The Cognitive Overload of Existence
My cognitive issues are the main reason I did not feel games were made for me. It took years for me to realize and unpack the fact that I had been taught that the games that I did enjoy playing, and were cognitively accessible to me, were “not real games”. I would play hours of Animal Crossing or Sims and still internalize that I was not a “real gamer” because I didn’t play games like Elden Ring. This meant that I didn’t feel welcome in gaming spaces, even though I consumed an insane amount of video game lore, and would play 2-6 hours of games everyday.
It took me going to a game school to realize why some of my favorite games were accessible to me, and why some other games that were seen as “the standard”. Some of my favorite being BotW, TotK, Animal Crossing, and Fallout 4. All of these games allow me space to create my own player driven goals, and not worry about arbitrary time limits and goals. When playing them I don’t feel guilt for not being as “skilled” as the average player.
Life is stressful enough, I don’t need my escape making me feel like I am lesser-than because I have a harder time meeting their goals.
Common Issues:
Time-sensitive inputs can cause stress and frustration
Complicated wording causing inability to understand
Inability to be reminded of controls, objectives, and names
Destructive confirmation is important when you don’t know if what you read is correct
Implementation Guides:
Player Experience:
