Accessibility in video games should mean adding hard modes as well as just easy
Accessibility in video games should mean adding hard modes as well as just easy
Accessibility in video games should mean adding hard modes as well as just easy
September 18, 2021
Summary
A reader argues that companies worried about games being too hard also need to make sure they're difficult enough for more experienced players.
I'm no expert on such things, so I don't want to say it's not related, but it seems to me a little patronising to suggest that once someone is no longer held back by options and controllers that they only want to play super easy games.
Again, that's not a problem but after fretting so much over whether your game is too hard for some players it's obvious that nobody thought about whether it was too easy for others.
Easy games are not fun, not if they're so easy that you never once question whether you'll be able to defeat an enemy or beat a time limit, even before you know the full extent of the challenge.
I'd say it's obvious that games are becoming easier this generation, with the default settings of Resident Evil Village and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and I'm sure many other games I haven't played, being trivially easy.
What is a serious issue is games that have no difficulty setting and yet are really easy and filled with accessibility options, as if they're purposefully trying to keep out experienced gamers.
The door swings both way and if you recognise you shouldn't be putting off people with unfairly hard games you should also know you shouldn't be putting them off with pointlessly easy ones either.
Reference
Metro GameCentral. (2021, September 18). Accessibility in video games should mean adding hard modes as well as just easy – reader's feature. Retrieved November 09, 2021, from https://metro.co.uk/2021/09/18/accessibility-in-games-should-mean-adding-hard-modes-as-well-as-easy-15278079/