"I'm not disabled, I'm a gamer" A joke brings hope

Lin Fei was happy after winning a game. Photo courtesy of interviewee

    It was a long-lost victory, and when Lin Fei's "heroes" rushed into the opponent's camp, a circle of golden light imprisoned the opposing generals, and the game ended quickly.

    "I won!" Lin Fei bounced up from his chair, "In (video) games, I can compete with ordinary people. ”

    What helped Lin Fei achieve victory were two black pedal devices under his computer desk. Without a right arm, the gamer was originally at a disadvantage in the "race to speed" world of esports. And that device, replacing the two key keys on the keyboard, allows him to step on the keyboard by stepping on both feet, to achieve the game effect of ordinary people typing on the keyboard.

    The heroic characters controlled by Lin Fei in the game are really "released", and they can use the "big moves" close to freedom to win the duel.

    It was originally a "joke"

    The two black pedal devices used by Lin Fei came from a "chance encounter" on the Internet.

    At the end of 2022, Lin Fei did not rank well in the game season he participated in, and "the 'silver' segment hovered for 4 months". Just after the New Year, he saw a video on social platforms: a game blogger stepped on the pedal to play a game, which can play the effect of tapping on the keyboard.

    "Dear, what did you do with that DF button?" Lin Fei sent a private message to the vlogger, he was so excited that he constantly checked his phone, expecting a reply.

    After 3 days, the reply came: "This will teach in the future, and there are too many people who ask." ”

    The respondent's name was Shen Yue, at that time, he actually did not plan to really make the so-called "teaching video", in his opinion, no one really needed to use the foot to play the game, and he spent his own effort to make it, and there was no number of views, which was completely "thankless".

    As a game blogger, Shen Yue's social platform has a collection of teaching videos of "Black Iron Tips". "Black Iron" is the lowest player rank in a certain game.

    "The collection is full of pit people or pit teammates' skills, and after learning it, not only will you not improve your skills, but it will even reduce your skills in reverse." Shen Yue explained that these are all useless inventions, mostly funny or "lively" to attract traffic (online language, refers to meaningless creation of events or gimmicks - reporter's note).

    On January 3, Shen Yue posted a short video on social platforms titled "Bad Student Stationery More: Real 'Script' Playing Games", he said that in fact, it is just using pedals instead of keyboard keys to release heroes' skills, "dispensable".

    For Lin Fei, that is the upcoming new season of the game, where his hope lies.

    Shen Yue did not take the private message of "asking for teaching" seriously, until more than half a month later, he received a message again: "I used to have a car accident and have been playing games with one hand, but many games can't be played, thank you, let's get out of the tutorial early." ”

    Shen Yue recalled that the moment he saw this message, he began to blame himself. "I never dreamed that someone really needed to use their feet to unleash their skills." He said that his casual promise and did not want to fulfill made a person wait for more than half a month.

    He immediately proposed to help Lin Fei make a set of foot pedals for free. In the original video, Shen Yue's foot pedal is composed of mouse side buttons and two pedals, which costs less than 10 yuan, and is relatively simple to make, just connect the connection of the mouse button to the pedal. But he didn't want to deal with Lin Fei like this, "he needs a pair of professional pedals."

    It is not easy for a person who does not know about circuits to do "professionally". For a long time afterward, Shen Yue claimed to "live" on e-commerce shopping platforms. "I didn't even know what the name of the accessory I wanted was."

    He constantly browsed through the products, trying to describe and search for the parts he needed in words that might be close, and then asked if the store could use them. Considering that Chongqing, where Lin Fei is located, has a humid climate and the circuit board is prone to moisture and short circuits, he also bought circuit board protective glue.

    In order to make the pedal more comfortable and convenient, Shen Yue purchased 5 products to try one by one. When he had a good idea and plan in his head, he immediately recorded it. On several occasions, he simply got up in the middle of the night and tinkered in front of the computer until dawn.

    After continuous adjustment and modification, Shen Yue made 10 foot pedals.

    He replaced the Q, W, E, R keys on the keyboard with 4 pedals, and set the mouse side buttons to D and F keys to begin to verify the effect of the pedals.

    As a result, he can win more than 50% without using a keyboard at all and only using one hand and two feet. "If you don't adapt with your feet at first, the winning rate will be higher if you adapt."

    Shen Yue lives in Linyi, Shandong. On the afternoon of March 10, he boarded a flight to Chongqing with 10 pedals on his back to find Lin Fei. That night, he connected the foot pedal to Lin Fei's computer.

    Lin Fei began to practice, and slowly, his feet were no longer flustered, but he could accurately jam the timing of the operation. Electrical signals arrive at the speed of light, and his "hero" unleashes skills.

    In the new season of the game he played, he used the pedal to get rid of the "silver" rank and rushed to the higher "gold" rank for the first time. When he talked about it, he couldn't hide the excitement of achieving a new achievement, and his voice was a few degrees higher.

    "I'm not disabled, I'm a gamer"

    According to Lin Fei, there are more than 100 hero characters in the games he plays, but only a maximum of 10 can appear in each game, and some "heroes" have become unpopular characters chosen by players.

    For example, he often uses "Amumu". This character's skill design is simple, the gameplay is monotonous, it cannot effectively attack the opponent, its own control is not stable, and the appearance rate is very low in the game world.

    But it is Lin Fei's favorite and most used heroic character.

    The 43-year-old says he has been playing games since 1999, playing pure word games, web games, mobile games and PC games.

    In 2004, Lin Fei was 24 years old and went with his mother to deliver medicine to his sick uncle. The bus they were riding home rolled over on the highway, breaking two ribs and losing his right arm.

Lin Fei pressed the pedal with both feet to let the "heroes" in the game release their skills. Photo courtesy of interviewee

    After waking up, Lin Fei propped up his body from the hospital bed and asked his mother to go home and get a box of mung beans, a box of soybeans, and a pair of chopsticks, ready to train his left hand.

    For a long time, despite several wounds on his left hand, he kept repeating a movement: holding chopsticks in his left hand and clipping the beans from one box to another. "My right arm is gone, and I will live with my left hand in the future."

    After being injured, what Lin Fei could do became limited. He tried to find a job, worked in telesales, and sold insurance, but finally gave up and spent most of his day at home cooking and taking care of his children. No colleagues, not many friends. His daily life is almost completely fixed.

    One day, Lin Fei bought a left-handed gaming mouse and started playing games again. It took him a long time to try and find a game character that worked with one hand.

    Lin Fei said that he may be the real life Amumu. In the game, the character is a lonely soul who wanders the world just to find a friend. But he suffered a curse that to be touched by him meant death, so he was destined to endure eternal loneliness.

    In that game, which requires high accuracy in operation, every time Lin Fei clicks on Amumu, the character will say a sentence through the system: "I thought you would never choose me." ”

    This line moved Lin Fei.

    He recalled, "In one game, there was a game where three big men came and surrounded me, and I killed them all. "After the game, he jumped three feet tall, lay in bed and kept reminiscing, and lost sleep for most of the night.

    He was also often scolded, "Sprinkle rice on the keyboard, the chickens are better than you" "You are so pitted, do you know it yourself?" ”...... There are also some more ugly words. He was never angry, but excited. "They scold me to show that we are equal, that I am not disabled in their eyes, that I am a gamer."

    Limited by physical defects, Lin Fei couldn't cut the meat and applauded. But in the world of games, players are "equal" in gender, age, and body. "I can do anything." Lin Fei said that as long as you work hard, anyone can be a warrior and hero who saves the world, and life seems to return to the way it should be.

    In fact, he has never lacked the spirit and strength of this "hero".

    After the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, Lin Fei posted a fundraising post on the Tianya Forum to help the disaster area raise 100,000 yuan in relief materials such as mineral water, milk, instant noodles, and quilts, and he also contacted a large truck to personally transport these materials to the disaster area.

    Another time, Lin Fei was riding a bus and found someone clinging to a passenger's back and slowly reaching into his satchel. He hurriedly stopped, "I usually don't like these thieves the most." He didn't expect that the other party's group of three, unsuccessful, surrounded him and threatened, he pretended to call the police to scare these people away.

    "Esports should belong to everyone who wants to participate"

    Today, Lin Fei can skillfully cook, wash dishes, and mop the floor with his left hand, but there are still very few games he can operate. He took a mobile game as an example, the hero moves and releases skills need to be operated with the thumbs of both hands at the same time, he tried using the left thumb to move first and then release the skills, but the rhythm of the game does not allow him to do this at all, "winning or losing is often a matter of seconds". Lin Fei has also tried to play some PC-side games, some of which cannot change keyboard keys as needed, and some of which require more complex two-hand operations.

    Shen Yue said that many players like Lin Fei contacted him, hoping to get a tutorial on making pedals.

    Many of them learned about the mouse and pedal equipment with side buttons through Shen Yue's video, which can control the computer and complete the game operation.

    According to data released by the China Disabled Persons' Federation, there are more than 85 million disabled people in the mainland, accounting for about 6.21% of the total population, of which it is unknown how many people who love games but are physically restricted from operating.

    On the occasion of the 2021 International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Opinium Research conducted a survey of 1,000 U.S. gamers aged 18 and older, more than one-third (373) of whom had long-term physical or mental disabilities, illnesses or disabilities. Shen Yue also found through a certain range of research, "Although there are many disabled people in the mainland, everyone's shortcomings are different, and the ways and tools to play games are also different." ”

    He plans to travel from Linyi to Guangdong, Guangxi, Sichuan, Chongqing and Xinjiang to help netizens who privately message him make pedals for free. "I had to understand how different players with disabilities play games and their specific needs for pedaling, to give more players with disabilities some references."

    Globally, Microsoft launched the accessibility controller of its Xbox game console in 2018, allowing players who cannot use the keyboard or controller normally to modify the buttons and joysticks of the controller and customize the keys to play; Detroit: Become Human introduces clear and easy-to-read subtitles to improve the gaming experience for the hearing impaired; Some games have a specific design for the visually impaired, giving players cues through special sounds, allowing the game character to produce unique cue sounds when releasing skills.

    In addition, the reporter also learned that in the game hardware equipment market, left-handed gaming mice are very rare. Razer is one of the few gaming equipment companies that designs a dedicated gaming mouse for left-handed users.

    The Viper series used by Lin Fei has a total of 5 buttons, which is different from ordinary mice, and it also has buttons on the left and right sides. For games where skill keys can be changed, Lin Fei can almost achieve most operations with this left-handed mouse "without considering the winning rate".

    According to the survey results, more than two-thirds (69%) of gamers with disabilities said that playing games keeps their brains active; 58% of gamers with disabilities say that playing games helps them "get rid of the worries of everyday life"; 68% of gamers with disabilities believe that playing games can help improve mental health; 56% of gamers with disabilities see gaming as a source of entertainment; 47% of gamers with disabilities say gaming brings them joy; 35% of gamers with disabilities said that video games helped them through the coronavirus lockdown, which was particularly difficult mentally.

    For gamers with disabilities who are hidden in the crowd, video games have become a way of life, whether it's for fun, socializing or killing time.

Shen Yue's 10 foot pedals for Lin Fei. Photo courtesy of interviewee

    "Playing games is a more affordable way for us to have fun and enjoy life." Lin Fei met a lot of friends in the game, "When you want to play a game, make an appointment on WeChat, when there are many people, we will play Wuhei together, and when there are few people, you can play double row." ”

    In Shen Yue's later release titled "My 'useless' pedals, really helped people!" Below the video, someone commented: "You are the real hero" and "You are the real Heimerdinger". What netizens call Heimerdinger is a "hero" character in the game, a talented scientist who works non-stop to make many inventions, constantly improving them and making them more efficient.

    "Esports should belong to everyone, including people with disabilities." Shen Yue is studying improving the foot pedal and reducing costs. For him, reducing costs can help more people with the same money.

    "I'm not a hero, you raised me too high." Shen Yue bowed deeply to netizens in the latest video, "It was your support that made my video popular, so that the society paid attention to this group." You are the heroes. ”

Source: China Youth Daily