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

G-DannY

Member
that-time-when-alanah-pearce-cosplayed-lara-croft-v0-nwxqxkzmbwy81.jpg
fappy_bird.apk
 
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near

Gold Member
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.
How do you know she isn't? 4chan is a reliable source, isn't it?
 

Tajaz2426

Psychology PhD from Wikipedia University
How this thread get to be so big? Google "situational disability" and that term in the context she is using it is correct. MFs here wanna get outraged like over at REEEEEE lmao
No she isn’t using it correct she is trying to skew her audiences perception of what a disability is.

First off she is talking about situational barriers and this isn’t it. That would be trying to talk to someone and the loud speaker comes on and you cannot hear what is spoken.

You cannot have a child knowingly, know the responsibilities that come with said decision, chose to forgo that responsibility and chose gaming or whatever time you want and then you don’t get it because you should be responsible for you children and call those moments situational disabilities. That isnt being disabled temporarily or anything else, that is being a moron.

That is like saying your job is a situational disability because it takes time away from your life. And how you want to live. No, this isn’t it.
 
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Toons

Member
Every game that isnt live service(being played with others simultaneously) should have a pause button. Period.
 

near

Gold Member
The credits of Ragnarok proved it.
I don't think this proves anything. She was hired while Ragnarok was in production, the narrative team for that game would've already put most of the narrative design work together by the time she joined. There was Cory's project in development concurrently, there is no reason to believe she isn't part of that teams writing room, or even a separate project. I don't think her being an accessibility consultant on Ragnarok proves anything at all.
 
If you ever think for a moment that there is any hope left for humanity, you just come here and read basically any thread and it'll dispel that notion very quickly.

Some of you need help.
 

Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
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.

She joined when Ragnarok was already deep in development, so obviously her input wasnt going to be that deep.
But if shes on the writing/designb team for the next project her input is going to be bigger.......maybe.
Im assuming those ex-employees/interns you are quoting arent working on the current project and cant really say what she is doing right now?
 

FireFly

Member
Again. "Inconvenience". Leave it at that.
Having a weight limit in an RPG is inconvenient. Having to manage scarce ammo types in a survival horror game is also inconvenient. As is performing complex tasks under time pressure in a multiplayer game.

The "inconvenience" is built into the game's design and is part of the challenge loop itself. So making inconvenience the enemy of accessibility risks turning the question "how can we allow more people to interface with this game" into "how can we make the game easier". And Alanah's point is that even those with some kind of handicap want to be inconvenienced! They want to be challenged in the ways that the game expects them to be challenged. The real issue they are having is they can't interact with the game's core systems to get that challenge. And addressing that requires the context of "disability" (what it is preventing them from interacting with the game), not the context of "inconvenience". That's why I don't think QoL patches should be considered accessibility patches. QoL patches address issues of design that should be applicable across the player base, where certain mechanics have become too challenging for the gameplay purpose they are expected to fulfil.

No she isn’t using it correct she is trying to skew her audiences perception of what a disability is.
In the context in which she is using the term, a "disability" is anything that prevents you from interfacing with the game. It should not track the everyday sense of disability, because the set of things that can limit you from interacting with the game is much broader than the set of things that we could consider as "disabilities" in society. Her example of tendonitis is a great illustration of this, because it prevents her from mashing combos in games, but not (as far as I understand) from interacting in non-game contexts, and so she doesn't classify herself as disabled. If accessibility is just about helping people who identify as disabled, then we wouldn't consider the inability of people like her to progress in games requiring QTEs to be a problem.

So in as much as she is trying to broaden the context of what counts as disability in a UX design context, I don't see that this is a bad thing. Her entire point is that there are lots of different aspects that can prevent people from being able to progress within games and so if we care about broadening our audience, we should also care about adopting a conceptual structure that encompasses all these aspects.

You cannot have a child knowingly, know the responsibilities that come with said decision, chose to forgo that responsibility and chose gaming or whatever time you want and then you don’t get it because you should be responsible for you children and call those moments situational disabilities. That isnt being disabled temporarily or anything else, that is being a moron.

That is like saying your job is a situational disability because it takes time away from your life. And how you want to live. No, this isn’t it.

Anything that forces you to stop interacting with the game would be a situational disability in this context. And yes that could also be a job as well. If you are on call, then you may need to be available at a moment's notice, in which case you have to stop what you are doing, and without a pause feature you may lose your progress.

Is it bad parenting to sometimes not be concentrating 100% on what your child is doing? If being a good parent requires never playing games without having someone else to directly supervise your children, irrespective of their age, then OK. But that's probably a more extreme position than most parents who are gamers will take.

Again, this has nothing to do with the wider social concept of disability, but with the ability to interact with the game at a given moment.
 
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Tajaz2426

Psychology PhD from Wikipedia University
Having a weight limit in an RPG is inconvenient. Having to manage scarce ammo types in a survival horror game is also inconvenient. As is performing complex tasks under time pressure in a multiplayer game.

The "inconvenience" is built into the game's design and is part of the challenge loop itself. So making inconvenience the enemy of accessibility risks turning the question "how can we allow more people to interface with this game" into "how can we make the game easier". And Alanah's point is that even those with some kind of handicap want to be inconvenienced! They want to be challenged in the ways that the game expects them to be challenged. The real issue they are having is they can't interact with the game's core systems to get that challenge. And addressing that requires the context of "disability" (what it is preventing them from interacting with the game), not the context of "inconvenience". That's why I don't think QoL patches should be considered accessibility patches. QoL patches address issues of design that should be applicable across the player base, where certain mechanics have become too challenging for the gameplay purpose they are expected to fulfil.


In the context in which she is using the term, a "disability" is anything that prevents you from interfacing with the game. It should not track the everyday sense of disability, because the set of things that can limit you from interacting with the game is much broader than the set of things that we could consider as "disabilities" in society. Her example of tendonitis is a great illustration of this, because it prevents her from mashing combos in games, but not (as far as I understand) from interacting in non-game contexts, and so she doesn't classify herself as disabled. If accessibility is just about helping people who identify as disabled, then we wouldn't consider the inability of people like her to progress in games requiring QTEs to be a problem.

So in as much as she is trying to broaden the context of what counts as disability in a UX design context, I don't see that this is a bad thing. Her entire point is that there are lots of different aspects that can prevent people from being able to progress within games and so if we care about broadening our audience, we should also care about adopting a conceptual structure that encompasses all these aspects.



Anything that forces you to stop interacting with the game would be a situational disability in this context. And yes that could also be a job as well. If you are on call, then you may need to be available at a moment's notice, in which case you have to stop what you are doing, and without a pause feature you may lose your progress.

Is it bad parenting to sometimes not be concentrating 100% on what your child is doing? If being a good parent requires never playing games without having someone else to directly supervise your children, irrespective of their age, then OK. But that's probably a more extreme position than most parents who are gamers will take.

Again, this has nothing to do with the wider social concept of disability, but with the ability to interact with the game at a given moment.
I think you’re missing the point here, that you cannot create your own barriers and believe it is a disability, situational or not. Situational barriers are uncontrolled by the person it is happening to.

These people want to call themselves disabled at moments instead of accepting responsibility for their own actions. It is very simple, you take care of the kids you are responsible for and set time aside if you can to play your games.

Again, this isn’t situational barriers at all. The core concepts of these situations are out of the persons control. The sun hitting their phone and not seeing the screen, loud noise in the middle of a conversation, etc.

These folks are not losing access to information, having their navigation hindered, the way they communicate with others stopped, nor is there anything other factor limiting them from any outside uncontrollable factors.

If someone wants to say a tornado hit, or the electricity went out then we can call that a situational barriers and nothing more. You cannot self induce a situational barrier, as it is from external uncontrollable circumstances from with in your environment.
 
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Lupin25

Member
Having a weight limit in an RPG is inconvenient. Having to manage scarce ammo types in a survival horror game is also inconvenient. As is performing complex tasks under time pressure in a multiplayer game.

The "inconvenience" is built into the game's design and is part of the challenge loop itself. So making inconvenience the enemy of accessibility risks turning the question "how can we allow more people to interface with this game" into "how can we make the game easier". And Alanah's point is that even those with some kind of handicap want to be inconvenienced! They want to be challenged in the ways that the game expects them to be challenged. The real issue they are having is they can't interact with the game's core systems to get that challenge. And addressing that requires the context of "disability" (what it is preventing them from interacting with the game), not the context of "inconvenience". That's why I don't think QoL patches should be considered accessibility patches. QoL patches address issues of design that should be applicable across the player base, where certain mechanics have become too challenging for the gameplay purpose they are expected to fulfil.


In the context in which she is using the term, a "disability" is anything that prevents you from interfacing with the game. It should not track the everyday sense of disability, because the set of things that can limit you from interacting with the game is much broader than the set of things that we could consider as "disabilities" in society. Her example of tendonitis is a great illustration of this, because it prevents her from mashing combos in games, but not (as far as I understand) from interacting in non-game contexts, and so she doesn't classify herself as disabled. If accessibility is just about helping people who identify as disabled, then we wouldn't consider the inability of people like her to progress in games requiring QTEs to be a problem.

So in as much as she is trying to broaden the context of what counts as disability in a UX design context, I don't see that this is a bad thing. Her entire point is that there are lots of different aspects that can prevent people from being able to progress within games and so if we care about broadening our audience, we should also care about adopting a conceptual structure that encompasses all these aspects.



Anything that forces you to stop interacting with the game would be a situational disability in this context. And yes that could also be a job as well. If you are on call, then you may need to be available at a moment's notice, in which case you have to stop what you are doing, and without a pause feature you may lose your progress.

Is it bad parenting to sometimes not be concentrating 100% on what your child is doing? If being a good parent requires never playing games without having someone else to directly supervise your children, irrespective of their age, then OK. But that's probably a more extreme position than most parents who are gamers will take.

Again, this has nothing to do with the wider social concept of disability, but with the ability to interact with the game at a given moment.

FINALLY

Someone approaching the topic from a game dev perspective instead of a civilian/regular gamer who shouldn’t even know this term. Accessibility doesn’t come at the expense of the game’s design, but rather a way to supplement the experience to those who are unable to at all. There’s too many examples, even outside of MS’ inclusivity design toolkit. It’s to at least “attempt” to give “most” the ability to have the best gaming experience.

It’s just a means to an end of reaching more audiences, more sales, etc….
 

FireFly

Member
I think you’re missing the point here, that you cannot create your own barriers and believe it is a disability, situational or not. Situational barriers are uncontrolled by the person it is happening to.

These people want to call themselves disabled at moments instead of accepting responsibility for their own actions. It is very simple, you take care of the kids you are responsible for and set time aside if you can to play your games.

Again, this isn’t situational barriers at all. The core concepts of these situations are out of the persons control. The sun hitting their phone and not seeing the screen, loud noise in the middle of a conversation, etc.

These folks are not losing access denied to information, having their navigation hindered, the way they communicate with others stopped, nor is there anything other factor limiting them from any outside uncontrollable factors.

If someone wants to say a tornado hit, or the electricity went out then we can call that a situational barriers and nothing more. You cannot self induce a situational barrier, as it is from external uncontrollable circumstances from with in your environment.
The term situational disability is invoked by the UX designer, not by the person who is "disabled", as a means to categorise people who are unable to interact with the game. It seems to me that this does not depend on whether the cause was voluntary or involuntary. If you get super drunk and so lose the ability to use the game's systems, you're still in the relevant sense unable to interact with the game. It also seems to me that whether the reason for being unable to interact the game is voluntary does not (exclusively) determine whether the game designer should care about or accommodate your handicap. Probably the game designer is not going to design a mode for people who are stoned out of their mind.

But if you're playing with the sound off because the baby is sleeping in your room, are we really going to say that because you chose to have a child, the game developer shouldn't try to "include you" in the experience? Equally with the distraction issue, the "disability" is that responsible parents won't be able to save their game state, because they have to attend to their child. Is it really the case that the game developer shouldn't consider allowing them to play the game while being responsible parents, because they chose to have children, and making sacrifices for children is just morally good?

Even if we agree with the claim that voluntary situational barriers need their own term, because they are relevantly different, accepting that doesn't undercut the points Alanah is making. It just comes back to being a disagreement about semantics.
 
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kiphalfton

Member
Sounds about right, situational disability is a very broad term and refers to anything that prevents you from completing X task in an optimal manner due to a specific (often temporary) issue. Getting distracted by your phone or bright lights while driving is an example of it.

Doesn’t really mean you are mentally or physically disabled or anything like that.

It does if you legitimately view it as a disability. I believe it's called being "retarded".
 
One thing I want mandatory is a gore/blood/decapitation option to turn off and no human kills in games otherwise safe for kids to watch. Like in games like Horizon Zero Dawn/Forbidden West, those games are currently the biggest missed opportunities I can think of in this industry. Dinosaurs and robots… Why isn’t the IP made safe for 7 year olds???
One of the reasons I quit Forbidden West is due to Aloy murdering and assassinating humans for no legitimate reason. One of the early side quests is to investigate a crime. You end up in a cave killing humans that are just walking around. At least in the first game they were "bandit camps" you could avoid.
 

jwaxeman

Member
Honestly don’t see why people wouldn’t want a pause button. That said it’s rarely an issue in Souls games unless you’re in a boss arena.
 

Neon Xenon

Member
Looking aback at the initial tweets that set this off, I think Alanah's biggest mistake was trying to get a point across on a festering cespool like Twitter and expecting people there to understand.

Edit: I had assumed this was a result of tweets Alanah's made, when these were actually started by someone taking a clip of hers that was removed from the original context. Now that I understand, this makes even less sense.
 
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Quasicat

Member
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.
So wait…the Screen Actors Guild only let you hold membership for less than a year? It seems odd to me that her card started in 2024 and ends in October.
 

mitch1971

Member
How hard is it to hear a word, based on the context of the discussion, and not work out it's use being put forward?
 

Bernardougf

Member
Honestly don’t see why people wouldn’t want a pause button. That said it’s rarely an issue in Souls games unless you’re in a boss arena.
I wonder how many fights with wifes and girlfriends this game has caused... in my house is a constant attrition... because I cant for the life of me make my girl understand that this fucking game will not pause AND unlike her tik tok videos I have to pay attention in this shit LOL... its always funny though
 
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Killjoy-NL

Banned
Every game that isnt live service(being played with others simultaneously) should have a pause button. Period.
Isn't that already the case though?

I literally can't think of any non-multiplayer game that doesn't have a pause option.
 

Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
So wait…the Screen Actors Guild only let you hold membership for less than a year? It seems odd to me that her card started in 2024 and ends in October.
So wait…the Screen Actors Guild only let you hold membership for less than a year? It seems odd to me that her card started in 2024 and ends in October.
Annual membership.
So yeah you pay yearly and receive a new card or letter of good standing.
 

Fess

Member
One of the reasons I quit Forbidden West is due to Aloy murdering and assassinating humans for no legitimate reason. One of the early side quests is to investigate a crime. You end up in a cave killing humans that are just walking around. At least in the first game they were "bandit camps" you could avoid.
Yeah and those human fights are pure boredom anyway compared to the awesome machine fights. I play some open areas with only machines with my 8yo son, he’s literally bouncing in his seat from excitement. But I can’t play normally and do quests. Such a shame. Guerrilla would 2x the sales if they hit the 7+ years group of young gamers.
 

MonkD

Member
I think you’re missing the point here, that you cannot create your own barriers and believe it is a disability, situational or not. Situational barriers are uncontrolled by the person it is happening to.

These people want to call themselves disabled at moments instead of accepting responsibility for their own actions. It is very simple, you take care of the kids you are responsible for and set time aside if you can to play your games.

Again, this isn’t situational barriers at all. The core concepts of these situations are out of the persons control. The sun hitting their phone and not seeing the screen, loud noise in the middle of a conversation, etc.

These folks are not losing access to information, having their navigation hindered, the way they communicate with others stopped, nor is there anything other factor limiting them from any outside uncontrollable factors.

If someone wants to say a tornado hit, or the electricity went out then we can call that a situational barriers and nothing more. You cannot self induce a situational barrier, as it is from external uncontrollable circumstances from with in your environment.
She's not saying that you are disabled if you have children. No one is calling themselves disabled for having children either.

You seem to be ignoring the context of what she put out. People are stuck on the word/phrase they seem to be using internally, instead of discussing if Elden Ring would be worse for having a pause button. Since when did disabled become such a holy word? Was it at the same time as mongoloids started replacing "retard" with "the r-word"(as if kids wouldn't just use the new term in a derogatory fashion)?
 

hlm666

Member
She's not saying that you are disabled if you have children. No one is calling themselves disabled for having children either.

You seem to be ignoring the context of what she put out. People are stuck on the word/phrase they seem to be using internally, instead of discussing if Elden Ring would be worse for having a pause button. Since when did disabled become such a holy word? Was it at the same time as mongoloids started replacing "retard" with "the r-word"(as if kids wouldn't just use the new term in a derogatory fashion)?
When people without disabilities started using it to push their own fucking agenda that is better described with the word inconvenient.
 

Killjoy-NL

Banned
Yeah and those human fights are pure boredom anyway compared to the awesome machine fights. I play some open areas with only machines with my 8yo son, he’s literally bouncing in his seat from excitement. But I can’t play normally and do quests. Such a shame. Guerrilla would 2x the sales if they hit the 7+ years group of young gamers.
That's probably what Lego Horizon Adventures is for
 

Killjoy-NL

Banned
She's not saying that you are disabled if you have children. No one is calling themselves disabled for having children either.

You seem to be ignoring the context of what she put out. People are stuck on the word/phrase they seem to be using internally, instead of discussing if Elden Ring would be worse for having a pause button. Since when did disabled become such a holy word? Was it at the same time as mongoloids started replacing "retard" with "the r-word"(as if kids wouldn't just use the new term in a derogatory fashion)?
It's part of the "inclusive/Woke" nonsense.
 

Fess

Member
That's probably what Lego Horizon Adventures is for
It is but it’s not the same game at all. Kids love cool bombastic AAA games as much as we do, the regular games are perfect, really just needs less human violence. Fighting a Thunderjaw creates memories for life. I still remember some early games on Commodore 64 from my childhood. It’s such a bummer that kids today don’t really have many cool games to play or watch parents play.
 

Killjoy-NL

Banned
It is but it’s not the same game at all. Kids love cool bombastic AAA games as much as we do, the regular games are perfect, really just needs less human violence. Fighting a Thunderjaw creates memories for life. I still remember some early games on Commodore 64 from my childhood. It’s such a bummer that kids today don’t really have many cool games to play or watch parents play.
Why not? Kids can play all games we can play as well.
 
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-Minsc-

Member
Vaginas should come with a warning like cigarettes and an opt in tick box.
They more or less do. Plenty of sex education out there. Much like cigarette warnings, they are ignored. Can any guy here seriously say they did not know sticking their penis into a vagina can result in a baby?

To give a serious response to a less than serious post, probably.
 

YOU PC BRO?!

Gold Member
This is so tiresome....

There are plenty of games out there that are offline only experiences. Play any of those and you can pause to your hearts extent. If you would like to play a game that has an online component then of course you won't be able to pause. Allowing pausing in those situations would interrupt and degrade the experience of others playing the same game. Ultimately its all redundant as you typically have the option of quitting to the main menu... or exiting back to the dashboard... or straight-up powering off the console. I can't see how this is anything other than a non-issue. Am I missing something???
 

JCK75

Member
I think if there's one valid criticism of Elden ring not being able to pause the game is One I can get behind.. I often play single-player games while working and I need to be able to just stop it instantly and go take care of something... I get a lot of deaths in Elden ring due to this.
 

Killjoy-NL

Banned
Okay kid.

And you’ve been on GAF for a year, sorry for not wasting my time talking to you about how this board is ”turning”.
I'm 40 with a 18yo son who turned out just fine, despite me never really making a big deal about what games he was playing.
If you (in general, not you personally) as a parent are incapable of teaching your kid how to seperate games from real life, you fail as a parent.

And I've been here longer than this account. 😉

Anyway, your way of thinking is why we have all these snowflakes nowadays.
 
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I think if there's one valid criticism of Elden ring not being able to pause the game is One I can get behind.. I often play single-player games while working and I need to be able to just stop it instantly and go take care of something... I get a lot of deaths in Elden ring due to this.
Not be able to pause in Offline games has be the stupidest most idiotic trend that dark souls has caused. Couldn't do it in Lies of P either was infuriating.

Anyone who defends it is a Moron.
 

Fess

Member
I'm 40yo with a 18yo son who turned out just fine, despite me never really making a big deal about what games he was playing.
If you (in general, not you personally) as a parent are incapable of teaching your kid how to seperate games from real life, you fail as a parent.

And I've been here longer than this account. 😉

Anyway, your way of thinking is why we have all these snowflakes nowadays.
So you’re an alt?
Either way I’ve been here for 19 years, seen the ups and downs, been off the board as well and returned. GAF is fine.
And gaming violence is so much more realistic today than decades ago, cool that your kid is fine but do you for real mean that you can’t think of any game not suitable for young kids? Then I have nothing more to say to you.
 
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