Xbox co-pilot mode changed disabled sister’s life • Hacker News Board

Re: Xbox co-pilot mode changed disabled sister’s life

#41

Post by Zababa » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 12:08 PM UTC

least wrote: post #33

dividuum wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One game I particularly remember is Super Mario Galaxy 3D on the Wii. It had a two player mode where the second player didn't control Mario, but instead had the ability so interact with the environment and player in limited ways to help. I wonder why there aren't a lot of other games that do that.

Game design is hard and asymmetrical game design is incredibly hard. Game developers can hardly make symmetrical cooperative systems that properly take advantage of the multiplayer aspect. Borderlands, for example, doesn't add unique systems that take advantage of the fact that there are multiple players. There's no unique mechanics to bosses or enemies. There's not really interesting synergies that you can take adva…

> As for asymmetric titles like Mario Galaxy where the second player is not essential, it's pretty hard to make the gameplay satisfying for the secondary player while not impeding the first player or making it feel essential to the gameplay. The "little brother" mode costs a lot with little perceived benefit for the developers.

I'm not sure how frequent this is, but when I was little we (me and my brothers) had limited time to play, so we would play our time and watch each others, sometimes completing long missions in Ground Control by playing one after the other. When you look at it this way, having something to do instead of just looking at the screen (which was already plenty of fun) is huge.

Re: Xbox co-pilot mode changed disabled sister’s life

#42

Post by protoman3000 » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 12:12 PM UTC

Cu3PO42 wrote: post #4

corysama wrote: post #2

Also, the Xbox Adaptive Controller deserves a lot of respect. https://www.xbox.com/en-US/accessories/controllers/xbox-adap... That’s not a token effort or a cash-in. The team behind it really gave a damn.

Yes, it's absolutely wonderful. I hope to never need it, but I'm so happy it exists for everyone that does. It also shows why controller compatibility between consoles might be more important than one would think: the "native" controllers might just be inaccessible. If you want to play on a Switch, you can use an adapter [0] to use the Adaptive Controller. Similar products exist for the PS4, I believe. Hopefully some…

PSA: You can use the MAGIC-NS to connect multiple controllers at the same time while they appear to the Switch as one controller. This basically is co-pilot mode.

Re: Xbox co-pilot mode changed disabled sister’s life

#43

Post by slavik81 » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 1:03 PM UTC

rm445 wrote: post #30

telesilla wrote: post #25

I am terrible at video games. It's not what my brain does well so I miss out on playing computer games in general, I'm more interested in board games or cards. Not long ago I was waiting for laundry to be done with a friend who had a Nintendo Switch on her, and we started a game of Mario Kart. The entire time we played, maybe 15 mins, I thought wow, I'm better than I think! Then after the game I told my friend and sh…

I don't think another player can actually be that helpful in Mario Kart, but it does have extremely strong steering assistance, which can be enabled/disabled in the pause menu. Not trying to be rude by comparing you to a small child, but the main benefit is that little ones can join in and have fun while they're not quite co-ordinated enough to steer properly. If you wanted to get more into gaming, a Switch would be…

Mario Kart: Double Dash was actually a lot of fun with two players in a kart. A friend of mine who couldn't steer to save his life took over the weapons while I focused on driving. The best part is that the second player could make their character throw their weight left or right to shove the kart sideways and save you from an obstacle, or a tight turn taken a little too quickly.

Re: Xbox co-pilot mode changed disabled sister’s life

#44

Post by sleepyeldrazi » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 1:09 PM UTC

NicoJuicy wrote: post #19

My neighbor has MS and can't physically move ( his head and he can still talk, but not the rest of his body) Is there anything that i can buy to improve his quality of life with? Even something small could be useful.

If he can comfortably move his head, might I suggest something VR related? Most of the first VR games that came out for mobile (i.e. using your phone as a VR screen) couldn't utilise a controller so they used head movement for controlling things. Usually you had e small crosshair in the middle with which you can select things by simply holding a position. I sadly can't remember the names of the games I tried but you might find them (or newer ones for newer headsets) through google. I know it's not a complete substitute but if they miss mountain walks, there are VR experiences (often videos) which simulate that. Might be interesting to try. I'm not aware of it but there might even be multiplayer ones, so that his wife can join him.

Re: Xbox co-pilot mode changed disabled sister’s life

#45

Post by ByThyGrace » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 1:38 PM UTC

tyleo wrote: post #37

I love co-pilot. Throughout the pandemic my fiancé and I used the feature to play different sections of single player games as though they were multiplayer. I don’t think either one of us would consider ourselves to have a disability. I used to work on games at Microsoft and they put their money where their mouth is when it comes to accessibility. I had spent multiple days in the accessibility lab interviewing and un…

Well then, will you not share what kind of game you've worked on? That's too good of a post to leave us hanging, hehe.

Re: Xbox co-pilot mode changed disabled sister’s life

#46

Post by TimPC » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 1:39 PM UTC

telesilla wrote: post #25

I am terrible at video games. It's not what my brain does well so I miss out on playing computer games in general, I'm more interested in board games or cards. Not long ago I was waiting for laundry to be done with a friend who had a Nintendo Switch on her, and we started a game of Mario Kart. The entire time we played, maybe 15 mins, I thought wow, I'm better than I think! Then after the game I told my friend and sh…

Most people when they say they are terrible at video games mean they are bad at reflex games. I recommend you don’t discount entire sub genres of non-real-time video games you might enjoy. Depending on your taste that can be anything from tactical/turn-based RPG’s to sports management games.

Re: Xbox co-pilot mode changed disabled sister’s life

#47

Post by specialist » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 1:44 PM UTC

slavik81 wrote: post #43

rm445 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think another player can actually be that helpful in Mario Kart, but it does have extremely strong steering assistance, which can be enabled/disabled in the pause menu. Not trying to be rude by comparing you to a small child, but the main benefit is that little ones can join in and have fun while they're not quite co-ordinated enough to steer properly. If you wanted to get more into gaming, a Switch would be…

Mario Kart: Double Dash was actually a lot of fun with two players in a kart. A friend of mine who couldn't steer to save his life took over the weapons while I focused on driving. The best part is that the second player could make their character throw their weight left or right to shove the kart sideways and save you from an obstacle, or a tight turn taken a little too quickly.

Goose & Maverick. Very cool.

I probably would've played more video games if I had known about these co-op modes.

Re: Xbox co-pilot mode changed disabled sister’s life

#48

Post by reasonabl_human » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 2:01 PM UTC

philliphaydon wrote: post #13

corysama wrote: post #2

Also, the Xbox Adaptive Controller deserves a lot of respect. https://www.xbox.com/en-US/accessories/controllers/xbox-adap... That’s not a token effort or a cash-in. The team behind it really gave a damn.

Wow thanks for sharing this, I had NO idea this existed!

It was a big source of internal pride when I was at Microsoft. As far as tech companies go, Satya’s version of Microsoft really does give a damn about people, including it’s employees. Great place to work.

Re: Xbox co-pilot mode changed disabled sister’s life

#49

Post by GuB-42 » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 2:08 PM UTC

SalimoS wrote: post #26

mclightning wrote: post #11

I wonder if they could make an AI co-pilot for those who don't have someone to company them as they play.

Won’t that be cheating ? (That’s how aimbot work on warzone and many fps on PC )

Many games have "assist modes" of some kind. Sometimes as part of a difficulty setting, sometimes you have fine-grained controls, especially in racing games.

Usually, when these modes are enabled, there is some indication that they are used, and you can't enter ladders with them, to prevent cheating.

Re: Xbox co-pilot mode changed disabled sister’s life

#50

Post by tmnstr85 » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 3:06 PM UTC

my youngest is 2.5, a survivor of bacterial meningitis at birth, the results are tragic. she has soft tone cerebral palsy and cortical visual impairment, imagine being stuck in a kaleidoscope for life.

as part of my journey, trying find answer and heal. i stumbled across the fact that Microsoft's current CEO Satya Nadella son Zain is a legally blind quadriplegic with cerebral palsy. his book refers to the first few years of his sons life as "a dark place". Satya is fairly older than me, I admire him very much.

I have no doubt that it bring great joy and comfort to Satya that he's been able to drive Microsoft to be a leader in accessibility. Most great efforts have great stories. This is one of them.