Thu, Sep 02, 2021 page16

• Blind video game champ takes on Twitch audience

  • AFP, THE HAGUE
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  With a joystick in one hand, a Braille device under the other and a mask over his eyes, BlindWarriorSven efficiently disposed of yet another opponent.

  “I put this mask on because sometimes people tell me I’m not really blind,” he said, smiling, in reference to the sore losers that he has beaten on the video game streaming site Twitch.

  Sven van de Wege was only six when he was struck by cancer. He lost his sight, but was determined not to let his disability get in the way of his childhood passion for video games.

  

  Sven van de Wege, a sight-impaired streamer and Street Fighter V champion, hosts livestreaming on his Twitch channel “BlindWarriorSven” at his apartment in The Hague, Netherlands, on Tuesday last week.

  Photo: AFP

  It has not: The 35-year-old Dutchman has beaten some of the world’s best players at tournaments across Europe, and claimed a champion’s title for playing the iconic Street Fighter series.

  His hearing is his crucial weapon. Van de Wege navigates his way around Street Fighter V, a game with “a very detailed sound design,” using solely its sound effects.

  After years of training for several hours per day, the volume of his opponent’s footsteps tells him how far away they are, while the sound of each punch and blow tells him how to react.

  “By those audio cues, I’m able to know if I’m on the left, if I’m on the right, how I need to attack,” he said.

  It is a skill he is monetizing via Twitch, a Web site with about 30 million users per day — most of whom log in to watch others play video games.

  Putting together a streaming studio adapted to Van de Wege’s needs required specialist equipment, as well as a fair amount of creativity from the gaming champion, who works by day as an IT engineer.

  The studio at his apartment in The Hague includes two computers hooked up to a Braille display.

  This device translates comments from the stream’s live chat into Braille that he can read by touch, allowing him to interact with the viewers watching him play.

  There is no computer screen in front of him, just a wall.

  “I don’t need a screen, and it saves energy,” he said.

  Van de Wege, who joined Twitch in 2017, challenges subscribers to his channel to combat every Sunday.

  “When I play versus my viewers, I think eight out of 10 matches I win,” he said.

  Twitch has faced pressure to encourage diversity on the platform, particularly since the best-paid players on the site are overwhelmingly able-bodied white men.

  In May, the site added about 350 tags to allow members of different communities to find each other more easily, including one for people with disabilities.

  However, Van de Wege said that the Twitch platform could do more to make its features accessible for sight-impaired players.

  Deciphering the messages in the live chat can be difficult because people post images, which messes with his Braille device.

  “I wish there was an option that you could just have a plain chat without all the graphical stuff,” he said.

  Van de Wege holds affiliate status on Twitch, where his payouts’ size is linked to the number of subscribers — he has 3,000 — and the amount they donate. He earns less than 100 euros per month on the platform, but hopes to one day achieve partner status, which would allow him to stream as a full-time job.

  “If I had thought: ‘I’m blind, I cannot play video games anymore,’ I would have given up,” he said. “If I can do it, I’m sure that more people can do it.”
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