#accessibility in gaming

[cairi-fruit]

Guys does the Horizon: Zero Dawn remaster have better accessibility settings? Lemme know.

I ask because the lighting in original game was really triggering for my sensory issues. The only options were really overall brightness that made everything too dark or too blindly bright but the focus details and holograms really fcked with my head.

I missed a lot of story beats in the underground sections because the flickering lights in that dark environment made me so nauseous and made my head hurt so much I'd just BLITZ through it and stop playing as soon as I could save again. I do love the game and I've played it multiple times but it literally causes me physical pain 😂

[ooc-themis-cattails]

@cattailsgame thank you for the best accessibility setting I have ever seen in a video game.

As someone who gets a horrible adrenaline fear rush every time I see a spider shape, I am beyond delighted. I wish every game had this. There are otherwise wonderful games I struggle to play because of this issue. THANK YOU. (And yes, intellectually I know spiders are harmless and beneficial. That doesn't stop the adrenaline.)

[elenathrais]

Playing Inquisition (again) and it made me realize I really want auto-looting in Dreadwolf. I'd rather stop every 10 minutes to unclog my inventory than squint for a brown bag on the brown ground and then be frustrated when my PC decides to leap for joy instead of just grabbing the 3 gold and useless helmet off the Templar they just murdered.

[rosevilleain]

For the most part, I'd like to keep all my spaces fun and generally light hearted, save for the occasional rant (because, well... This is DBD 😅), but I want to talk about something important right now. If you've been playing this game for long enough, you'll know that there are multiple heated debates amongst the community that will cool off for a while, only to make a resurgence again at some point. Right now, I'd like to address the one that I'm seeing a lot of at the moment.

Let's talk about filters... But, really, let's talk about accessibility in gaming. Primarily in Dead by Daylight.

Before getting into it all, a couple of quick things to note: a. This is a long post, and b. a lot of it is stuff I said elsewhere (namely Instagram). I also broke this up into a couple of sections to (hopefully) make it more easily digestible than a wall of text.

About Those Filters...

Now, I have some tweets of my own to post. For context, Hens went on from that first tweet to discuss his findings a bit, and asked if people wanted him to make a video addressing the subject. After most people said they wanted to see a video, he agreed.

Now, here is my quote tweet and short thread.

I want what I said in that first tweet to sink in. This game first launched in 2016. The colorblind filters available in the game weren't added until 2021.

It took Behavior five (5) years to implement a feature that would allow people with colorblindness to play as anyone else could. This was a feature that should have been available all along, yet there was a need to ask for this to be added. And it still took them half a decade to do it.

If that wasn't terrible enough, there are many colorblind people in the community for whom the available filters do not work. At least not as well as they should. Which means that there are many players using third party filters to simply be able to see the game.

The Usual, Disappointing Response...

But there are some players that use them to have an unfair advantage. So they should be banned... According to far too many people. And if you are one of them, I ask you to consider this:

If you are more concerned about the people who don't need it, you are ignoring the people who do. If you are more concerned about the people that don't need it, respectfully, please take a step back and think about why that is.

Because we see these things said constantly, about features we use just to be able to play like anyone else can do. When disabled people see and hear the comments about how these features should be banned, or how "unfair" they are, what we hear is, "Yeah, but I want to win, so…"

No matter how many times we explain why it wouldn't be good if these things got banned or changed, it doesn't seem to matter. No matter how many more people that use these things need it than don't, it never matters.

My Personal Struggles...

In the second tweet of my thread, I said, "BHVR shouldn't ban their use. They should do better by the disabled people that need better options. This is a general statement, not exclusive to colorblindness."

When I said that, I had a very specific thing in mind, although I'm sure there are other examples of which I'm not even aware.

I'm not colorblind, though I have other disabilities that affect how I experience video games. Though I'm neither deaf, nor hard of hearing, I do have an issue perceiving sounds. Particularly in video games.

For DBD, when I play killer, I can't always find survivors by listening for them because I often have trouble figuring out the right direction that it's coming from. I frequently run into situations where the sound seems to be coming from one direction, but then it sounds like it's actually the opposite, even when it isn't possible that they could have run that way because I would have seen them.

When I play survivor, I frequently can't tell how close the killer is when going by the terror radius because it often sounds a bit further away than it really is. Before I realized that it was a "me" issue, I used to get so pissed because I'd get grabbed off of generators even though it sounded to me like I had a little bit more time before I had to run.

In regards to that, I was once discussing how I wish they hadn't changed Spine Chill back to the way it was because watching the red dial fill and regress helped me far better than the new heartbeat does. No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to properly gauge the distance. I should mention that I have several learning disabilities, as well, which definitely contributes to this. And I'm frustrated because it seems so straight forward, and I can understand it in DBD Mobile, but not core for some reason.

During that discussion, while I was explaining all of this, I had someone outright say to me, "They can't put in too many accessibility options because then people who don't need them will cheat with them."

And several people chimed in with, "Yeah, but it also tipped off survivors to stealth killers."

Um... I main Ghost Face. Yet, my point still stands. And now the heartbeat is the only option available, so I'm still struggling a bit.

People with disabilities shouldn't have to settle for "it's better than nothing," but we do. Time and time again.

In Closing...

That, "I know you need it, but what about the people who don't?" argument is a truly sad and messed up way of thinking. And half of the problem is the fact that there are many people who don't even realize that. The person who said that to me clearly didn't understand that, perhaps, that isn't something you should say to someone explaining why they need it. They weren't trying to be an asshole. They thought they were just having a conversation. Obviously there are those who just don't care, but I do believe that there are more people that just don't realize what it is they're really saying when we see this stuff. Nor why it's so fucked up.

I can personally tell you that it's exhausting to have to defend things, over and over, that make me able to enjoy this hobby that I've been doing for 30+ years. Making room for everyone to be able to play is more important than winning.

If you read this far, thank you.

[midautumngame]

If Midautumn's combat is too much for you, no worries! Our accessibility features allow you to adjust the level of challenge, including turning off all damage, so you can play the way you want!

Midautumn is available now on Steam Early Access + free demo!

[ablegaming]

Photosensitivity-safe games for the Nintendo Gameboy, Gameboy Color, and Gameboy Advance

I recently picked up an old Gameboy again (the original Gameboy Advance model to be specific) to see if my photosensitivity would fare better with a non-backlit screen… to my dismay I discovered that although the intensity of lighting effects is diminished there are still a lot of flashing animations that bother my eyes and give me headaches. I’ve been working on combing through the entire catalogue of games released for the Gameboy, Gameboy Color, and Gameboy Advance to find the most photosensitivity-safe games for us to play! None of the games on this list make use of any flashing animations.

For the record, I didn’t try to line this article up with the recent release of the Gameboy emulation on the Nintendo Switch Online, the timing was just a happy synchronicity. Unfortunately none of the Gameboy, Gameboy Color, or Gameboy Advance games that were recently added to the Nintendo Switch Online are photosensitivity-safe, they all make use of flashing light animations. Used Gameboys for sale can be found on eBay, at resale shops, thrift stores, and garage sales around the world.

Gameboy Dig Dug Hyper Lode Runner Megalit Motocross Maniacs (the new track record screen has flashing text, but at a fairly slow rate) Prince of Persia (the flickering candles are easier on the eyes on a non-backlit screen, also on Gameboy Color) World Bowling

Gameboy games can be played on Gameboy, Gameboy Pocket, Gameboy Light, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, Gameboy Advance Micro, Gameboy Advance SP, Super Gameboy adapter for Super Nintendo, and the Gameboy Advance adapter for the Gamecube.

Gameboy Color Frogger GBC Harvest Moon GBC (the sudden flash of the bright white segue screens between buildings/areas is way too too hard on the eyes on a backlit screen, but is fine on the Gameboy Color or original Gameboy Advance. Weeds disappear-flash briefly as you clear them from the field) Harvest Moon GBC 3 (the sudden flash of the bright white segue screens between buildings/areas is way too too hard on the eyes on a backlit screen, but is fine on the Gameboy Color or original Gameboy Advance. Weeds disappear-flash briefly as you clear them from the field) Pocket Bowling (press start quickly as the title screen has flashing text, the sudden flash of the bright white segue screens is hard on the eyes on a backlit screen or rom, but is fine on the Gameboy Color or original Gameboy Advance) Prince of Persia (the flickering candles are easier on the eyes on a non-backlit screen, also on Gameboy) NBA 3 on 3 Featuring Kobe Bryant Road Rash (there are brief flashes of white screen between publisher intros, this isn’t an issue on non-backlit screens or you can look away for 10 seconds after powering the system on, additionally road lines may be dizzying) Triple Play Baseball 2001 (turn “cutscene movies” off to avoid a flashing sign after getting a homerun)

Gameboy Color games can be played on Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, Gameboy Advance Micro, Gameboy Advance SP, and the Gameboy Advance adapter for the Gamecube. Gameboy color games can also be played on the original Gameboy with a very limited color palette, but only the black Gameboy Color cartridges and Pokémon games will work, the see-through Gameboy Color cartridges will not work. See the “Dual Mode” column on this page for the full list: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Game_Boy_Color_games

Gameboy Advance Chessmaster Classic NES: Dr. Mario (press start quickly as the title screen has some flashing colors, colorblindness may be an issue when playing on the non-backlit Gameboy Advance screen) Classic NES: Ice Climber (falling icicles are a little hard on the eyes on a backlit screen or rom, but they’re fine on the non-backlit original Gameboy Advance) Killer 3D Pool NHL 2002 (the goal siren light is hard on the eyes on a backlit screen or rom, but isn’t nearly as intense on the non-backlit original Gameboy Advance) Madden NFL 2005 Rebelstar: Tactical Command Scooby-Doo Super Monkey Ball Jr. Tetris Worlds (avoid looking directly at the shimmering star next to the currently selected option on the main menu, there are also some flames flickering in the background of the volcano level, otherwise the core gameplay is safe) Texas Hold ’Em Poker Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf 2002 (press start quickly as the title screen has flashing text) Top Gear Rally

Gameboy Advance games can be played on the Nintendo Gameboy Advance, Gameboy Advance Micro, Gameboy Advance SP, DS, DS Lite, and the Gameboy Advance adapter for the Gamecube.

If you know of any more photosensitivity-safe games for the Gameboy, Gameboy Color, and Gameboy Advance please leave a comment and let us know!

This post can also be read and listened to (text-to-speech) on my Medium page at: https://medium.com/@AbleGaming/photosensitivity-safe-games-for-the-nintendo-gameboy-gameboy-color-and-gameboy-advance-1cbeac012aee

[zombiecheshireproductions]

All views in the video are my own opinion. I will add as well that taking turn based combat away from the Final Fantasy series also made the games lose their shine. They don’t need to compete with dark souls, 11, 14, 12, and 15 lacking a full turn based system (and 12’s system just being unnecessarily difficult anyway,) definitely took accessibility away from the series and made the game unnecessary harder than they need to be. I lost my ability to enjoy them.

How about you?

[mildew-mop]

One of many reasons why I prefer Minecraft Java over Bedrock is that Bedrock doesn't have an option for subtitles.

[pandorem]

I think it’s important for us to start getting it into our heads that it’s ok to “lose” things in art for the sake of accessibility, and that it doesn’t make the resulting experience without value. There are aspects of a medium or choices a creator makes that are impactful, important to the experience, and worthy of acknowledging, and still be worth ceding if the other option is never getting to experience the work at all.

(A quick note: this is both about accessibility from a class perspective and disability perspective, and as someone with disabilities I know how frustrating it can be to have your experiences described as lesser or that your losing out on something. I genuinely don’t want to diminish people’s experiences with art. But I also don’t quite know how to phrase it while getting my point across and respecting the artistic merits of the aspects I’m talking about, so please keep that in mind)

There are aspects to certain mediums of storytelling that I often see brought up when people try to ask for more accessibility in art, usually in pushing back against those requests, that I find really frustrating, but not because I don’t find them worth experiencing if you can. One of the things that first comes to mind is the wish for more pro-shot plays/musicals, wether coming from a class perspective where they can’t afford to go see shows live or a disability perspective, where their disabilities make it difficult for them to. And what people often bring up is that there is an energy to live performance that can’t be replicated, even if that live performance was itself filmed. There’s an electricity to being in the audience in the same room as the performers. And therefore, pro shot plays are bad and wrong and should not be made.

True in the first half, completely false in the latter. Live performance DOES have an energy to it that can’t be replicated, that is a wonderful and important aspect of experiencing theatre live. But. That doesn’t mean that a play is without any artistic merit without that aspect. It doesn’t make experiencing the story any other way meaningless. And given how inaccessible live theatre can be on several different levels, proshot plays can be wonderful in letting people experience those things, or even for getting them into theatre in the first place.

Another medium I see brought up like this often is video games. I’ve seen posts talking about how there should be game modes that let people who are bad at video games still experience the story. How some people who have disabilities that affect their fine motor control will just not be able to beat those games as they are.

There are games where the difficulty in and of itself IS an artistic choice that works to deliver the themes and overall message of the game. That is worthy of consideration and respect. Pathologic would be a very different experience if it wasn’t the way it was. But. There are people who would get plenty out of it and other difficult games who will never get to because of that.

The most baffling thing about the latter example is that I often see the response of “just watch a let’s play” or “just get a sibling/friend to play it for you” as if one of the fundamental aspects of video games as a medium, and their most compelling artistic points, is their interactivity. As if watching someone else play the game wouldn’t be as fundamentally different as playing the game on a hypothetical story only mode. Which really tells me that it’s more about gatekeeping than any drive to maintain the game’s artistic integrity.

Just because an experience is changed or different doesn’t automatically make it lesser. And for the sake of argument, if we agree that it DOES mean losing something important and meaningful, it still doesn’t make the experience without value. There’s incredible value to be had.

And experiencing a work of art in a changed or diluted form will bring much more meaning to a person than not getting to experience it at all.

[fioras-resolve]

what really gets to me sometimes is that like, rhythm heaven is one of the few rhythm games out there where you can go entirely on audio cues, like sometimes i play a minigame with my eyes closed and end up doing better. it's a game series that's so perfectly suited to being fully blind-accessible, but they never actually try to do that by having spoken voice lines and dialogue, even with the text-to-speech that tomodachi life shows that they have. like, yes, recording dialogue is expensive, and rhythm heaven is often a budget production, but like. come on! the opportunity is right there!

[dumbass-brunette]

I don’t have epilepsy, but I do have severe migraines and sensory issues that make flashing/strobing lights difficult to be around. I’m not deaf either, but I have ADHD and it makes audio processing very hard.

Having settings to turn off flashing lights and turn on captions are such basic and easy things to add. There is no reason that playing your game should be harmful to ANYBODY. There is no reason that understanding your game should be hard or impossible for ANYBODY.

I’m an ambulatory wheelchair user (which basically means I can walk normally on most occasions but occasionally need the help of a mobility aid such as a cane, a walker, or sometimes a wheelchair). I would be over the moon to see myself represented in a game.

That being said, it makes sense that some games wouldn’t have these type of options due to the nature of some of the mc’s lives (this does not apply to limb differences, my younger sister has one hand and is stronger and more dexterous than most are with two), but there are definitely ways to incorporate us. For example sci-fi games would have more futuristic mobility aids, you could add a whole new fighting style to the game that could be fun and interesting even for non-disabled players.

This does not apply to idle games or games that take place in a calmer in and less physically taxing environment however, games like “The Sims”, very honestly have no excuse for not including a wheelchair.

But, the need for inclusion in character customization aside, being able to turn off strobe lights and turn on captions should be the BARE MINIMUM (and audio descriptions should be as well, though I’m less knowledgeable about this type of aid). Having these settings should be the default, especially when it comes to large gaming companies that should honestly know better.

game companies should be fucking EMBARRASSED about being inaccessible. it should be mortifying to ship a game with shit captions or no UI scaling options or no option to disable flashing / strobing effects. games lauding their character customization should be laughingstocks for not including hearing aids or congenital disorders or prosthetic limbs. EA should be publicly fucking humiliated for the sims series being 23 goddamn years old and include cats and dogs and horses and werewolves and zombies and mermaids and star wars and not FUCKING WHEELCHAIRS.

[fogaminghub]

🌟 Want to grab the Hang Ten Trophy in Marvel's Spider-Man 2? Our detailed guide is here to help you perform 30 Air Tricks flawlessly! 🕸️✨ 

Discover easy strategies, settings adjustments, and the best places to ace your tricks. Check it out now! 

[banrionceallach]

Unpopular opinion: All games should have the option to enable pausing.

And to save almost everywhere.

Yes even in soulslike games.

I am an adult who has a full time job and responsibilities. I get to play maybe an hour a week. I do not want to lose that hour of progress because devs decided 'pause' was not allowed in their game and I had sudden unexpected things come up that meant I had to quit the game without saving/leave it playing and hope enemies wouldn't respawn.

Also it would massively increase accessability. I have fully working non-injured hands and they still need a break after a tough boss fight. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be for people with joint pain, arthritis, etc, etc.

[midautumngame]

In addition to the more typical volume control options, we have a host of accessibility features to allow you to play how you'd like! This includes being able to adjust the health and damage of both the player character and the enemies! Also, options to remap controls for more usability. Try them out for yourself!

Midautumn now available on Steam Early Access + a free demo!

[ablegaming]

Gaming as Anti-Anxiety

Hey friends, I’m sorry I haven’t been posting much lately. Been struggling with health issues, and as a result my old nemesis anxiety has resurfaced a bit as well.

Aside from the many anti-anxiety medications available, which are effective but highly addictive and have side effects (the pharmaceutical industry generally prefers to make lifelong customers), there are several other effective methods of calming anxiety. Among these options are meditation, thought labeling (recognizing the anxiety for what it is), self-reassurance, counseling, deep breathing, yoga, magnesium, vitamin B12*, vitamin D*, CBD, essential oil aromatherapy (lavender, jasmine, lemon balm, and more), sound therapy and guided meditation, sunlight and nature therapy, and crystal therapy (blue calcite, smoky quartz, and hypersthene are quite helpful). Getting enough sleep, food, water, and exercise if you’re able to (I’m not) are also very important for keeping anxiety in check.

If you’re interested, I make relaxing sound healing music that’s free to listen to and download on my Bandcamp page: https://hearherenow.bandcamp.com/album/retrospect

Being around someone or calling someone that you feel comfortable with who cares about you is incredibly helpful when anxiety occurs; hugs, holding your hand, and helping distract you from your worries with good company, conversation, and laughter. As funny as it may sound, holding your own hand when no one is around can actually help too.

It’s important to do the self-work to recognize where our fears and worries stem from, to face ourselves fully without any denial, and to learn to offer ourselves the support that we need. As terrifying as it feels, facing our fears is the surest way through them. Anxiety is a mental program that can certainly be reprogrammed with effort and dedication, and we have the power to transform our mental and physical reactions from harmful ones to beneficial ones through mindfulness and neural plasticity (the ability to “rewire” our brains).

Another effective way to refocus a worried mind is to play calming video games. I’ve put together a list of the most relaxing games that I’m familiar with, and it’s my sincere hope that they’ll help you find temporary solace from your worries when they feel overwhelming. Several of these games have helped me through some anxious times in my life, and I’m very grateful to the developers for making them.

A Short Hike Alpaca Stacka Animal Crossing series Astroneer Captain Toad Treasure Tracker Cloudpunk Cozy Grove Cruis’n USA & Cruis’n World Dark Cloud Day of the Tentacle Dorfromantik Dragon Quest Builders 1 & 2 Eastshade Flower Firewatch Gone Home Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons series Islanders Journey Kingdom: Two Crowns Minecraft (especially peaceful and creative modes) My Time at Portia Night in the Woods No Man’s Sky (you may occasionally land on some planets with extreme temperatures, radiation, and storms) Okami Persona 4 Pokémon Snap & New Pokémon Snap Portal 1 & 2 Proteus Rime Rune Factory series Secret of Monkey Island series Shelter 1, 2, & Generations Slime Rancher 1 & 2 Snowrunner Spiritfarer Stardew Valley Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2 Terraria (bosses can be stressful but most require specific items to spawn in the world, so you can avoid spawning them when feeling stressed) The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim (dragon battles can be a little intense, but can largely be avoided, and only a few are required to complete the game; bringing NPC companions along helps a lot with tougher battles too) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (avoid confronting Guardians and Lynels as these battles can be stressful) The Outer Wilds The Sims series The Witness Untitled Goose Game Viva Piñata series Yonder: Cloud Catcher Chronicles

You are not alone my friend. Feel the community around you and the ground beneath your feet supporting you. You are understood, you are loved, and you are stronger than you realize. * Note that deficiencies in either vitamin D or B12 can result in anxiety and depression, but taking too much of either can cause problems as well. Getting sunlight or taking cod liver oil is more natural and generally preferable to supplementing with Vitamin D. There are 4 forms of vitamin B12 and finding the right one for you requires some research and a little bit of trial and error to find the best form for your body; you can absolutely ask your doctor about this, but from my experience most GP’s aren’t terribly knowledgeable about vitamins (a functional or integrated medicine doctor, naturopath, or nutritionist will usually be a more reliable resource). Taking too much B12 or a form that your body doesn’t need may actually result in some anxiety, so proceed gently. As with any supplement, always start with a low dose.

This post can also be read and listened to (text-to-speech) on my Medium page at:  https://medium.com/@AbleGaming/gaming-as-anti-anxiety-c1454efc7082

[mintaii]

so all i've been doing is playing hades 2