Dear AccessWorld Readers,
You may remember the mainstream video game Hearthstone, that we reviewed last year. There have been some major developments regarding the mod and I wanted to take this space to discuss them.
Earlier this month, Guide Dev, the developer of Hearthstone Access, announced that he would no longer be able to continue updating the Hearthstone Access mod. For full information, you can read his post on the topic. If you have read his post regarding how Hearthstone Access was developed and maintained its very understandable why continue to update the mod, especially in light of the upcoming changes to the game. Guide Dev developed the best accessible interface for a mainstream game I have ever seen. When playing hearthstone, it felt like the accessibility was a native part of the game and the design allowed someone who was blind or low vision make plays and gather information in an efficient way so that they can compete on the same competitive level as their sighted peers. I would like to thank Guide for all of the work he has put into Hearthstone Access over the last year and a half. Considering that Hearthstone updates almost every 2 weeks, I imagine that this has required a considerable amount of effort based on the glimpses we have received of the update process.
In response to the announcement, Blizzard themselves released a statement stating that they would explore adding native accessibility to the game. In addition, many well known streamers of Hearthstone picked up the thread signal boosting the loss of accessibility, and the that the blind and low vision community was able to play the game at all. One even wrote an article on one of the most well known third party websites dedicated to hearthstone.
I have been heartened to see the support expressed by the sighted community of Hearthstone for accessibility and have high hopes considering that Blizzard themselves are aware of the mod and are in support of it and accessibility of the game.
If you would like to show your support of the accessibility efforts, both at Blizzard and in the community there are a few things you can do. A petition to add accessibility to Hearthstone is ongoing, and even though Blizzard have already responded and expressed that they will be exploring potentially adding access to the game, signing the petition will demonstrate the extent that the blind and low vision community plays and values accessibility in hearthstone. In addition, the Hearthstone Access mod itself is open source, and efforts are under way to determine if a developer or group of developers can take up development of Hearthstone Access while Blizzard evaluates adding native accessibility. If you are a programmer and would like to take part in this effort, details and organization are taking place in the Hearthstone Access discord server. A link to the server can be found on the Hearthstone Access website.
If you would like to stay up to date with the last developments on Hearthstone accessibility, the aforementioned Discord server is an excellent place to find the last news. Updates have also been featured on Guide Dev's Twitter. You can also keep an eye on the Audio Games forum topic where dissemination of the latest news is also occurring.
As always, we hope you enjoy this issue of AccessWorld and thank you for reading our magazine.
Happy Holidays,
Aaron Preece, AccessWorld Editor in Chief
This article is made possible in part by generous funding from the James H. and Alice Teubert Charitable Trust, Huntington, West Virginia.
