Kasumi wrote:
I think you should think more deeply about why options exist. There are ways to seriously argue that dash shouldn't be on a shoulder button in the X games.
Let's just be clear here - I would never advocate against adding layers to your game in the service of accessability to disabled players, etc.
However, I think you also need to set a limitation here. There are some games that could be played with only one arm, but for the vast majority of games, having only one arm is a clear disadvantage, and that's just how it is - you can't really fault the developers. Most games can't be played if you are blind either, and that's just a limitation of the medium.
If you do have a disability, it's commendable of the developers to approach that disability, but most of the time, overcoming it would always be a challenge on the user end of things, and you'd probably be able to find or build a special controller to play these games, or come up with other creative solutions (see: speedrunner
Halfcoordinated who plays action games on a competitive level despite having this disability).
Anyway, I'm not talking about accomodating special end-user conditions. I'm talking about a central gameplay element and how it is utilized. Those are different things.
If you are building a simulator, I think it makes sense to allow different levels of realism. Make settings that allow people to approach it more as a video game, but definitely accomodate the correct simulation, ie. your example of a person flies aircrafts for a living, he should get a good experience from a simulation. But Afterburner isn't a simulation, and in my opinion all people who play this game in an arcade should compete on similar bases.
In general though, inverting the Y axis has become such a "standardized customization" nowadays that I think it's impossible to create a game without giving this option, and honestly that's not a good thing, but I do recognize that it's a necessity. But if you are creating a video game - more exactly, if you are creating a tight action game with a gameplay focus -
the controls are a part of your game design. I'm not against making options for various accomodations that you consider necessary, but don't make them simply because you think people would have different opinions on which is the better design for your game. People will also have different opinions on whether the final boss should have multiple forms or wether you should have a checkpoint between each of them - but that's not their call, it's yours.
Bregalad wrote:
@Sumez: I don't understand your rage against customization. Sure, it's not the solution for everything (see my comment above), however I don't see how having something customizable hurts the game in any way, as long as the default configuration is ok. At worst it's unnecessary/increase programming complexity, but I fail to see how it would hurt the game.
I'm not raging, I'm being completely objective. Also, I'm not against customization (read above). I'm against using customization as a solution to your game design issues.