Accessibility vs Meritocracy

            This is an essay I feel that’s been a long time coming. I’ve written quite a few drafts over the past few years and it is something I feel so passionate about I just need to get this right. It’s a topic that comes up a few times every year that causes actual migraine-magnitude headaches when the hot takes come pouring in. I am of course talking about what is apparently one of the biggest controversies in video game culture (or at least seems that way with how people write about it), and that is… people playing videogames???

            Now that sounds like nonsense, but apparently there is at least a very loud if not large group of people in games’ culture just do not want other people playing or enjoying video games. Elitism is nothing new and nothing too surprising in video games. Games typically included both winstates and losestates and its understandable the people who take a lot of pride in winning. And I want to make it clear that is not a bad thing. Challenge is actually a really good and really important part of game design. I love a good challenge. I don’t think that challenge should be the only thing video games should strive for, but when there’s a good challenge in a good game it’s fantastic. To others though, challenge is apparently everything. They can’t get anything out of a game that doesn’t challenge them. I find that real sad and closed minded, but I guess everyone has their preferences. It’s only really a problem when the same people demand everyone else, regardless of their experience, age, physical ability, or even a desire for challenge, go through the same level of challenge as them. I just do not understand that mindset. It seems like something so selfish, so ignorant, and so mean spirited that it defies basic logic to me.

            This topic explodes these days almost every time Nintendo releases a new video game. Nintendo have continued their efforts to put what I will call “easy options” in their games, the latest of which is an invincibility mode added to Star Fox Zero. I could go on and on about all the different options Nintendo has put in their games over the years; White Tanooki Suits, Full Party Experience Share, perma-death being optional in a series widely known for said feature, multiple variations on features that more or less just skips an entire level, or the classic easy mode. We could go over all these and more and which ones are effective or which ones are bad, but no matter what there’s always some loud backlash from gamers about the features. No matter how optional, no matter how obscured and out of the way these options can be, they feel personally attacked by the mere presence of them. It’s irrational, it’s absurd, its complete bullshit that these design decisions has anything to do with them. I like these options; I think their presence is good. People who find the challenge alienating, but still enjoy the game can do simply that, enjoy the game. Enjoying the game at your own pace, at your own desired leveled of difficulty is not only fine, but the way everyone should be enjoying games. I feel Nintendo understands that. Nintendo understands that the 8-bit era of brute forcing your way through a game designed purely to resist the player is long, long gone and we can finally let people in.

            This is all not to say that games should just remove all challenge entirely. Challenge is an aspect of games enjoyed by many even if there are those who don’t or cannot enjoy it. Also challenge isn’t just the resistance a game, but can also be a very important ludic device for a game’s story. Intense difficulty can highlight a world’s feeling of oppression on the player character. I feel this playing Shin Megami Tensei where the worlds are harsh post-apocalyptic hellpaces and the game’s own resistance to the player’s progress is directly related to world and god-like beings (or well very often gods of course) resistance to your own motivation to change the world. Undertale has a very good example of this as well, but I would like to avoid spoiling it. If you have played Undertale, you may have had a bad time and are likely very familiar with how a narrative can use difficulty to its advantage. Dark Souls, Metal Gear, Deus Ex, Drakengard, a lot of games use challenge or optional challenges to the benefit of their narrative. Challenge isn’t just a ludic principle for bragging rights.

            So we’re good right? Challenge is important and not something to just be discarded with the times, but it’s not something I feel is always appropriate. Absurd difficulty is not something I feel makes sense in children’s games. Children tend to be newer to games for obvious reasons and giving them a cruel wall of difficulty right away could scare them off of the whole media right away. A lot of people don’t see that. They see only their own experience when they were young. They struggled through those impossible NES games to get where they are now in their hobby. There’s definitely a lot of gross idealism in this debate. People who feel kids need to toughen up and get over challenges to deserve their place in the hobby. It’s an old man begrudging modern advancements because when he was young he had it harder. I don’t really want to get into this debate of “tough love” vs coddling mostly because I’m not very experienced around kids, but that kind of mentality is what seems to be at the heart of this argument. In my mind, the kids who want difficulty will seek it out. I don’t see anything wrong with some kids playing Super Meat Boy and the others preferring to play Kirby’s Epic Yarn. Yet I still see some full grown adults online yelling about Star Fox including a mode for “children” or “toddlers”, its full grown adults pushing kids over on the playground and telling them how to play with their toys.

            Children are by far not the only people who gain from accessibility options. There are a ton of people who would love to enjoy games but can’t due to various disabilities. To be honest I have it pretty good. None of my physical or mental disabilities really get in the way of my enjoyment of games. I’m speaking from a position of privilege. I do understand though that others are not as well off as I am and we can do better to help close that gap in videogames. Some changes to help these people can be so minor too. Some small visual and audio fixes or optional settings could be huge for people with hearing or sight disabilities. Easy modes can be helpful for people who can’t deal with tight reaction times. Alternate or customizable button layouts could be a life saver. The list goes on. Sadly there are a lot of people who feel outright spiteful about trying to make changes for people with disabilities. It’s another extremely ablest mindset that I cannot understand whatsoever. The excuses they come up with to defend themselves are bullshit. “You can’t make a game for everyone so why bother”, that accessibility changes limit what games can do, that the suggested changes go against the author’s intentions. The excuses pile up and none of them make sense. We can come to compromises like the changes being optional if they really do effect the game’s expression for whatever reason. You can’t make a game that everyone can possibly play, but we should be trying to maximize all we can instead of not trying at all. Games’ culture can be disgustingly cynical and ablest about these things and I think that’s also something we should be working to change too.

            Still no matter how old you get and no matter how able you are to play videogames, sometimes you just don’t care for a challenge and just want to play the game. I feel that’s perfectly fine. Gaming doesn’t need to be a meritocracy. There is no shame in playing the easy mode. Off the top of my head I can easily think of reasons why. Maybe you just want to enjoy a story that you don’t feel gains anything by the resistance to the player. Maybe a certain difficulty option like perma-death really bothers your anxiety about losing characters and the game is just enjoyable without countless resets. Maybe a game is just taking too long and it would be a lot more convenient if it were easier. All of these are fine, and you should enjoy games the way you want to. No one else should be shaming you for going for an easier difficulty. The experience of a videogame is a very subjective thing. There is no “true” way to play a videogame. Not every game is for everyone, but we don’t need to limit a game’s audience as much as possible. Also, easy modes can just be a lot of fun. Back in the day there used to be cheats like “noclip” and “godmode” that were a lot of fun to play with even if they remove all the difficulty from the game. Beating a game at the highest difficulty can be a lot of fun, but it’s not the only way to enjoy that game. You aren’t “special” for beating the game on hard, you just enjoyed the game in the way you preferred, and I don’t see why others can’t respect the reverse other than letting their pride get the best of them.

            There’s just a lack of respect going on here. The gamers, particularly older gamers from eras of gaming designed with less accessible games, are stuck in the past.  They’re stuck in a past where parents were harsh, a past where the ideals of “hard work” were everything, a past where kids were sold games that were difficult to stall for time so players would feel they got their money’s worth. There’s a lot of abuse, deception, and exploitation going on here. Gamers seem dead set on making this vicious cycle continue on, even if they know it or not. Gamers are used to this harshness but twist it into pride so it’s easier to swallow. Whatever the case may be, easy options in Dark Souls, invincibility in Star Fox, an overhaul in fusion mechanics in Shin Megami Tensei with less randomness, removal of frame perfect combos in Street Fighter, or whatever there’s always this mean spirited backlash of, dare I say a conservative side of games’ culture. Sadly sometimes these backlashes work and I think games are lesser for it. Even the cynical hardcore audience loses out here. They complain about games being designed to appeal to the “casuals”, but if these “casuals” have their own separate set of accessible options, the options intended for the “hardcore” audience could be better designed to suit their needs. Instead they feel more people being able to complete or even enjoy games makes them less “special”. It’s real sad that we can’t just respect each other.

People should be able to just enjoy games, pure and simple.