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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
 Posted - 07/31/2005 : 06:28:50 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by skepticality
quote:
But back to the thread: I'd like to see how well the kid does with the volume at zero and the controller vibration disabled.
Or just turn on some music and talk a lot when you play him...
I'm kind of confused though, unless the video game is in true surround sound, or something, how is there any spacial feedback?
Mortal Kombat doesn't have need for spacial feedback. One can't go, say, deeper into the game area. It's only back and forth (left and right, I think). |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 07/31/2005 : 06:52:32 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Ricky
quote:
Originally posted by Siberia
quote:
Originally posted by skepticality
quote:
But back to the thread: I'd like to see how well the kid does with the volume at zero and the controller vibration disabled.
Or just turn on some music and talk a lot when you play him...
I'm kind of confused though, unless the video game is in true surround sound, or something, how is there any spacial feedback?
Mortal Kombat doesn't have need for spacial feedback. One can't go, say, deeper into the game area. It's only back and forth (left and right, I think).
Well, that is only true in Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, and Mortal Kombat 3. There are newer ones which are completely 3D.
Ahh, ok. I stand corrected. |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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AKM
New Member
Canada
31 Posts |
Posted - 07/31/2005 : 14:55:19 [Permalink]
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Well, as stated in the article from the opening post:
quote:
Blind since birth when his optic nerve didn't connect because of Leber's disease, Mellen honed his video game skills over the years through patient and not-so-patient playing, memorizing key joystick operations and moves in certain games, asking lots of questions and paying particular attention to audio cues. He worked his way up from games such as "Space Invaders" and "Asteroid," onto the modern combat games.
So thats how he does it.
quote:
Originally posted by Ricky
The thing about mortal combat is that you are always facing your opponent, whether you want to or not.
I wonder how well he would do against a game like Unreal Tournament? In that one there is no one-on-one combat but several different opponents that attack at random depending on your location to them.
quote:
Originally posted by filthy
What no one has yet touched upon, and I was hoping that someone more knowledgable than I (plenty of those around) would, is the compensations that the mind is capable of in making up for such a huge disadvantage.
I tried something like this in high school once. It was in a social studies class in which we were blindfolded and had to navigate the room counting paces from one location to the other. Also walking towards the voice of another student and "locating" them while trying to navigate by counting paces. It was pretty interesting, the whole idea of course was to show how other senses have to take over in dealing with ones surroundings when blind.
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"Leadership is not magnetic personality—that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not "making friends and influencing people"—that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations." Peter F. Drucker
"If we could sell our experiences for what they cost us, we'd all be millionaires." Abigail Van Buren |
| Edited by - AKM on 07/31/2005 16:32:54 |
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Hawks
SFN Regular
Canada
1383 Posts |
Posted - 07/31/2005 : 19:42:50 [Permalink]
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quote:
If I remember right, the pianist was blind as well. All he had to do was hear a piece played once, and he'd be able to play it himself.
I don't think you have to have lost one of your senses for this to be possible. Mozart was supposed to be able to do the same thing (Well, he did in "Amadeus" anyway. Great movie that). |
METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL
It's a small, off-duty czechoslovakian traffic warden! |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 07/31/2005 : 20:16:31 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Hawks
quote:
If I remember right, the pianist was blind as well. All he had to do was hear a piece played once, and he'd be able to play it himself.
I don't think you have to have lost one of your senses for this to be possible. Mozart was supposed to be able to do the same thing (Well, he did in "Amadeus" anyway. Great movie that).
True enough except that this guy could scarcly feed himself. Like most if not all idiot savants, he could do one thing superbly, but little else. Further, he could not compose music and had no chops; no inovation. But he would reproduce the piece he heard all but perfectly.
I think that as music is, at it's core, based on simple math, he is not so different from the savants that can instantainously do calender calculations. The really remarkable part is translating it and the mechanics of learning the piano in order to reproduce it.
I think PBS had a show on the topic some years ago and he was on it, according to my daughter, who saw it (I was on the road at the time).
Music has long been a refuge for the sightless. Ray Charles, Blind Willie McTell, Doc Watson, Blind Lemon Jefferson among many others, for example. But these people are far from retarded and can be compared to our pinball wizard, who I suspect is highly inovative.
What strange mental process' can cause a person to produce such a talent, some with determination and hard work, and others simply, well, do it?
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2005 : 05:20:36 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by filthy
[quote]What strange mental process' can cause a person to produce such a talent, some with determination and hard work, and others simply, well, do it?
I can't even dress myself, but I used to do horse sculptures in clay, some who'd fit my little finger (and my hands are quite small). I tried to make them as physically realistic as possible. I do that since I was like, 5.
It's funny that people with arthritis sometimes come out as great sculptors even with deformed hands (mine aren't deformed, but then again I'm not great). I saw once a guy, with arthritis, who could sculpt detailed things in a matchstick.
Why? I've no idea. |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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