I used to have a friend who was born with his left hand disabled and could only really play videogames on easy unless they had heavy accessibility options. Whenever i see these weird “dark souls needs to be hard” people i cant help but think about him and how he’s barred from playing these deep, visually impressive games because the community starts sending death threats at the mere mention of an easy mode.
I agree with you that some people are misguided and expect dark souls to be hard for the sake of being hard. Yes you die a lot but that is part of the game, and dying is not a state of failure but a step in getting better in order to overcome the obstacle.
I have seen people not only beat the game but do a no hit run with guitar hero guitar, dance dance gamepad and even raw potatoes. Making the game easy does not equal to making it ‘accessible’, but it does break the core gameplay loop. There are ways to make games more accessible in general that doesn’t ruin the fun factor. Check out AbleGamers they are doing amazing work helping the community which I think is one of the best ways to go about this issue.
Counterpoint, no matter the accessibility options included, there’s always going to be a disability that isn’t compatible. The only game that everyone can play is “sitting alone in your room” and some people even struggle with that. There’s always going to be some level of ability required. As much as that sucks, that some people just won’t be able to experience a thing, it sucks more to have no one experience it for fear of excluding those who can’t.
What gets me is a lot of people in the education world are starting adopting this bullshit attitude. My city removed advanced level math courses from middle/high school because it was ‘unfair’ to students who lacked the talent/drive to be good at maths… basically handicapping everyone because a subset of the students were bad at math. Basically nobody is allowed to be better than someone at something and pursue their talents… because that is ‘mean and hurtful’. WTF
man without legs can’t run a marathon! who would have guessed?
I mean disabilities suck(obviously) but being disabled means some things are impossible, that’s why disabilities suck!
If you had to enable EVERYONE to be able to do EVERYTHING that would be really nice and all, but quickly turns into an impossible task.
I’m disabled myself, there are things i can’t do, things that i will never be able to do.
but i don’t expect everyone else to bend over backwards to make my life easy. life is suffering, living is hard, and everyone has their own problems.
i can’t eat what i want, others can’t play the games they want to play.
I’m not going to show up to a restaurant expecting them to know/care/be able to provide, i check beforehand, accept the problems i have, and deal with it.
no one without legs will be the worlds greatest runner, no one with poor reaction time will beat eldenring, etc. that’s why it’s called a DISability you are unable to do something.
Thanks for having a good attitude. Way too many folks these days… are whiny and entitled and think nothing should be enjoyed by anyone if they can’t enjoy it. I’m athletic and I enjoy difficult/complex video games… and it’s always bizarre to me how some folks get some angry at me for enjoying things they don’t/can’t. I can’t play grandmaster level chess or a musical instrument, but I’m not angry about it.
I used to have a friend who was born with his left hand disabled and could only really play videogames on easy unless they had heavy accessibility options. Whenever i see these weird “dark souls needs to be hard” people i cant help but think about him and how he’s barred from playing these deep, visually impressive games because the community starts sending death threats at the mere mention of an easy mode.
Accessibility like controller input options is not the same as “you have more health and can dodge more”.
I agree with you that some people are misguided and expect dark souls to be hard for the sake of being hard. Yes you die a lot but that is part of the game, and dying is not a state of failure but a step in getting better in order to overcome the obstacle.
I have seen people not only beat the game but do a no hit run with guitar hero guitar, dance dance gamepad and even raw potatoes. Making the game easy does not equal to making it ‘accessible’, but it does break the core gameplay loop. There are ways to make games more accessible in general that doesn’t ruin the fun factor. Check out AbleGamers they are doing amazing work helping the community which I think is one of the best ways to go about this issue.
Edit : May this post serve as a remembrance not to suggest an easy mode on FromSoftware game 😁
Counterpoint, no matter the accessibility options included, there’s always going to be a disability that isn’t compatible. The only game that everyone can play is “sitting alone in your room” and some people even struggle with that. There’s always going to be some level of ability required. As much as that sucks, that some people just won’t be able to experience a thing, it sucks more to have no one experience it for fear of excluding those who can’t.
What gets me is a lot of people in the education world are starting adopting this bullshit attitude. My city removed advanced level math courses from middle/high school because it was ‘unfair’ to students who lacked the talent/drive to be good at maths… basically handicapping everyone because a subset of the students were bad at math. Basically nobody is allowed to be better than someone at something and pursue their talents… because that is ‘mean and hurtful’. WTF
man without legs can’t run a marathon! who would have guessed? I mean disabilities suck(obviously) but being disabled means some things are impossible, that’s why disabilities suck! If you had to enable EVERYONE to be able to do EVERYTHING that would be really nice and all, but quickly turns into an impossible task. I’m disabled myself, there are things i can’t do, things that i will never be able to do. but i don’t expect everyone else to bend over backwards to make my life easy. life is suffering, living is hard, and everyone has their own problems. i can’t eat what i want, others can’t play the games they want to play. I’m not going to show up to a restaurant expecting them to know/care/be able to provide, i check beforehand, accept the problems i have, and deal with it. no one without legs will be the worlds greatest runner, no one with poor reaction time will beat eldenring, etc. that’s why it’s called a DISability you are unable to do something.
Thanks for having a good attitude. Way too many folks these days… are whiny and entitled and think nothing should be enjoyed by anyone if they can’t enjoy it. I’m athletic and I enjoy difficult/complex video games… and it’s always bizarre to me how some folks get some angry at me for enjoying things they don’t/can’t. I can’t play grandmaster level chess or a musical instrument, but I’m not angry about it.