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Support for Players with Disabilities
Halae
Member
So, one of the things that doesn't get brought up much in discussions about games in development is about how easy they'll be able to play for people with disabilities - epilepsy, for instance, paralysis/missing body parts, color blindness, and other things like that. At the same time, it's something that a fair amount of preparation and thought has to go into to make sure the players that suffer from these issues are capable of handling. So with that in mind I'd like to request suggestions from players that might have trouble with certain aspects of the game. Even if the devs can't include everything we're asking about, this sort of thing can get them thinking about how to handle these kinds of problems early enough in development to matter.
However, for the sake of keeping this all sensible, I'd like to request that any suggestions keep several things in mind. First, grand sweeping changes to design philosophy aren't really doable no matter how nice they'd be; a color filter is fine, but a revamp to the combat system is a touch more difficult, so bear in mind the actual difficulty of what you're suggesting. Second, these are bonuses to a finished product and should not be demanded as an expected part of the game - these are great to have, but the game will be successful without, and therefore haranguing devs to include them should not be done. Finally, people may request things that you don't agree with, and that's okay. Don't tell them their idea is worthless; let the devs decide what concepts and ideas can or should be implemented in the final game.
With that out of the way, here are my own suggestions
- Flash suppression. Those with Epilepsy can often find it very difficult to play games at anything but the lowest brightness setting due to flashing lights. Either a dimmer system, a color switch, or a system that prevents the screen from showing particularly bright or sudden lights would be very helpful for that.
- Screech suppression. This one is for my own health issue; migraines can often be exacerbated by extreme or scratchy sounds, and a way to prevent those from resounding would be helpful, especially due to the fact that they can be part of spammable player skills.
- Support for low-APM builds. Even if it's restricted to specific classes or setups, the option for those physically unable to use more complex rotations and key combinations to play at all is ideal. This can easily double as 'suggested' builds for new players, which can ease said players into higher-intensity build structures.
- Color filter options. The idea behind this being to handle different color blindness problems, but this also ties back to the epilepsy concern.
So, what suggestions do you guys have for disability tools?
However, for the sake of keeping this all sensible, I'd like to request that any suggestions keep several things in mind. First, grand sweeping changes to design philosophy aren't really doable no matter how nice they'd be; a color filter is fine, but a revamp to the combat system is a touch more difficult, so bear in mind the actual difficulty of what you're suggesting. Second, these are bonuses to a finished product and should not be demanded as an expected part of the game - these are great to have, but the game will be successful without, and therefore haranguing devs to include them should not be done. Finally, people may request things that you don't agree with, and that's okay. Don't tell them their idea is worthless; let the devs decide what concepts and ideas can or should be implemented in the final game.
With that out of the way, here are my own suggestions
- Flash suppression. Those with Epilepsy can often find it very difficult to play games at anything but the lowest brightness setting due to flashing lights. Either a dimmer system, a color switch, or a system that prevents the screen from showing particularly bright or sudden lights would be very helpful for that.
- Screech suppression. This one is for my own health issue; migraines can often be exacerbated by extreme or scratchy sounds, and a way to prevent those from resounding would be helpful, especially due to the fact that they can be part of spammable player skills.
- Support for low-APM builds. Even if it's restricted to specific classes or setups, the option for those physically unable to use more complex rotations and key combinations to play at all is ideal. This can easily double as 'suggested' builds for new players, which can ease said players into higher-intensity build structures.
- Color filter options. The idea behind this being to handle different color blindness problems, but this also ties back to the epilepsy concern.
So, what suggestions do you guys have for disability tools?
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Comments
But based on the title of the thread: I hope the devs don't use precious resources at this stage to optimize for niche groups. Down the road, perhaps, if it's economical to do so based on the size of the addressable market.
Diverting resources at this point will just cause delays and put the game/core features at risk.