I think the issue in both cases is that we have a lack of both handicapped players and novice players as developers.
Or rather that our developers seem to lack perspective. They're all developing the game they would like to play more or less in the moment, without regards to the opinions of the populace or the needs/concerns of the players they leave out of what they consider the majority.
This also ties into game design lacking an identity in the industry. Not everyone makes a good designer. If you can't think about what everyone else wants, you shouldn't be a designer. Right now, game design jobs are as much a commodity as teaching jobs are in many parts of the U.S. - you don't have to be an educator to teach, and you don't have to be a designer to design. You can be a programmer and get a job as a programming teacher and suck at it. You can be a programmer and get a job as a designer and suck at it. There's a lack of cross applied disciplines.
Case in point: WoW had to be developed by RTS designers to be the breakout MMORPG. What does that tell you about the insularity of MMORPG developers in terms of game play, let alone the insularity of game developers in terms of accessibility? Politically incorrect as it sounds, the best game ever would probably be produced by the most disenfranchised and widely traveled person ever: the best way to build a fair environment for a bunch of people is to know how much it sucks to be stepped on and of how little value being the top dog is.
But how often do you see "political science major" or "psychology and logic background" as the requirements for a design position in these types of games? Any type of game? It's not an intentionally designed state of affairs. Games will be inaccessible in a number of ways because accessibility is not a requirement for baseline success and few really aim for more than that. Progress tends to come by accident or through the hard work of a visionary against the ingrained status of the system.
My random, uninvited $0.02. It is a shame that common sense seems to be relegated to blogs these days.
Re: Accessibility is a game's vocation
I think the issue in both cases is that we have a lack of both handicapped players and novice players as developers.
Or rather that our developers seem to lack perspective. They're all developing the game they would like to play more or less in the moment, without regards to the opinions of the populace or the needs/concerns of the players they leave out of what they consider the majority.
This also ties into game design lacking an identity in the industry. Not everyone makes a good designer. If you can't think about what everyone else wants, you shouldn't be a designer. Right now, game design jobs are as much a commodity as teaching jobs are in many parts of the U.S. - you don't have to be an educator to teach, and you don't have to be a designer to design. You can be a programmer and get a job as a programming teacher and suck at it. You can be a programmer and get a job as a designer and suck at it. There's a lack of cross applied disciplines.
Case in point: WoW had to be developed by RTS designers to be the breakout MMORPG. What does that tell you about the insularity of MMORPG developers in terms of game play, let alone the insularity of game developers in terms of accessibility? Politically incorrect as it sounds, the best game ever would probably be produced by the most disenfranchised and widely traveled person ever: the best way to build a fair environment for a bunch of people is to know how much it sucks to be stepped on and of how little value being the top dog is.
But how often do you see "political science major" or "psychology and logic background" as the requirements for a design position in these types of games? Any type of game? It's not an intentionally designed state of affairs. Games will be inaccessible in a number of ways because accessibility is not a requirement for baseline success and few really aim for more than that. Progress tends to come by accident or through the hard work of a visionary against the ingrained status of the system.
My random, uninvited $0.02. It is a shame that common sense seems to be relegated to blogs these days.