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Alanah Pearce wants to address the situational "kid disability" problem a lot of players have.

Hrk69

Gold Member

my queen GIF
 

Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
Is there actually a reason Elden Ring doesn't have a pause "feature" even when you are offline?

On PC just pause the process, I imagine on console you can go to the dashboard and that pauses it?
 

Tams

Member
The term is being used from an accessibility design perspective. The devs would consider it a situational disability at the end user level. The confusion people seem to be having with this is that they’re assuming the devs consider having or attending to children a situational disability, but that is just simply not the case. It is not a situational disability for the end user to attend to there children, but it is a situational disability from a design perspective and is either accounted for or not in accessibility features.

If you’re offended with how the word disability is being used here, the Oxford dictionary might help:

“A physical or mental condition that limits a person's movements, senses, or activities; (as a mass noun) the fact or state of having such a condition.”

The limitation in interaction with the game from the end user is what is being considered the disability from an accessibility development standpoint.

The use of the word here outside its normal context or semantic representation is what’s throwing people off. I get that, but they’re also not wrong for using it this way.

That doesn't change that when someone sees or hears 'disability', their minds are almost certainly going to conjure up an image of someone in a wheelchair or the like. And that's largely subconscious.

Yes, the word 'disability' is very broad. But how a word is perceived is, frankly, more important.

When that perceived meaning is for a group of people who need help and do face disregard and prejudice, perhaps it's best to just use another word for being busy.
 

MonkD

Member
That doesn't change that when someone sees or hears 'disability', their minds are almost certainly going to conjure up an image of someone in a wheelchair or the like. And that's largely subconscious.

Yes, the word 'disability' is very broad. But how a word is perceived is, frankly, more important.

When that perceived meaning is for a group of people who need help and do face disregard and prejudice, perhaps it's best to just use another word for being busy.
What are people even arguing here? A human being used disability incorrectly when it was taken out of context?
 

Pegasus Actual

Gold Member
N0PFPk8.png

Fixed some 'situational disabilities' for her.

Not sure I buy her supposed etymology for the term. But it doesn't matter, shit's stupid communist double-speak, and I've seen enough of it take root to not push back. The trick isn't any more than 2 steps long, but it's oddly effective

  1. Conflate two concepts by adding a meaning to an existing word (and usually pretend it has always been there)
  2. Use said definition to squash dissent
At first glance I don't even know what they're trying to accomplish with this one... usually I would think the "disabled" are the "protected class" so trivializing it with a dude who has the Sophie's Choice of shitting his pants on the couch or taking a death in a FromSoft game while he ascends to his porcelain throne, kind of seems like it's almost putting me on the politically correct side, which I reflexively avoid.

So, I'm not sure... my working theory is that fucking furries are gonna want some 'accessibility feature' for their 'situational disability'... like... it's hard to play a game in a fursuit. And not providing them with said feature will somehow be a hate crime.

And anyway, we already have good words that can be used here. When ATC tells a pilot to do something and for whatever reason they can't, they just say "unable". One could say they have an "inability". The nature of the "inability" could be temporary.

So there ya go, call them "situational inabilities", and deal with them however you want. Just don't claim it's an "accessibility" option as "accessibility" is for helping the disabled. Which is an actual important thing, worthy of its own terminology.

Also lol at her "permanent disability" of tendonitis which prevents her from button mashing quicktime events with her thumbs. Just about any button mashing mechanic in history can easily be done by slowly alternating two fingers on the same button. Or just using a digit other than your thumb and getting the movement from your wrist. Have a little resilience ffs.
 

Herr Edgy

Member
People exposing themselves being against a pause button, as if that made the game any easier.

"Phew, my mental and physical capabilities degrade so much from playing 20 minutes at once, being able to Pause would help me recuperate my strength! Therefore it's cheating!"

I'm sure the usage of the word 'disability' draws some ire but that's arguing semantics and is just wasting time.
 

Killjoy-NL

Member
People exposing themselves being against a pause button, as if that made the game any easier.

"Phew, my mental and physical capabilities degrade so much from playing 20 minutes at once, being able to Pause would help me recuperate my strength! Therefore it's cheating!"

I'm sure the usage of the word 'disability' draws some ire but that's arguing semantics and is just wasting time.
Is that what people are arguing about?🤨
 
Being able to essentially play Baldur's Gate 3 at a intermittent pace was so nice. I could be in the middle of a hectic battle, and my 3 y/o would come barging into the office with some kind of "emergency." I could just stop exactly where I was and handle it and pick it right back up with no issues. Not the same case with Elden Ring. The issue is not so egregious most of the time that it causes me any real problems, but it can be a slight annoyance having to save, quit to menu, take care of business and then load back in.
 
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Portugeezer

Member
Oh no! I can't pause elden ring to experience the unbridled joy of my child taking its first steps.

Being able to essentially play Baldur's Gate 3 at a intermittent pace was so nice. I could be in the middle of a hectic battle, and my 3 y/o would come barging into the office with some kind of "emergency." I could just stop exactly where I was and handle it and pick it right back up with no issues. Not the same case with Elden Ring. The issue is not so egregious most of the time that it causes me any real issues, but it can be a slight annoyance having to save, quit to menu, take care of business and then load back in.
I agree, it's not the best substitute for a pause, but save/quit is so quick. Worst thing is how it resets some enemies so when you load back in the enemies will be in a different state.
 
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Killjoy-NL

Member
That's where the 'arguing semantics' kicks in. Obviously having kids is not being disabled, and I am 100% confident that Alanah did not mean to imply that. Arguing about that is quite literally besides the point.
She did actually imply that, because she went out of her way to make a follow-up video defending the definition of "situational disability".
It's retarded logic.

As for the issue itself, adjust to the situation of having kids and accept that having kids might interfere with certain games.
 

Majukun

Member
It's really not only addressed to people with kids but with whoever might need to interrupt a session for whatever reason.

this being said, while accessibility is great, we live in a free (ish) market, if developers are not interested in the money of people that need to pause, they are free to ignore them, there's plenty of other games around, and if you start chasing everyone you end up with modern AAA games.
 

Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
This fucking clown.

I'm a father of a two year old and he needs my attention not me worrying about how to pause a game. And some gamers worry why their kid's a lost cause.

You arent a game/app designer so.........yes take care of your child.
As the game/app designer, fuck that 2 years old, ill give you feature X to make sure you are in this game/app......thus the need for devs to think about situational "disabilities" such as your 2 year old.
 

Herr Edgy

Member
She did actually imply that, because she went out of her way to make a follow-up video defending the definition of "situational disability".
It's retarded logic.

As for the issue itself, adjust to the situation of having kids and accept that having kids might interfere with certain games.
No, see, the discussion about the definition is pointless, because what she defines this as being situationally disabled does not need to map to the common understanding of 'having a disability'.
It's pointless. If having a kid occasionally 'disables' you from playing a game properly, I personally would not call it a 'situational disability', but it's totally unnecessary to discuss sematics as it's just her trying to formalize some thing she cares about on a broader level, namely accessibility and disabilities; it's besides the point.
Normally, people would call this something like "kids sometimes interfere with my gaming sessions" and no one would disagree; she just makes up a term for that, and people get up in arms because they think the word is not being used correctly.
Why argue about that? It's obvious what she means by it. I will not entertain more arguments about whether having a kid is a disability or not. It's not. I'm still confident she doesn't think that either. She thinks it occasionally can interfere with things and calls it something regular people wouldn't call it.

As for the issue: if a pause button is a simple thing to implement (which it usually is), why not have it? People get up in arms about it because of 'my cheating' and 'my hardcore souls games' but that's laughable.
Quite literally what sparked this to become bigger than it was was a tweet by some random misquoting here saying she wants the game to be easier when she never said or implied that. It's a pause function.

"Adjust to the situation of having kids and accept issues" - the eventuality of this train of thought is to abandon all things nice because why would we improve anything, accept and suck it up.
I'm not getting up in arms over a pause function because I don't care enough about it, but making the point that having a pause available is desirable is absolutely a fair thing to say.

Game developers don't live in the world where games just happen to exist as an endproduct.
There are millions of decisions made for any game, some good, some bad. Every single thing that some gamers feel like there should be no discussion about because it hurts their pride or it triggers their "people are snowflakes and shouldn't be catered to, they are weak" mentality, developers actively discuss into the minute details all the time, and decisions rarely have anything to do with this kind of talk.

____

Personally I do think the broader topic of accessibility in games ends up mixing with actual difficulity sometimes, which is bad. Same with UX. Once the rammifications of these considerations breach into game design, that's overstepping it imo.
Games are allowed to be hard, they are also allowed to be easy, and ideally everyone could enjoy them for what they are. Changing what they are imo is not aligned with the idea of accessibility. If it's about color palettes for color blind people, alternative controllers and so on, I don't mind whatsoever although it wouldn't be my priority when making a game.
 
FFS, being a parent is a responsibility. Not a disability.
This fucking clown.

I'm a father of a two year old and he needs my attention not me worrying about how to pause a game. And some gamers worry why their kid's a lost cause.

> Manufacture a hot take on socials to provoke controversial reactions from left and right wing.

> Create engagement for ragebait youtubers and influencers.

> Play the victim card of harassment for maximum reach, responses even from industry professionals.

> And then cash in on all the outrage by making content on your channel/online social space, for maximum profit and ad revenue.

This is a tale as old as time for grade A grifters looking for engagement off of easily triggered idiots online.

She's the left wing equivalent of that moron, Grummz, on the right, calling everything under the sun, "wOkE!!!" and going silent or jumping to a different new issue once it backfires and proves him wrong. All for that precious engagement time from all of us, to discuss this made up garbage inside her head.

Staff should reconsider allowing threads on this grifter's youtube videos going forward in the name of "free speech", causing no productive discussion and only disharmony among the community members. More than half of the thread is either ogling at pics of her body (which is fine but there are threads dedicated for that) or digging up her past doing detective shit, on top of this whole disingenuous topic in itself riding on the backs of actual disabled people.

Either don't allow her threads, or have one dedicated thread for all her videos, like we used to have for AngryJoe and Jim Sterling. DGrayson DGrayson EviLore EviLore
 

ProtoByte

Gold Member
Again. "Inconvenience". Leave it at that.

She is dumb af.

She literally said it herself "a hindrance", because that's what it is.

A disability is being unable physically or mentally.
She's (and apparently developers are) trying to redefine "disability" to fit some inclusiveness agenda, or to get some attention and have simps white knighting for her.
And to entrench herself as an "industry professional".

Fuck, can you imagine what kind of nonsense she's going to infuse into the writing of SSM's next game?
 

Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
Again. "Inconvenience". Leave it at that.


And to entrench herself as an "industry professional".

Fuck, can you imagine what kind of nonsense she's going to infuse into the writing of SSM's next game?

We'll be fine.
I think she inflates her role.
Granted she joined late into development, but I dont expect to see her towards the top of the next Santa Monica games credits.
For Ragnarok she wasnt even given an additional writing credit.

3Zm2bUK.png
 

Polygonal_Sprite

Gold Member
We'll be fine.
I think she inflates her role.
Granted she joined late into development, but I dont expect to see her towards the top of the next Santa Monica games credits.
For Ragnarok she wasnt even given an additional writing credit.

3Zm2bUK.png
Don’t worry. They’re not letting some newby airhead write Barlog’s new IP or anywhere near the next GoW. She’d have to be at the studio for a decade to get anywhere near writing main narrative for a blockbuster $200 million AAA risk. Maybe flavour for a side quest? Sure.

Also studios and the World at large are slowly but surely realising the era of Woke is coming to an end. Thank fuck.
 

BbMajor7th

Member
Personally, I find discussions are more fruitful when the actual merits of the ideas are being discussed rather than if the language involved is problematic or insensitive. You're always going to get some level of pushback from a variety of people regarding each person's subjective tolerance for certain kinds of words. It ends up being a distraction from the main topic.
Any person deliberately using inflammatory language to open a debate will get exactly what they paid for. Having children isn't a disability that you have no say in, it's a responsibility that you actively take upon yourself. Implying that it is a disability reframes the discussion with the implication that you're being actively excluded from something for reasons beyond your control (ie. discriminated against) and places a moral obligation on the creators to redress that the on charge of being ableist if they refuse.

I think that kind of underhanded, manipulative nonsense ought to be called out directly for what it is - this is an able-bodied, healthy, wealthy, white Western woman exploiting the genuine issue of accessibility faced by people with disabilities to push developers into making her already very privileged life even more blissfully convenient.
 
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ReyBrujo

Member
She's (and apparently developers are) trying to redefine "disability" to fit some inclusiveness agenda, or to get some attention and have simps white knighting for her.

Developers don't really have much saying in this matter, the fact that people complain that the game doesn't have a pause menu confirms that. These guidelines are not written by developers, we don't have time to check what is correct and what is not in culture, they are written by management, marketing or HR departments. I would even dare say DevOps (which are half developers, half infrastructure people) are more bound to add these "considerations" into a company than developers themselves.
 

Raven117

Member
No, I'm not. I understand her argument, and it is correct. No matter what people interpret into a clearly defined terminology.

And you don't get to "undefine" common technological terms in both software and game development (I just happen to work in the latter) terms because you have some vague, unproven feeling of "manipulation" or feel somehow attacked by your own misunderstanding of a term.


Languages are rather strictly defined grammatical boundaries - some people use it wrong long enough, they end up changing those boundaries over time. But that's not what's happening here.
The multiple meanings of the word "disability" doesn't magically become just one meaning, because a few terminally online people are incapable of understanding context.


You fail again, and again, and again, to understand that this is not the kind of disability you think it is.
And you want to say that I arrogantly claim people don't understand their own language?
My man, you are living proof right there!

I get you don't like the word "disability" attached to this term. That's your right.
I wouldn't have used it for that term, either, due to the foreseeable confusion it would cause nowadays with everyone having access to social media and the capacity for context of a gnat.
She could have worded that a lot smarter, too - but she has proven quite a few times that she's not the brightest bulb.

But that's just the way the term is. Can't help it now.
Wouldn't change anything if it was "situational impairment" or whatever else, as nothing would change the fact that nobody is claiming that kids are disabilities, which is the "issue" here - she didn't claim that, either, no matter her wording.
Imagine if she had said "situational impairment" instead. Then we'd be here, seeing some people claim she said "kids are an impairment!"...
Thank you for your background. I don’t mean this in anyway but factual, but I see exactly why you have the view you do.

Also, we don’t wholly disagree either. You recognize the issue. You perhaps don’t give enough credit to intent and manipulation, but I don’t disagree with your exacting definitions.

But context matters, as does where this was said (Ie, online, not an office). I’ve had to learn this lesson a lot in my professional career, but just because you are technically right, doesn’t mean you understand. (You understand this issue, you are just being obtuse about it).
 

Draugoth

Gold Member
She's not wrong, there's a reason disability controllers exist.

Elden Ring can be beaten even with a dance pad, but only masochists can do this. Disabled people would have a really hard time trying to play the game.\

But the whole kit thing is dumb as f, bitch there's something called balancing playtime with personal obligations
 
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Tajaz2426

Psychology PhD from Wikipedia University
This woman is caveman stupid, worse than anything in Idiocracy. You spread your legs on your back, or you implant the seed, that is called responsibility dipshits. Anyone who agrees or even partially agrees with this tripe os even worse.

Social media has made folks malignant narcissists. You don’t put yourself or games over children you chose to have. What in the actual fuck is going on with this stupidity being presented?
 
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SoloCamo

Member
Look not trying to crap on this thread but some of you really need to go outside a bit. Besides her rack (which might not even be great when you actually get the real details) she's really not that... uhhh, impressive? Not trying to be that guy but she's not that hot people lol.
 

Tajaz2426

Psychology PhD from Wikipedia University
Is this her? Am I supposed to be impressed by this or something? It’s another female in a dress, here. Big tits do not Trump making fun of an extreme moron.

If I misread this or have no idea who this, as I’m not really sure, my apologies. I guess I’m not sure what to think here?
 
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Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
She regularly repeats that she's working at Sony Santa Monica from 09:00 to 18:00. So that's a full working day. What is she doing over there as just a consultant? And during the whole of development?

Im sure she writing something......or just in the writers room spitballing ideas.
But she certainly aint gonna be towards the top of the credits list.
Consider she herself list her job as Writing/Design Team other writers on the project list themselves as Narrative Designer or Writer or Videogame Writer.
Sure its a 9 - 5 job.
Ive had 9 - 5 jobs where im not doing much most of the day most of the month, then when shit needs to get done its like a flood.

She seems to have enough free time or not be mission critical enough to pursue all sorts of other shit.
Most mission critical writers......thats their career, the other shit they do is a hobby.

U8ZJYGQ.jpeg



I aint seen her post about being part of the Writers Guild of America?
She listed on SAG.AFTRA as an Actor/Performer.
 

Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
Weird fucking hill for her to want to die on.

Like is it so hard to say”this term is fucking stupid, and I’m going to call it something else to try to create the change needed from within” instead of just defending it.

Alanah less talk more jugs. It makes sense she works for accessibility in games since she’s a retard herself.

that-time-when-alanah-pearce-cosplayed-lara-croft-v0-nwxqxkzmbwy81.jpg
 

ManaByte

Rage Bait Youtuber
Im sure she writing something......or just in the writers room spitballing ideas.

She isn't. That's why she got a "consultant" credit on Ragnarok. HR hired her as a stunt as a writer, but there have been Reddit/4Chan posts saying she didn't do anything. She'd sit browsing Twitter all day and when a producer came to ask her to write some flavor text on a dagger or something she'd put on some act and they'd have to get an intern to do it instead.
 
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