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this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2023
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a self-imposed limitation is not at all the same as an external restriction.
It's either a self imposed limitation for some users and inclusivity by default, or a design-imposed limitation and exclusivity by default. Considering I spend so much of my time arguing and fighting against against exclusion and for inclusion in every other part of life, I see no reason why games shouldn't get the same treatment.
tests of skill and ability are inherently ableist. There are plenty of games that allow pausing, they're the majority, even. Let people have some that don't for artistic or ludic purposes.
I find hero shooters visually overstimulating and can't play them. I could try to get those to stop being made or i can go play any of the thousands of other games that aren't like that and let people who want and like them to have their fun too. I don't like visual design of anime fighters, but there are plenty of fighters that aren't like that i can go play. I don't like to keep playing a game when i know i lost for 25 minutes because it's depression triggering but other people like league of dota for some reason.
I and people who need to pause at all times are not under-served minorities.
"Let us have a little ableism, as a treat."
The thing is, it doesn't need to be either/or.
Or devs could do the same thing they've been doing for decades with difficulty levels. Before the start of a game, let users choose the difficulty levels and that could include whether or not they can pause the game. Users who wish to can then pause. This can be locked into the entirety of that playthrough. Problem solved.
Games almost never have to actually choose between ableism and the dev's vision for difficulty or pacing or whatever the fuck. Just give people the option. Hell, it would encourage people like me who struggle with difficult games to experience the game the way I am able, then try it again with higher difficulty (without being able to pause) rather than simply never being able to experience the game in the first place.
Given the reasons you listed why you can't play certain games, wouldn't you appreciate it if devs made the game in such a way where you could still choose to play it in the way you can, and let others play it as is? Obviously this isn't possible in all cases, and some while possible might require such a huge revamp of the game that it would effectively be a different game. This is not the case for simply being able to pause the game.
This isn't a lot to ask of devs for large masses of people who live lives where they will have to step away from a game without notice but would also like to not be punished by the game for doing so or outright unable to play it because of that life.
i have enough games to play, i'm not put out by design features i don't like or render a minority of games inaccessible to me.
a fuckload of books and movies don't hold my attention, should everything be re-edited to suit my neurology?
you can't have challenges for everyone without being somewhat exclusionary some of the time, and that's fine as long as it's optional recreation and there's a wealth of other equivalent things we can do for fun.
the large masses of people who have to be able to pause at the drop of a hat are the default. offline singleplayer with no pausing is a rare aberration. You might as well ask for the spiciest food to cease to exist, to accommodate normal people, as though the vast majority of food is not spicy at all.
You sound like one of those chud gamers who thinks making games more inclusive for other people detracts from the purity of the game. It's ablebist bullshit.
"There's a fuckload of places around the city that are wheelchair-accessible, should every public building be re-engineered to suit me just because I'm in a wheelchair?" A book or movie "not holding your attention" is a completely different thing than if a book or a movie didn't allow you to set it down or walk away from it. If a movie forced the people who wanted to watch it to do so entirely on the terms of the producer, like say, not letting people fast-forward through a scene with intense flashing lights, then yes, that's ableist and that movie should be criticized for being ableist and a version of it should be made so people with epilepsy could watch it.
This is such a bullshit analogy that totally misrepresents what we're saying. ("We" being those of us who think games should not be ableist). We're not asking for spicy food to "not exist" in that we're not asking for your precious games who don't want people to be able to pause them to "not exist." They can exist just fine, as I described above, it doesn't have to be either/or, so you should stop pretending like it does. Just as a spicy food dish and a mild version of it can exist simultaneously. In fact it's funny that you'd even use that as an analogy since every restaurant I've ever been to gives its customers the option to order a hot or mild version of whatever spicy dishes it has on the menu.
people are literally in here complaining about games that don't allow pausing, saying that they should all allow it with no exceptions regardless of artistic intent or ludic effect.
this thread would not have happened if "they can exist just fine" was the premise.
ableism is inherent to challenging participants on the basis of ability. a challenge for some will be impossible for others, and some people will be unable no matter how easy the easy mode is or how low you put the basketball hoop. We have to reckon with that, inventing wheelchair basketball, or having a lower hoop for kids, or games that have no time pressure, but we don't get rid of the NBA because I can't dunk and we shouldn't force every game to have pausing just because somebody might need to walk away.