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Digital games are a bigger part of our culture than ever before. Over 50% of people in the UK, Europe and the US now gamble regularly, regardless of age or gender. However, developers have only recently started to consistently design gameplay options for players with disabilities.
This was a big talking point at the release of God of War Ragnarök. The ninth title in the God of War series claims to be the most accessible yet and sets the standard for accessibility in high-budget, high-profile games.
But what does it mean that a digital game is accessible? And are the claims surrounding Ragnarök more than window dressing trying to stand out in a highly competitive market?
The combo battle puzzle
Ragnarök is a “combo combat” game, meaning the player (as the godslayer Kratos) must progress through a series of levels by slaughtering enemies. This is achieved through fast-paced combat, usually based on quick combinations of button presses and carefully timed movements of both the character and the camera point of view.
It is not difficult to imagine how progress can become almost impossible for a player with a physical disability such as a hand tremor or a visual impairment. In some cases, barriers to accessing the game come together, as up to two-thirds of players who describe themselves as disabled actually have multiple disabilities.
None of these things should stop anyone from playing digital games, but there needs to be an adjustment that resolves the gap between a player’s skill and game design.
Go new ways
Our research into accessible gamer experiences has reframed accessibility to focus on delivering good gamer experiences for diverse groups of gamers.
The first step is to ensure players have access to the “game feedback loop”. This means they can activate controls that allow them to take actions, and then perceive and interpret the game’s response to those actions.
The next step is to ensure that a game’s challenges – tailored for the average player – can also be tailored so that they don’t rely on specific skills like quick reactions or keen vision. When these levels of accessibility are achieved, players can enjoy what we call the “accessible gaming experience.”
To claim accessibility, modern games should provide players with a variety of controls, presentation, and gameplay options. This allows gamers with disabilities to design the game to provide the best accessible gaming experience.
Ragnarök offers more than 60 different options for a variety of aspects of the game and its interface. These include increasing the font size of in-game text and automatic movement controls so players don’t have to press buttons to climb, jump and run.
In this way, Ragnarök builds on the accessibility of other recent hits like The Last of Us 2 (2020), but also innovates by providing more features that group option settings.
Challenges for Developers
The biggest challenge for accessible game developers is anticipating the diverse and sometimes unique needs of gamers while creating gaming experiences that fit their creative vision.
To facilitate the creative and generative process of game design, our research considered accessibility as a configuration problem.
Drawing on work in architecture and software development, we have recognized that while some required options are specific to a particular game, broadly the types of options available for accessible gaming fall into identifiable patterns.
For example, some players will have trouble progressing because of a mismatch between their skills and the challenges they face in a game. In this case, they may need the pattern we call the “helping hand,” where the game will help the player successfully complete an obstacle. What this looks like depends on the game and the obstacle in question.
For some games, a helping hand means providing an assist mode for aiming or steering. For others, it’s a character in the game that suggests a useful tip. In our collaboration with the AbleGamers charity, patterns like a helping hand have been incorporated into our accessible gamer experience design deck, which is now in the toolkit of hundreds of game developers around the world.
A bright future for accessible gaming?
When a game is made accessible, disabled players gain access to an important piece of modern culture in a way not possible in other arenas. You compete on an equal footing with peers, friends, and family members who do not have disabilities. When games are accessible, players report a strong sense of activation.
Ragnarök can definitely claim to have addressed accessibility in a significant and important way. And it’s spawned innovations that other games will want to adopt if they’re seen as useful.
It might not have done everything right for everyone – only players can tell us that – but it did try to give as many people as possible the chance to pick up a Leviathan ax and become a god.
Paul Cairns, Professor of Human-Computer Interaction, University of York and Christopher Power, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Prince Edward Island
This article was republished by The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.