I love this video series. This one
addresses issues I’ve had all my life and several others have covered other issues I have. 😀 Unfortunately I’m also photosensitive. The flashing lights just set off my headache again. I can’t even get halfway through the video. I’ll be reading these on your blog. Unfortunately I have to unsubscribe now.
this video doesn’t address that street fighter would be a fundamentally different game if you simplified inputs. Think of it this way, Guile has basically the best fireball in the game the reason for this is because he has to charge it and all his regular attacks are designed with him charging in mind and are some of the best normals as well. You make sonic boom and flash kick one button and suddenly the balance is thrown out of whack and Guile is far and away the best character in the game. The DS street Fighter is also laughed at for that very reason. They can put one button specials in for single player and casual matches as an option tho, that would probably be fine.
Jack Escaped The Box Againon November 4, 2020 at 4:07 pm
I find it a difficult problem. I’m dyspraxic myself and being in a situation when I have to try complex coordination it’s difficult but with the practice I can build the connections in my mind. I’m also a horse rider and it forces me to be incredibly careful with my coordination and balance. It takes a long time and is incredibly frustrating so I can understand other dyspraxic people may not want that difficulty but anything that will reduce the impact of my difficulty in general always appeals to me more but I can see why others may want these options.
Either way more general information on the impact of Dyspraxia is vital right now. It’s such a mystery to most.
QTEs are my personal hell in a lot of games, I have a lot of these same issues so I find games that are more forgiving or quite simply easier a lot more fun for me.
I so agree that fighting games should have simple controls! Characters with redonkulous button commands I tend to avoid, but having simple commands would open up the roster. Remembering controls for each character and what the moves do is exhausting; not to mention simple controls would make fights flow correctly with less mistakes in command inputs during intense fights when anxiety is high. In the past, I used to edit Mugen characters I downloaded to have simple controls; I really do think it helps a controller’s (and my hands’) longevity, too!
i’m starting to wonder if i have dysphraxia, or maybe another condition messing with my coordination. I needed separate writing classes for most of primary school, i struggle with getting my aim right on throwing things, i can’t catch things easily (although that’s also on me having no depth perception at all), drawing lines right is a huge struggle for me, and i really, really struggle with anything in games that requires precise inputs. Gave up on dark souls because of that, even though i really liked the bit i played before it got to being basically impossible for me. Celeste is one i think i can do though, because of the accessibility options, and 2d just being a bit easier on my brain than a 3d environment.
Laura! I’m so happy this exists as a Dyspraxic game player. Had no idea you were Dyspraxic too and I’ve been a huge fan of your work for ages now. Sincerely, thank you
I have some fine motor difficulty as well as occasionally needing an extra half second to process what I need to do, so I would really love to see more games with precise controls give a bit more leeway so that I can still execute the commands, but at a pace that my brain and body can keep up with!
I have Dyspraxia and gaming is difficult for me, especially multiplayer. My friends really enjoy shooters and RTS games, and I do too. But I often feel I am really physically limited by my disorder. I can’t play RTS games with my friends because it’s almost physically impossible for me to beat them. I rarely ever play shooters online anymore because I just can’t stand the constant feeling that I’m being limited by my body.
I have often had to reduce the difficulty of games just so I could even beat them. It feels slightly embarrasing, especially with friends who are really good at games. I have often recieved comments that I beat Hollow Knight or Celeste "just on easy mode so not really" and that’s really not nice to hear. More accesability and difficulty options have always been very important to me, and Celeste handled this really well. I couldn’t beat Celeste on normal difficulty and had the game on 70 to 90 percent speed almost all the way through.
I genuinely hope disabilities like mine get some more attention in the gaming world because there are some games that I really wanted to play but just couldn’t.
I hope the developers of Streets of Rage 4 see this, literally the least accessible and most punishing game I’ve played this year. Sure it has an "easy" mode, but it doesn’t feel like true accessibility unless it’s helping the player learn, or train, for themselves. As a Dyspraxic myself, I have almost gotten a platinum trophy, however my depression went through the roof. I’m on medication, but I was back on suicidal thoughts, an awful self-esteem. I felt excluded from my own hobby because when I watched other people playing this game perfectly without breaking a sweat, I felt like it meant I just couldn’t play video games anymore, that I can’t enjoy them because they’re just not made for me. They insist on calling you a ‘maniac’ for playing through the game on its hardest difficulties, they tell you that giving up is "chickening out". Yes, I could have stopped playing, but when you have an addictive personality and can’t sleep properly at night until it’s over, it has its hold over you.
Video games aren’t impossible, but everything seems to require twice as much repetition for us Dyspraxic folk. One of those most insulting things a developer can do is to just expect you to headbutt a wall until you magically figure it out.
So true about Street Fighter IV 3D! That was my first fighting game. I don’t have dyspraxia, but I find it super hard to learn timings for things and not fumble. So when I was a kid, fighting games bounced me right off, I just couldn’t play them. Then I got SFIV on the 3DS, and really enjoyed it. I still suck at Street Fighter now, but it gave me a way to start to learn. And I’ve enjoyed playing (and simultaneously been frustrated by the fanservice and sexism within) Street Fighter ever since.
thank you for this! really interesting look into how dyspraxia affects gaming. i didn’t know Celeste had these accessibility options, I played it a bit but struggled to progress very far and gave up frustrated. going to give it another try now I’ve seen this!
Thank you for making this video I am a dyspraxic I am in my 40s and been a gamer my entire life but Dyspraxia has made it difficult at times gaming has also helped me leaps and bounds and should be used as a tool to help people live with Dyspraxia. Thanks again for highlighting stuff in this video and inspiring me to make something myself
Yeah, I remember you had trouble with the Sans fight in Undertale with the timing of his attacks, especially his second phase where he rapidly chained attacks together, also congrats for beating him btw, it’s not easy even for someone without Dyspraxia.
Finally, somebody who gets my struggle! I was also a clumsy kid, I also had absolute rubbish handwriting, I even described it to my teacher as "my hands won’t listen!" when I was little. I had no idea it was a recognized condition! I just thought I sucked!
As someone with ataxia, you hit on a lot of what I could say about games and coordination problems. Also fighting games with dedicated buttons for jumping and blocking are the best. Also Smash’s implementation of dashes are one of the few I can pull off.
The Dead or Alive games get a lot of flak for their fan service but I honestly think they are among the most accessible fighting games. The inputs aren’t as complex as other fighting games while not being too easy to be dull.
As someone with dyspraxia myself I can say there is another control scheme that is difficult to handle, certain types of motion control. For example in LoZ: Skyward Sword I often knew what to do, I knew how to do it but my hands wouldn’t make the exact motion required making the whole game frustrating to play (and the final boss virtually impossible)
This is why I think sekiro is poorly designed. I can play rockband because it has a calibration system. I even upgraded my tv to remove some latency issues, but it is still impossible for me. Not game of the year material if only 5% of people can play it
A big leveling of the playing field with parry timing is having AV indicators that can cue you into the timing. I never use parrying because it’s too arbitrary learning visually when the game decides it counts, but metal gear rising gives attacks indicators that clearly distinguish when an attack is winding up and when to react. Without that parrying is just a QTE you get no prompt for, or rather an extremely subjective and unreliable prompt, based upon your own judgement of when the swing is actually coming, especially in the later souls games where they get really fucking obnoxious about misleadingly slow or suddenly fast motions. Since that’s the only way to play sekiro I was just having no fun whatsoever and have no desire ever to look back after getting around halfway through. Boodborne, however, implements parrying in a much more fair and accessible way though imo. I’m not exactly sure what turning it into a projectile solved for my brain but it just actually feels consistent and earned when I do it, and like I messed up when I don’t, rather than I just guessed wrong like most other parrying feels.
Fighting game controls are just inexcusable to me. I think it’s super over the line and inappropriate to intentionally extend the execution barrier outside the game itself. It’s fine for there to be an expectation of an execution barrier to *playing* the game, not *controlling* it. Fighting game controls are a legitimate example of artificial difficulty.
I got diagnosed with Dyspraxia years ago, and I’ve never connected the dots as to why it makes certain games harder for me.
Like timing has never been an issue for me in like, rhythm games, but something like Dark Souls or something is harder since button inputs are *way* less complex and so it’s way easier to deal with.
I think it’s why I find a lot of older games nearly completely inaccessible since it’s *all* tight precision with basically no leeway.
Thank you for this video, Laura, it’s appriciated 💖
LadyrattlesUK Twitchon November 4, 2020 at 4:51 pm
Found your YouTube as your very informative video was posted to a dyspraxia group I’m in. I find gaming really helps with my dyspraxia but I can’t play certain games due to the problems you mention. It would be great if more developers took notice.
This is one thing I really wish the missing JJ mcfield and the island of memories could have done correctly. The last section of that game was so unforgiving it took me over 2 hours to try to do it myself
Huh, I didn’t know dyspraxia was a thing. I’ve always had terrible handwriting and I can’t tie shoes at age 28. I always assumed I was a klutz and that’s all there’s to it, but I might want to get that checked out. Also, if you haven’t tried Fantasy Strike, I recommend you give it a shot! It has all the features of a traditional fighting game but only uses simple inputs (plus it’s free to play)
"Pressing one button to pull off a hadoken makes it too easy to do special moves!" And exactly how much energy do people who don’t struggle with their coordination, who never have to think about how to move their body, who don’t fumble with buttons, how much of a rewarding challenge is it to them to push down forward punch? Is it really a shortcut to let someone with dodgy hands play, do we really have so much of an advantage? I almost never play beat em ups anymore because I just can’t "get gud" when my hands misbehave as they do between inconsistant fine motor control, and fatigue.
I’m just saying, that’s a cool feature, I’m glad it allowed more people to play ^_^
I never thought about it until now, but, Xenoblade games are kinda bad for people with poor motor skills, there’s a lot of mini QTEs in them, to do various things. As RPGs it really doesn’t need them, they could just as easily be taken out. They should at least have an option for not having it, or slowing it down a lot.
I have ADHD and tourettes, so because I need to look down quite often, I cannot play games that require constant attention, like fast racers or online shooters that require quick reflexes. And yeah, I have played through all the Souls-games, even though they could at times be quite the challenge. And, like Laura, I could never get the hang of parrying. It was a lot of fat rolling at times 🙂
But I would never, EVER ask a game developer to cater to my specific need. Why? Because I would sound like a spoiled, whiny brat. Seriously, do people understand just how many conditions cause problems for individuals? So should game companies cater to every single one of them? There are practically MILLIONS of games out there to choose from…play something else!
This is opening pandora’s box, and I do hope game developers never, ever agree to this kind of pandering to such a small subset of gamers. Including myself.
I just bought the game Paradise Killer by a indie developer called Kaizen Game Works and i was suprised at how many accessibility options they packed in their debut game. Ive uploaded some screenshots at https://imgur.com/a/5GXxcCS
Notable options are blocking flickering lights, auto walk w/ speed adjustment, a dyslexia friendly font, sound adjustments, and color / brightness adjustments. Maybe this is of interest, Cheers.
Mystic Mind Analysison November 4, 2020 at 5:00 pm
Thank you so much for this video! I have dyspraxia, and I’ve always struggled with a lot of what you describe. I love guitar hero, because it opened my eyes ro a whole new world of music while I was in high school, and made me the metalhead I am today. But it’s also incredibly difficult for me to get the timing correct, especially when you have so many notes thrown at you at once. I’ve found that sequential QTEs are difficult for me, but if it’s just a single button, I’m usually okay.
I also find short term memory loss effects a lot of how I play games. I’ve been playing "In Other Waters" recently, and the inability to access the dive map and have a simple "You are here" makes locating specific areas that much harder!
This week, we’re talking about how to help gamers with timing and coordination difficulties play more video games more effectively.
I love this video series. This one
addresses issues I’ve had all my life and several others have covered other issues I have. 😀 Unfortunately I’m also photosensitive. The flashing lights just set off my headache again. I can’t even get halfway through the video. I’ll be reading these on your blog. Unfortunately I have to unsubscribe now.
this video doesn’t address that street fighter would be a fundamentally different game if you simplified inputs. Think of it this way, Guile has basically the best fireball in the game the reason for this is because he has to charge it and all his regular attacks are designed with him charging in mind and are some of the best normals as well. You make sonic boom and flash kick one button and suddenly the balance is thrown out of whack and Guile is far and away the best character in the game. The DS street Fighter is also laughed at for that very reason. They can put one button specials in for single player and casual matches as an option tho, that would probably be fine.
I find it a difficult problem. I’m dyspraxic myself and being in a situation when I have to try complex coordination it’s difficult but with the practice I can build the connections in my mind. I’m also a horse rider and it forces me to be incredibly careful with my coordination and balance. It takes a long time and is incredibly frustrating so I can understand other dyspraxic people may not want that difficulty but anything that will reduce the impact of my difficulty in general always appeals to me more but I can see why others may want these options.
Either way more general information on the impact of Dyspraxia is vital right now. It’s such a mystery to most.
QTEs are my personal hell in a lot of games, I have a lot of these same issues so I find games that are more forgiving or quite simply easier a lot more fun for me.
I so agree that fighting games should have simple controls! Characters with redonkulous button commands I tend to avoid, but having simple commands would open up the roster. Remembering controls for each character and what the moves do is exhausting; not to mention simple controls would make fights flow correctly with less mistakes in command inputs during intense fights when anxiety is high. In the past, I used to edit Mugen characters I downloaded to have simple controls; I really do think it helps a controller’s (and my hands’) longevity, too!
This has a name!? I love you Laura, you help me so much, I thought I was clumsy and not gud. 🤔 I feel better
Six years!!! Congrats too
i’m starting to wonder if i have dysphraxia, or maybe another condition messing with my coordination. I needed separate writing classes for most of primary school, i struggle with getting my aim right on throwing things, i can’t catch things easily (although that’s also on me having no depth perception at all), drawing lines right is a huge struggle for me, and i really, really struggle with anything in games that requires precise inputs. Gave up on dark souls because of that, even though i really liked the bit i played before it got to being basically impossible for me. Celeste is one i think i can do though, because of the accessibility options, and 2d just being a bit easier on my brain than a 3d environment.
Laura! I’m so happy this exists as a Dyspraxic game player. Had no idea you were Dyspraxic too and I’ve been a huge fan of your work for ages now. Sincerely, thank you
Thanks, this was really insightful.
I have some fine motor difficulty as well as occasionally needing an extra half second to process what I need to do, so I would really love to see more games with precise controls give a bit more leeway so that I can still execute the commands, but at a pace that my brain and body can keep up with!
I’m going to have to talk to my GP later I think…
I’m really happy that this is being talked about.
I have Dyspraxia and gaming is difficult for me, especially multiplayer. My friends really enjoy shooters and RTS games, and I do too. But I often feel I am really physically limited by my disorder. I can’t play RTS games with my friends because it’s almost physically impossible for me to beat them. I rarely ever play shooters online anymore because I just can’t stand the constant feeling that I’m being limited by my body.
I have often had to reduce the difficulty of games just so I could even beat them. It feels slightly embarrasing, especially with friends who are really good at games. I have often recieved comments that I beat Hollow Knight or Celeste "just on easy mode so not really" and that’s really not nice to hear. More accesability and difficulty options have always been very important to me, and Celeste handled this really well. I couldn’t beat Celeste on normal difficulty and had the game on 70 to 90 percent speed almost all the way through.
I genuinely hope disabilities like mine get some more attention in the gaming world because there are some games that I really wanted to play but just couldn’t.
Thank you for talking about this, Laura.
I hope the developers of Streets of Rage 4 see this, literally the least accessible and most punishing game I’ve played this year. Sure it has an "easy" mode, but it doesn’t feel like true accessibility unless it’s helping the player learn, or train, for themselves. As a Dyspraxic myself, I have almost gotten a platinum trophy, however my depression went through the roof. I’m on medication, but I was back on suicidal thoughts, an awful self-esteem. I felt excluded from my own hobby because when I watched other people playing this game perfectly without breaking a sweat, I felt like it meant I just couldn’t play video games anymore, that I can’t enjoy them because they’re just not made for me. They insist on calling you a ‘maniac’ for playing through the game on its hardest difficulties, they tell you that giving up is "chickening out". Yes, I could have stopped playing, but when you have an addictive personality and can’t sleep properly at night until it’s over, it has its hold over you.
Video games aren’t impossible, but everything seems to require twice as much repetition for us Dyspraxic folk. One of those most insulting things a developer can do is to just expect you to headbutt a wall until you magically figure it out.
Thank you for sharing your experiences!
So true about Street Fighter IV 3D! That was my first fighting game. I don’t have dyspraxia, but I find it super hard to learn timings for things and not fumble. So when I was a kid, fighting games bounced me right off, I just couldn’t play them. Then I got SFIV on the 3DS, and really enjoyed it. I still suck at Street Fighter now, but it gave me a way to start to learn. And I’ve enjoyed playing (and simultaneously been frustrated by the fanservice and sexism within) Street Fighter ever since.
thank you for this! really interesting look into how dyspraxia affects gaming. i didn’t know Celeste had these accessibility options, I played it a bit but struggled to progress very far and gave up frustrated. going to give it another try now I’ve seen this!
Thank you for making this video I am a dyspraxic I am in my 40s and been a gamer my entire life but Dyspraxia has made it difficult at times gaming has also helped me leaps and bounds and should be used as a tool to help people live with Dyspraxia. Thanks again for highlighting stuff in this video and inspiring me to make something myself
Yeah, I remember you had trouble with the Sans fight in Undertale with the timing of his attacks, especially his second phase where he rapidly chained attacks together, also congrats for beating him btw, it’s not easy even for someone without Dyspraxia.
Finally, somebody who gets my struggle! I was also a clumsy kid, I also had absolute rubbish handwriting, I even described it to my teacher as "my hands won’t listen!" when I was little. I had no idea it was a recognized condition! I just thought I sucked!
As someone with ataxia, you hit on a lot of what I could say about games and coordination problems. Also fighting games with dedicated buttons for jumping and blocking are the best. Also Smash’s implementation of dashes are one of the few I can pull off.
The Dead or Alive games get a lot of flak for their fan service but I honestly think they are among the most accessible fighting games. The inputs aren’t as complex as other fighting games while not being too easy to be dull.
I have cerebral palsy and also have issues with fine motor skills. I have a lot of the same problems in some games that you mentioned.
really loving this series of videos!!
As someone with dyspraxia myself I can say there is another control scheme that is difficult to handle, certain types of motion control. For example in LoZ: Skyward Sword I often knew what to do, I knew how to do it but my hands wouldn’t make the exact motion required making the whole game frustrating to play (and the final boss virtually impossible)
I’m dyspraxiac and there are games I like but I can’t do
I find the souls/bloodbourne games Berry difficult to do as they require precise dexterity to do.
Games I hate precise platform era I say that as I love the platform sections in uncharted.
I live adventure games because it’s based on logic
This is why I think sekiro is poorly designed. I can play rockband because it has a calibration system. I even upgraded my tv to remove some latency issues, but it is still impossible for me. Not game of the year material if only 5% of people can play it
A big leveling of the playing field with parry timing is having AV indicators that can cue you into the timing. I never use parrying because it’s too arbitrary learning visually when the game decides it counts, but metal gear rising gives attacks indicators that clearly distinguish when an attack is winding up and when to react. Without that parrying is just a QTE you get no prompt for, or rather an extremely subjective and unreliable prompt, based upon your own judgement of when the swing is actually coming, especially in the later souls games where they get really fucking obnoxious about misleadingly slow or suddenly fast motions. Since that’s the only way to play sekiro I was just having no fun whatsoever and have no desire ever to look back after getting around halfway through. Boodborne, however, implements parrying in a much more fair and accessible way though imo. I’m not exactly sure what turning it into a projectile solved for my brain but it just actually feels consistent and earned when I do it, and like I messed up when I don’t, rather than I just guessed wrong like most other parrying feels.
Fighting game controls are just inexcusable to me. I think it’s super over the line and inappropriate to intentionally extend the execution barrier outside the game itself. It’s fine for there to be an expectation of an execution barrier to *playing* the game, not *controlling* it. Fighting game controls are a legitimate example of artificial difficulty.
O hex! I may have Dyspraxia
I got diagnosed with Dyspraxia years ago, and I’ve never connected the dots as to why it makes certain games harder for me.
Like timing has never been an issue for me in like, rhythm games, but something like Dark Souls or something is harder since button inputs are *way* less complex and so it’s way easier to deal with.
I think it’s why I find a lot of older games nearly completely inaccessible since it’s *all* tight precision with basically no leeway.
Thank you for this video, Laura, it’s appriciated 💖
Dyspraxia is that you were born with too few praxis points to invest in your talent tree.
I wonder if I have this. I never heard of this condition before this video, but I have a lot of the symptoms described
Found your YouTube as your very informative video was posted to a dyspraxia group I’m in. I find gaming really helps with my dyspraxia but I can’t play certain games due to the problems you mention. It would be great if more developers took notice.
This is one thing I really wish the missing JJ mcfield and the island of memories could have done correctly. The last section of that game was so unforgiving it took me over 2 hours to try to do it myself
Huh, I didn’t know dyspraxia was a thing. I’ve always had terrible handwriting and I can’t tie shoes at age 28. I always assumed I was a klutz and that’s all there’s to it, but I might want to get that checked out. Also, if you haven’t tried Fantasy Strike, I recommend you give it a shot! It has all the features of a traditional fighting game but only uses simple inputs (plus it’s free to play)
"Pressing one button to pull off a hadoken makes it too easy to do special moves!" And exactly how much energy do people who don’t struggle with their coordination, who never have to think about how to move their body, who don’t fumble with buttons, how much of a rewarding challenge is it to them to push down forward punch? Is it really a shortcut to let someone with dodgy hands play, do we really have so much of an advantage? I almost never play beat em ups anymore because I just can’t "get gud" when my hands misbehave as they do between inconsistant fine motor control, and fatigue.
I’m just saying, that’s a cool feature, I’m glad it allowed more people to play ^_^
I never thought about it until now, but, Xenoblade games are kinda bad for people with poor motor skills, there’s a lot of mini QTEs in them, to do various things. As RPGs it really doesn’t need them, they could just as easily be taken out. They should at least have an option for not having it, or slowing it down a lot.
I do appreciate you including the most iconic of QTE fails though
Another fantastic video Laura. 😃
And thanks for talking about this. I never knew about dyspraxia before so thank you for the education. 🙂
I have ADHD and tourettes, so because I need to look down quite often, I cannot play games that require constant attention, like fast racers or online shooters that require quick reflexes. And yeah, I have played through all the Souls-games, even though they could at times be quite the challenge. And, like Laura, I could never get the hang of parrying. It was a lot of fat rolling at times 🙂
But I would never, EVER ask a game developer to cater to my specific need. Why? Because I would sound like a spoiled, whiny brat. Seriously, do people understand just how many conditions cause problems for individuals? So should game companies cater to every single one of them? There are practically MILLIONS of games out there to choose from…play something else!
This is opening pandora’s box, and I do hope game developers never, ever agree to this kind of pandering to such a small subset of gamers. Including myself.
I just bought the game Paradise Killer by a indie developer called Kaizen Game Works and i was suprised at how many accessibility options they packed in their debut game. Ive uploaded some screenshots at https://imgur.com/a/5GXxcCS
Notable options are blocking flickering lights, auto walk w/ speed adjustment, a dyslexia friendly font, sound adjustments, and color / brightness adjustments. Maybe this is of interest, Cheers.
Thank you so much for this video! I have dyspraxia, and I’ve always struggled with a lot of what you describe. I love guitar hero, because it opened my eyes ro a whole new world of music while I was in high school, and made me the metalhead I am today. But it’s also incredibly difficult for me to get the timing correct, especially when you have so many notes thrown at you at once. I’ve found that sequential QTEs are difficult for me, but if it’s just a single button, I’m usually okay.
I also find short term memory loss effects a lot of how I play games. I’ve been playing "In Other Waters" recently, and the inability to access the dive map and have a simple "You are here" makes locating specific areas that much harder!
Omg I love the smash stage with the trans flag?!