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The Theory of Parallel Game Universes: A Paradigm Shift in Multiplayer Gaming and Game Accessibility
 Introducing the Concept of Parallel Game Universes
A stumbling obstacle encountered while developing Access Invaders was how to support multiplayer sessions where people with diverse “disabilities” could play the game cooperatively, being fully aware of each other, while at the same experiencing the game in an optimally adapted way.
The concept of Parallel Game Universes (or, in short, PGUs) was conceived as a solution to this problem. The suggested approach is to allow each player to play in a different “game universe” and then somehow project each universe to the other(s). A “game universe”7 is defined as an instance of the game after it has been adapted to best suit the requirements and needs of a particular gamer playing under particular conditions. For instance, the examples presented in Figure 1 all represent different game universes.
In order to further illustrate the basic concept, consider the following situation. Two friends want to play the game together. One of them (Player X), due to severe motor-impairments, can use only a single switch. To be able to play the game, her spaceship should be automatically moving and firing, while the player’s interaction is limited to altering the direction of movement by pressing one switch. Due to the auto fire option, the player’s bullets should not collide with the shields, so that they are not accidentally damaged. Furthermore, to achieve an appropriate difficulty level, only a small group of aliens should be introduced that moves slowly and fires very scarcely (see Figure 2a). The second Player (Y) does not have a physical impairment. In order to find the game challenging enough, she prefers to confront numerous fast, fire blazing aliens (see Figure 2a). If the two players attempt to share the very same game, in case it is adapted to player X, then player Y will find it rather boring and would also be able to easily destroy a lot more aliens than X, while if the game is adapted to Y then it will probably be extremely difficult - if not impossible - for X.
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Figure 2: The Game Universes of Player X (a) and Player Y (b).
Following the idea of Parallel Game Universes, a possible solution is to merge the two distinct game universes into one (Figure 3). Thus, in this new game, two groups of aliens would exist: a big, fast and powerful group which can destroy and be destroyed only by Player Y, and a small, slow and quite harmless group that plays only against Player X. The bullets of each player would not affect the aliens “belonging” to the other player, while Player X’s bullets would not collide with the shields, and Player Y’s would.
Figure 3: Example of how the concept of Parallel Game Universes can be applied.
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