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

Raven117

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.
Im not offended by this.

You, like Sheep, are missing the forest for the trees here.
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
Well, maybe we should rename the term to kid retarded?

You joke but retarded could be used although it's a bit of a stretch

retard
verb
verb: retard; 3rd person present: retards; past tense: retarded; past participle: retarded; gerund or present participle: retarding
/rɪˈtɑːd/
delay or hold back in terms of progress or development.
"our progress was retarded by unforeseen difficulties"

So Kid Retarded could mean your progress in the game is held back due to the presence of a child. The child of course would be retarding at the time.
 
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CherryFalls

Banned
Let's stay on topic

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I wish I knew about this when I was a child. I could have told my parents that they can't make me stop playing games and do my homework because that would make me disabled.
 

Dirk Benedict

Gold Member
What makes her stupid?
Oh boy... What makes you even ask? I'm curious.
"Every few days I wonder why I try to teach anyone anything on the internet but yes, in software and game development, “situational disability” is a term that refers to any non-permanent situation that would prevent someone from progressing. Accessibility aims to alleviate that."

Every few days I wonder why I try teach anyone anything on the fucking internet... really? Every few days you wonder why you have to teach complete fucking strangers on the internet anything?
Then, we have Situational Disability. A an inept attempt at sounding intellectual and what seems like a replacement-euphemism for Do Your Fucking Job as a Parent.'
Then she throws in Accessibility at the end, really? Isn't it obvious to you iHaunter iHaunter that accessibility would alleviate that, without having to be told so?
In that sense, it's putting a pause button in a game that was designed without one in mind.

In the end, it's hot air and the worst part, she's not even playing to her best strength. I'll let you be the judge of that based on her past posts and this very thread.
Take care.
 
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Futaleufu

Member
Its not, it's because of the way From software games implement multiplayer features, the proof is that Sekiro, the one game that doesn't have those, has a pause function

The problem is that from software isn't capable of implenting a pause function in their engine when a player is in the offline mode or playing alone (something that Borderlands 1 managed to do just fine in 2008)
An invasion is another player entering your world to kill your character
 

iHaunter

Member
Oh boy... What makes you even ask? I'm curious.
"Every few days I wonder why I try to teach anyone anything on the internet but yes, in software and game development, “situational disability” is a term that refers to any non-permanent situation that would prevent someone from progressing. Accessibility aims to alleviate that."

Every few days I wonder why I try teach anyone anything on the fucking internet... really? Every few days you wonder why you have to teach complete fucking strangers on the internet anything?
Then, we have Situational Disability. A an inept attempt at sounding intellectual and what seems like a replacement-euphemism for Do Your Fucking Job as a Parent.'
Then she throws in Accessibility at the end, really? Isn't it obvious to you iHaunter iHaunter that accessibility would alleviate that, without having to be told so?
In that sense, it's putting a pause button in a game that was designed without one in mind.

In the end, it's hot air and the worst part, she's not even playing to her best strength. I'll let you be the judge of that based on her past posts and this very thread.
Take care.
That's an interesting take. While I don't agree entirely with her statement, and it can come off as condescending. We don't deal with the internet on the same scale that she does. In terms of creeps and harassers in general. I can see why some people would want something like this, having a 4-year-old myself. But generally, I wouldn't play something like Elden Ring if I don't have the time to.

That being said, I don't see why the Elden Ring offline mode doesn't have a pause function as PVP is not involved.
 

Dirk Benedict

Gold Member
That's an interesting take. While I don't agree entirely with her statement, and it can come off as condescending. We don't deal with the internet on the same scale that she does. In terms of creeps and harassers in general. I can see why some people would want something like this, having a 4-year-old myself. But generally, I wouldn't play something like Elden Ring if I don't have the time to.

That being said, I don't see why the Elden Ring offline mode doesn't have a pause function as PVP is not involved.
I am glad you said that: "and it can come off as condescending" Because it does. Why Elden Ring doesn't have pause in Offline? No clue... but since Demon's Souls, I've just kept next to that checkpoint/bonefire, on offline, so I don't have to deal with anything.
In Demon's it was worse, as I think in order to create a checkpoint, you would have to defeat a boss. Which is worse than Elden Ring, lol...
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
Chick with big tits says something goofy and we’ve got a thread with over 400 posts.

I’m not sure any recent game announcement has hit this many replies in such a short timeframe.
 

GrayChild

Member
Chick with big tits says something goofy and we’ve got a thread with over 400 posts.

I’m not sure any recent game announcement has hit this many replies in such a short timeframe.

So technically... she has become the very own "situational disability" preventing us from playing and discussing games?!

On the other hand, console war threads are no longer the most active. The titanic tatas of our Queen have finally brought peace upon the console warrior camps!
 
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JayK47

Member
The real issue is a game without a pause button. AT ANY TIME. That includes cut scenes. I call games without pause disabled.
 
Is having a full time job also a situational disability? What about a bladder or a stomach with their own needs? I never realised how limited I was.

Also: on '...why I try to anyone anything on the internet' - try to be a little less full of your own intellectual importance, Professor Pearce.

Another reason I cant stand her ...this mentality is why games like GoW Ragnarok were ruined. This focus on "accessibility" led to that game literally not letting the player think for ourselves. Atreus will ALWAYS be standing in the direction we should be going next ..or looking in the direction of the solution to a puzzle ..or just blurting out the fucking solution!

It's no wonder someone like her wound up fitting right in at that studio. Everyone is disabled, everyone is an idiot or a child in these peoples eyes that MUST BE CATERED TO.

CLOWNS like that are really hurting gaming and it has transferred over to kid friendly companies like Nintendo who are now neautering the challenge in all their games through "quality of life" feautures such as REMOVING TIMERS, giving the player extra power up items etc....the last FOUR Mario games (3 of which were remakes of older games) all are worse than their original because of "features" like these removing the option for gamers to be actually challenged for a change.
 
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.

Exactly. This is a forn of wokeness disguised as accessibility. It sounds good but it has negative consequences. See my post as to how "accessibility" is making games worse. Where do we draw the line with this? Do we want games not even letting us use our brains? Be challenged in some ways? If everyone has to be catered to at all times we get games like Ragnarok or Mario ROG remake making these games play themselves. We will get Fromsoft games eventually that will be a cakewalk. Alannah Pearce cones across as another self important woke journalist to me. I def dont consider her a game dev. She's close on the rung to Jason Shreigher. A negative force in the industry that many people are tricked into supporting.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
Because she liked having children to a disability. Regardless of technical definition you should be able to see the problem with this phrase.

Does that mean that people's issue with what she said is not necessarily her thoughts and opinions, but the language that she used?
 

Cyberpunkd

Member
Does that mean that people's issue with what she said is not necessarily her thoughts and opinions, but the language that she used?
Yes?

It’s a valid discussion around distractions when you game and putting pause in a single player game as an accessibility feature. She was just dumb about it and doubled back when challenged.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
Yes?

It’s a valid discussion around distractions when you game and putting pause in a single player game as an accessibility feature. She was just dumb about it and doubled back when challenged.

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.
 

Fess

Member
So I’m very very disabled. But to be honest you get used to it, and once they get older you have the best buddies there is.

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???
 

TheSHEEEP

Gold Member
You need to take a step back. You are missing the forest for the trees here.
You are accepting these “definitions” (not the strongest citations) as somehow conclusive without regard to how these terms are used and/or been manipulated or changed.
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.

I’m not defending every poster here, but one should take notice of the common usage of a term because what is language if not a common understanding?
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.

If you can’t see that attaching charged words like “disability” (even if it’s “situational” disability) to everyday inconveniences in an effort to garner more attention or accommodation, I don’t know what to tell you.
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!"...
 
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Gamerguy84

Member
In single player games isn't the menu, or map basically a pause button. He'll I just hit my PS button and it brings me to the user Interface.

Oh well in a way she has succeeded. We are indeed having the conversation here, I'm sure other places as well.
 

TheSHEEEP

Gold Member
In single player games isn't the menu, or map basically a pause button. He'll I just hit my PS button and it brings me to the user Interface.
Not always.
Elden Ring famously doesn't pause the game in its menus - there are ways to do it (go to equipment, press help button, go to "equipment help" or sth like that), but by default the game just moves on.
Other single player games behave similarly.

Most games do pause when you're in the menu, but quite a few don't - with no good reason, honestly.
 

FireFly

Member
Because she liked having children to a disability. Regardless of technical definition you should be able to see the problem with this phrase.
There is only a "problem" with the phrase if you can't see that the sense of "disability" she is using refers to a kind of temporary impairment and has nothing to do with disability in the everyday sense of the word. It comes down to whether people on the internet can understand that words have different meanings in different contexts.
 

Soodanim

Gold Member
All of the flowery language and the parody-like focus on kids that invokes Poe's Law only serves to detract from the very simple concept that seems to have been largely adhered to from PS3 onwards:

Let people pause because they might need to pause.

I'm Souls fan, and even in those I just quit out when I need to.

I approve of tits because there's little else of substance to say. People like QOL. End of.
 

TheSHEEEP

Gold Member
There is only a "problem" with the phrase if you can't see that the sense of "disability" she is using refers to a kind of temporary impairment and has nothing to do with disability in the everyday sense of the word. It comes down to whether people on the internet can understand that words have different meanings in different contexts.
Fully agree with that.

I think the problem here comes from her (again) trying to have a semi-academic or at least professional discussion - in which you can expect people to behave somewhat reasonable - on X.
Given the audience on X and its short-text-quick-fire nature, that's just not a very smart move.

Many things are facts here:
1. She's right.
2. There is no issue with the term "situational disability" if you understand context and meaning.
3. Lots of people are behaving like idiots.
4. She could've/should've foreseen 3. and either reworded or not post. I strongly doubt she's some mastermind trying to harvest clicks by using a fairly normal term in software/application development.
 
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