SE please consider accessibility when designing normal difficulty content

I'm aware there are threads about Seat of Sacrifice up but I'm going to mention it because it highlights a need for greater awareness of accessibility in the game's normal content.

I think most of us can agree that the quick time event in Seat of Sacrifice sucks, especially because it wipes the entire party if one person fails it. But consider the fact that there are people with disabilities who play this game, some of which might have dexterity challenges that make it impossible to complete the required button smashing needed to pass the QTE. Because their failure in the QTE would mean the entire party wipes, that one single mechanic could conceivably lock a person with disabilities out of the MSQ.

That's an accessibility issue. People with disabilities should be able to play ffxiv and experience normal difficulty content with the same accessibility as someone who does not have a disability.

If you want to comment with "if someone can't complete the QTE then they probably aren't very good at the game" consider not being that person. No one who plays through normal content in ffxiv should have to be the world's best player. It's normal content, and it should be reasonably accessible to everyone in the game. So I'm asking the devs to consider being more aware of that as they design future content and maybe to reconsider the party wipe mechanic in Seat of Sacrifice.

ETA: fixed mentions of Heroes' Gauntlet and replaced them with Seat of Sacrifice, sorry for the mistake it was quite late my time when I originally authored this post.

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Originally Posted by cataesthetic

I'm aware there are threads about Heroes' Gauntlet up but I'm going to mention it because it highlights a need for greater awareness of accessibility in the game's normal content.

I think most of us can agree that the quick time event in Heroes' Gauntlet sucks, especially because it wipes the entire party if one person fails it. But consider the fact that there are people with disabilities who play this game, some of which might have dexterity challenges that make it impossible to complete the required button smashing needed to pass the QTE. Because their failure in the QTE would mean the entire party wipes, that one single mechanic could conceivably lock a person with disabilities out of the MSQ.

That's an accessibility issue. People with disabilities should be able to play ffxiv and experience normal difficulty content with the same accessibility as someone who does not have a disability.

If you want to comment with "if someone can't complete the QTE then they probably aren't very good at the game" consider not being that person. No one who plays through normal content in ffxiv should have to be the world's best player. It's normal content, and it should be reasonably accessible to everyone in the game. So I'm asking the devs to consider being more aware of that as they design future content and maybe to reconsider the party wipe mechanic in Heroes' Gauntlet.

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There are peripheral devices that can trivialize QTE button mashing whether it be a keyboard, mouse or controller. The chances are good that someone with enough of a disability to straight up not be able to do a QTE due to a mobility or dexterity issue would already own one of these options to aid them with their disability. It's the people in between who can do it but don't know that you can mash multiple buttons at the same time to complete it that are the ones failing it.

I'm more inclined to agree that the potential for trolling is the real problem with this specific QTE design.

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Originally Posted by cataesthetic

I'm aware there are threads about Heroes' Gauntlet up but I'm going to mention it because it highlights a need for greater awareness of accessibility in the game's normal content.

I think most of us can agree that the quick time event in Heroes' Gauntlet sucks, especially because it wipes the entire party if one person fails it. But consider the fact that there are people with disabilities who play this game, some of which might have dexterity challenges that make it impossible to complete the required button smashing needed to pass the QTE. Because their failure in the QTE would mean the entire party wipes, that one single mechanic could conceivably lock a person with disabilities out of the MSQ.

That's an accessibility issue. People with disabilities should be able to play ffxiv and experience normal difficulty content with the same accessibility as someone who does not have a disability.

If you want to comment with "if someone can't complete the QTE then they probably aren't very good at the game" consider not being that person. No one who plays through normal content in ffxiv should have to be the world's best player. It's normal content, and it should be reasonably accessible to everyone in the game. So I'm asking the devs to consider being more aware of that as they design future content and maybe to reconsider the party wipe mechanic in Heroes' Gauntlet.

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I believe you meant the new trial "The Seat of Sacrifice" rather than the dungeon "The Heroes' Gauntlet".

You don't need to keep the meter full. You just need to keep it from emptying out. It's designed to seem harder than it really is—the bar fills much more when you push any button while it's <30% full, whereas inputs above that threshold will barely budge the meter. When people fail this mechanic, from what I've seen, it's typically because they spent a lot of time mashing their heart out trying to refill the meter, only to tire out their fingers before it's over. You really don't have to do that.

That said, the fact that the entire party wipes if even one person fails the QTE is annoying and, frankly, a little nonsensical. Just let the people who failed it die, and let them be raised after the fact.

Here you go.

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...ore-QTE-please.

And they consider plenty. But when you aim to please literally everyone you get a copy paste no effort needed cutscene simulator that regulates any incentive of effort to harder content which may be 1. too hard for people who want something of a challenge but not looking to do extreme and 2. side content that is more often than not, ignored because to more people than you would think side =/= important. See the resistance to doing Crystal Tower to advance the MSQ.

You can do it. You've done every single trial from 70-80 including your job quests and solo duties that you absolutely would have failed if you didn't press buttons fast enough. Just take a pill bottle and roll it along the keyboard like you're making pizza dough. Or heck, a massage ball. That might even make your hands feel good. Also as its been said, you don't need to press a single button. THAT is what could be explained better to those who dont know

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Originally Posted by Gula

Here you go.

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...ore-QTE-please.

And they consider plenty. But when you aim to please literally everyone you get a copy paste no effort needed cutscene simulator that regulates any incentive of effort to harder content which may be 1. too hard for people who want something of a challenge but not looking to do extreme and 2. side content that is more often than not, ignored because to more people than you would think side =/= important. See the resistance to doing Crystal Tower to advance the MSQ.

You can do it. You've done every single trial from 70-80 including your job quests and solo duties that you absolutely would have failed if you didn't press buttons fast enough. Just take a pill bottle and roll it along the keyboard like you're making pizza dough. Or heck, a massage ball. That might even make your hands feel good. Also as its been said, you don't need to press a single button. THAT is what could be explained better to those who dont know

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Oh wow dude, thanks for telling me what I and other people with disabilities are capable of. That, like, never happens! No one has ever said anything like "have you tried just standing up and walking? you can do it" to someone in a wheelchair.

To make it very clear: I'm being incredibly sarcastic. That actually happens alarmingly often and it's called casual ableism.

And to restate what I said in my original post: the reason I didn't post in existing threads about the QTE mechanic is that I'm not asking for the QTE mechanic to be changed. I think it would be great if they did change it, but to me that is not ultimately the greater problem here.

What I'm asking for is that SE be more aware of accessibility issues as they move forward in normal content game design. Asking for accessibility doesn't mean that I'm asking for content to be faceroll, which is pretty much what you're suggesting is the solution to this particular mechanic: rolling your face across the keyboard. I'm just asking for content to be accessible to people without locking someone out of MSQ for something that could very conceivably be an issue. It's the part where content is locked behind a single mechanic that I take issue with, rather than the mechanic itself.

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Originally Posted by cataesthetic

So I'm asking the devs to consider being more aware of that as they design future content and maybe to reconsider the party wipe mechanic in Seat of Sacrifice.

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That's the component I believe is the biggest issue here. Nobody wants to know that THEY are the reason for the wipe; especially multiple times over something they greatly struggle with or cannot help.

It seems like one of those ideas that sounded good on paper, but completely failed in execution.

I have the same problem.