Scars of War - A Different Look at Game Accessibility

 In his latest Scars of War Blog, Gareth tackles the ticklish question of game accessibility from a novel perspective, trying to interest his girlfriend in playing computer games. It proved to be not only a challenge, but an interesting learning experience with an important conclusion. Here's a small section:

I decide to choose the next game. Diablo 2, I say. Surely, Diablo 2 will work. I remember it as simple as all hell to play. Click click click. Plus, it’s an entry point into real RPGs. More than that, “Operation : Gamer Girlfriend” has a sub-goal, “Prepare Her For D3 Co-op Next Year".

So I get her into the game, she chooses a character and we load up in the Rogues camp. And I begin to explain the controls and concepts behind the game.

10 minutes later, when I’m still talking and demonstrating, I realise it isn’t quite as simple as I perceived it to be. I had imagined something along the lines of “your health orb is here, your mana orb is there, press i for inventory, and go!“

In fact, the whole thing really drove home just much our (by which I mean the “hardcore” gamers’) experience of games is driven by this framework of understanding that we have all built up over years, decades. It’s not that casual gamers are stupid, far from it. It’s simply that we’ve all been “swimming” for most of our lives and don’t understand why, when you take someone who has barely dipped their toes in before and tell them to swim the English Channel, they don’t enjoy it.