I work in IT, and I spend my working hours in front of a computer with a mouse in my hand. When I get home, depending on my schedule, I usually get a bit of time playing EQ2, which all in all adds up to a considerable amount of hours using a mouse….and I can feel it in my wrist for sure.
I do most of the ergonomic stuff to avois hurting my wrist, but I DO feel the strain when using the mouse a lot.
This has led me wanting to try out a bunch of stuff regarding ergonomic accessories, but atm finances are too low for me to experiment. What I've had in mind was some USB-addons including buttons to be pushed with your feet, keyboard-addons to make more room for the mouse and a simple trackball to be able to switch.
Yetian, before buying that G13, I'd advice you to check its measurements and comparing them to your current keyboard. I bought myself the old G15 and that momma is wiiiiiide! This has pushed my mousearm too much to the right, which resulted in a lot of pain. The best ergonomic position for your mouse is in front of you, so it is hard for me to get the optimal position without pushing my G15 in such a position, what my "WASD-hand" gets all twisted…..sigh…I really should go back to my old keyboard, but I've become addicted to the LCD-screen on which I got access to loads of internal info on my system.
I think a review I read stated the g13 was about 6 inches wide and 9 inches in length. I reckon with a small adjustment to my desk layout, I should be ok. I'll just have to move my monitor and keyboard a few inches to the right.
I hadn't thought about the mouse needing to be in front of you so that's something else to think about.
For EQ2 you could always try using the arrows keys on the right of the keyboard and the bank of keys that sit above it. I used those for years and have only just started trying the WASD layout, mostly due to the odd half hour I spend in COD:World at War. The only problem with using those arrow keys is you end up having to move your hand over to the f keys a lot, well you do if your a healer.