One-armed Gamers...

[Andy of Comix Inc]

This has been bugging me for a long time. How many people do you know (or are here) that are one-armed or one-handed gamers? You know, they've lost limbs or the use of their fingers, or what have you. Is it possible to game this way? Can you work your way around a controller? I mostly ask because I nearly lost my hand the other day in an accident with a knife (don't ask) and if I had lost my hand... well, I won't say I would be as happy, but I do wonder how drastically would my approach to this hobby be...

I feel that most gamers with disabilities find pretty ingenious ways to overcome them and keep playing with the best of 'em. Just wondering if monoplegics are the same.

 

[Jedoro]

I think you'd be looking for turn-based games more often, if you just had the one hand.

 

[Valagetti]

Point n' click adventure games, TBC and RTS games. Anything that mostly requires a mouse.

 

[Retal19]

I believe some people sell One-Handed XBox 360 and/or PS3 Controllers. I'm not sure, but I swear I remember seeing one online somewhere. I'll edit in a link if I ever find one.

But playing one-handed is a *****, I've tried it before as a challenge on Oblivion and Fallout. Got killed by Rats because I couldn't turn my head fast enough. It's just too difficult to work both Joysticks fast enough with one hand to play any game with a pace faster than a Turn-Based Game, not to mention buttons in combination with Joysticks.

 

[Ruwrak]

Reminds me of that kid that can play PS2 games with his feet.

 

[Jandau]

Well, console gaming is mostly out. PC is there to welcome them with the mouse, with plently of Strategy games, RPGs and such. Maybe some iPhone/iPad gaming would work too, depending on the game in question...

 

[darthotaku]

I've tried to play a few games one handed just as a test to see if I could. with the right game it's pretty easy.

 

[SidingWithTheEnemy]

Back in my school time we had one student (he was one or two years older than me) who was missing his left hand. We had a SNES with Super Mario Kart and other games in our lounge and he was really good at playing it. He didn't play any differently than the others and if you didn't pay close attention to his gamepad you wouldn't have noticed in the first place.

 

[Mr. Google]

yeah i think youd be SOL if that happened. as someone said above I think they make one handed controllers but I think youd be stuck to Wii bowling the rest of your life.

 

[Zeema]

One Armed BANDITS [thinking of RDR and one arm]

but srsly there are people who play COD using there face i believe people call him

OnlyusemeFace or something im not sure

 

[Doug]

This has been bugging me for a long time. How many people do you know (or are here) that are one-armed or one-handed gamers? You know, they've lost limbs or the use of their fingers, or what have you. Is it possible to game this way? Can you work your way around a controller? I mostly ask because I nearly lost my hand the other day in an accident with a knife (don't ask) and if I had lost my hand... well, I won't say I would be as happy, but I do wonder how drastically would my approach to this hobby be...

I feel that most gamers with disabilities find pretty ingenious ways to overcome them and keep playing with the best of 'em. Just wondering if monoplegics are the same.

I've seen a controller adaptation a few years ago for the one-handed gamer; not sure how effective it was, but it sounded like it was being well recieved by the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.

In fact, I did alittle google search now and found a shop specialising in adapted controllers.

http://www.oneswitch.org.uk/1/AGS/AGS-onehand.htm

 

[Scarim Coral]

I think some DS games are maybe suitable for one handed players with games like Pokemon, Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass or Spirit Track, Rythym Heaven and a few more.

 

[Batou667]

One-armed Gamers...

...don't bother me much, after all, they're mostly 'armless.

I'm sorry.

On-topic: Actually, I occasionally think to myself, what games could be played with either one or no hands. Lightgun games would still be perfectly playable, and if you had a dancemat game, you wouldn't need arms at all. Also, I expect most Kinect games would work if you had no hands, but if you had no arms I expect the bloody thing would refuse to work.

 

[tokae]

One-armed Gamers...

...don't bother me much, after all, they're mostly 'armless.

I laughed, hard!

I'm not that satisfied with saying that I am at the moment a one-armed gamer... A recently cracked Scapula and tearing in my Tri-ceps have left me with next to no mobility in my left arm, and serious pain if I so much as wiggle my fingers.. I hope I will bounce back soon enough though.
I play RTS's, point-and-click games, WoW thanks to a mouse with a load of buttons, even Oblivion..
On consoles it's a bit harder though. N64 has got the best controller, I have noticed... Uncomfortable as hell, but easy to use.
Though a friend and I have started an Arkham City-run, with me controlling the right part of the 360-controller and her over-seeing the left part, should make for amazing fun! If it works well enough it will probably be the way that I play Skyrim.

 

[IndomitableSam]

I used to play FFXI (YEARS ago) with a guy with only one arm... Galka named Tenderheart. Played a monk, and he wasn't bad at all. I didn't even know he only had one arm until months after I'd been partying with him. I think he chose not to play a healing class just because they were a bit harder, but he was pretty good at what he did.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

would there be a way of opening the controller to the thumb sticks could be controlled by peddles n the free hand could be hooked to a keyboard for all the buttons?

 

[DanielBrown]

I remember some one armed gamer complaining about some disability site here. He was apparently really l33t.
As for myself... never really tried it. I sometimes try to keep playing while preparing a new piece of snuff, but I can't pull it off.

 

[wooty]

One armed gamers can probably play FPS pretty well, they would fit in perfectly in MW2 as no one moves in that game, you just need to be able to rotate your gun and shoot.

 

[FamoFunk]

yeah i think youd be SOL if that happened. as someone said above I think they make one handed controllers but I think youd be stuck to Wii bowling the rest of your life.

Nothing wrong with Wii Bowling, pal. Could play that for the rest of my days.

 

[Chemical Alia]

I wonder about this too. I've had two surgeries on my wrist (last one just in May) that completely immobilized my arm in a cast and pins for 3 months at a time. It also immobilized my thumb, so I'd have no use of my hand, either. The first time I had the surgery, I was really into Gears of War. I couldn't hold a controller/mouse and had no use of my thumb, but I still managed to play by using the A button with my index finger to run and chainsaw people, lol.

If I had at least some part of both hands, I'd find a way to play games in some aspect. I'm a 3d modeler at work, and I'd say that was even harder, since I had to model and texture entirely with my non-dominant hand for a few months. It's frustrating at first, but after a while, your desire to do the stuff you like makes you come up with some creative solutions.