I believe that comment was sarcastic.

In which case, the comment is spreading misinformation and shouldn't have been made.

yes, that's exactly the point here. You can't fail in Stardew Valley

Ok, I must have missed that then. You said that Stardew Valley was a difficult game and easy to fail.

what was I supposed to say to a complaint saying: "Not very forgiving when you have to reach a checkpoint to save your game and having to replay stuff/lose progress due to the saving system is generally not fun." when the game in question is one where you cannot die and it saves every 15 minutes if you don't go save your progress earlier?

The only reason this "debate" is here is because someone was like "why do they mention a game I hate?!?!?", and not because the game would actually be somehow not fitting the criteria to be mentioned in regards of accessibility for disabled people.

Dishonored is considered an immersive sim, and titles labeled as such are usually weak in every particular gameplay aspect compared to specialized titles because they allow you multiple approaches to a single problem, which is something that focused games don't allow. I disagree with notion that one should play focused titles since that's a matter of taste - some "jack of all, master of none" titles, others like focused titles and some like both.

It's fine to have a focused game that expects (and requires) a specific style of gameplay throughout/ If it's a style I don't like, or one that I am physically unable to do, I can just simply avoid that game.

What *isn't* fine, on the other hand, is if a particular part of the game, particularly if it's a mandatory part, forces a specific gameplay style on the player that doesn't match the game's core gameplay. Stealth sequences in games like Zelda games are an example of this; another example is action sequences in otherwise turn-based games (see Ultima 1, and I remember a user complaining about this in Albion). When this happens, the player is unable to get to the part of the game they enjoy because it's gated by a part of the game that's impossible for them.

Let's talk about a different aspect of accessibility: Internationalization.

Think about how much text that Stardew Valley has. A fair bit of it is colloquial or hidden in metaphor. Think of having to translate that up the vines of language to German. A lot of it still makes sense, but I'm sure there's a phrase or several that doesn't translate out.

But here's the thing: A lot of the characters have rough writing; Clint is practically a joyless incel as written. Do you write that out literally or should you perhaps punch up the dialogue a little?

Secondarily: of how few pictograms that game uses. Pictograms are great, but they have to be identifiable. There's entire pages of ISO and other international standards regarding things like the Power Symbol, the Suspend Moon, and more.

Jack of all master of none is hitting the nail right on the head, and I agree with most of what you're saying. That being said there are focused games and even even immersive sims that allow multiple approaches. For example Snake Eater is a stealth game through and through. It's linear and focused, but it also offers a lot of options to you for dealing with a problem.

On the other end of the spectrum action games like Halo also offer lots of approaches to problems.

I was going to say I had to turn down shadows in Just Cause 2 to get a decent framerate because for some reason my PC doesn't like shadows, but I see that this isn't about that.

So I will bring up something relevant: Aiming, specifically with a controller.

For whatever reason, every Night Dive release of an old game has weird ass issues with controllers, like how Forsaken has the triggers and shoulder buttons switched so if you want something rebound to LT, you want it on LB and vice versa. Or how the Turok games and Quake have awful aiming. Every other modern shooter released on Xbox One has decent stick aiming when you can change the sensitivity and dead zones and can turn off acceleration, but the Turok games and Quake have the stiffest aiming where I'm forced to turn aim acceleration on. Quake is especially awful, which I'm grateful I can play Enhanced on PC now, but swiveling to aim back when I played on Xbox is annoying and unnatural.

Oh, and Mafia III on Xbox? You can't turn off aim assist. It's broken in a buggy way. It'll say OFF but when I'm trying to shoot a moving target, it does that Halo thing where it magnets the crosshair, but it's making my shots go wide.

So the thing that makes a game accessible is to have precise controls that aren't bogged down by terrible aim assist or lack of control.

Sarcasm doesn't translate well over text, so I thought you were agreeing with them.

Accessibility exists only in the eye of the beholder. It means something different to everyone.

To me it means just good playability in general. Tight and polished controls, clearly communicated in-game situation and that's it.

To someone who's color blind it would mean the game has to avoid situations where this disability stops them from solving a puzzle or reading a text.

To someone with missing digits or limbs it may mean the game supporting alternative controllers and having high customizability for controls.

To your average current-day games journalist it most definitely means it has to basically play itself and not offer them any challenge whatsoever.

Ultimately it's up to the developer how many of these people they want to or realistically can accommodate. Not everything can or has to be for everyone and that's fine.
Sometimes interests and preferences simply clash or it's just not economically feasible to accomodate a group that's just 100,000 or 200,000 people globally. Even if 10% of those people were to play it which is an unrealistically high number this still may not make it worthwhile spending tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on making this accommodation.

I had to give up on playing Star Wars The Force Unleashed at an early point on the 1st main level due to not being able to pass the QTEs. I think it was on an AT-ST or something like that. If I recall correctly it required some rapid tapping of one or more buttons and each time I was unable to tap it quickly enough it would reset the sequence or I would be killed or something (this was years ago so I don't remember the consequence of failing exactly anymore). I tried many times but due to tremors, twitching and spasms in my hands/fingers I couldn't pass it.

If it was just the normal gameplay controls I probably would have been okay. If they had just made it single button presses or tapping but not requiring doing it at a rapid pace it probably would have been doable. I was really hoping that when it came to PC I would be able to play it by maybe using the keyboard to do the QTEs in an easier fashion but I have read how horribly bugged the game is so I am not even trying it out. It really disappointed me because I really wanted to play that game when it came out.