FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

 


Contact:

            Paul G. Silva

            Cofounder and President
            ZForm LLC
            psilva@ZForm.com

            (413) 585-9692

 

 

Online Game Brings Blind and Sighted Together

 

ZForm Launches Innovative Online Game that Allows Blind, Visually Impaired, and Fully Sighted to Play and Interact as Equals

 

Northampton, MA - June 13, 2002 – ZForm, a young company based in Western Massachusetts, has just released their first product, ZForm Poker; an online, multiplayer version of five-card-draw poker. The game exemplifies ZForm's mission of bringing blind, low vision, and fully sighted together to play and interact as equals, uniting friends and family around the world.

 

"Assistive technology has come a long way in making the world more accessible to the visually impaired," said Jeremie Spitzer, a cofounder of ZForm and its CEO. "But many of the social activities and games that are an important part of how the general population plays and interacts are still largely inaccessible."

 

ZForm creates innovative online games that enable the visually impaired and their sighted friends to play and interact together as equals. Their first game, ZForm Poker, recently launched and has people playing it around the clock. ZForm Poker is a multiplayer, online version of five-card-draw poker that uses fake poker chips and is played on a PC with friends and family via the Internet. 

 

"We focused the design of ZForm Poker on interaction and communication so that people, blind or sighted, could have a fun way to interact and build community," said Silva. "The game's clean interface and built-in chat has already helped visually impaired and fully sighted players from around the world have fun while making new friends."

 

Some comments from players of ZForm Poker:

·        "ZForm has truly brought a new and pleasant meaning to the term Global village, and if poker is to be used as a yardstick to measure the success of building a community, then I say let there be more of such games," said ZForm Poker player from Singapore.

·        "It's great to be able to sit down at my lunch break and play a couple quick games of Poker.  It's something a lot of sighted people take fore granted, and to have this door opened to me has been a dream come true," said Tim Keenan, ZForm's Audio and Accessibility engineer (blind).  ZForm's mission was inspired by Keenan's friendship with cofounders Spitzer and Silva.

 

ZForm Poker is engineered so that blind players using even a low-end Pentium with a screen reader and a slow modem have no problem keeping up with game play. The game takes advantage of Microsoft's free SAPI technology to be self-voicing, requiring no other products to make it accessible to the visually impaired. It also features tight integration with the two most popular screen-reading packages, Jaws for Windows from Freedom Scientific and Window-Eyes from GW Micro, allowing users of these products to enjoy a seamless gaming experience.

 

At the press of a key, a player can find out what cards she or he has, what hand, how many chips, which players are also in the game and how many chips each has, and whose turn it is. There are many other pieces of information that can be determined by a single keystroke, and how much a player hears can be set to a "beginner level," so as not to miss a second of what is happening, or an "experienced level," which cuts down on the amount of information that is spoken. The game is highly customizable, allowing users the ability to modify many aspects of the program to suit their tastes.

 

ZForm Poker offers players, blind or sighted, the ability to play at a variety of levels, ranging from beginner, with lower stakes and a slower pace, to the high-paced "High-Rollers" tables. There is also an option to play as a single player against a couple of computer players, which is a great way to familiarize oneself with the way the game works. Extensive help is available both from within the game and online.

 

"At every step of ZForm's growth we have been fortunate to have the support of many within the visually impaired community," said Silva. "ZForm Poker's success is thanks to the help of hundreds of testers who worked closely with the ZForm Team throughout development."

 

ZForm Poker can be downloaded and evaluated free for fifteen days through the company's website (www.zform.com).  After that, players can subscribe to ZForm Poker for $7.95 a month - helping to support the continued development of games that bring blind and sighted together as equals.

 

About ZForm:

ZForm is a young company with an innovative mission, to create online games that enable the visually impaired and their sighted friends to play and interact together as equals. Their games help break down the barriers between the visually impaired and the fully sighted by providing an environment where visual impairment is invisible and the playing field is level.

 

ACB Radio recently interviewed ZForm cofounder Paul G. Silva; those interested in hearing the interview and a demonstration of the game can browse to:

http://www.acbradio.org/archives/mainmenu/mm954.mp3

 

More about ZForm can be found on their website:

http://www.zform.com

 

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Quotes from people playing ZForm Poker:

 

  1. "I just love to play ZForm poker. It so nice to be able to play with my friends, and make new ones."
  2. "If you like poker and want to PLAY poker rather than spend a long time learning a new computer interface this is your game. Intuitive controls and easy to interpret screen means you'll be playing poker in a few minutes just as if your buddy dealt the cards."
  3. "This game is great. Staff is great! They pay attention and listen to the customers. They're accessible. More so than many other companies."
  4. "Thank you for making this game. For the first time I have a game I can play with my two sighted daughters. I just wish they weren't so good at poker! lol"
  5. "I've been waiting for something like ZForm Poker for a long time. It will provide lots of entertainment and be a pleasant way to play with peers both sighted and blind."
  6. "One thing I can say about ZForm poker is that it is one of the very few accessible games that I can keep playing over and over."

 

  1. “Out of curiosity, last night as I was playing, I tried to figure out who had some sight by the way they were playing and was not able to.”
  2. “From a partially sighted point of view, the graphics are very cool as well. I still use the self-speech and the keyboard but I like having something there for my eyes to do at the same time.”
  3. “When I was a Young Hippy I use to go to a friends home on Friday evenings and we'd drink beer and play Poker. I remember losing lots of money but what fun we had. All my friends were sighted except me so we'd use a Braille deck of cards. This way of playing brings back so many wonderful memories for me. I'm pushing 50 here now <grin>”
  4. “I can confirm that this game does appeal to sighted people as well; [my son] really liked the game. Well that is ... until I started trying!!!”
  5. “The ZForm Poker game is an excellent step forward in showing that products for the Internet can be made accessible for everyone. Instead of making a product that is only for the majority of the market, ZForm is trying to make an Internet game that is playable by anyone. This will introduce a complete new level of social interaction between individuals who have a disability and those who do not.”
     

 

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