Text/Wang Dan

In the past, when I saw someone spraying "Lao Tzu can play better than you without hands" in PvP games, I always thought that everyone was deliberately using exaggerated methods to mock the opponent. But after I recently swiped a gamer video on the Internet, I was a little confused - this seemingly outrageous mockery may actually be the truth?

After all, Xiao Lu, who has no hands, with two arms, has hit the master of the first area of "League of Legends" 400 points, and the operation is not only smooth, but also sassy.

Image source B station @ Kangyo hey

In addition to marveling at the "awesome", this also reminds me of the scene when the all-blind UP master Nuozi Meow, relying on listening to the voice and identifying the position + barrage command, beat the first boss of "Black Myth: Wukong"; There is also cerebral palsy UP master A Mingming, who beat the Tiger Pioneer with his mouth......

Image source B station

At that moment, I realized that I didn't seem to notice these people before: it turned out that there was such a special group of heavy gamers in the gaming community. They play games with twice as much effort as other players, but they are also tougher and more resilient when they fail.

No matter what kind of challenges they face, this group of players can show a strong desire to play, but what about manufacturers and products? Are they willing to accommodate these players? In recent years, the industry has been talking about barrier-free design from time to time, how far has it developed?

Not long ago, Grape Jun chatted with Raashi Sikka (hereinafter referred to as Raashi), Ubisoft's Chief Impact Officer, about her understanding of inclusion, accessibility, positive values, etc. In her view, the beneficiaries of barrier-free design are not only people with disabilities, and there is a large market behind barrier-free design. Positive value is just a by-product of the game, and Ubisoft still believes that fun and fun will always be at the core of the game, and only by doing so can it have the opportunity to extend its social value.

So, should manufacturers pay attention to inclusion and accessibility? Is this a burden or a good thing for the industry? Raashi's idea may provide some new answers for gamers.

01

You can learn about the strange world through the game,

It is also a way to understand what kind of person you are

Raashi's initial employment field wasn't close to gaming, and she didn't start out working on inclusivity, accessibility, and so on.

Prior to joining Ubisoft in 2021, she worked as a TV producer at TV and as a community/marketing manager at Uber...... Although the process may seem a bit jumpy, Raashi told me that she has been involved in inclusive culture for a long time.

This fate can be traced back to her childhood. Raashi was born in India, and her family moved to United States with her while she could remember; When Raashi was 9-10 years old, she and her family moved back to India due to various coincidences.

Because of the experience of experiencing different cultures, Raashi is more attentive and tolerant of different people and cultures.

For example, Raashi, who later became one of Uber's first employees, always reminds himself when recruiting and interviewing that hiring is not only about experience and experience, but also about whether the candidate has more diverse skills and whether his ideas can provide more diverse perspectives for the team.

This way of thinking eventually led Raashi to a career direction in inclusive culture.

As for why he later decided to make the leap from ride-hailing to Ubisoft, Raashi said that one of them was that he had always wanted to return to the creative industry. She used to work as a TV producer because she loved to be creative. And in her eyes, "games are probably the best type of product I've ever seen that blends creativity and new technology." ”

Second, Raashi believes that media, games, and other subdivided entertainment products have tremendous power, and as such, they have a responsibility to witness and depict the evolution of culture, the change in people's perceptions, and to a certain extent, to remind and help people think. During the interview, she talked to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot and others about the company's history and philosophy, and felt that her personal values and Ubisoft's vision of "enriching the lives of players by creating profound and innovative gaming experiences" also fit perfectly.

Raashi with Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot and others

In the middle of the left column is Raashi

As for how to understand the impact of games on players' lives, Raashi explains, "I liken games to 'windows and mirrors'. It's a window because you can immerse yourself in different cultures in different regions and in different time spans; It is said that it is a mirror because of your interactive choices and reactions in the game, which actually depicts what kind of person you are in disguise. ”

Raashi herself, for example, loves the Mario Bros. series; Also keen on being able to explore and learn from the Assassin's Creed series; Lately, she's been playing Venba and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown...... And when you look at these games together, you will find that they have a more or less nostalgic or historical charm. Raashi explains that she is playing the game based on nostalgia: "Some of the products remind me of my childhood. ”

For example, the Prince of Persia series, although its background setting has nothing to do with India, Raashi can still perceive the similarities between the game content and India culture, which makes her feel that through this game, the culture of her hometown can be seen and loved by more people;

Another example is Venba, presented by Toronto-based solo studio Visai Games, which tells the story of an India immigrant couple and their children who settle in Canada and adjust their lives in a new environment, which reminds Raashi of his time growing up as an immigrant.

Of course, not everyone is as nostalgic in the game as she does. In the eyes of different players, games may have a variety of meanings and functions. That's why Raashi believes that games can enrich the lives of players.

02

beneficiary of accessible design,

It's not just people with disabilities

Raashi didn't join Ubisoft early, but that doesn't mean Ubisoft is slow to move when it comes to inclusive design. Over the past decade, Ubisoft has been exploring the direction of inclusive culture, accessibility, and social value. Accessibility is one of Ubisoft's key concerns.

When it comes to accessibility, my first thought is: an extra design for players with disabilities. Raashi feels that this is a bit narrow to define the role of accessibility - the starting point of accessibility design may be to care for people with disabilities, but the results show that the users who benefit from accessibility design are actually diverse.

"For example, there is usually a ramp next to the sidewalk stairs, which was originally designed to serve people in wheelchairs, but in fact it is used by cyclists, suitcases, and strollers...... Accessibility isn't just for people with disabilities, it's accessible for all. ”

In terms of specific games, the Memory Shards feature of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown also has similarities. According to Raashi, the design was intended to be convenient for players with ADHD (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder). But when the game went live, the team found that most of the players were using the memory fragment feature.

Players can use memory fragments to take screenshots of a scene marked on the map to remind themselves that the map is not finished here, and they can come back to see it when they unlock new abilities.

Speaking of which, many people might think that the role of Raashi and his team is to put together a long list of accessible designs for the Ubisoft R&D team to consider. But Raashi told me that doing so would only be a symptom of the problem: "What we're trying to do is make sure that the accessibility is consistent throughout the product development cycle, from purchase to play." ”

First of all, they have in-depth communication with the R&D team from the very beginning of the project. Raashi said that at Ubisoft, accessibility is not "something added to the base game", but rather a part of the development process from start to finish.

Raashi feels that the biggest challenge in accessibility design is the complex and ever-changing game development process, and it is not easy to maintain a coherent and consistent accessibility design that is naturally and consistently integrated into the game: "Let's say we are working on a side quest and we are going to guide the player through accessibility features in a certain task, but then due to a change in the plan, we decided not to make this quest. And after that? Does anyone else remember to incorporate this guidance into the game? Therefore, accessibility is not overlooked under any circumstances only if accessibility is part of the standard process.

Second, they adopt an end-to-end strategy to ensure that players have an uninterrupted accessibility experience during the consumption process: "Before the game is released, we will introduce the accessibility features of the product, so that players know in advance whether they can enjoy the game; After the release of the game, our customer support team will follow up with any accessibility issues that players encounter during the actual gameplay. ”

Finally, Raashi emphasized the importance of staying in touch with the disability community to get feedback on their testing and play. Only users with disabilities know if these accessibility features are good or not.

She shared the experience of Tristen Onofry, a player with a disability, who usually plays games through a hat with a poke stick. However, after opening the iOS version of Assassin's Creed: Mirage, he still had a hard time - a single poke lever could not be operated with two joysticks in the open world. He then described his predicament on Discord, and Ubisoft's customer service staff followed up and replied to him: you can turn on automatic movement in the game settings, use the stick to double tap the left stick, and the character will continue to move in the direction of the camera, and then just use the stick to control the other actions.

The old man later posted a video saying: "Now I can finally quietly assassinate the entire fortress." ”

Video source YouTube

After talking about this, I gradually understood why Raashi repeatedly told me about the importance of Consistency - "buy a game that you can't play", if it happens to non-disabled players, many people may just refund and switch to playing other games; But for gamers with disabilities who don't have many options, the most desired solution may not be a refund, but the ability to play the game and enjoy the experience themselves.

To help them solve these problems, as Raashi said, there has to be consistency, not just a feature in one part of the game, but a way to do it, so that players with disabilities can actually play the game.

Ubisoft often invites people with disabilities to the company to test games and communicate with the development team, and one of the players said something that I think is quite to the point: "If your game doesn't have accessibility features for the visually impaired and the blind, but just adds a blind protagonist to the game, then this design won't really help the visually impaired." ”

At last year's Game Accessibility Conference, Ubisoft and Ubisoft employees received the Best Contributing Company Award and the Individual Achievement Award, respectively.

While there have been some notable achievements in the field of accessibility, Raashi feels that there is still a long way to go.

On the one hand, she feels that the current barrier-free design has room for improvement in terms of functionality and innovation. Especially for some disabilities, such as total blindness, Raashi feels that the existing barrier-free design is not good enough.

On the other hand, Ubisoft only makes games and does not produce hardware devices, but the iteration of related hardware is also crucial to promoting accessibility. "Microsoft's Accessibility Controller is a great example of this, as they provide convenience for players at the hardware level, and we are working with them to bring out even better features in conjunction with the new hardware."

Microsoft Accessibility Controller

03

The core of the game is always fun and fun,

Positive value is just a by-product

Of course, the accessibility design I talked to Raashi about this time was only part of the work she was responsible for at Ubisoft.

In addition to figuring out how to make the game accessible to more people, Ubisoft has also been trying to convey positive value to players through the game: for example, allowing players to learn history in Discovery Tour, which is comparable to a virtual museum; In "Riders Republic", players are encouraged to pay attention to environmental issues such as environmental protection and forest fires; Restore historical monuments such as Notre Dame Cathedral in the Assassin's Creed series......

We also talked to a history teacher who used games to show his students Renaissance Florence by opening Assassin's Creed in class and explaining the surrounding historical monuments, architectural styles, dress habits, etc., as he walked through the game.

Image source B station @ Chang'an Mu Yuzi

But at the end of the day, people who make games are there to make money, and not all manufacturers will set up a department like Ubisoft to focus on accessibility, positive value, and other content. Moreover, this year, positive value has become a sensitive topic in the gaming circle, and many players are worried that manufacturers will shoehorn some boring and even disgusting content into the game under the guise of positive value. The question then becomes: what does what Raashi and the team do mean to Ubisoft?

On the first issue of accessibility, Raashi said that she personally doesn't feel that the primary goal of accessibility design is to make money, and that she and her team see it as a responsibility: "People with disabilities are one of the most marginalized people in the world. Not to mention games, just in the area of employment, they will encounter many problems that ordinary people can't imagine. So in terms of social responsibility, I suggest that manufacturers who can afford it try to focus on barrier-free design. ”

Even from a commercial point of view, Raashi doesn't think it's a worthless thing. Rather, barrier-free design itself means a larger market, because about 20% of the world's people with disabilities are giving up such a large market.

Second, Raashi gave me an unexpected answer about positive value: "In the process of developing games, we have never made content with positive value in mind. She said that whether it is fun or not is still the core selling point of the game, and it is also the biggest goal of Ubisoft when making games, and positive value is just a by-product of this process.

"We have a rich IP series, and we also have the ability to restore history in the game, so that players can immerse themselves in knowledge. So on the basis of making the game fun, if you have the spare energy to do it and provide some positive value, what reason is there not to do it? ”

Raashi also understands that many manufacturers are currently laying off employees and cutting projects under heavy pressure, and inclusion and accessibility, as well as social influence, may not be the direction that every manufacturer is willing to put effort into groping. But she believes that over time, more companies will realize the value of this content, after all, looking back at the history of the industry, some new designs in the past have long been the norm:

"Six years ago, adding subtitles and audio descriptions to the game was quite a big innovation. But now, it's almost the norm. The industry is obviously changing, and the design that we need to focus on today may become a standardized feature of the game in the future. So I'm very confident in what I'm doing, and I hope that I can continue to use this method in Ubisoft in the future to enrich the lives of all players. ”

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