Harmonix CEO Comes Across for Disabled Gamers

[Andy Chalk]

Harmonix CEO Comes Across for Disabled Gamers

Harmonix [http://www.harmonixmusic.com/] CEO Alex Rigopulos has donated $10,000 to the AbleGamers Foundation, a charity dedicated to bringing mainstream gaming to disabled gamers.

The nonprofit AbleGamers Foundation works to encourage game developers and publishers to make their games accessible to players of all abilities, with outreach programs, awards and even shopping guides for accessible games and hardware. Its Advisory Board includes VTree LLC President Chuck Bergen, famed modder Ben Heckendorn, aka Ben Heck, and Alex Rigopulos, CEO of Rock Band [http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Hero-Game-Only-Playstation-2/dp/B000GDPHAE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1303745990&sr=8-1] creator Harmonix, who recently forked over a fat ten grand to the organization.

"I believe that finding ways to better accommodate people with disabilities is a vitally important responsibility for the videogame industry. Harmonix is working with the AbleGamers Foundation to learn what we can do in future products to be as inclusive as possible," Rigopulos said. "I hope that my support of the AbleGamers Foundation will inspire others within this industry to do the same."

AbleGamers is run entirely by volunteers, explained President Mark Barlet, but is still only able to attend roughly one-quarter of the events it is invited to attend because of lack of funding. He also noted that there are roughly 33 million disabled gamers in the U.S. alone, a potentially huge and largely untapped market. "Every cent from every donation goes directly to supporting out mission," he said. "I hope Mr. Rigopulos' donation inspires other industry leaders to take notice of how much good a little funding can do."

To learn more about the AbleGamers Foundation, check out ablegamers.org [http://www.ablegamers.org/].


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[PixelKing]

Wow. Faith in humanity restored.

 

[KaiRai]

Nice guy. Heck of a donation. If anybody's seen askacapper on youtube, he;s quadraplegic and plays black ops. It's pretty impressive.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Nice to see someone acknowledging us. *Glares at Nintendo*

 

[Morty815]

Forget it

 

[kurupt87]

33 million? Being British, that's half our population. I know the guy's talking about America but still; 33 million is roughly 10% for them. That's 1 in 10. That's a lot. The definiton of, applicably, disabled is being stretched there, methinks.

I think I'd be correct in stating that the vast majority of 'disabled gamers' that fall within that definition would be quite capable of playing games as they exist now. What I'm saying is that for the majority of those people their being disabled is irrelevant to their capability to play and their enjoyment of games; so the charity is claiming that they provide for the disabled in general, rather than the specifically disabled that they do.

Dishonesty (or manipulation), even when it's for a good cause, irks me.

That said, good man for donating to a charity that does help those who need it to get the most out of games.

 

[Metalteeth9]

Harmonix is awesome. A few years ago, Alex Rigopulos gave $2,000 to scorehero.com, a GH and now RB fan site, the biggest fan site for those games. HMX employees occasionally post there too. A company that truly enjoys it's community, and wants to help others!

And yet, when they are in the march madness bracket, people vote against them because they only make a "crappy guitar game", and not any "real games."

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

33 million? Being British, that's half our population. I know the guy's talking about America but still; 33 million is roughly 10% for them. That's 1 in 10. That's a lot. The definiton of, applicably, disabled is being stretched there, methinks.

I think I'd be correct in stating that the vast majority of 'disabled gamers' that fall within that definition would be quite capable of playing games as they exist now. What I'm saying is that for the majority of those people their being disabled is irrelevant to their capability to play and their enjoyment of games; so the charity is claiming that they provide for the disabled in general, rather than the specifically disabled that they do.

Dishonesty (or manipulation), even when it's for a good cause, irks me.

That said, good man for donating to a charity that does help those who need it to get the most out of games.

Actually, it depends on the genre. I can't play FPSs or CRPGs well at all. It is a case by case basis. Trust me, some of us need help.

 

[PettingZOOPONY]

33 million? Being British, that's half our population. I know the guy's talking about America but still; 33 million is roughly 10% for them. That's 1 in 10. That's a lot. The definiton of, applicably, disabled is being stretched there, methinks.

I think I'd be correct in stating that the vast majority of 'disabled gamers' that fall within that definition would be quite capable of playing games as they exist now. What I'm saying is that for the majority of those people their being disabled is irrelevant to their capability to play and their enjoyment of games; so the charity is claiming that they provide for the disabled in general, rather than the specifically disabled that they do.

Dishonesty (or manipulation), even when it's for a good cause, irks me.

That said, good man for donating to a charity that does help those who need it to get the most out of games.

Actually, it depends on the genre. I can't play FPSs or CRPGs well at all. It is a case by case basis. Trust me, some of us need help.

Do you play any on PC, you can always try the NIA out to see if you could supplement certain commands with it.
http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/ocz_peripherals/nia

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

33 million? Being British, that's half our population. I know the guy's talking about America but still; 33 million is roughly 10% for them. That's 1 in 10. That's a lot. The definiton of, applicably, disabled is being stretched there, methinks.

I think I'd be correct in stating that the vast majority of 'disabled gamers' that fall within that definition would be quite capable of playing games as they exist now. What I'm saying is that for the majority of those people their being disabled is irrelevant to their capability to play and their enjoyment of games; so the charity is claiming that they provide for the disabled in general, rather than the specifically disabled that they do.

Dishonesty (or manipulation), even when it's for a good cause, irks me.

That said, good man for donating to a charity that does help those who need it to get the most out of games.

Actually, it depends on the genre. I can't play FPSs or CRPGs well at all. It is a case by case basis. Trust me, some of us need help.

Do you play any on PC, you can always try the NIA out to see if you could supplement certain commands with it.
http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/ocz_peripherals/nia

I'll have to check that out. I just plug in a gamepad when it is a possibility.

 

[kurupt87]

33 million? Being British, that's half our population. I know the guy's talking about America but still; 33 million is roughly 10% for them. That's 1 in 10. That's a lot. The definiton of, applicably, disabled is being stretched there, methinks.

I think I'd be correct in stating that the vast majority of 'disabled gamers' that fall within that definition would be quite capable of playing games as they exist now. What I'm saying is that for the majority of those people their being disabled is irrelevant to their capability to play and their enjoyment of games; so the charity is claiming that they provide for the disabled in general, rather than the specifically disabled that they do.

Dishonesty (or manipulation), even when it's for a good cause, irks me.

That said, good man for donating to a charity that does help those who need it to get the most out of games.

Actually, it depends on the genre. I can't play FPSs or CRPGs well at all. It is a case by case basis. Trust me, some of us need help.

Actually, it depends on the disability and the games controls (and, if you're including colour blindness [which I think this definition does] colour). I'm not being funny but, you're trying to represent every disability out there with a statement like that. That is silly.

You may have trouble playing some games, I won't dispute that as it's obvious that you'd know best.

What I will dispute is that you claim to speak for the other 32,999,999 disabled American gamers despite only sharing a title.

You start by saying you disagree with me but then finish by agreeing with the overarching reason I have in my moan section.

Again though, well done Mr Rigopulos for helping out those who need that little bit extra through no fault of their own.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

33 million? Being British, that's half our population. I know the guy's talking about America but still; 33 million is roughly 10% for them. That's 1 in 10. That's a lot. The definiton of, applicably, disabled is being stretched there, methinks.

I think I'd be correct in stating that the vast majority of 'disabled gamers' that fall within that definition would be quite capable of playing games as they exist now. What I'm saying is that for the majority of those people their being disabled is irrelevant to their capability to play and their enjoyment of games; so the charity is claiming that they provide for the disabled in general, rather than the specifically disabled that they do.

Dishonesty (or manipulation), even when it's for a good cause, irks me.

That said, good man for donating to a charity that does help those who need it to get the most out of games.

Actually, it depends on the genre. I can't play FPSs or CRPGs well at all. It is a case by case basis. Trust me, some of us need help.

Actually, it depends on the disability and the games controls (and, if you're including colour blindness [which I think this definition does] colour). I'm not being funny but, you're trying to represent every disability out there with a statement like that. That is silly.

You may have trouble playing some games, I won't dispute that as it's obvious that you'd know best.

What I will dispute is that you claim to speak for the other 32,999,999 disabled American gamers despite only sharing a title.

You start by saying you disagree with me but then finish by agreeing with the overarching reason I have in my moan section.

Again though, well done Mr Rigopulos for helping out those who need that little bit extra through no fault of their own.

Actually, I thought your quote was presumptuous. I was just saying there are more than you gave the foundation credit for.