I’m talking about something like setting starting percentages on smash bros.
Things that put you (or your foes) at disadvantage for a more fair game with your friends.
What do you think about it? What are some good/bad implementations?
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I think it would be hard to argue that having more accessibility options would be bad.
It is all to easy to miss the immense benefits of accommodating accessibility for those of us who don’t need them though.
Most people would generally agree that NASA working on the hard problems of going into space has benefited a wide variety of industries and sciences that aren’t directly related to space travel. Most people would generally agree that athletes competing at the absolute top of a competitive sport benefits everyone who plays the sport both from developing better form and techniques and from the technology and science related to the sport becoming more competitive over time. Those benefits often extend far beyond the sport. A sports doctor being focused on getting you rehabilitated from an injury so that you can specifically play sports again might be a much more effective doctor at returning your body to health than a normal doctor who just wants to get you relatively mobile again so you can get make it into work. That sports doctor is likely using science and methodology that was developed at least partially to help professional athletes rehabilitate their injuries.
I hope we get to a point soon where most people would generally agree that accommodating accessibility needs for people with relatively “uncommon” disabilities benefits a similarly wide range of people and things. If a restaurant has to make their door wheelchair accessible, when someone has a medical emergency inside the restaurant and EMTs are trying to wheel the patient out the door as quick as possible to save their life, the effort that went into making it so someone can get into the restaurant who is in a wheelchair all of a sudden spontaneously improves the life of the victim by helping them get to the hospital faster.
This isn’t a narrative that will just happen about accessibility (especially in video games), we have to keep pointing it out to give it life.
They’re great, means I don’t have to artificially adjust my play style to play with someone less experienced
Strategy games also tend to implicitly have it, in that you can team up the weaker player with a strong AI player.
Or sometimes there’s also fun options, like a map where you can place the strong player into the fortified center and they have to defend against three weaker players at the same time. That can serve as a handicap, but the asymmetry also just means that it’s less obvious and therefore less frustrating, who’s better.
Generally, I’m in favor of having such handicap features, of course, but I feel like it’s even better when the game’s design is just naturally less brutally competitive.
For example, in Gang Beasts, yes, you’re competing with each other, but the weirdo controls mean that it’s never entirely your own fault when you lose, and of course, everything is just less serious in general.Ultimately, such handicap features will break competition, too, because rather than the weirdo controls or your stupid AI buddy, you can then blame the handicap. I guess, it also helps to not take games too serious in the first place…
Lastly, I’d like to throw in the objectively best handicap: Having to play cooperatively with the weak player.
Just don’t compete with each other, but rather tackle a challenge together.When playing with friends/alone? Great! Customization is never a bad thing, and it enables groups with varied skill levels to still enjoy the game. Online multiplayer? Hate it hate it hate it.
One example: a lot of fps games are cross-platform these days, and I’ve never felt good about the things they do to balance mouse vs controller. I get why they attempt it, but it feels less like “balance” and more like they’ve created two different classes of players, controller being the close quarter players and mouse being the mid/long range flick shooters.
Another is any game that adjusts comeback mechanics during the course of a match, because I’ve never understood punishing someone for playing well
