Support NeoGAF

[Mr.Phoenix]

What the fuck is up with this thread? Or with people in general.

She is 100% right. And this is not even about her, this is common sense. But some fuckers on here are just so eager to jump on witch hunts and talk shit about people that they throw common sense out the window. PLEASE, lets not be like that other site.

For those that want to learn...

Lets start with the word disability

From google: A disability is any condition of the body or mind (impairment) that makes it more difficult for the person with the condition to do certain activities (activity limitation) and interact with the world around them (participation restrictions).

then now just throw in situational before that (which in this case would also mean temporary), which a kid would fall under. So would having to get up to take a leak... hell chores you have to do.

The point of this, is simply that accessibility in game design considers these things. And as crazy as this may sound...being able to pause your game.. or anything that has a pause option for that matter, is literally there to address stuff like this. And this is something everyone has had to deal with on some level already. eg. Its why I don't play Tekken online if I am babysitting...

 

[FireFly]

You tell 'em girl. We need to go even further and create more stories that bring awareness to the negative part of having kids. Like... the fact your life will no longer revolve around gaming and gaming only. Who in their right mind would want to live like that?

P.S. This is also another thread where everyone's encouraged to post some visual proof of how brilliant and forward-thinking our NeoGAF queen is.

Yes, let's take a specific technical term out of its intended context to make unfounded claims! We should also post pictures of Alanah, because as a woman on the internet the legitimacy of her points depends on how hot she is.

 

[Impotaku]

The kids thing easily solved when gaming. Shock collars for everyone, little billy acting up at a crucial boss fight just press a button and continue the battle as Timmy break dances on the floor.

Job done.

 

[Boglin]

Good grief. I try to defend Alanah… but fuck me, she’s come out with some dumb ass California brain rot stuff recently.

Go back, love. The yanks are rotting your brain.

It's called progress, sweatie

 

[Embearded]

Terminology aside, she's right though. Not being able to pause a single player game is stupid.

Some of you have a massive hate boner for this woman, not sure why.


Ok what about when my child needs to pause the game when he needs a piss or shit.

Should he just die and lose all his progress or sit there, shit himself and carry on.

That's your chance to take over and have a few minutes of fun in this otherwise miserable life.

I agree about being able to pause a single player game in general. In the end though, if the designer has a reason to not include one, it's their choice to do so.
We are not entitled to anything, and sometimes we are not the target group of a product, its ok.

 

[baphomet]

Sick, so because I have to take a shit I'm disabled now?

When do I start getting my checks?

Gotta love when people go so PC they actually become offensive.

 

[mdkirby]

It is a genuine nightmare when your toddlers are jumping all over you, trying to get your attention, and you are trying to backstab a harpie right up the arsehole and get the timing just right. Come on devs - give us a pause button to fend them off and then we can get back to slaying!

Yah, my friends kid is now 7 and he still has to vanish for a bit mid game on helldivers semi regularly. Me and my wife just went with cats instead…much easier to manage, but I’d be lying if I said they hadn’t also led to a few deaths when either deciding to leap on top of the tv, walk infront of it, play with the burning embers of the erdtree or otherwise cause chaos

 

[GrayChild]

What the fuck is up with this thread? Or with people in general.

She is 100% right. And this is not even about her, this is common sense. But some fuckers on here are just so eager to jump on witch hunts and talk shit about people that they throw common sense out the window. PLEASE, lets not be like that other site.

Nobody's jumping on a witch hunt or (God forbid) trying to cancel someone. I guess irony, sarcasm and satire are just not a part of some people's vocabulary.

From google: A disability is any condition of the body or mind (impairment) that makes it more difficult for the person with the condition to do certain activities (activity limitation) and interact with the world around them (participation restrictions).

then now just throw in situational before that (which in this case would also mean temporary), which a kid would fall under. So would having to get up to take a leak... hell chores you have to do.

There are also words like nuisance and distraction, but we have to make ourselves look like victims when we have to get out of our chairs for like 2 minutes, leaving the game on?

The point of this, is simply that accessibility in game design considers these things. And as crazy as this may sound...being able to pause your game.. or anything that has a pause option for that matter, is literally there to address stuff like this. And this is something everyone has had to deal with on some level already. eg. Its why I don't play Tekken online if I am babysitting...

I wonder how everyone survived without the ability to pause in online games, the vast majority of Soulslikes or a bunch of narrative and horror titles. Not every game should cater to those who make a problem of simply leaving the game running for 2 minutes even with nothing happening in the meantime.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

This is getting retarded.

 

[Mownoc]

There are also words like nuisance and distraction, but we have to make ourselves look like victims when we have to get out of our chairs for like 2 minutes, leaving the game on?

Thinking that the term situational disability means you're making yourself look like a victim seems like a problem with your understanding and perception.

People just seeing the word "disability" and immediately jumping to benefit payments and people wanting to be "victims". What a one-track mind.

 

[StereoVsn]

It is a genuine nightmare when your toddlers are jumping all over you, trying to get your attention, and you are trying to backstab a harpie right up the arsehole and get the timing just right. Come on devs - give us a pause button to fend them off and then we can get back to slaying!

Yep, once you have kids having to spend time dedicated on console/PC without pause is not much of an option.

 

[Lunarorbit]

Nobody's jumping on a witch hunt or (God forbid) trying to cancel someone. I guess irony, sarcasm and satire are just not a part of some people's vocabulary.

There are also words like nuisance and distraction, but we have to make ourselves look like victims when we have to get out of our chairs for like 2 minutes, leaving the game on?


I wonder how everyone survived without the ability to pause in online games, the vast majority of Soulslikes or a bunch of narrative and horror titles. Not every game should cater to those who make a problem of simply leaving the game running for 2 minutes even with nothing happening in the meantime.

Yeah using the word disability in this context is ridiculous. When you use the word disability in gaming it means people who are missing limbs, have ms, are color blind, etc.

For someone that falls all over herself to be PC this seems extremely hypocritical. Like your example of nuisance or distraction

 

[Last Hearth]

This is a problem with Elden ring etc. obstensibly single player games but no pause. They make them pretty unplayable by my friends with kids. Returnal was particularly bad where a session may last 2hours, it’s just uninterrupted time that cannot be guaranteed by a parent. Multiplayer is ofcourse worse.

This is why I don’t play any games that I can’t pause. Turn based games have been my primary type of game since my daughter was born.

 

[thief183]

I don't understand the problem, it is a term used used to describe the moments you are not able to do something... it makes sense to me.

 

[FireFly]

I wonder how everyone survived without the ability to pause in online games, the vast majority of Soulslikes or a bunch of narrative and horror titles. Not every game should cater to those who make a problem of simply leaving the game running for 2 minutes even with nothing happening in the meantime.

So Alanah's claim is that *every game* should be accessible in the way she describes? If so, please provide a source. As all Alanah is doing in the tweet is providing a definition of technical vocabulary.

Moreover, saying that people survived without having a particular option isn't a particularly strong argument against that option being of benefit. I think the claim would need to be that having the option diminishes the experience in some way.

 

[Mownoc]

I don't understand the problem, it is a term used used to describe the moments you are not able to do something... it makes sense to me.

Because people see the word "disability" and are apparently incapable of distinguishing between the definition of the word and the things that immediately pop into their mind when they hear it.

It doesn't help that it's about kids too, sure calling your children a disability is horrible, but that's not what this is. The term situational disability just means being in a situation that affects your ability to perform certain actions and use your senses.

If you are in a situation with loud noise or something visually obscuring what you are trying to do then it is a situational disability because the situation your are in is affecting your ability.

 

[Rudius]

Is she really even that hot though

Does she breastfeed the kid?

 

[Hero of Spielberg]

I started reading this thread and then I thought, 'what the fuck am I doing?'

 

[Camreezie]

It's a barrier to progress in a video game, 'situational disability' jesus christ

 

[Kenneth Haight]

My daughter’s first experience of video games was Astros Playroom. She is truly living in a golden age

Edit: on topic, this is utter nonsense, have kids and look after them well if you want to have them. If you don’t want to have them, more power to you. Enjoy your uninterrupted video game time, but I’m sure there are plenty of other “situational disabilities”

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Because people see the word "disability" and are apparently incapable of distinguishing between the definition of the word and the things that immediately pop into their mind when they hear it.

It doesn't help that it's about kids too, sure calling your children a disability is horrible, but that's not what this is. The term situational disability just means being in a situation that affects your ability to perform certain actions and use your senses.

If you are in a situation with loud noise or something visually obscuring what you are trying to do then it is a situational disability because the situation your are in is affecting your ability.

Hopefully, from now on, devs will take my rectal disability into consideration, because sometimes I have to take a shit mid-game.

 

[DJ12]

Having kids is a disability, this isn't news.

Imagine all the stuff you can't do anymore once you have kids. Literal nightmare.

Vaginas should come with a warning like cigarettes and an opt in tick box.

 

[ProtoByte]

What the fuck is up with this thread?

She is 100% right. And this is not even about her, this is common sense. But some fuckers on here are just so eager to jump on witch hunts and talk shit about people that they throw common sense out the window. PLEASE, lets not be like that other site.

...

The point of this, is simply that accessibility in game design considers these things. And as crazy as this may sound...being able to pause your game.. or anything that has a pause option for that matter, is literally there to address stuff like this. And this is something everyone has had to deal with on some level already. eg. Its why I don't play Tekken online if I am babysitting...

We alreadybhave a word for this though: "Inconvenience". We also have a gaming-specific term that refers to the solutions for these: "QoL improvements".

People in this thread are put off by "situational disability" because it sounds like newspeak. Or that guy in the friend group that learns a new niche concept and brings it into every conversation that even barely relates.

The accessibility campaigners on social media will do anything to justify their continued employment and boosting their profiles at top level studios, and twisting language and making up buzzwords is part of that.

People don't want this crusade in lowering barriers to play to bleed into game design, waste time and resources that could be spent on more interesting problems, or over-casualize games.

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

Nobody's jumping on a witch hunt or (God forbid) trying to cancel someone. I guess irony, sarcasm and satire are just not a part of some people's vocabulary.

Please read this thread... this is a cop-out statement. We have posters here saying all sorts of shit, then people like you would come and say hey we were just joking or its sarcasm when called out for it.

There are also words like nuisance and distraction, but we have to make ourselves look like victims when we have to get out of our chairs for like 2 minutes, leaving the game on?

And even while trying to address it, you are still misconstruing the facts.

I wonder how everyone survived without the ability to pause in online games, the vast majority of Soulslikes or a bunch of narrative and horror titles. Not every game should cater to those who make a problem of simply leaving the game running for 2 minutes even with nothing happening in the meantime.

Then you are completely missing the point. Obviously, not every game should cater to that. Hell, in some cases its even impossible to. In my post I gave an example, I used Tekken, but that can be any online game. You cannot pause the game while in an online match. And that makes sense why you can't... so what do you do? simply avoid playing if you know you have something else to do. This brings us back to the term... situational disability.

What I have to do, may prevent me from playing Tekken online because I cannot pause an online game... so I just time my playtime to coincide with when I have nothing to do. Get it? Know what happens if you are in a ranked online match in tekken and you leave the game running at the start of the fight and go do something else for 2 mins? Take a wild guess.

We alreadybhave a word for this though: "Inconvenience". We also have a gaming-specific term that refers to the solutions for these: "QoL improvements".

People in this thread are put off by "situational disability" because it sounds like newspeak. Or that guy in the friend group that learns a new niche concept and brings it into every conversation that even barely relates.

The accessibility campaigners on social media will do anything to justify their continued employment and boosting their profiles at top level studios, and twisting language and making up buzzwords is part of that.

People don't want this crusade in lowering barriers to play to bleed into game design, waste time and resources that could be spent on more interesting problems, or over-casualize games.

And I have no qualms with that. I won't nor cant speak to why people have an issue with the phrase. But the phrase is there, and it exists and is used by developers. My issue is in people attacking whoever is using the said phrase... a literal case of killing the messenger.

My personal take on this is that every game... every single one... should have the option to let you pause. However, there are games where pausing would be impossible... eg playing online vs games. So I won't ever take issue with anyone calling for the addition of a pause option in every game. In cases where such an option cant exist, it should be common sense as to why.

 

[Freeman76]

Put 'em up for adoption amd game on, cant let your achievement score suffer because you chose to have kiddies

 

[Shake Your Rump]

This is a problem with Elden ring etc. obstensibly single player games but no pause.

FYI: You can quickly save and quit whenever and wherever, and return to your exact spot upon reload.

 

[Portugeezer]

Could have called it anything else, disability has strong connotations with physical impairment, so I'm not surprised people think it's stupid.

 

[Spukc]

Is she really even that hot though

Thanks was waiting for Tits

 

[FireFly]

We alreadybhave a word for this though: "Inconvenience". We also have a gaming-specific term that refers to the solutions for these: "QoL improvements".

Would inconvenience and QoL improvements not encompass tasks that are rendered more difficult by design choices? For example if it's hard to use an inventory screen then that might impact the flow of the game (an inconvenience), requiring that the UI be improved (a QoL improvement). I don't think under the provided definition we would say that the player is undergoing a "temporary disability", since they are not prevented from progressing. To me a temporary disability would be say if you couldn't use sound because your baby was sleeping in the same room, and the game required you to listen to audio cues to progress. Then under these definitions, the game would require an accessibility update, not a QoL update.

I think if accessibility is broadened to include convenience, then it essentially would collapse into design. As design is all about balancing convenience with "challenge".

 

[nemiroff]

Terminology aside, she's right though. Not being able to pause a single player game is stupid.

Ok what about when my child needs to pause the game when he needs a piss or shit.

Should he just die and lose all his progress or sit there, shit himself and carry on.

Yeah, no one in their right mind would deny that having kids can be "distracting/Inconvenient" while gaming, especially when playing games without a pause function. I for one stay clear of playing Call of Duty mp when my three-year old is around.. It's common sense. But what about f.ex. Elden Ring, is that a gray zone..? I mean, I don't play it online, but still can't pause it..

Anyway, the issue here is clearly the word "disability" which is a tone-deaf needless use of the word in this context.

 

[Topher]

Yeah, no one in their right mind would deny that having kids can be "distracting/Inconvenient" while gaming, especially when playing games without a pause function. I for one stay clear of playing Call of Duty mp when my three-year old is around.. It's common sense. But what about f.ex. Elden Ring, is that a gray zone..? I mean, I don't play it online, but still can't pause it..

Anyway, the issue here is clearly the word "disability" which is a tone-deaf needless use of the word in this context.

Exactly. We can say games should have pause capabilities without artificially elevating this "problem" to the status of a "disability". The world really needs to stop trying to exploit words like "disability" for every simple gotdang annoyance in life. And if folks have to twist shit like this to refer to their family as an annoyance when it comes to playing games then I pray for that family.

 

[Tiamat2san]

Can we talk about cats ?
And wives?
Sometime they seek attention while we play.

Evil beings.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Hey, everybody playing the online game should stop whatever they are doing because one person was disabled by his child Stop everything you are doing! Or else

 

[GrayChild]

Because people see the word "disability" and are apparently incapable of distinguishing between the definition of the word and the things that immediately pop into their mind when they hear it.

It doesn't help that it's about kids too, sure calling your children a disability is horrible, but that's not what this is. The term situational disability just means being in a situation that affects your ability to perform certain actions and use your senses.

If you are in a situation with loud noise or something visually obscuring what you are trying to do then it is a situational disability because the situation your are in is affecting your ability.

The fact that "situational disability" exists as a term (now officially I guess), doesn't make it any less idiotic. Besides, if we're really nitpicking the small details, in what way taking care of my kid or having to use the bathroom "affects my ability to perform certain actions or use my senses"? I'm still physically able to play the game, in no way worse than I did 2 minutes ago. I just have other, more important and time-sensitive things to do. That has nothing to do with the word "disability".

All my senses are still intact and I can use them just as good as I did while playing the game. My sight is simply fixated on another thing as a temporary distraction. A very loud noise from an outside source does not affect my ability to hear. It just silences out all other sounds by simply being louder to the point where you'll struggle to make up anything else.

So yes, that term is absolutely nonsensical. Just as other recent made-up definitions and phrases such as latinx or genderqueer.

Please read this thread... this is a cop-out statement. We have posters here saying all sorts of shit, then people like you would come and say hey we were just joking or its sarcasm when called out for it.

Please provide any post in this thread that openly calls for harassing her, losing her job or being driven out of the industry.

In my post I gave an example, I used Tekken, but that can be any online game. You cannot pause the game while in an online match. And that makes sense why you can't... so what do you do? simply avoid playing if you know you have something else to do. This brings us back to the term... situational disability.

What I have to do, may prevent me from playing Tekken online because I cannot pause an online game... so I just time my playtime to coincide with when I have nothing to do. Get it? Know what happens if you are in a ranked online match in tekken and you leave the game running at the start of the fight and go do something else for 2 mins? Take a wild guess.

I would use a lot of words and phrases for that type of situation, but definitely not anything including "disability",

 

[simpatico]

Yeah, it’s called being an adult parent. You can’t play PvP games for 5 hours per night. Hitting the summon sign 3 times was the best thing I ever did. I certainly do not consider it a disability. Developers do not need to make me a special mode or pause screen. In fact, I’d offer to make them a nice hand built deck or shed.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Thinking that the term situational disability means you're making yourself look like a victim seems like a problem with your understanding and perception

Because it is a not a disability. I remember it being called "being busy", "distracted" etc. but now it is suddenly a "disability". "Hey folks I am having a disability in the toilet"

 

[Filben]

No need to be overly dramatic about it and refer to kids and "disability" in one sentence to earn internet points for caring about parents.

Games should have a pause button for various reasons. If I suddenly gotta go to the bathroom this is not a fucking disability; having children is not a disability unless you're a cynical person. Stop using the same terms for a whole bunch of different concepts, because it dilutes the original meaning.

Next thing will be parents called survivors...

 

[GHG]

This is a problem with Elden ring etc. obstensibly single player games but no pause. They make them pretty unplayable by my friends with kids. Returnal was particularly bad where a session may last 2hours, it’s just uninterrupted time that cannot be guaranteed by a parent. Multiplayer is ofcourse worse.

This is actually a perfect use case for those ai clones Sony patented. So when u have to check out it just takes the reins from you for a bit and mirrors your style.

What ever happened to just putting the controller down and not giving a fuck about what happens in the game if you need to attend to your children?

 

[IDappa]

Got kids, never had a problem. Strange someone who doesn't have kids comments on something like this. Strange argument in general I guess she wants some attention.

 

[FalsettoVibe]

Why do we need a new thread every time this chick says something?

 

[*Nightwing]

A great start but it doesn’t go far enough Queenie Alana!!!

Turn all video games into drone UI interfaces where gamers now control day care drones to be forced to take care of everyone’s children! This way we can punish those trying to avoid having children and enjoy life playing games and simultaneously avoid accountability for our own procreating decisions!!!

Then we can tackle F1 racing then all remaining professional sports. Its not fair that only those that sacrifice personal lives to train hard and dedicate themselves to one sport should be the only ones that get to enjoy the difficulty of acheiving the limits of human capabilities whilst we just partied and fucked around and now have to suffer the consequences of our own decisions.

 

[Facism]

man she talks a lot of shyte

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

... and people simp for her

 

[PauloRoberto]

That's a strange argument for something that is absolutelly true... For a offline game, or a game that can be played offline, why the hell can't I pause the game to go to the bathroom ?!

 

[Red5]

She has a valid point to be honest, it's an argument in favor of adding more options to pause a game where there's none, or to manually save in games that only have autosave like Souls series, being a working parent might force you to turn off your game in the middle of a boss fight for example.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

She is 100% right. And this is not even about her, this is common sense.

Although her definition of situational disability is technically correct you would have to be batshit insane to apply this to a fact of having children. Or just be a single person without any experience of having children.

 

[Bring Back Scalebound]

I'm starting to believe that some of you guys just bring up Alanah talking about random stuff as a trojan horse to worship her...

No disrespect meant to Alanah, and I'm genuinely asking out of curiosity, why does her opinion matter this much to people here?

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Why do we need a new thread every time this chick says something?

Chance to post her pics. But we can't post deepfakes so I think the opportunity is a bit wasted.

 

[Zathalus]

Hopefully, from now on, devs will take my rectal disability into consideration, because sometimes I have to take a shit mid-game.

Most games do. It’s called pausing.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Most games do. It’s called pausing.

Except online games.