It has then been suggested that this run button - really, any button expected to be held - should also be toggleable as an accessibility option, which led to the dispute of semantics...
- Accessibility is synonymous with QoL - BobisOnlyBob
I don't quite agree. I see accessibility as a function that makes something about the game easier and its challenge more approachable. Examples are extra health, damage reduction, or slower speed for puzzle elements. These are designed to match different skill levels the player is willing and able to meet at that time.
Quality of life settings, in this context, are just a matter of varying player preferences, not necessarily pertaining to easing the difficulty. Honestly "quality of life" is a broad term but what I'm referring to is options for things such as controller/keyboard button setups and how your input interacts with the game. Say, whether a flying level should use inverted up/down controls like some flight simulators or (as I prefer) just let up be up and down be down.
Ability to choose between hold to run vs. hold to walk, I see it as QoL in this sense. I don't see it as "accessibility" because you're just trading one preference for another - one state is walk and another is run. It's just a configuration, not presented as lowering the extent of challenge. A walk button can be more convenient for you, great, but it's kind of like choosing to make B jump instead of A.
More broadly on that point, I don't see accessibility as a synonym for options - by that logic, all the settings would be lumped into "Accessibility Menu" instead of calling it an Options Menu. This is my response to the following: - (continued from above) All options can be called accessibility - KobaBeach
Well, games just simply don't do that. This includes the many games that have a package of assist mode features. All assists are options - accessibility is a subtype of settings you can configure - but not all configuration options need to be presented as assists. Celeste is a salient example of a game that makes these distinctions: an Assist Mode section within the settings, alongside other options (both amusing Variants and more mundane settings), and separately a cheat code. - Semantics don't matter - EllenHouraisan
Semantics can be rather unimportant once the parties to the conversation agree on the terminology and what the actual topic is. But what we have here is a game trying to communicate its features to the players. As I've said in the shoutbox, you want to use words that best convey the meaning and intent to your audience. I'm not going to be looking for basic preference selections under the accessibility section; placing them where players would not expect means they would have trouble locating them.
After all, these options are there to help the player experience, and a confusing menu design works against the purpose of being helpful. - Accessibility should target genuine disability instead of using the label as an excuse to water down games for the sake of "bad players" - thatguyif
I'm not going to get into this right now - I'll let you speak for yourself to elaborate. I do think thatguyif was trying to express a genuine thought here, but it did feel charged in its delivery and I just felt this risked escalating the argument in an ugly direction, derailing the talk.
What I want to say is that while I agree with the user's initial thesis of "Instead of an accessibility option, how about just make it a QoL option?" I have different underlying substance to state from thatguyif's.
Returning to the original assertion: - Players should have a walk button instead of a run button - 11clock
People in the discussion have vouched for an option to choose between walk button and run button, and indeed, it's a good idea! I've played other games where it can be switched between walk-default/run-default or have similar customization for things like attack with different weapons. Aforementioned Celeste did this with the grab button (used to climb walls): along with the hold-to-grab, it eventually added options for hold-to-let-go (AKA release-to-grab) and "tap to toggle between grab/let go".
But I wonder how it would affect this particular game. In DKC, the run button is also the attack button (roll, pick up barrels), so such a change might mess up the game mechanics (there is a difference between rolling with run and rolling without). And, I can understand people finding a walk button easier to manage, but for the classic DKC and Mario games I just internalized that I should always be running unless I have a reason to let go of run/attack. This is how the game implemented this mechanic, so I just didn't mind holding run essentially all the time in order to do so. (Also keep in mind the older era of these games.) It's not like double-tap dash. - DKC2 is the official talkhaus-certified best Donkey Kong Country game.