What demographics of people are deliberately left out by the video game industry?

[StaceyPowers]

What demographic groups are left out of gaming? For example, some people with epilepsy/seizures can't safely play a huge percentage of games.

[killamch89]

They typical leave out elderly people and kids with epilepsy/seizures. They'll take kids with mental disabilities because those kids will be naive enough to spend their parent's money on mtx in games without being aware of the consequences it'll have on their parents. EA is especially guilty of this.

[The Blackangel]

The mentally handicapped. Those of us with psychological issues are not taken into consideration. Either as a character in game, or as a gamer, we’re unacknowledged.

[killamch89]

37 minutes ago, The Blackangel said:

The mentally handicapped. Those of us with psychological issues are not taken into consideration. Either as a character in game, or as a gamer, we’re unacknowledged.

As I said in my post previously, their only acknowledgement of people with mental challenges is to exploit them for money because they can prey upon that.

[Demon_skeith]

Pretty much anyone who can't play a game normally, and for sure the eldery is becoming a bigger number of people as we all march towards that problem. 

[Razor1911]

9 hours ago, The Blackangel said:

The mentally handicapped. Those of us with psychological issues are not taken into consideration. Either as a character in game, or as a gamer, we’re unacknowledged.

Yeah I do know about that. The mentally handicapped persons are not considered. 

 

3 hours ago, Demon_skeith said:

Pretty much anyone who can't play a game normally, and for sure the eldery is becoming a bigger number of people as we all march towards that problem. 

Yeah, Elderly people are most of the time kept outside of consideration too. 

Edited August 4, 2021 by Razor1911

[The Blackangel]

10 hours ago, killamch89 said:

As I said in my post previously, their only acknowledgement of people with mental challenges is to exploit them for money because they can prey upon that.

I fucked up again. I really need to quit posting when I'm half asleep.

[Heatman]

Seriously, there are some health issues that would automatically disqualify you from actively playing video games. For example, High blood pressure, epileptic people, eye problems, psychological problems etc. 

[Reality vs Adventure]

I don't think any demographic is deliberately left out except for those with seizures. There are plenty of games for the elderly. The mentally challenged probably requires an entirely different system to play on. If they can function enough to play on regular consoles, then there are probably plenty of games there too. Those with extreme physical conditions like quadriplegics or extreme pain in the hands, missing hands, etc. or coordination, would all need specialized equipment. Is there any out there? I don't know. Business usually only caters to the masses, so I wouldn't expect the gaming industry to invest in things like that unless it's government funded or sponsored in some way to make tons of money through the healthcare industry or military. 

[The Blackangel]

On 8/4/2021 at 9:46 AM, Heatman said:

Seriously, there are some health issues that would automatically disqualify you from actively playing video games. For example, High blood pressure, epileptic people, eye problems, psychological problems etc. 

Then explain to me how I'm playing.

[m76]

On 8/4/2021 at 10:31 AM, Razor1911 said:

Yeah, Elderly people are most of the time kept outside of consideration too. 

I don't understand why they'd need to be considered specially? When I get old, I'll want to play the same games as I play now, no special treatment needed.  Easy difficulty should me more than enough to counter the duller reflexes. On the contrary if they would advertise a game as "made specifically for people like me" I'd say frack off with it. I don't want to be lumped in with all other people who I share a superficial characteristic with.

I find the idea that they'd need to make specific games for specific groups of people reprehensible.  As if all people in the group should have the exact same wants and needs. Same goes for people with psychological problems, they are a diverse group, you can't make a game and just say it is made for (all of) them, because it presumes they have no individual taste.

Edited August 5, 2021 by m76

[Shagger]

Accessibility options for games is something far to few developers take into account. Obviously given the multimedia nature of the medium there's a very limited amount that can be done for people with severe impairments with their vision and/or hearing, but some games do offer options to help people with things like colour blindness and some peripherals have been developed to aid people with one hand, for example. What can be done is limited, but I will always come down in the side of accessibility.

 

Epilepsy and seizures are very rare, but they can happen, and it's something that's once again engrained into the nature of medium itself, so there's not really anything that can be done about it. If one knows they're prone to fits, then they play at thier own risk. I know that sounds harsh, but it's the truth.

 

This talk about people with mental health issues "not being catered for" l think is complete nonsense. As serious as these problems can be, I could easily make a plausible case that video games can be helpful to people in such circumstances. We don't all play games for the same reasons, but that doesn't change what games themselves offer. We take games as they are. If we don't like them or if there's an indigenous issue that means we can't play them (outside the aforementioned accessibility), we move on to something else. That's the thing when you make a game, you can't make it to suit everyone.

[Heatman]

On 8/4/2021 at 5:40 AM, Demon_skeith said:

Pretty much anyone who can't play a game normally, and for sure the eldery is becoming a bigger number of people as we all march towards that problem. 

Yeah, it's definitely going to be very hard for the elderly to still get into playing video games unless those it's their line of work. 

[Heatman]

1 hour ago, The Blackangel said:

Then explain to me how I'm playing.

Do you have all the above health issues which I highlighted above? 

[The Blackangel]

2 hours ago, Heatman said:

Do you have all the above health issues which I highlighted above? 

Aside from epilepsy, yes I do. The two that got to me the most however were the ones about eye issues and psychological issues.