In this month's issue of Wired Magazine, writer Jason Schreier tells the story of a gamer named Terry Garrett who, after years of playing Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, finally mastered the video game. Okay, we can hear the sarcasm in your voice: "So what? I beat that game weeks after I started playing it. Why should I care about a kid who beats it after playing it for years?" Well, here's why: Terry Garrett is blind. Terry was 10 when he lost his sight; coincidentally, that's the same year his brother brought home Abe's Oddysee. Terry was initially drawn to the game's narrator and decided to try his hand at the game despite being unable to see it.

It was frustrating for him at first because he had to traverse the game by listening only to sounds - footsteps, voices, music. He admits to putting his controller down more than once out of sheer frustration. But, something always brought him back to the game. As he explains in an interview on youtube, which also shows pieces of his incredible gameplay (found here), at the time of his blindness, "Sound was the thing that I clung to" so he relied significantly on the sounds of the game. In addition, friends or family members would sit beside him while he played and offer descriptions of what was going on in the game to help him visualize what he wasn't able to see. He also used a solid-state stereo sound system and relied on the "save-anywhere" option to get him through to the end. Ultimately, by focusing on the game's sound design, which served as a "descriptive tool to navigate the game world," Terry was able to beat the game. Now a mechanical engineering student from Colorado Springs, Terry can play the game with near-flawless acumen.

This article made me think: how do you master a game without one of your two key senses? If you're blind, you must rely on the game's sound design and the support of friends who can describe the worlds to you. But, wouldn't hardcore action games such as Halo, Call of Duty and Metal Gear Solid, which are, in fact, an attack on the senses in general, be nearly impossible if one were to rely only on listening cues? Think about it: many of the sounds that these types of games provide do not help the player achieve victory but rather help the player avoid imminent death. For example, Master Chief's armor suit in Halo beeps as its shield is depleted and if a blind gamer were to use that sound as a clue, it would be too late because the character would already be near death. In Metal Gear Solid, a bright ping is heard when an enemy becomes aware of your position. Since it is an espionage game, heavily based upon the gamer's ability to stay stealthy in the shadows, this sound would not be of much use to a non-sighted player since it means the enemy already has the upper hand. A similar situation occurs in driving games. For the most part, the only jarring sounds of the game are those heard when the driver collides with another car or some sort of barrier; since the only other significant sounds found in driving games are revving engines, it wouldn't be particularly difficult to figure out what just happened but would be nearly impossible to anticipate what's coming. If a blind player were to engage in a driving game and rely only on these two types of sounds, the gamer wouldn't know where, exactly, the barriers were located unless he actually hit them. Sounds a bit like Catch-22, doesn't it?! These realizations make Terry's achievement all the more incredible.

But, despite the difficulties facing non-sighted players of action games, casual games would be even more challenging. Consider this: casual games aren't based on speed, nor do you have to hide or seek. But, vision is everything in casual games. How do you play Solitaire or or, my personal favorites, Scrabble or , if you can't see what's in front of you? Making things more difficult, casual games often start beeping or the tempo of the music increases as the game gets closer to failure so rather than serving as a way to relax for a few minutes - one of the key reasons people play casual games - they can become more stressful for the non-sighted gamer.

Being a deaf gamer may not seem to be as challenging and, in fact, action games may be more palatable without that aforementioned attack on the senses. But, many of these MMORPGs rely on small, subtle sounds to keep the game interesting. For example, in Call of Duty, if you're trying to secure a house from the other team and find yourself in front of an entrance, you're going to listen for footsteps behind you. Or, if you hear gun shots from the side of a house, that's where you'll focus your attention. So, you would be at a decided disadvantage if you were not able to hear these small, subtle sounds.

Why aren't games designed to be played by all - disabled or not? For example, why isn't every game available with subtitles? This seems like an easy enough proposition and it would be so helpful to the hearing-impaired. In fact, there is a movement from hearing-impaired gamers to have all games be subtitled but so far, few of the major game developers are heeding their call. As Deaf Gamers proclaims, "Text/visual feedback is a key issue for a deaf person and many has the occasion been when a deaf games player has purchased a game only to find no visual feedback or very little of it (this can ruin the game for them)." To help hearing-impaired gamers, Deaf Gamers offers reviews of as many games as possible, but with a twist. As they say on their Web site, "Occasionally a game that has been rated as a classic by magazines and the gaming websites will get a poor rating from Deaf Gamers. This is purely based on the fact that the game does nothing to cater for the deaf gamer. And, while there are some games that are "blind-accessible" and others that are closed captioned, there should be a stronger movement among game developers to make games accessible to all. As Deaf Gamers is working to make all games closed captioned, Terry Garrett hopes that the time will come when game developers include as many sounds as possible so non-sighted gamers can hear footsteps, upcoming obstacles or enemies. In this day and age, it should already be a done deal.

Readers, what do you think? Post your thoughts below.

Jack Healy contributed to this article.