This blind kid doesn't think so! LINCOLN, Neb. - Brice Mellen is a whiz at video games such as "Mortal Kombat." In that regard, the 17-year-old isn't much different from so many others his age. Except for one thing: He's blind. And as he easily dispatched foes who took him on recently at a Lincoln gaming center, the affable and smiling Mellen remained humble. "I can't say that I'm a superpro," he said, working the controller like an extension of his body. "I can be beat." Those bold enough to challenge him weren't so lucky. One by one, while playing "Soul Caliber 2," their video characters were decapitated, eviscerated and gutted without mercy by Mellen's on-screen alter ego. "I'm getting bored," Mellen said in jest as he won game after game. Blind since birth when his optic nerve didn't connect because of Leber's disease, Mellen honed his video game skills over the years through patient and not-so-patient playing, memorizing key joystick operations and moves in certain games, asking lots of questions and paying particular attention to audio cues. He worked his way up from games such as "Space Invaders" and "Asteroid," onto the modern combat games. "I guess I don't know how I do it, really," Mellen said, as he continued playing while facing away from the screen. "It's beyond me." Mellen knows this much: He started playing at home when he was about 7. "He enjoyed trying to play, but he wasn't very good at first," said his father, Larry Mellen. "But he just kept on trying. ... He's broken a lot of controllers." When the question of broken controllers comes up, Mellen flashes a smile and just shrugs. "I used to have quite a temper," he said. "Me and controllers didn't get along very well." Now they get along just fine. While playing "Soul Caliber 2," Mellen worked his way through the introductory screens with ease, knowing exactly what to click to start the game he wanted. He rarely asked for help. Once the game started he didn't need any help. "How do I move?" an exasperated opponent, Ryan O'Banion, asked during a battle in which his character is frozen in place. "You can't," Mellen answered before finishing him off. "That's what happens. It's why I don't play him," O'Banion said after his blood-spattered character's corpse vanishes from the screen. How Mellen became so good is a mystery to his father. "He just sat there and he tried and tried until he got it right," Larry Mellen said. "He didn't ever complain to me or anyone about how hard it was." Mellen hangs out any chance he gets at the DogTags Gaming Center in Lincoln, which opened last month. Every now and then someone will come in and think he can easily beat the blind kid. That attitude doesn't faze Mellen. "I'll challenge them, maybe. If I feel like a challenge," he said, displaying an infectious confidence. "I freak people out by playing facing backwards." There's nothing he likes better than playing video games, Mellen said. He will be a senior in high school next year. After graduation, he plans to take a year off because he wants a break from school. When he does go to college, Mellen wants to study — what else? — video-game design.
Ever since I was a young boy, I've played the silver ball. From Soho down to Brighton I must have played them all. But I ain't seen nothing like him In any amusement hall...
Thats freaking amazing. I just tried playing mortal combat on my old SNES with my eyes closed. I lost to Sonya twice, flawless victory.
Wow. This is flat-out amazing. I'd love to see this in action. How in the heck does the guy know where the other guy is? (I don't really play much Mortal Kombat) Does the sound differ somehow based upon position?
Honestly, fighting games would be easier for him to excel at than say, Halo or any other game. Why? There are combination of moves that he can pull that can pretty much guarantee him a victory. Fighting games does not require a lot of thinking on how the opponent acts; if you get the right moves down or even get one move that can take the opponent down, you're pretty much going to win. It's a systematic approach really. It's like in street fighter. Pick Ken. Round 1 starts. Jump Over. Fierce. Down + Fierce. Fireball. Shoryuken. Opponent is dizzy. Down + Fierce. Hurricane Kick. Repeat. It's not a 100% sure fire way of beating EVERY opponent, but it's a start.
For games like SC2 which have foot steps sounds and the character screams before excecuting a move. For SC2, going forward, dashing backwards and sideways have different sounds, and with his probably superior hearing he can perry any attack (as soon as he hears a scream or something that gives off an attack he parrys/blocks, which freezes his appoint for .5 secs and allows him to get off a 30 hit combo). For games like Halo 2, that might be another story, but with enough surround sound maybe he can figure out where you are left and right, and if he practice his strafing skills enough, figure out your general direction when he is hit then fight back, but that's a lot less likely. Have you played any combat games of today? Almost all of them have feint attack, parry, and counters that make the a lot more complicated. At the end of it, sure timing and ability to pull off massive combos are the key but you can make the same argument for head shots in FPS. You still have to trick the opposing player into thinking you are doing one thing while doing another.
I'm pretty sure you suck at fighting games. I've played many fighting games, and I've played them a lot. Street Fighter, King of Fighters, Fatal Fury, Samurai Showdown, Guilty Gear, Soul Calibur, Tekken, Virtua Fighter, Dead or Alive, Bushido Blade, Smash Brothers, Mortal Kombat, Def Jam... know what the common denominator to winning in all those games is? Timing. Memorizing a string of moves is utterly, utterly useless in any decent fighting game if you don't have a mastery of timing. This is why it's common for me to go over to a friend's house, he has a new fighting game I've never even seen before that he thinks he's mastered because he's memorized sequences of moves, and I still destroy him, because I've been playing more fighting games for longer than anyone I know and hence have a far superior ability to see what my opponent is doing and time my response correctly. And the thing about timing is, you almost always do it based on visual cues. That's what makes this kid so amazing. It also speaks volumes about the work developers have put into the sound in these games that most people like me rarely even notice.
Thanks. Next time I want an opinion based soley on one example I dish out, I'll head right to you. I didn't say what he's doing ain't great. It's downright "the wizard"esque if you ask me.
Dude, come on, broken sarcasm detector... guess I should use smilies more often... Nice "Wizard" reference. I just watched that for the first time in like 10 years... still entertaining.
As a Gary Larson fan, immediately this came to mind. September 2 is not that far... creepy... EDIT: I would soOOooooOOo whip his *ss at:
Well consider gold farming MMO can be a big business in Asia, and even non professional farmers can make a decent sum (I think my brother sold a couple of items in a game and made a couple of grand), along with pro tournaments for games like CS and WC3, we're not that far off from a guy who can make that kind of money. The top Magic the Gathering player makes 6 figures, I think I saw a MTV show interviewing the top Quake player who made like 80k playing in various tournaments.
