Gaming accessibility AND availability

Note: This was originally going to be a different piece titled “An amateur walks into an Apache: DCS AH-64D Pt. 2”, but then I saw Enigma’s video on some DCS & Razbam drama that has been happening recently, so.. Yeah. I’m not giving DCS any more positive attention than necessary until leadership makes a major change. So, while we’ll talk about gaming “politics” a bit here, there is a point on accessibility too.

God dammit.

So, I finally got my VKB T-Rudders Mk.V pedals, and I have to say..

..It really does make a difference to buy real quality hardware.

Thrustmaster used to be a big dog in the industry, but nearly everything I’ve used by them in the past 10-15 years has been just barely good enough to use.

And their rudder pedals?

Yeah, no.. I was already planning on replacing them before they died.

I paid $212 USD shipped to get the VKBs from their US warehouse (Foxtrot Delta Tango), and it was well worth it.

I immediately got them set up and started to fly my favorite sim: DCS’ AH-64D Apache.

It has been a while since I last flew; It became harder and harder for me to use the twist grip on my flight stick due to apparently having carpal tunnel worse than a 50-year-old lifelong mechanic (these are the words of my Neurologist).

And my old Thrustmaster pedals? Yeah, they don’t have the smoothness I need because of my other recent diagnosis: Charcot Marie Tooth Disease, Type 4F (you can read more about that diagnosis here).

Thankfully, VKB’s pedals are smooth as butter, which is absolutely a requirement for me given I actually can barely feel what the fuck I’m doing with my feet. This means I’m relying on barely-there muscle memory to tell me how much I’m pushing, while also watching for feedback from the aircraft itself..

And the beautiful thing is, I can actually show my axis control inputs via a special HUD in DCS.

That’s an absolute game-changer for helping someone as severely broken as me to be able to learn a little more about what I’m doing, since I can’t just “feel” like most people.

As I continued to re-familiarize myself with DCS, it didn’t take long for me to get my stick & collective muscle-memory back, so I decided.. Let’s start using the guns.

I proceeded to an area where some enemies were pre-positioned as part of the training map I was using, and started to make use of my TrackIR to aim at some technicals and mow them down.

Again: Good hardware can make or break accessibility. While I’m sure VR would technically be better for this, the costs are much too high for me, and I need to be able to see stuff outside my VR headset, too (because I unfortunately still have to function and respond to others in the meatspace outside of whatever game I’m playing). TrackIR? It works really well, and is fairly reasonable in cost (although I want to give Tobii Eye Tracker a shot at some point).

While I was successful for the most part, it was a challenge to both maintain a steady flight/hover AND handle the guns at the same time.

This is why the Apache has a co-pilot gunner, and why DCS has a friendly little AI-helper sitting in the front seat called George.

I decided to give George a shot, and I’m ashamed to say.. Letting him take over guns has made the game even more fun and accessible to me. I just issue commands to him and let him do his thing while I handle flying this epic, scary war machine.

It got to the point to where I almost queued up a certain popular song called “Danger Zone”, by an artist known as Kenny goddamned Loggins.

Ok, I added the “Goddamned” part, but that particular ear-worm just won’t fucking leave my head, so.. Goddammit, Kenny Loggins.

Caption: George and I after a successful flight where I didn’t crash-land.. At this point, I think I’m Cyril and George is Archer, and not just because of my big-ole swingin’ dick.

But then (in a dark, gravelly voice reminiscent of informative murder porn horror stories)..

..I watched the video I mentioned at the top of this post.

I haven’t watched the full cuts of the leaked meetings with DCS and Razbam, but I’ve read enough transcripts of various parts of the conversations to know.. Yeah, DCS is about as shitty as 1C (the developers of IL2 Sturmovik).

This is - of course - after I just bought a new map and a campaign from them during the latest sale.

Here’s where we come to the “availability” portion of gaming:

As you get deeper into gaming niches, it becomes harder and harder to find games that work for you.. Especially if you’re disabled and need certain accessibility accommodations provided by the software, and not just hardware accessibility.

Do you know how many full-fidelity sims there are that have good helicopters in military/combat settings?

Fucking just one: DCS (as of writing, based on repeated googling over the years).

So.. I’m not going to stop flying in DCS. I’ve paid the goddamned money, I’m going to get what I can out of it.

I will, however, be checking out some of the other detailed sims out on the market.. And obviously no giving DCS any more of my money until things change.

Falcon BMS looks to be a good (and affordable) option for fighter jet simulation, and gets a lot of praise, so rather than buying the F/A-18C from DCS, I’ll be playing this instead. I have no idea on the accessibility levels of it, however; I’ll try to evaluate it for y’all here, but for me, jets tend to be easier to fly overall (this could just be because I’ve been flying airplanes and jets in simulators for about 30 years now).

Also, Aerofly FS has a UH-60 Blackhawk sim that gets pretty high praise, too. It doesn’t feature any actual combat missions, but if I ever get tired of the Apache, that’ll be my next option. This will be the big one where I’ll really need to dig into accessibility settings, given how much you need something like rudder pedals to fly helicopters.. And..

..Well, I feel about as much in my extremities (fuck you, goddamned CMT4F) as DCS leadership has any positive feeling for Razbam.

Let's also toss in a good fuck Russia, too, given 1C & DCS' ties to that shithole.