After devouring all of the Extra Credits videos on Penny Arcade recently (they're brilliant treatises on game design and the game industry, check them out if you haven't seen them already!), one which stuck in my mind was on the topic of Diversity: http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/diversity

The main types of diversity covered are Race, Gender and Sexuality, but another is ability - are there any games out there with a main character who is disabled in a meaningful or realistic way? I can't think of any off the top of my head...

So I thought about how a game could implement a character with a disability in a mature and meaningful way - it would be very refreshing to play as a character who isn't a typical caucasian-straight-guy-action-here wouldn't it? The character would definitely have more scope for depth than most of the other bland heroes out there if nothing else, and would also be a great way of educating players about the types of challenges faced by people with disabilities.

But how would this work in terms of gameplay? What types of game would be impossible to make with a character who cannot do everything a standard hero can do? What types of disability could be accurately represented in what types of game? Is it possible to be sensitive about this, but still keep the game fun?

This is quite a highbrow topic and is completely hypothetical, but I think it should be possible to do - TV, books and film have created a lot of great stories with main characters with disabilities that we as game designers could learn from - two examples that spring to mind are Tyrion from Game of Thrones (everyone's favourite character from the series), and Miles Vorkosigan from the Vorkosigan series of books by Lois McMaster Bujold (one of my personal favourite literary characters of all time).

If we need a more concrete example to work on, we could take Miles as a starting point - his sci-fi world and the stories within it could make a brilliant game if done correctly. As visions of the future go, it's up there with Mass Effect's. I'll leave it there for now, and see what you all come back with

Then again, what would be the purpose of having a disabled person as a main hero? We play games to be in another reality, not be reminded of it.

There's plenty of room for the fantastic deeds done by disabled individuals. Just the number of guys in fiction running around with guns in their prosthetics alone could give you a testosterone overdose. If for no other reason, disabilities are a good way to explain plot scene incompetence. For example, Guts from the Berserk manga kicks so much ass that he occasionally forgets the fact that one of his arms is a fake (of course with a cannon inside) and he can't actually grip with that hand.

Wow, lots of good responses here, plenty of food for thought!

Then again, what would be the purpose of having a disabled person as a main hero? We play games to be in another reality, not be reminded of it.[/quote]
Isn't playing as someone very different from you (such as a disabled person) a way of experiencing another reality?

The NI idea/taking over robot bodies gave me an idea of my own as to how something similar could be done in a real-world setting. You would play as main character who is either paralysed, or completely 'locked-in' (a syndrome I saw in an episode of House) and unable to move or speak at all, except perhaps by moving his or her eyes (by looking around as you would in a first-person game). The opening scene would be you looking at other characters/your family visit you, and being unable to communicate at first, until a seemingly friendly character teaches you how to communicate by moving your eyes, or using a computer interface that reads brain-waves. Then the character (a doctor/nurse?) turns out to be an enemy, working for whoever put you in your locked-in state (in order to keep you silent?) and saying you don't have long until they unplug your life support. Luckily your character has psychic abilities however (as a result of sampling the secret illegal research your enemy is doing?), and can take over the bodies of other patients in your ward, who all have limitations of one type of another that must be overcome in order to thwart the plans of the evil corporation running the private hospital/clinic and get the antidote for the toxin (or psychic block?) that's left you 'locked-in'. Sound interesting??