Playing video games with voice commands? Especially Pentiment?
December 3, 2022 4:57 PM Subscribe
I don't play video games, mainly out of concern about developing RSI and other hand/wrist problems. However, Pentiment looks great and I'm really interested in playing it. Are there adaptive devices that let you play games using voice commands? And would they interact OK with Pentiment?
I have played some games, just not many and very rarely.
I want to avoid repetitive clicking and gripping with my hands. I might be OK with a foot-operated device, but ideally I would prefer something voice-activated. If that even exists? I know so little about video games and what's possible these days.
I have played some games, just not many and very rarely.
I want to avoid repetitive clicking and gripping with my hands. I might be OK with a foot-operated device, but ideally I would prefer something voice-activated. If that even exists? I know so little about video games and what's possible these days.
Voice recognition is more likely on the PC, but I am not sure if they can be mapped that way. I know Pentiment is controller compatible, so you will not have to worry about over use of the mouse, if that's what got you worried.
posted by kschang at 1:11 AM on December 4, 2022
posted by kschang at 1:11 AM on December 4, 2022
Best answer: Due to bad RSI, I play a lot of games hands-free using a combination of voice controls, head mouse, eye tracking, and an Xbox adaptive controller. To start with I'll just say that playing games purely using voice, without any other inputs, tends to be pretty challenging. It is definitely doable but requires a certain amount of patience.
On a PC you just need a microphone and some software, you don't need any special devices. I recommend using the free as in beer voice recognition and control software Talon. In my experience it's the most accurate and flexible software for this kind of thing, however it is not necessarily the easiest to set up and configure (it was designed for programming with voice). The community on slack can be helpful and you're welcome to Memail if you need help. A more straightforward (GUI interface) software to use is Voice Attack, which costs $10. I used this for a long time but found its recognition accuracy to be worse than Talon, and it is also a little bit clunky to configure (lots of nested windows)
As for Pentiment, I haven't played much yet, but I did check it out briefly before posting this. it seems like the primary interaction is to walk around and talk to people and look at things, basically a point and click adventure. playing this purely with voice controls will require you to repeatedly say things like "walk right", "walk left", etc. in my experience this can become kind of tiresome, which is why I would personally combine voice controls with my eye tracker or head mouse. however these come with their own issues (in the form of eye strain and neck strain, although using your voice also runs the risk of vocal strain).
Anyway, assuming you're patient and willing to use voice to control the walking, it seems likely you can play it mostly using voice controls, however without playing the whole thing I can't be sure you won't need a mouse or game controller occasionally. For instance, the first thing the game asked me to do was interact with a stone and a page in a book, which I needed to use my head mouse to do, and was very cumbersome (default sensitivity was maybe too low). I asked around on discord and someone said there's a few rare things like this that shift interaction from just walking & talking. In my experience, games like this (point and click adventures) sometimes try to do cute things that completely break accessibility. if you are just using voice to avoid developing an RSI, or exacerbating an existing one and your symptoms are manageable with very infrequent use (my situation), you may be able to just reach for the mouse for these sections of the game.
Finally, just a note about playing games using voice commands on a console (Switch, Playstation, Xbox, etc). This is also possible, but you will need a special device, along with a PC. This guide from Special Effect walks through doing that, and I've used something similar myself with Talon. As for the Xbox adaptive controller and Logistic Adaptive Kit, this is also a flexible option, and I can attest to it being usable with your feet (I'm playing Elden ring with it right now). It would certainly work for Pentiment as well.
Good luck, and feel free to message me, this stuff can be difficult to navigate but is kinda fascinating to me
posted by okonomichiyaki at 7:38 AM on December 4, 2022 [1 favorite]
On a PC you just need a microphone and some software, you don't need any special devices. I recommend using the free as in beer voice recognition and control software Talon. In my experience it's the most accurate and flexible software for this kind of thing, however it is not necessarily the easiest to set up and configure (it was designed for programming with voice). The community on slack can be helpful and you're welcome to Memail if you need help. A more straightforward (GUI interface) software to use is Voice Attack, which costs $10. I used this for a long time but found its recognition accuracy to be worse than Talon, and it is also a little bit clunky to configure (lots of nested windows)
As for Pentiment, I haven't played much yet, but I did check it out briefly before posting this. it seems like the primary interaction is to walk around and talk to people and look at things, basically a point and click adventure. playing this purely with voice controls will require you to repeatedly say things like "walk right", "walk left", etc. in my experience this can become kind of tiresome, which is why I would personally combine voice controls with my eye tracker or head mouse. however these come with their own issues (in the form of eye strain and neck strain, although using your voice also runs the risk of vocal strain).
Anyway, assuming you're patient and willing to use voice to control the walking, it seems likely you can play it mostly using voice controls, however without playing the whole thing I can't be sure you won't need a mouse or game controller occasionally. For instance, the first thing the game asked me to do was interact with a stone and a page in a book, which I needed to use my head mouse to do, and was very cumbersome (default sensitivity was maybe too low). I asked around on discord and someone said there's a few rare things like this that shift interaction from just walking & talking. In my experience, games like this (point and click adventures) sometimes try to do cute things that completely break accessibility. if you are just using voice to avoid developing an RSI, or exacerbating an existing one and your symptoms are manageable with very infrequent use (my situation), you may be able to just reach for the mouse for these sections of the game.
Finally, just a note about playing games using voice commands on a console (Switch, Playstation, Xbox, etc). This is also possible, but you will need a special device, along with a PC. This guide from Special Effect walks through doing that, and I've used something similar myself with Talon. As for the Xbox adaptive controller and Logistic Adaptive Kit, this is also a flexible option, and I can attest to it being usable with your feet (I'm playing Elden ring with it right now). It would certainly work for Pentiment as well.
Good luck, and feel free to message me, this stuff can be difficult to navigate but is kinda fascinating to me
posted by okonomichiyaki at 7:38 AM on December 4, 2022 [1 favorite]
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posted by aramaic at 7:30 PM on December 3, 2022