Eurogamer Writer Vikki Blake Compares Wheel Chair Accessibility to Video Game Difficulty

Jorge Arenas |

Apr 2, 2019

Eurogamer writer Vikki Blake took to Twitter to claim that a high difficulty in video games is equivalent to restaurants not having wheel chair accessibility.

Blake’s initial tweet compares difficulty settings to a form of gatekeeping using her wheelchair accessibility comparison.

Holy shit there’s a lot of bad bad takes about difficulty settings and accessibility. Imagine saying not everything is for everyone. Imagine suggesting you can’t sit in a restaurant cos of access issues and being told to fuck off and eat someplace else that’s easier to get into.

— V. (@_vixx) March 31, 2019

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Because that is, essentially, what you’re saying. You’re saying it’s not your fault people can’t get in but there’s a place down the road you can go to so fuck off loser.

— V. (@_vixx) March 31, 2019

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She states that the desire to allow games to be challenging is in itself a means of telling people to F-off. One of the reasons many people purchase and play games is to feel that challenge of course. Obviously, not everyone wants a challenge and many games have cheat codes, and I vividly remember the hay day of Bradygames.com, GameGenie, and GameShark that allowed you to implement cheats to easier move forward in the game or give your characters exceptional advantages.

In fact, many games still have cheat codes. LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2 even has a specific location in the game to implement cheat codes.

However, many games don’t have cheat codes and are made for players to challenge themselves. Games like Demon Souls, Dark Souls, and the newly released Sekiro. I would even argue World of Warcraft’s original boss fights in Vanilla and up to Cataclysm were made to be challenging. They were extremely tough and required precise strategy and teamwork in order to come out victorious.

This was further complicated because you had to beat certain bosses multiple times in order to acquire gear to take on even tougher bosses. And even if you had the best gear, it still required patience, precise strategy, and teamwork.

I would argue difficulty is an important metric in many games, it allows players to develop goals and meet challenges. There’s even that feeling of accomplishment after you defeated a tough boss, and that accomplishment is even more satisfying if that boss had beaten you numerous times.

This isn’t good enough. This isn’t inclusive enough. If you crave a challenge then good for you, champ, but adding in an easy/ier mode literally has NO IMPACT ON YOU AND YOUR EXPERIENCE AT ALL.

— V. (@_vixx) March 31, 2019

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Now, Vikki hits the real point of her argument. It’s not really about the difficulty to her. It’s about inclusivity. Her inclusivity argument centers around the idea that games should basically have a mode that’s easy enough for anyone to beat.

That argument has been made many times before from her fellow game journalists. For example, when [easyazon_link identifier=”B073ZR63P8″ locale=”US” tag=”boundingintocomics-20″]Cuphead[/easyazon_link] first came out, Polygon writer Ben Kuchera called into question the idea of “exclusion” as “a valid design choice.”

Kuchera would argue, “The difficulty will turn some people off, and those people will never get to see that art. They will never enjoy those animations. The design of the game itself keeps them out, when the addition of an easy mode or an option to skip the bosses would allow everyone to see as much or as little as they want.” However, by the end of his article, he would state, “Whether or not you’re bothered by seeing boss fights you didn’t earn yourself is, of course, up to you.”

In fact, Kuchera even points out that you can watch people beat bosses on YouTube if you want. One could even argue that you don’t even have to purchase a game in order to experience it.

Today you can browse an almost endless supply of streamers on Twitch and Youtube and experience the art, and other facets of these games that Blake claims are being kept from players due to their inability to beat certain sections of games.

RockPaperShotgun had a special take on why players might feel adding an easy button may devalue the experience of the game:

“It’s about keeping the Thems, the riff-raff, the outsider, out. THIS section of the game, this is special to me and only those as great as I am! I DESERVE this bit of the game! Those weaklings do not! Gosh, it’s an ugly way of thinking, isn’t it? And so utterly idiotic too. Because it requires the mental gymnastics of somehow believing that one’s own isolated experience of a game is cheapened, lessened, impacted in any conceivable way, by the isolated experience of someone else playing that game.”

Finally, Vikki ends her thread by stating it’s a nuanced argument and there is a “different between difficulty & accessibility.”

There’s a different between difficulty & accessibility – this whole argument is nuanced, and Twitter is not the place for that – but justifying gating content from those with fine motor/reaction/physical limitations/etc and justifying it? You’re justifying the unjustifiable.

— V. (@_vixx) March 31, 2019

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Many people weren’t impressed by her view on the difficulty in video games. Twitter user, SarziSarah points out exclusion exists making reference to clubs and high-end restaurants.

You’ve never been to an exclusive club or a high end restaurant? Those things actually exist outside.. or are you so privileged that you didn’t know that normal average people don’t have access to all restaurants and venues? Don’t start me on wheel chair access

— Sarzi E. T. (@SarziSarah) April 1, 2019

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Mombot would simply call Blake’s take on difficulty settings a bad one.

There’s a lot of bad bad takes about difficulty settings and accessibility.

This is one of them.

— Best Mom Eva (@mombot) April 2, 2019

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Another user, GriffPlays, would also point out that people are individuals and have different tastes and preferences pointing to skydiving and bungie jumping. They also point out they don’t like realistic racing games like Gran Turismo so they purchase Burnout instead.

They even referenced a knee injury that keeps them from playing football now.

Not everything is for everyone though… I dont like heights so I steer clear of skydiving and bungie jumping…

I dont like realistic racing games so I steer clear of gran turismo and opt for burnout…

I broke my knee a couple years back, so now I dont play football…? 🤷🏻‍♂️

— Griff™ (@GriffPlays) March 31, 2019

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Vikki replied back stating that preference isn’t the same as accessibility.

Preference isn’t the same as accessibility. If you don’t like a game and choose not to play it, fine. But if you do, and you *can’t*? That’s different.

— V. (@_vixx) March 31, 2019

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Twitter user Kamui Rougiard quickly turned the table on Vikki and showed that no one was stopping people from buying the game, thus their access to the game wasn’t being hindered. He then provided an analogy on spicy food writing, “This is like ordering spicy food, when you can’t stand spicy food, then begging the chef to make it less spicy. Order something else.”

You have access to the game, no one is stopping you from buying the game and playing it. You just can’t play it.

This is like ordering spicy food, when you can’t stand spicy food, then begging the chef to make it less spicy. Order something else.

— Kamui Rougiard (@KamuiRougiard) April 1, 2019

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My personal thoughts, Vikki Blake’s hot take on video game difficulty is like whining about high-speed roller coasters being too fast. I know there have been times I’ve been stuck and frustrated with a game and its difficulty. But to pretend that there isn’t a way to get around your inablities or view the content is dishonest to say the least.

What do you think? Should games have an easy mode so that the most possible people are able to experience the most content? Or would that devalue the game and cheapen and experience that you paid for? Let me know your thoughts!