Hidetaka Miyazaki sees death as a feature, not a bug • Hacker News Board

Re: Hidetaka Miyazaki sees death as a feature, not a bug

#231

Post by MattyRad » Fri, Mar 04, 2022, 12:23 AM UTC

dota_fanatic wrote: post #38

> “I do feel apologetic toward anyone who feels there’s just too much to overcome in my games,” Miyazaki told me. He held his head in his hands, then smiled. “I just want as many players as possible to experience the joy that comes from overcoming hardship.” It's been great to see how their games have inspired so many people. If you go search any of the subreddits for their games, it's not rare to see testimonials of…

I've always thought that the only way to lose at Dark Souls is to give up, and go Hollow.

It's a small missed opportunity that From Software didn't indicate where in the Game players went Hollow; that is, if a player died, show their bloodstain and how they died. If a player died and hasn't resumed playing for a very long time (they gave up), then put a new hollowed enemy instead of a bloodstain.

Re: Hidetaka Miyazaki sees death as a feature, not a bug

#232

Post by mwcampbell » Fri, Mar 04, 2022, 5:13 PM UTC

stnmtn wrote: post #204

Osmose wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Accessibility for dyslexia isn't about changing to "simple english" though. You can offer customizable fonts on e-readers (people with dyslexia may find some fonts have more recognizable word shapes than others, e.g. Comic Sans is a popular option that is widely available), you can offer your work as an audiobook, etc. There are many games that offer similarly difficult experiences with accessibility options that did…

I mean, the other example of not all art can be accessible to everyone is film and people who are blind.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_description

Sure, I don't get to enjoy a movie's unique visual style, but I can at least follow along with the story and enjoy it on some level together with my family.

Re: Hidetaka Miyazaki sees death as a feature, not a bug

#233

Post by fattless » Wed, Mar 09, 2022, 8:11 PM UTC

didibus wrote: post #230

fattless wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you in pretty much every case, except probably from games and games aiming for the same thing. So much of the experience comes from the struggle to overcome overwhelming odds and an oppressive world. That’s thematically why the hollows exist in ds, it all builds toward its theme. Lowering the difficulty would disrupt this, those odds become a lot less daunting, the atmosphere is hurt, and the player dose…

I understand what you mean, but I fail to see how adding some accessibility options would change that. I keep using Celeste as an example, because it's an even harder game, but it had accessibility options done very well, and everything you say exist in that game and was not harmed in any way. The game is brutal, it plays into the atmosphere and story, the players bond over it, had to learn to overcome the challenges…

Fair, didnt know too much about the celeste options until this recent debate. Dont have too much to add, but thanks for the very well put together argument.

I am very much one for keeping the artists vision as true as possible so maybe that effects my view on this, also haven’t played much of celeste. Maybe I see the brutality as being so core to dark souls that an abundance of difficulty options might feel like reading the spark notes as opposed to engaging with the book. Saw a tweet from a dev I follow who highlighted the feeling of being trapped so far away from safety in the original dark souls and knowing that he has to make the journey back somehow. I cant help but wonder if that feeling might not be as impactful if you know you can just make it easier. Celeste being able to maintain these things is defiantly reassuring, though I cant say I have experiences with it or similar games with these options.

I’m definitely for accessibility options in games, and in many they have been handled very well. I think the hard part though is finding a balance that aligns with the vision and allows the most amount of people to play the game. At the end of the day not every game is for every person. From soft games are built upon the cycles of immense hardship followed by gratifying relief, and if one dosent enjoy it I dont think they will every really enjoy the game.