by Phoenix, HSM team writer

I have wondered from the first day I came to Home, why there where no wheelchairs? I put it down to the fact that it was and is a virtual world, and as such, who would think to have an item many would consider a limitation in a world of freedom and possibility?

But as I became more and more a Home resident, I began to wonder how it might function with the added presence of a wheelchair and its occupant. Could the population of Home handle a bit of reality merged into this virtual landscape, where flight and weightless motion are possible without spacecraft, and gorillas dance the night away with mummies and vampires. If Home were to have wheelchairs, how would they be represented? Would it be in the form of a new avatar creation? If it was, who would chose to create an avatar with a disability? How would they be perceived here? I didn’t think anyone would even have the bones to brooch the idea. I imagined the storm of excrement that would come from the disgruntled populace, most of whom would think they spoke for the people who actually live in a wheelchair.

Certainly Home would not be the first avatar-based world with a wheelchair bound character. In Avatar, the movie and video game, the hero was dependent on a wheelchair. His reality was changed by a world much like Home. The difference is that he was submerged in a world where the sensations he experienced as an avatar were physical, and real to his actual body. If he was hurt in that world, he could suffer in the real one. With this thought, I could see a possible tech suit that would morph into a wheelchair as a possibility here in Home. Granted, it would not have the same effects to the person in the real world behind the avatar in Home, but it was not out of the realm of possibility here in Home.

Again, it was a fleeting thought and was gone, as I went about playing and immersing myself in Home’s world. It wasn’t long, however, before I would be back to wondering why no one had thought to create a wheel-chaired avatar, or just a wheelchair that an avatar could sit in, as furniture. I was so curious I asked friends if they knew anyone that used a wheelchair in real life, after an article I wrote on the arrival of flight to Home, and how that and the idea of walking and dancing had effected me. Some did know someone, and named them. Which made me wonder how many knew someone who used a wheelchair, and didn’t know it. I thought about this too. Then, when the LMO’s begin hitting the Home scene, we here at HSM wondered why and when wheelchairs would make it into the LMO catalog. I recall seeing that very suggestion in an article here, sometime ago.

I was both elated and a little skeptical by the announcement that a wheelchair LMO was coming to Home. I waited with bated breath to see how it would be portrayed. Would it be in bad taste? Would it make me uncomfortable? Would I cringe to see an avatar in a wheelchair? Would it be a realistic item or something from the Flintstones comics, with a stone wheel and wooden sides roped together? Or something along the lines of The Blitzkrieg, the wheelchair from Dead Rising 2, an electric wheelchair equipped with atomic weapons? Pretty cool wheelchair, that. Would it be like the turtle character from Ratchet and Clank, or Dr. Xavier from the X-men? All of these depictions came to mind, but none of them were what was presented.

I have seen the reactions to the wheelchair LMO in the polls in the forum thread. I have heard the naysayers and the grumblings of those that are and were offended by this LMO. However, I find I like them. I am glad to see this part of society represented here in Home, and though I am certain a good many people buying them do not use them in the real world, so what? I smile when I see this LMO. I love the wheelie motion when idle. Though I do not pop wheelies in mine, I think I would like to.

I think it was a great design. As has happened before in Home, this item could have opened a bigger watershed of criticism than it actually did. It could use a tweak here and there, but it is fun, and in keeping with the fun of Home. It is, from my point of view, well done and in good taste. I look forward to seeing a motorized wheelchair appear next in Home. Finally, I would like to say, What took you so long, Home?

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2 Responses to “The Wheelchair Conundrum”

1. KrazyFace says:

   June 6, 2013 at 8:36 am

   It’s a touchy subject for many. Those who’re not in a wheelchair probably get more uptight about these things than those who have to live with it daily. I once stumbled on a comedy show with an entirely disabled cast, some of the humour I found very close to the bone, and had to remind myself this wasn’t just people takin’ the mickey. Even at that, some of it still felt pretty un-P.C.

   I guess it comes down to attitude, and I’m reminded of saying; If you don’t laugh, you cry.

   Home is about self expression though, and this (to me) is just another form of that -- unless it’s used in a derogatory way, which many things are bent to do in Home by its less savoury population. Who, thankfully, seem to be the minority.

   Brave article Phoenix.

   Reply
2. Phoenix says:

   June 7, 2013 at 2:55 pm

   Thank You Krazyface,
   I hope everyone understands that I am not trying to speak for everyone in wheelchairs. I can only speak for myself, when I say I found them fun in Home, and am glad to see them. I don’t want to stop those that feel a desire to defend or protect those in wheelchairs either, some need it. For some people “disablity” is as touchy a subject as are race, religion and politics. Home holds no exception to this rule.
   I just hoped from what I knew about Homes developers, whichever of them took on the subject it would have the Home twist and be okay. I was right!

   Reply