omg.THANK YOU!!I also suffer from cerebral pulsey and am a DIE HARD gamer with the same problems. I can't play certain games or have to play on easy. I'm playing fallout 4 and loving it. please make more vid like this!!! You are the only person I've seen address this issue and I think you are the best!!
I know this reply is late but I also have cerebral palsy, but mine is very very mild. I can usually play most games fine. But my cerebral palsy does makes other things harder for me, such as when I try to play guitar. I love playing guitar but it's sometimes SOOO hard to get my fingers placed in the right position or to go at the right speed that the song requires. It sucks.
Genuinely insightful. As someone who has recently developed nerve damage the whole 'I've finally bought an Xbox, oh bum my hands no longer work' just added another frustration. In something approaching positivity though - games have actually helped with my hands' mobility. My thumbs used to paralyse after brief activity and don't now - I put this almost exclusively down to Assassin's Creed Syndicate.
I have a similar situation. Being an older gamer, playing Dark Souls destroyed my wrists (figuratively - I can still use them), but most intense button-pressing games bring out the RSI. I just finished playing Sniper Elite 4 and found the controller configuration being focussed on the R1/2 & L1/2 triggers and the slower pace through stealth, meant there was no issue with my wrists. Prince of Persia 2008 is one of my all-time favourite games and it got criticised for being too easy, but it's such a fun romp through a fantasy world. More puzzle games like Rime are welcome.
Naughty Dog really nailed this with The Last of Us 2. You can re-arrange the buttons enough to play with just one hand. It has several settings for colour blindness. It's difficulty settings actually make a difference to gameplay, and I found it's tension/release cycle pretty perfect in regards to accessability in that there were periods of calm and cooldown after each button mashing section.
Explorer mode in the Uncharted games is a good example of this. Button-mashing qte's can be completed by just holding the button, and the lock-on aiming system lets you dominate gunfights, even if you normally have trouble aiming. This makes the game more accessible but still lets you enjoy the cinematic action sequences that make the series so great!
Had a young man we used to do respite for. He loved gaming at my house as i had the steering wheel and for him it was the ultimate accessibility, he also loved that it was the closest he ever got to real driving
I don't see how anyone can complain about easy modes in non-online games (never heard of them in online games) when they aren't competing for the same achievements/ trophies. Yes, I suppose this makes it impossible for Ms. Emily to 100% a game if she physically cannot operate the normal / hard mode controls. But as you excellently pointed out, in a well designed game she will 100% any story and worldbuilding elements of the game and the achievements will retain whatever arbitrary absolute value they were given. (And the most elitist prat will have to go play it on easy to 100% all the achievements.) (And if the game wants to reserve the Sword of Ostentatious Compulsiveness to be awarded for winning the game on hardest difficulty using only a blade of grass, I suppose that's not an integral part of the game then!) Dark Souls deserves it's own genre. But even it has a story that it would be nice to be able to enjoy firsthand, with your own character, instead of relying on others' playthroughs. *Thank you* for this excellent explanation of what accessible gaming is and should be. I came to it wondering how one was supposed to port modern games, with their plurality of control buttons (forget combos!) for someone who, say, physically didn't have enough fingers to press all the buttons. Now I know that some things might never advance till we're all playing with thought control, but until then, here's how to tell a story right to more people. You have a new subscriber.
In the case of games like Dark Souls and more recently Sekiro, I had thought the idea of an easy mode was strange sometimes silly. I can now say I was wrong. I just thought”The challenge is the game” and I hadn’t even thought about someone with a disability(sorry if there is a more correct term). It wasn’t intentional disregard, I just don’t interact/meet many people with disabilities in my day to day life. Thank you for making my oversight obvious and I am sorry I didn’t think of it myself
I totally agree with you. I've never really got all this newbie hating anyway, we were all newbies once and if they want to join the community as a decent gamer, i.e.. play the games however they like without acting like dicks, the more the merrier!
Consoles have hugely increased gaming accessibility, definitely. However, a fun point, my sister and I grew up playing loads of games on her/the family PC. I remember being really young & watching her play the original Discworld game. We were both able to play loads of different games growing up, from Lemmings, to Sim City, to X-Wing. The PC games market is very welcoming to all abilities because it offers such a huge range of games and controls - the only problem for many is the price of a PC.
Im glad to see more people addressing this issue, about a year ago, a gentleman who i believe also suffered from the same debilitation as your sister was petitioning to games developers to allow the re-binding of controller buttons and triggers etc. to allow easier access to gameplay. This is something I am strongly in favour of. It's good to know that your sister also shares an enjoyment of games. :)
I've got dispraxia and my hands are like freakish cumbersome monsters with the reflexes of the spoon LET ME HAVE MY FUN EASY MODES THAT AREN'T PAINFUL.
Mapping several things to one button = worst idea ever. The fact that run & climb are the same button on AC3 made free-running very frustrating for me. Better changes could be - easier to hide/get away from guards - take less & do more damage - longer/no time limits & slower races with thieves - more 'retry/save' points in long free-running areas like Romulus Lairs (like PoP rewind) - no auto-fail things on missions Even with those changes, the game is still about sneakily stabbing people. YAY!
I know this comment is way after the fact but I always wonder how the blind, deaf or incapable of using their hands can enjoy our favorite pastime. Anyone of these "disabilities" can afflict anyone at any point in their lives, and I hope that as technology develops we can find more ways to include anyone who wants to lose themselves in a fantastical world.
when im on games that let you change the difficulty I start on easy and move up. it really helps me. I think most people do the same I don't generally play games on one difficulty set games
I like the idea of knowing how developers intended the game to be experienced, but also like bei g able to trailor it to my own tastes once I have done that
As my username indicates I'm a Repton fan, and when the BBC originals were ported to the PC they did make two changes to increase the accessibility of the second game by adding a map view and save points. This did make the game easier but it also meant more people could complete it
You know what, I had a thought. The hyper-focus on online play nowadays could be driving a lot of this backlash against easy modes, because games companies typically want a justification to concentrate on online, and you can't really have an easy mode in online play... nor can you have time dilation, which I think could serve as its own easy mode in a lot of reaction-based games - basically setting a value for how much slower the game should go whenever inputs are important. These potential features have probably gone discarded and undeveloped a lot of the time, just because companies want to aim for where the money is. p.s. I was one of the people hating on rewind features in racing games (back when racing games were actually made for offline play whatsoever). I see the point in them now, and see the failure in that attitude. Long as the game lets me turn it off (so I don't press it accidentally), I shouldn't have a problem with it.
This was the most eloquent way I've ever heard someone describe and defend "easy modes" in games and I tip my hat to you ma'am. There are bad ways of implementing easy modes (such as withholding content and/or story due to difficulty level chosen) but people should be able to enjoy games regardless or skill level or physical ability. After all, they are another entertainment medium like books and films and methods have been developed to allow anyone to enjoy those mediums despite skill or physical limitations.
Reminds me of Legends of Grimrock devs, Almost Human, who had a GUI for a disabled player. It was awesome and heartwarming to see. So keep up the good work!
I liked that you talked about your sister here. I have sinus problems and light sensitivity issues. While I enjoy playing games, it can be hard to because to much can end up being only a short period of time before I honestly get motion sick feeling. I use to play Doom and Wolfenstien and sometimes would play with sunglasses to soften the effect. I think that's why I enjoy the much older Nintendo games for all their difficulty because most of them would have a slower pace and less going on. I use to love to play Diablo and Diablo II but might go whole days where I couldn't. That's why I don't have anything newer then an N64 (and even then there were games I couldn't play because I got headaches).
Also I think it's a matter of experience. If you're a veteran "Hardcore mode, European Extreme only" kind of gamer, then when you talk to someone else who played the same game on easy you feel like you didn't play the same game. I think there is this quiet social element that makes people feel like they didn't experience the same thing. This is however the nature of the beast when it comes to gaming. unlike books and movies, you don't get a standard model collectively experience.
It's pretty much allways better to give players more options to customize their gaming experience to their own preference and capability, although there are some exceptions in my opinion. Bullethell shooter for example, since their whole point is to flood the screen with projectiles, making them easier would just turn them into a normal shooter. But that's in deed pretty niche. All in all, you're absolutely right. Also, thank god for Jim Sterling!
Thanks for sharing this video again - definitely share the frustration at elitist gate-keepers. Something I don’t think you mentioned here but I’m personally a big fan of is games who label their “easy mode” as “narrative mode” or something similar - basically series like Deus Ex or Mass Effect (IIRC?) giving these modes a name that recognises their actual purpose. When we call a mode “easy” obviously it’s going to contribute to this gate-keeping atmosphere since the name implies that it’s just a lesser form of the base game, but when we start calling them “narrative” modes it recognises the fact that gaming isn’t split into hardcore/ proper gamers and n00bs, but just gamers with different priorities and abilities. TL;DR: calling easy modes “narrative” modes instead like a lot of games do already might help overcome elitism in gaming a little.
Love, love, LOVE the message in this video. My wife isn't your stereotypical "gamer" but she has started to play games with me. Absolutely agree that having accessible difficulties is a GREAT thing. She also really enjoys the Lego series, we love the in jokes & the occasional subtle adult jokes that have been thrown in there...
I also have CP and I'm so glad for your support. Accessability is so important for me as a gamer. There are so many games I would love to play but can't. That's not even a difficulty thing: it's also about button mapping as well. The more buttons I can push with just my right hand, the easier it is for me to play. I can't tell you how frustrating it is when I find out that a game is awesome but also expects me to be ambidextrous. Also Ellen I love your content very much and I might have a massive crush okbye.
There is a direct connection between dumbing down and accessibility. I love difficulty settings. I wish more games would let you customise the difficulty of every aspect of the game because even aside from making things accessible to new players, sometimes I just want to take it easy and have a laugh. But I actually like really complex games, not so much difficult ones. As long as the connections between mechanics make sense, are understandable and they don't just feel superfluous or pointless in the context of the game, I want as many mechanics to interact with and influence each other in interesting ways as possible. The problem with this, and the reason that many games are dumbed down, is that with more complex mechanics it makes them harder and harder to present in a way that is easy to understand to a new player and a lot of players simply don't have the patience to get over the learning curve that that introduces. A lot of people just want to jump into the game and if an hour later they aren't doing all the cool stuff then they give up. Now, I have no problems with games that have fewer mechanics where it makes sense. I adore a game with like, 1 mechanic (point and click at the dots) and if I feel a game has inadequate or poorly designed mechanics I just won't play it. I don't resent them being made if other people enjoy them and it gets more people gaming. The problem for me, and I think many others, is when a game company comes in, buys a beloved franchise and proceeds to rip the guts out of it leaving a hollow shell of what it used to be. Or when a game is overhyped and advertised as being deep, then it turns out to be shallow. On the topic of easy modes, I do agree with you as I said in the beginning although I would argue vehemently with anyone who claimed that easy modes were dumbing anything down. Game difficulty is not synonymous with deep gameplay. Sure, I think we all want games to challenge us most of the time but that's really a separate issue to what I consider "dumbing down". As far as I'm concerned, the difficulty level has little to do with it. A hard game can be frustratingly shallow and dumbed down and well as an easy game can be super complicated to understand all the mechanics that make it easy. I also have a problem with people who go the other way. Recently I've seen an irritating number of people complaining about how hard mode is too hard on a video game even when there are difficulty options. Because they aren't good enough to do well on hard mode they seem to think they're entitled to play hard mode and start whining on forums about how "this is broken" and "that is too weak" because they either don't grasp how to employ the proper tactics or are otherwise just too bad at the game to do well at the highest difficulty. It's like, no, if you can't do hard difficulty then turn the difficulty down. You are not entitled to be able to beat hard mode. This turned into a WoT.
Person Oisels Don't forget that when they say that the devs are "dumbing" the game down to make it more accessible for newer players; their purpose is to introduce them to the games mechanics and to not make them as complex in the previous installments. I'm saying this because I have a hard time believing that the first time they picked up a controller, they were rocking' it. I know what I'm talking about because the biggest game I first got into was Super Smash Bros. Melee on the Nintendo GameCube. That game was fast with many mechanics being thrown at me at once and I ABSOLUTLEY SUCKED. Again, I don't think that the pros picked up the controller and played the game next to flawlessly. My point in short is that the Pros were once Noobs
Zero Reborn There's a difference between the core people who love videogames and do them as their primary hobby, who will be willing to sink tens of hours into just learning and becoming good at games and the more casual mass market who want instant gratification. Games of old catered to the first group as they were the only ones who played. As games have gained mass market popularity the massive corporations cater to the second group because 1. they're less careful with their money due to having less information 2. If you consider all the "core" fans of a genre vs the non-core of the genre, the non-core group is much bigger and 3. in a lot of cases with existing franchises the core gamers will buy on the name alone. Something like smash bros I think is actually simple but fun. As I said I'm not drawing a correlation between difficulty and complexity - a complex game can be easy and a less complex game can be very hard to master. For example: Almost anything in the world is easier than a 9/10 star Osu map, and yet it has the same simple set of rules as a 1 or 2 star map, which is easy. It's the difference between difficulty to learn and difficulty to master. In my opinion, complexity is related to the former and difficulty is related to the latter. "dumbing down" can refer to either if extreme enough (or a combination) although I primarily think it refers to the former.
Dude, please look up a video of like EVO or something with a Melee tournament. just watch through one match and you'll see that there is so much that people can do so quickly. I'm not trying to sound like a smash fanboy there but some things just get out of hand from these games
Zero Reborn What are you even saying? Look, I have played like, one smash bros game for like, half a dozen matches so I'm not claiming that smash bros is absolutely a "simple" game, I don't know for sure. What I did play gave me the impression that it wasn't that complicated to learn, but maybe I didn't really learn it. So I'm not saying it's definitely a simple game. But lots of things happening on screen, to be kept track of and such doesn't make the gameplay itself complicated. If you insist it's a hard game to learn the mechanics of then fine, I'll have to say I can't say with any certainty. But I'm not sure what overall point you're trying to drive at. I thought maybe you were confusing difficulty (being good or bad at the game) with the complexity of the mechanics. But now I'm not really sure.
Even as an adult with work and kids sapping my time and energy, there's times I really don't want to bother with tough action, I just want to relax with something that moves at the pace i choose.
Ehy! My elder sister also has some problems, she can't use her left arm properly, so... the other day she saw me playing GTA IV and kinda liked it but she was a little disappointed when I told her it would have been hard for her to play it as its controls are not very easy and you often need to be quick. I feel really sorry for her. Anyway she plays Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and Dark Cloud on console, while on computer she likes World of Warcraft, Monkey Island, and lots of other stuff (:
It's not dumbing down, it's making it so it can all fit into the consoles control system. That doesn't make it dumbed down. But yeah, I'm try to switch to PC when it comes to gaming, I've bought steam and have a few games. It will be cool when developers start making games on PC
I like easy mode because I also have a mildly hard time with reflexes and hand eye coordination. So easy modes are great for me, at least sometimes! Also, you don't have to play on easy mode. Simple as that.
As someone who only recently got back into gaming after a very, very long break (I had a ps1, nothing after that) and is now relearning all the button configurations easy mode is a godsend. It puts me off sometimes hearing people talk about how awful it is that easy modes exist, because if you can't play on hard you don't deserve to play or something? I don't know. Also, I don't know if it's just me, but sometimes in deep depressions I feel like my reactions are slowed? Might just be a perception thing, but easy mode helps there too. That and having some hope of not dying every two seconds helps at those times. Sometimes you just want to feel like you're doing good.
I agree with the points you've made on gaming accessibility. I know of CoD gamers who use their face or even buttons on the wall in order to play. I'd suggest turn based games for your sister. XCOM is an amazing one.
I think the series that I can say is the most easily accessible (IMO) are the Super Mario games, they are pretty easy to get to grips with in terms of control scheme and difficulty but at the same it offers a good challenge to the experienced Mario veteran when trying to go for a 100% completion like Mario Galaxy 2. It's amazing to think that any game today can still be just as difficult as the ones released 25 years ago.
I tried to do that finger thing you did, and I couldn't go as fast as I thought. Thanks Ellen for drawing attention to my flaws! Love your channel! OXtra fan here!
Your demonstration is exactly why I will not buy another game with QTEs. I've been a gamer since Pong and the advent of the arcade, but since injuries led to nerve damage, I simply can't button-press quickly enough anymore. The God of War series became impossible, Heavy Rain as well, and I didn't even bother with the Tomb Raider reboot.
As someone with a slow thought process due to missing part of the brain, i couldhave not have said this any better, to many people complain and accuse someone using easy mode as creating, more people need to see your video.
Im actually making a game whoch had a color related puzzle. I realized when playing it that some people are color blind, and it would be impossible for them. Long story short, we slightly modified it, and its now playable by anyone. Great video!
I always start my games on easy mode so I can get the feel of it then I raise the level the games I have done this with most is the Halo Series. I have never understood this thing that a game has to be hard all the time, be played only online and finished in 2 minutes flat then they sell it the next day.
For me there are two things that would improve my experience without "easifying" games on medium and hard difficulties. Especially in exploration games like GTA, AC, FC ect. Saving whenever you want, with an exception when in combat(like in ME) and getting rid of Quick Time Events. First would ease the pain when dying at the end of a long mission(GTA:SA chases >.
Its great to have them as a feature and sometimes use them myself for more relaxed play, but on the case of Dark Souls as a series veteran I would say this is the only game i've played that should never have an easy mode. This isn't an elitist scumbag thing, but more of a game that is sold and played for its challenge but also its core mechanic at times - as a wrong button press in what feels like 0.0000001 of a second leads to death and a huge setback. It would be like removing Lego from Lego games, it just loses its major core value. Otherwise its fine and I really want it in all other games, it's an overlooked feature.
I can agree with the use of an easy mode or a difficult setting, since not all players will have either good reaction time or co-ordination of a controller. I think the really bothersome thing is stuff like the Super Guide in Donkey Kong Country Returns or New Super Mario Bros that does everything for them should they mess up so many times, since that entirely strips the player of the control to learn and get better, just to let the computer do it for them which is insulting to anyone.
I remember playing Descent when I was probably about 13 on the lowest difficulty setting. It still was not easy. I've played through it on higher levels since then, and while I can manage it now, it's still a punishing game. It taught me the value of stealth and conservation of ammunition The sequels were not nearly as hard as the first one.
Good points well made. I still feel uncomfortable about Dark Souls 2 having an easy mode but if it is literally just tacked on and there are no other difficulty changes to the game as a whole then it can't hurt.
My major problem with "accessibility" in games is that it has become a marketing buzz-word of sorts. Often, it means that the developer is going to make the game as broad-appealing, which leads to games being the product of focus testing. That's not what it always means, but that's the gut reaction I get out of it. Alternatively, I worry that it could mean simplification of game mechanics, which is different than easier. A hard game can still be boring if there isn't much to it.
I will admit I am a hard-core gamer and I do occasionally drop down to casual difficulty so I can pay attention to stories. Relax and unwind. If I want a challenge then i play on harder difficulties
Your completely right and great video cause sometimes the more people buy a certain game the more sequels we get of tht game like for example resident evil splinter cell
Heavy Rain is another good example actually. If you put the game on easy it removes all the motion control QTEs and changes the rest to very simple controller actions and buttons. I would recommend it to your sister if she has a PS3.
As somebody with cp ( more so In my legs) I have problems with my motor functions in hands slightly faster then your sister say if a have to chose to tap or hold i button I will hold it
Fable 2 is great, having only one hand makes some games really difficult to play, the control scheme in assassins creed 2 comes to mind, RT+A while holding forwards is really difficult. Good video!
Thank you I have learning disability and a lot of times the only way I can beat a game is on easy mode. I am just slowly at processing things. I like playing games one big reason is the doctors that diagnosed me said I wouldn't be able too play video games I just like that I proved them wrong it may take me allot longer but I have beaten most of the games I have played.
Oh wow that does take me back Diskworld. I loved that game. Looking back on my life I have been into gaming all throughout. Its a shame I will miss out on these new consoles coming out but I have learned so much with regards to PC gaming. I say to other gamers, enjoy games for just that, not for what console or platform they are on. Broaden you're horizons and you might be surprised. As regards to the price of PC, I got a decent PC for £220. Great channel btw, been watching for a while now :)
Hi Ellen did not realise your sister had that. I am a radio presenter who loves your guys and oxbox d&D adventures and I also have a guy who suffers from CP and he is a legend around our area
I never thought on it that way, I never complained about games having an easy mode and I think that if someone works all day/week and they get home tired and stressed and just want to chill out and play some video games they should be able to do so without getting even more stressed because the game is too difficult. I complained today about AC difficulty (or the lack of it for me) but I also complain about unfair difficulty, such as giving a boss tons of health and damage output, I love Dark Souls but sometimes the game isn't fair with the player, and now i'm a bit divided between thinking that games should be more available for people who don't have time to play or can't for some reason (i.e a disability) which I agree that games should be more accessible to that kind of public but I also want a game that challenges me to be the best I can be
Developers should make both, which in a way, they do. Make easy, regular, and hard games, but always add difficulty options to all three. Make sure there is a very easy mode, and a hammer me till I bleed mode.
Dark Souls II is gonna do a lot more to ease players in to help them understand how to play it, to be fair. Not only that, but Dark Souls has a dynamic difficulty wherein you are rewarded for persistence and careful planning. On my SL1 (that means no levelling up) playthrough I spent like 15 hours straight, I SHIT YOU NOT, trying to beat O&S. However I slowly upgraded my equipment just from earning souls on the way to the boss, and I would teleport out of the room when I wanted to spend them.
The price issue depends on your pc, you just have to look. I managed to get a £1500 pc for 450, that's the same as the next gen console will be, so if you look enough, you can get good pc's for not as much money.
Morrowind for life! Although I remember having fun in DF, Arena not so much, I think I actually never "finished" it. Just ran around and had fun. But what keeps the games alive are the mods, I honestly just bought SKyrim for the mods, didn't expect a great story or anything good and imho I was right. Really hope the consoles start allowing this because console players are missing out on so much.
It depends on the game sometimes though. Dark Souls isn't built for difficulty settings due to the nature of online interaction. I do enjoy a ton of games with difficulty settings, but I think that both one setting that is the game and choice in difficulty are viable options in games. As to your sister with CP, I don't know how to respond to that.
I really like this video, gaming accessibility is a great thing when used well. I don't have the greatest of reflexes either so sometimes going on easy mode to start off really helps. Some people just have fears, like if you want to just play on peaceful mode on Minecraft because you don't like the monsters, who cares you're still enjoying yourself and playing the game. By the way I love the lego games, harry potter one is my favourite :P
Sometimes I'm surprised at what people can get angry about... The only time accessibility bothers me is when you have to unlock hard mode and they make normal mode too easy
Difficulty levels are good. I consider myself a pretty avid player but rarely go above normal difficulty. The real problem is when developers take a series that is known for a high challenge/rewarding ratio or requiring players to be investigative to solve quests, and then dumbs it down. Newer players may be able to get into it, but the hardcore fans who kept the series alive all those years are screwed. Skyrim and Oblivion are a good example of this. Theres no difficulty slider for that stuff.
I can agree with a separate easy mode for new comers etc. What i cant stand is when the changes made to the game for "accessibility" are permanent while giving the player no choice but to play the game in "easy" mode.
I personally hate the term easy mode. Game play is like food. You are able to season food to your tastes, pick sides to your taste and match your drinks to your taste. Game play options should be as board. DAI had all sorts of options in addition to standard difficulty, ME3 also added other options. Game play should be trailorable to players because players are different.
I feel as though the better the "story" in a game is the more it needs an easy mode. If the game has a really good story i would be ridiculously annoyed if i could never finish the story cause i was bad at the given game. I would say that i am significantly more open to having accommodations available for games that have any kind of real time component to them. My biggest problem with easy modes is when the easy mode from the first game is renamed to the normal mode of the next game (assuming the game was reasonably playable to start with). Generally that the games harder mode has been replaced with an easier mode. Obviously games should have options for those that are impaired to allow them to still play the given game. I believe they now have the option or at least they should to toggle quick time event where you click to just button hold although i could be incorrect. The main point is i agree that difficult options (accessibilty options) are good for games as they allow more people to play.
Ah, one game that really annoyed me with this was XCOM Enemy Unknown. Not because of it's easy mode, I basically ignored that, but of the many, many MANY comments I heard or read claiming that the game had been 'dumbed down' from the 1994 original. Not saying it wasn't a good game back then, but the whole point of a reboot is to bring the game in line with what the current generation expect, not basically make the same game again.
I love the lego games and whats amusing is I play them with my friends son who is 5 and hes telling me what to do because im running around like ahhhh whats happening, help me Oliver, hes getting so good at all of the games, im so proud. I have to admit I usually play on easy or just normal mode, I wouldn't call myself a gamer, but i do like playing video games and i do get pretty good at them as i play. I didn't like oblivion though....i found all the fire stressful lol
For the most part I agree with her but games like the souls franchise would lose a large portion of their reputation as being brutally difficult for everyone. I really enjoyed this video and loved its message.
As the difficulty of Dark Souls, a niche hardcore MORPG where the difficulty applies to everyone and reaction time is all to often the foundation of the game, is so integral to the basis of the game that adding a Easy Difficulty would go against the games governing core concepts.. As much slower games in the same genera exist, asking a niche game series to go against its core concepts is... how would you define this? Disrespectful? I can't define.
Dark Souls is different because it is hard no matter how good your reflexes are. I play through the game slowly and it is still stressful the only thing you would really need timing on is rolling out the way of a boss.
I am with you on that. Now i am a hard core gamer. Hard mode is for me. but, my girlfriend is just getting into games (my sugesstion) she has the same thing as your sister. Easy mode is perfect for her. I also thinks it helps her hand eye coordination.
I agree that there should be an easy mode, and as you said, a well designed easy mode. However, I can also understand where the veterans are coming from. From a veterans perspective what often happens is that some easy mode characteristics make their way into higher difficulties and this makes the game less enjoyable for them. Imagine Devil May Cry was made a one button masher for easy mode. That kind of mechanic gets anchored to every other difficulty. That diminishes the experience for others
I think you are smart and cute and you are right. I've never given the easy mode much thought but as far as it's not nerfing the whole game (especially mmos) I now find it really important. Thanks :)
I would say it's awesome that more people can get to enjoy more games, my example is the Shin Megami Tensei series. The last numbered version IV. Many of my friends refused to touch the series after I lent them Nocturne, the game is severely punishing, in this new mode you can chose an easier setting and then go back to normal/hard after/if you get used to it My gripe, I don't think companies care about the disabled. They just want the game to sell to more ,whatever you call it, players,
The problem is that when a dev says accessibility is increased the games do tend to get dumbed downed :( I have no problem with easy modes done well (mass effect) but some of my fav games were ruined in the name of accessibility :(
Surprising how relevant this video is. Kinda sad that this still needs to be said 5/6 years later
omg.THANK YOU!!I also suffer from cerebral pulsey and am a DIE HARD gamer with the same problems. I can't play certain games or have to play on easy. I'm playing fallout 4 and loving it. please make more vid like this!!! You are the only person I've seen address this issue and I think you are the best!!
I know this is a late response but I’m working on making a video about accessibility and games and such. It’s an important issue!!
I know this reply is late but I also have cerebral palsy, but mine is very very mild. I can usually play most games fine. But my cerebral palsy does makes other things harder for me, such as when I try to play guitar. I love playing guitar but it's sometimes SOOO hard to get my fingers placed in the right position or to go at the right speed that the song requires. It sucks.
Genuinely insightful. As someone who has recently developed nerve damage the whole 'I've finally bought an Xbox, oh bum my hands no longer work' just added another frustration. In something approaching positivity though - games have actually helped with my hands' mobility. My thumbs used to paralyse after brief activity and don't now - I put this almost exclusively down to Assassin's Creed Syndicate.
I have a similar situation. Being an older gamer, playing Dark Souls destroyed my wrists (figuratively - I can still use them), but most intense button-pressing games bring out the RSI. I just finished playing Sniper Elite 4 and found the controller configuration being focussed on the R1/2 & L1/2 triggers and the slower pace through stealth, meant there was no issue with my wrists. Prince of Persia 2008 is one of my all-time favourite games and it got criticised for being too easy, but it's such a fun romp through a fantasy world. More puzzle games like Rime are welcome.
Naughty Dog really nailed this with The Last of Us 2. You can re-arrange the buttons enough to play with just one hand. It has several settings for colour blindness. It's difficulty settings actually make a difference to gameplay, and I found it's tension/release cycle pretty perfect in regards to accessability in that there were periods of calm and cooldown after each button mashing section.
Explorer mode in the Uncharted games is a good example of this. Button-mashing qte's can be completed by just holding the button, and the lock-on aiming system lets you dominate gunfights, even if you normally have trouble aiming. This makes the game more accessible but still lets you enjoy the cinematic action sequences that make the series so great!
Had a young man we used to do respite for. He loved gaming at my house as i had the steering wheel and for him it was the ultimate accessibility, he also loved that it was the closest he ever got to real driving
Everyone starts as a noob. Hardcore gamers should remember that
Every game I play/ed I always start on easy until I am used to it then put up the difficulty.
I don't see how anyone can complain about easy modes in non-online games (never heard of them in online games) when they aren't competing for the same achievements/ trophies. Yes, I suppose this makes it impossible for Ms. Emily to 100% a game if she physically cannot operate the normal / hard mode controls. But as you excellently pointed out, in a well designed game she will 100% any story and worldbuilding elements of the game and the achievements will retain whatever arbitrary absolute value they were given. (And the most elitist prat will have to go play it on easy to 100% all the achievements.)
(And if the game wants to reserve the Sword of Ostentatious Compulsiveness to be awarded for winning the game on hardest difficulty using only a blade of grass, I suppose that's not an integral part of the game then!)
Dark Souls deserves it's own genre. But even it has a story that it would be nice to be able to enjoy firsthand, with your own character, instead of relying on others' playthroughs.
*Thank you* for this excellent explanation of what accessible gaming is and should be. I came to it wondering how one was supposed to port modern games, with their plurality of control buttons (forget combos!) for someone who, say, physically didn't have enough fingers to press all the buttons. Now I know that some things might never advance till we're all playing with thought control, but until then, here's how to tell a story right to more people. You have a new subscriber.
In the case of games like Dark Souls and more recently Sekiro, I had thought the idea of an easy mode was strange sometimes silly. I can now say I was wrong. I just thought”The challenge is the game” and I hadn’t even thought about someone with a disability(sorry if there is a more correct term). It wasn’t intentional disregard, I just don’t interact/meet many people with disabilities in my day to day life. Thank you for making my oversight obvious and I am sorry I didn’t think of it myself
I totally agree with you. I've never really got all this newbie hating anyway, we were all newbies once and if they want to join the community as a decent gamer, i.e.. play the games however they like without acting like dicks, the more the merrier!
Consoles have hugely increased gaming accessibility, definitely.
However, a fun point, my sister and I grew up playing loads of games on her/the family PC. I remember being really young & watching her play the original Discworld game. We were both able to play loads of different games growing up, from Lemmings, to Sim City, to X-Wing.
The PC games market is very welcoming to all abilities because it offers such a huge range of games and controls - the only problem for many is the price of a PC.
Im glad to see more people addressing this issue, about a year ago, a gentleman who i believe also suffered from the same debilitation as your sister was petitioning to games developers to allow the re-binding of controller buttons and triggers etc. to allow easier access to gameplay. This is something I am strongly in favour of. It's good to know that your sister also shares an enjoyment of games. :)
Thank you for this one! I grew up dealing with epilepsy, and games are what improved my response time, but it's still lousy compared to others.
I've got dispraxia and my hands are like freakish cumbersome monsters with the reflexes of the spoon LET ME HAVE MY FUN EASY MODES THAT AREN'T PAINFUL.
Mapping several things to one button = worst idea ever. The fact that run & climb are the same button on AC3 made free-running very frustrating for me.
Better changes could be
- easier to hide/get away from guards
- take less & do more damage
- longer/no time limits & slower races with thieves
- more 'retry/save' points in long free-running areas like Romulus Lairs (like PoP rewind)
- no auto-fail things on missions
Even with those changes, the game is still about sneakily stabbing people. YAY!
I know this comment is way after the fact but I always wonder how the blind, deaf or incapable of using their hands can enjoy our favorite pastime. Anyone of these "disabilities" can afflict anyone at any point in their lives, and I hope that as technology develops we can find more ways to include anyone who wants to lose themselves in a fantastical world.
One of my favorite videos on youtube. Thanks for standing up for all gamers!
when im on games that let you change the difficulty I start on easy and move up. it really helps me. I think most people do the same I don't generally play games on one difficulty set games
I like the idea of knowing how developers intended the game to be experienced, but also like bei g able to trailor it to my own tastes once I have done that
As my username indicates I'm a Repton fan, and when the BBC originals were ported to the PC they did make two changes to increase the accessibility of the second game by adding a map view and save points. This did make the game easier but it also meant more people could complete it
You know what, I had a thought. The hyper-focus on online play nowadays could be driving a lot of this backlash against easy modes, because games companies typically want a justification to concentrate on online, and you can't really have an easy mode in online play... nor can you have time dilation, which I think could serve as its own easy mode in a lot of reaction-based games - basically setting a value for how much slower the game should go whenever inputs are important. These potential features have probably gone discarded and undeveloped a lot of the time, just because companies want to aim for where the money is.
p.s. I was one of the people hating on rewind features in racing games (back when racing games were actually made for offline play whatsoever). I see the point in them now, and see the failure in that attitude. Long as the game lets me turn it off (so I don't press it accidentally), I shouldn't have a problem with it.
This was the most eloquent way I've ever heard someone describe and defend "easy modes" in games and I tip my hat to you ma'am. There are bad ways of implementing easy modes (such as withholding content and/or story due to difficulty level chosen) but people should be able to enjoy games regardless or skill level or physical ability. After all, they are another entertainment medium like books and films and methods have been developed to allow anyone to enjoy those mediums despite skill or physical limitations.
Reminds me of Legends of Grimrock devs, Almost Human, who had a GUI for a disabled player. It was awesome and heartwarming to see. So keep up the good work!
I liked that you talked about your sister here. I have sinus problems and light sensitivity issues. While I enjoy playing games, it can be hard to because to much can end up being only a short period of time before I honestly get motion sick feeling. I use to play Doom and Wolfenstien and sometimes would play with sunglasses to soften the effect. I think that's why I enjoy the much older Nintendo games for all their difficulty because most of them would have a slower pace and less going on. I use to love to play Diablo and Diablo II but might go whole days where I couldn't. That's why I don't have anything newer then an N64 (and even then there were games I couldn't play because I got headaches).
Also I think it's a matter of experience. If you're a veteran "Hardcore mode, European Extreme only" kind of gamer, then when you talk to someone else who played the same game on easy you feel like you didn't play the same game. I think there is this quiet social element that makes people feel like they didn't experience the same thing. This is however the nature of the beast when it comes to gaming. unlike books and movies, you don't get a standard model collectively experience.
It's pretty much allways better to give players more options to customize their gaming experience to their own preference and capability, although there are some exceptions in my opinion. Bullethell shooter for example, since their whole point is to flood the screen with projectiles, making them easier would just turn them into a normal shooter. But that's in deed pretty niche. All in all, you're absolutely right.
Also, thank god for Jim Sterling!
Thanks for sharing this video again - definitely share the frustration at elitist gate-keepers. Something I don’t think you mentioned here but I’m personally a big fan of is games who label their “easy mode” as “narrative mode” or something similar - basically series like Deus Ex or Mass Effect (IIRC?) giving these modes a name that recognises their actual purpose. When we call a mode “easy” obviously it’s going to contribute to this gate-keeping atmosphere since the name implies that it’s just a lesser form of the base game, but when we start calling them “narrative” modes it recognises the fact that gaming isn’t split into hardcore/ proper gamers and n00bs, but just gamers with different priorities and abilities.
TL;DR: calling easy modes “narrative” modes instead like a lot of games do already might help overcome elitism in gaming a little.
Love, love, LOVE the message in this video. My wife isn't your stereotypical "gamer" but she has started to play games with me. Absolutely agree that having accessible difficulties is a GREAT thing. She also really enjoys the Lego series, we love the in jokes & the occasional subtle adult jokes that have been thrown in there...
as someone who now suffers from a neurological issue which impedes my gaming somewhat... THANK YOU
I also have CP and I'm so glad for your support. Accessability is so important for me as a gamer. There are so many games I would love to play but can't. That's not even a difficulty thing: it's also about button mapping as well. The more buttons I can push with just my right hand, the easier it is for me to play. I can't tell you how frustrating it is when I find out that a game is awesome but also expects me to be ambidextrous.
Also Ellen I love your content very much and I might have a massive crush okbye.
There is a direct connection between dumbing down and accessibility. I love difficulty settings. I wish more games would let you customise the difficulty of every aspect of the game because even aside from making things accessible to new players, sometimes I just want to take it easy and have a laugh. But I actually like really complex games, not so much difficult ones. As long as the connections between mechanics make sense, are understandable and they don't just feel superfluous or pointless in the context of the game, I want as many mechanics to interact with and influence each other in interesting ways as possible. The problem with this, and the reason that many games are dumbed down, is that with more complex mechanics it makes them harder and harder to present in a way that is easy to understand to a new player and a lot of players simply don't have the patience to get over the learning curve that that introduces. A lot of people just want to jump into the game and if an hour later they aren't doing all the cool stuff then they give up.
Now, I have no problems with games that have fewer mechanics where it makes sense. I adore a game with like, 1 mechanic (point and click at the dots) and if I feel a game has inadequate or poorly designed mechanics I just won't play it. I don't resent them being made if other people enjoy them and it gets more people gaming. The problem for me, and I think many others, is when a game company comes in, buys a beloved franchise and proceeds to rip the guts out of it leaving a hollow shell of what it used to be. Or when a game is overhyped and advertised as being deep, then it turns out to be shallow.
On the topic of easy modes, I do agree with you as I said in the beginning although I would argue vehemently with anyone who claimed that easy modes were dumbing anything down. Game difficulty is not synonymous with deep gameplay. Sure, I think we all want games to challenge us most of the time but that's really a separate issue to what I consider "dumbing down". As far as I'm concerned, the difficulty level has little to do with it. A hard game can be frustratingly shallow and dumbed down and well as an easy game can be super complicated to understand all the mechanics that make it easy. I also have a problem with people who go the other way. Recently I've seen an irritating number of people complaining about how hard mode is too hard on a video game even when there are difficulty options. Because they aren't good enough to do well on hard mode they seem to think they're entitled to play hard mode and start whining on forums about how "this is broken" and "that is too weak" because they either don't grasp how to employ the proper tactics or are otherwise just too bad at the game to do well at the highest difficulty. It's like, no, if you can't do hard difficulty then turn the difficulty down. You are not entitled to be able to beat hard mode.
This turned into a WoT.
Person Oisels Don't forget that when they say that the devs are "dumbing" the game down to make it more accessible for newer players; their purpose is to introduce them to the games mechanics and to not make them as complex in the previous installments. I'm saying this because I have a hard time believing that the first time they picked up a controller, they were rocking' it.
I know what I'm talking about because the biggest game I first got into was Super Smash Bros. Melee on the Nintendo GameCube. That game was fast with many mechanics being thrown at me at once and I ABSOLUTLEY SUCKED. Again, I don't think that the pros picked up the controller and played the game next to flawlessly.
My point in short is that the Pros were once Noobs
Zero Reborn There's a difference between the core people who love videogames and do them as their primary hobby, who will be willing to sink tens of hours into just learning and becoming good at games and the more casual mass market who want instant gratification. Games of old catered to the first group as they were the only ones who played. As games have gained mass market popularity the massive corporations cater to the second group because 1. they're less careful with their money due to having less information 2. If you consider all the "core" fans of a genre vs the non-core of the genre, the non-core group is much bigger and 3. in a lot of cases with existing franchises the core gamers will buy on the name alone.
Something like smash bros I think is actually simple but fun. As I said I'm not drawing a correlation between difficulty and complexity - a complex game can be easy and a less complex game can be very hard to master. For example: Almost anything in the world is easier than a 9/10 star Osu map, and yet it has the same simple set of rules as a 1 or 2 star map, which is easy. It's the difference between difficulty to learn and difficulty to master. In my opinion, complexity is related to the former and difficulty is related to the latter. "dumbing down" can refer to either if extreme enough (or a combination) although I primarily think it refers to the former.
Dude, please look up a video of like EVO or something with a Melee tournament. just watch through one match and you'll see that there is so much that people can do so quickly. I'm not trying to sound like a smash fanboy there but some things just get out of hand from these games
Zero Reborn What are you even saying? Look, I have played like, one smash bros game for like, half a dozen matches so I'm not claiming that smash bros is absolutely a "simple" game, I don't know for sure. What I did play gave me the impression that it wasn't that complicated to learn, but maybe I didn't really learn it. So I'm not saying it's definitely a simple game. But lots of things happening on screen, to be kept track of and such doesn't make the gameplay itself complicated. If you insist it's a hard game to learn the mechanics of then fine, I'll have to say I can't say with any certainty. But I'm not sure what overall point you're trying to drive at. I thought maybe you were confusing difficulty (being good or bad at the game) with the complexity of the mechanics. But now I'm not really sure.
I suppose it was a bit much for my three year old mind to handle
Even as an adult with work and kids sapping my time and energy, there's times I really don't want to bother with tough action, I just want to relax with something that moves at the pace i choose.
Ehy! My elder sister also has some problems, she can't use her left arm properly, so... the other day she saw me playing GTA IV and kinda liked it but she was a little disappointed when I told her it would have been hard for her to play it as its controls are not very easy and you often need to be quick. I feel really sorry for her. Anyway she plays Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and Dark Cloud on console, while on computer she likes World of Warcraft, Monkey Island, and lots of other stuff (:
It's not dumbing down, it's making it so it can all fit into the consoles control system. That doesn't make it dumbed down. But yeah, I'm try to switch to PC when it comes to gaming, I've bought steam and have a few games. It will be cool when developers start making games on PC
I like easy mode because I also have a mildly hard time with reflexes and hand eye coordination. So easy modes are great for me, at least sometimes! Also, you don't have to play on easy mode. Simple as that.
Spot on yet again. You even brought up some points I've never thought of before (like the reflex disability thing with your sister).
grate vid!
i agree! and i m an advanced gamer and i still play mortal kombat on eazy mode! idk why, i suck on MK but i love to play it! lol
As someone who only recently got back into gaming after a very, very long break (I had a ps1, nothing after that) and is now relearning all the button configurations easy mode is a godsend. It puts me off sometimes hearing people talk about how awful it is that easy modes exist, because if you can't play on hard you don't deserve to play or something? I don't know.
Also, I don't know if it's just me, but sometimes in deep depressions I feel like my reactions are slowed? Might just be a perception thing, but easy mode helps there too. That and having some hope of not dying every two seconds helps at those times. Sometimes you just want to feel like you're doing good.
I agree with the points you've made on gaming accessibility. I know of CoD gamers who use their face or even buttons on the wall in order to play. I'd suggest turn based games for your sister. XCOM is an amazing one.
I think the series that I can say is the most easily accessible (IMO) are the Super Mario games, they are pretty easy to get to grips with in terms of control scheme and difficulty but at the same it offers a good challenge to the experienced Mario veteran when trying to go for a 100% completion like Mario Galaxy 2.
It's amazing to think that any game today can still be just as difficult as the ones released 25 years ago.
This video is spot on, it more important that a wider audience can enjoy these games / interactive movies.
The more peeps coming into gaming, the better....gives me more opportunities to meet gamers, and to find streamers I enjoy!
Thank you very much for uploading constantly!
I tried to do that finger thing you did, and I couldn't go as fast as I thought.
Thanks Ellen for drawing attention to my flaws!
Love your channel! OXtra fan here!
Your demonstration is exactly why I will not buy another game with QTEs. I've been a gamer since Pong and the advent of the arcade, but since injuries led to nerve damage, I simply can't button-press quickly enough anymore. The God of War series became impossible, Heavy Rain as well, and I didn't even bother with the Tomb Raider reboot.
As someone with a slow thought process due to missing part of the brain, i couldhave not have said this any better, to many people complain and accuse someone using easy mode as creating, more people need to see your video.
Im actually making a game whoch had a color related puzzle. I realized when playing it that some people are color blind, and it would be impossible for them. Long story short, we slightly modified it, and its now playable by anyone. Great video!
I always start my games on easy mode so I can get the feel of it then I raise the level the games I have done this with most is the Halo Series. I have never understood this thing that a game has to be hard all the time, be played only online and finished in 2 minutes flat then they sell it the next day.
| I remember being really young & watching her play the original Discworld game.
Yeah I feel old now...still it is a great game :)
For me there are two things that would improve my experience without "easifying" games on medium and hard difficulties. Especially in exploration games like GTA, AC, FC ect. Saving whenever you want, with an exception when in combat(like in ME) and getting rid of Quick Time Events.
First would ease the pain when dying at the end of a long mission(GTA:SA chases >.
Its great to have them as a feature and sometimes use them myself for more relaxed play, but on the case of Dark Souls as a series veteran I would say this is the only game i've played that should never have an easy mode. This isn't an elitist scumbag thing, but more of a game that is sold and played for its challenge but also its core mechanic at times - as a wrong button press in what feels like 0.0000001 of a second leads to death and a huge setback. It would be like removing Lego from Lego games, it just loses its major core value. Otherwise its fine and I really want it in all other games, it's an overlooked feature.
I can agree with the use of an easy mode or a difficult setting, since not all players will have either good reaction time or co-ordination of a controller. I think the really bothersome thing is stuff like the Super Guide in Donkey Kong Country Returns or New Super Mario Bros that does everything for them should they mess up so many times, since that entirely strips the player of the control to learn and get better, just to let the computer do it for them which is insulting to anyone.
I remember playing Descent when I was probably about 13 on the lowest difficulty setting. It still was not easy. I've played through it on higher levels since then, and while I can manage it now, it's still a punishing game. It taught me the value of stealth and conservation of ammunition The sequels were not nearly as hard as the first one.
It would be a wonderful thing if a lot more people thought in the way you explained in this video
Very true - I want easy modes done well, & that includes being the ONLY actually easy mode...lol
Good points well made. I still feel uncomfortable about Dark Souls 2 having an easy mode but if it is literally just tacked on and there are no other difficulty changes to the game as a whole then it can't hurt.
My major problem with "accessibility" in games is that it has become a marketing buzz-word of sorts. Often, it means that the developer is going to make the game as broad-appealing, which leads to games being the product of focus testing. That's not what it always means, but that's the gut reaction I get out of it.
Alternatively, I worry that it could mean simplification of game mechanics, which is different than easier. A hard game can still be boring if there isn't much to it.
I will admit I am a hard-core gamer and I do occasionally drop down to casual difficulty so I can pay attention to stories. Relax and unwind. If I want a challenge then i play on harder difficulties
Totally agree. By the way where did you get the danger mouse poster?
Your completely right and great video cause sometimes the more people buy a certain game the more sequels we get of tht game like for example resident evil splinter cell
Heavy Rain is another good example actually. If you put the game on easy it removes all the motion control QTEs and changes the rest to very simple controller actions and buttons. I would recommend it to your sister if she has a PS3.
As somebody with cp ( more so In my legs) I have problems with my motor functions in hands slightly faster then your sister say if a have to chose to tap or hold i button I will hold it
Fable 2 is great, having only one hand makes some games really difficult to play, the control scheme in assassins creed 2 comes to mind, RT+A while holding forwards is really difficult. Good video!
Thank you I have learning disability and a lot of times the only way I can beat a game is on easy mode. I am just slowly at processing things. I like playing games one big reason is the doctors that diagnosed me said I wouldn't be able too play video games I just like that I proved them wrong it may take me allot longer but I have beaten most of the games I have played.
Oh wow that does take me back Diskworld. I loved that game. Looking back on my life I have been into gaming all throughout. Its a shame I will miss out on these new consoles coming out but I have learned so much with regards to PC gaming. I say to other gamers, enjoy games for just that, not for what console or platform they are on. Broaden you're horizons and you might be surprised. As regards to the price of PC, I got a decent PC for £220. Great channel btw, been watching for a while now :)
Hi Ellen did not realise your sister had that. I am a radio presenter who loves your guys and oxbox d&D adventures and I also have a guy who suffers from CP and he is a legend around our area
I agree with this 100%...thanks for sharing
I never thought on it that way, I never complained about games having an easy mode and I think that if someone works all day/week and they get home tired and stressed and just want to chill out and play some video games they should be able to do so without getting even more stressed because the game is too difficult. I complained today about AC difficulty (or the lack of it for me) but I also complain about unfair difficulty, such as giving a boss tons of health and damage output, I love Dark Souls but sometimes the game isn't fair with the player, and now i'm a bit divided between thinking that games should be more available for people who don't have time to play or can't for some reason (i.e a disability) which I agree that games should be more accessible to that kind of public but I also want a game that challenges me to be the best I can be
Developers should make both, which in a way, they do. Make easy, regular, and hard games, but always add difficulty options to all three. Make sure there is a very easy mode, and a hammer me till I bleed mode.
Dark Souls II is gonna do a lot more to ease players in to help them understand how to play it, to be fair. Not only that, but Dark Souls has a dynamic difficulty wherein you are rewarded for persistence and careful planning. On my SL1 (that means no levelling up) playthrough I spent like 15 hours straight, I SHIT YOU NOT, trying to beat O&S. However I slowly upgraded my equipment just from earning souls on the way to the boss, and I would teleport out of the room when I wanted to spend them.
I never thought of it that way. Good points all around Ellen. It would be appropriate if that was your sister texting.
What was it that rang at the end of the video? A clock? A phone?
The price issue depends on your pc, you just have to look. I managed to get a £1500 pc for 450, that's the same as the next gen console will be, so if you look enough, you can get good pc's for not as much money.
Morrowind for life! Although I remember having fun in DF, Arena not so much, I think I actually never "finished" it. Just ran around and had fun. But what keeps the games alive are the mods, I honestly just bought SKyrim for the mods, didn't expect a great story or anything good and imho I was right. Really hope the consoles start allowing this because console players are missing out on so much.
It depends on the game sometimes though. Dark Souls isn't built for difficulty settings due to the nature of online interaction. I do enjoy a ton of games with difficulty settings, but I think that both one setting that is the game and choice in difficulty are viable options in games.
As to your sister with CP, I don't know how to respond to that.
I really like this video, gaming accessibility is a great thing when used well. I don't have the greatest of reflexes either so sometimes going on easy mode to start off really helps. Some people just have fears, like if you want to just play on peaceful mode on Minecraft because you don't like the monsters, who cares you're still enjoying yourself and playing the game. By the way I love the lego games, harry potter one is my favourite :P
Sometimes I'm surprised at what people can get angry about...
The only time accessibility bothers me is when you have to unlock hard mode and they make normal mode too easy
Difficulty levels are good. I consider myself a pretty avid player but rarely go above normal difficulty.
The real problem is when developers take a series that is known for a high challenge/rewarding ratio or requiring players to be investigative to solve quests, and then dumbs it down.
Newer players may be able to get into it, but the hardcore fans who kept the series alive all those years are screwed. Skyrim and Oblivion are a good example of this. Theres no difficulty slider for that stuff.
Well said Ellen
I can agree with a separate easy mode for new comers etc. What i cant stand is when the changes made to the game for "accessibility" are permanent while giving the player no choice but to play the game in "easy" mode.
I personally hate the term easy mode. Game play is like food. You are able to season food to your tastes, pick sides to your taste and match your drinks to your taste. Game play options should be as board. DAI had all sorts of options in addition to standard difficulty, ME3 also added other options. Game play should be trailorable to players because players are different.
I feel as though the better the "story" in a game is the more it needs an easy mode. If the game has a really good story i would be ridiculously annoyed if i could never finish the story cause i was bad at the given game. I would say that i am significantly more open to having accommodations available for games that have any kind of real time component to them. My biggest problem with easy modes is when the easy mode from the first game is renamed to the normal mode of the next game (assuming the game was reasonably playable to start with). Generally that the games harder mode has been replaced with an easier mode. Obviously games should have options for those that are impaired to allow them to still play the given game. I believe they now have the option or at least they should to toggle quick time event where you click to just button hold although i could be incorrect. The main point is i agree that difficult options (accessibilty options) are good for games as they allow more people to play.
"being a right arse today..." this is why I love British people sometimes
Note: I wrote that before she brought up Dark Souls.
I totally get you. My (now ex) girlfriend has cerebral palsy and she loves games. Playing on easy is best for her.
True. But it is an important message.
The lego games are great games ! Glad your sister was able to enjoy them as well, everyone should be able to experience them.
how dose you sister find fable 1?
Agree with you about Fable 2 and 3. I loved 2. Meh on 3.
Ah, one game that really annoyed me with this was XCOM Enemy Unknown. Not because of it's easy mode, I basically ignored that, but of the many, many MANY comments I heard or read claiming that the game had been 'dumbed down' from the 1994 original. Not saying it wasn't a good game back then, but the whole point of a reboot is to bring the game in line with what the current generation expect, not basically make the same game again.
I love the lego games and whats amusing is I play them with my friends son who is 5 and hes telling me what to do because im running around like ahhhh whats happening, help me Oliver, hes getting so good at all of the games, im so proud.
I have to admit I usually play on easy or just normal mode, I wouldn't call myself a gamer, but i do like playing video games and i do get pretty good at them as i play.
I didn't like oblivion though....i found all the fire stressful lol
For the most part I agree with her but games like the souls franchise would lose a large portion of their reputation as being brutally difficult for everyone. I really enjoyed this video and loved its message.
As the difficulty of Dark Souls, a niche hardcore MORPG where the difficulty applies to everyone and reaction time is all to often the foundation of the game, is so integral to the basis of the game that adding a Easy Difficulty would go against the games governing core concepts.. As much slower games in the same genera exist, asking a niche game series to go against its core concepts is... how would you define this? Disrespectful? I can't define.
Dark Souls is different because it is hard no matter how good your reflexes are.
I play through the game slowly and it is still stressful the only thing you would really need timing on is rolling out the way of a boss.
You just gotta love all that talk about this "Casual Gamer" conspiracy
I am with you on that. Now i am a hard core gamer. Hard mode is for me. but, my girlfriend is just getting into games (my sugesstion) she has the same thing as your sister. Easy mode is perfect for her. I also thinks it helps her hand eye coordination.
I love the Harry Potter collection in the background.
I agree that there should be an easy mode, and as you said, a well designed easy mode. However, I can also understand where the veterans are coming from. From a veterans perspective what often happens is that some easy mode characteristics make their way into higher difficulties and this makes the game less enjoyable for them. Imagine Devil May Cry was made a one button masher for easy mode. That kind of mechanic gets anchored to every other difficulty. That diminishes the experience for others
I think you are smart and cute and you are right. I've never given the easy mode much thought but as far as it's not nerfing the whole game (especially mmos) I now find it really important. Thanks :)
I would say it's awesome that more people can get to enjoy more games, my example is the Shin Megami Tensei series.
The last numbered version IV. Many of my friends refused to touch the series after I lent them Nocturne, the game is severely punishing, in this new mode you can chose an easier setting and then go back to normal/hard after/if you get used to it
My gripe, I don't think companies care about the disabled. They just want the game to sell to more ,whatever you call it, players,
The problem is that when a dev says accessibility is increased the games do tend to get dumbed downed :(
I have no problem with easy modes done well (mass effect) but some of my fav games were ruined in the name of accessibility :(
the controls in assassin's creed games are really hard in my opinion
They're not hard, they're broken. They sometimes simply don't work.