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What a great blog! As a gamer with a disability (I have a serious hearing impairment), I am so very glad people in the industry (and within Obsidian) are taking accessibility seriously. I require captioning for everything voice-related. But even with captioning pretty common these days, some games leave out crucial bits of the game from their captioning system, such as backgound chatter/banter. It's so very frustrating to hear the sound of someone saying something, but then not be able to know what they said. Keep up the good work! And thanks!!

Footage from the Portlandian front God bless the warfighters deployed there.

One thing that nobody warns you about when you get a job in the gaming industry is just how many meetings there are. There’re daily standups, gate reviews, sprint meetings, post-mortems, sign-offs, bridge meetings, war rooms, and the list goes on and on. But one of the most important meetings is called Triage. It generally occurs on a daily or weekly cadence, depending on what part of the dev cycle you are in. This is where Production, Design, Engineering, and QA get together and discuss the latest bugs. We go over each bug written since the last Triage and decide as a group how important the bug is, who is going to fix it, and when they need to fix it by. There are three main ways that this is measured. Severity: How bad the bug is, in the eyes of the user. Priority: How soon a bug should be fixed. Repro Rate: How hard, or easy, is it to run into the bug? How likely are players to see it? This is usually measured in attempts. For example, a crash bug could happen 100% of the time, or it could only happen under very specific conditions. And one thing that is easy to forget when you’re lost in a sea of bugs, is the scale of the audience. Sure, only 10% of the testers may experience a specific issue. But 8% of the modern AAA audience is hundreds of thousands of players. You would think, with that in mind, anything that affects at least 5% of players would be treated as a serious concern. But what if I told you that while only 0.5% of women are color-blind, 8% of men are? And how many modern games have color-blind filters? The answer is not nearly enough. Accessibility features are about giving players the tools they need to enjoy the game in whichever way works best for them. If you can add color-blind filters (https://colorblindgames.com/2021/03/29/colorblind-gaming-101-the-basics/) that’s roughly 5% more potential sales. According to the Entertainment Software Association, 85% of Americans under 18 play video games at least once a week. That comes out to 205 million players in the US alone. Five percent of which, comes to 8,000,000 people. Multiple that by $60 and we’re talking serious money. So why, in a world where the dollar drives everything, are accessibility features not standard? Why are so many developers leaving so many potential players behind? It would be easy for me to blame big bad CEO’s or shareholders for the problem. But the reality is, it’s not malicious. Like most issues in life, it’s more ignorance than anything else. People just aren’t as informed on the subject as they could be. But that is starting to change. The industry is starting to come around and they are making serious investments in multiple ways. (alt text: Ishihara test was invented to measure color blindness. The image above uses different shades to create the image of Toadstool from Super Mario Bros) source: Obsidian has been leading the way for longer than most. Well before it was “cool” to make accessible games, titles like Pillars of Eternity (2013) were giving players multiple color-blind filters, detailed difficulty options, and a large suite of audio/video settings to let players decide what “good” looks like. Back in 2020 Grounded introduced the Arachnophobia filter. A setting that is now becoming default in many horror/survivor games. Hogwarts Legacy added it, but only after NorskPL released a community mod for the setting. My favorite is actually from the most recent version, Grounded 2. Can you detect the feature? It’s one of the first things you see when you start the game. (alt text: Screenshot of Grounded 2 main menu showing custom face button graphics used to inform the player where on the face the button is located.) Many of you probably pointed to the Accessibility shortcut. And that is a great example of mindful design. How do you expect people to turn on the accessibility features if they need the accessibility features enabled to get to the accessibility features? But that’s not my favorite. My new favorite is the A and Y buttons. Notice what’s different? I bet you Xbox Certification noticed that these are not authorized representations of the face buttons on an Xbox controller. But I love that they saw through the rule to find the intent. Instead of confusing players, these actually provide more information. It’s a tiny change that can have a big impact. Heck, I’m not even color-blind and these helped me after I spent the previous few weeks playing Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, where the A and B buttons are swapped. And that’s the key to accessibility features. Not telling players how to play, but providing the options for them to play how they want to play. And they are not alone. The industry as a whole has finally seen the benefits of expanding their games and tearing down walls. For example: the Entertainment Software Association (a trade association representing the major video game developers and publishers across the industry) recently rolled out their Accessible Games Initiative. They are leading by example and starting with updating their storefronts to include Accessibility Tags. Much like you can browse by genre or feature, now you can filter games by which ones support the accessibility features you care the most about. (alt text: A black background with brightly colored stickers in the shapes of Xbox icons and accessibility products like prosthetic legs, wheelchairs, and seeing eye dogs.) And they are not alone. A whole market is forming around consulting, reviewing, and teaching about accessibility. People are getting together and demanding “Never about us, without us.” From Accessibility Labs, a startup in Tempe, AZ of former QA professionals passionate about Accessibility testing. To Microsoft’s Xbox Accessibility Guidelines, requirements that titles they publish must meet. But Tommy, I’m a developer and I want to do better. How can I make sure everyone is able to enjoy my hard work? Well, I’m glad you asked, imaginary developer person. Because while I’m passionate about the subject, I also acknowledge I’m just as ignorant as most. But together, we can work towards fighting that ignorance, in our own minds, and in others. Even the smallest changes, like the button prompts above, can have a huge impact. Bring on Accessibility experts during your design phase, don’t wait until you’re about to launch. Don’t be like so many others before you that designed fully fleshed out UI’s that rely on a cursor to navigate. Only to find out down the road this is not very accessible for people with fine motor issues. Making these changes during the design phase will save you thousands, if not millions, of dollars down the line. Embrace your lack of knowledge and seek out the experts. There are resources available to developers of all shapes and sizes. Are you a small developer that wants to do better, but just doesn’t know where to start? Support other independent gamers like Accessibility Labs. Have a good idea of what you want to do, but want to make sure you aren’t forgetting anything? Check out Microsoft’s Xbox Accessibility Guidelines. Want to support the effort in other ways? Reach out to AbleGamers, who have been fighting this fight for over 20 years. Enjoy this article and want to know more? Check out Derek Gruber on Seattle Indie’s Accessibility Awareness Month episode. The last thing I want to do is trivialize game and UX design. Accessibility is just one of countless aspects that must be considered when designing a game and it’s UI. What’s most important is that you are making the effort. Instead of asking why you should add an option, ask why you shouldn’t. When in doubt, trust the player to decide what is best for themselves. Not every feature is going to be a home run. But as long as we, as a community, are working towards improving, the rising tide will raise all ships. Sources & Resources Game Developer - Nintendo, Microsoft, EA and others unite to make accessibility messaging a priority Washington Post - Accessibility option in survival game ‘Grounded’ turns my arachnophobia into a thrill Colorblind Games - Colorblind Gaming 101: The Basics Mashable - Video games taught me I was colorblind but it's not always a friendly lesson Nexus Mods - Arachnophobia mode Seattle Indies - Accessibility Awareness Month Interview Series: Steve Saylor and Derek Gruber Able Gamers - Combating Social Isolation Through Play Accessibility Labs Microsoft - Xbox Accessibility Guidelines Entertainment Software Association (ESA) - Entertainment Software Association Introduces the Accessible Games Initiative to Provide Players with Information About Accessibility Features in Video Games

Great blog @Fishtick Really interesting and not something I have often considered

Thanks for your recommendation. Your build looks interesting, but it looks like more focused on Solo build. Do your have a full party version? or does it just perfectly work for a full party?

Imagine if Greta gets the Nobel Peace Prize.

Nope. It has to be a Priest of Berath with maxed starting Might. For Durance I'd recommend an arquebus build.

Manor Lords - finally a giant beta test version dropped. I guess it isn't abandoned after all (ha). Didn't sign up for access, I'd rather wait for full public version with beta-resultt patches added, but from reading up, sounds like a lot of changes (plus some new maps). Old saves will not be compatible with it. No Man's Sky - still making silly ships, still flying around exploring planets, still occasionally see stuff I've never seen before - and still have restart-itis re: Abandoned Mode new starts. I never went much past the intro of Little Kitty, Big City, since the one time I tried was when I had the PSU reboot issues, and I just never went back to it. They keep patching/adding to the game, including cute outfits (heh). Hoping to motivate to look at it again this weekend. I could use some "cute."

Yes mod collections are a good idea because everything has been tested together Use Wabbajack next time, it downloads and installs everything for you in MO2 with the right load order so you normally dont need to change anything unless you add more mods which is only recommended for experienced mods users I can help with any issues you may have around Wabbajack but it works really well But you still need to ensure its the right mod collection for you around gameplay and mechanical changes and thats why YT reviews are useful For example I used this YT video as my reference for the mod collection for Cyb2077, which was Welcome to Night City This type of research just gives you the confidence that this is the mod collection you want and it only takes 1-4 hours depending on how many YT videos you decide to watch. I typically watch 2-3 to make sure Its only 8 minutes long but discusses the changes

I would like to start things off by saying i love this game so far and understand its in early development. My usual playstyle doesnt use the buggies all that much, but i was playing around with a particular armor set and bow (iykyk) and noticed a few issues with the buggies that i would like to suggest ideas to fix/ improve the buggies as a mechanic in the game. A lot of these ideas i got from how Ark plays. 1. Please give us a follow distance setting. Buggies are regularly getting in the way of me picking up items because they walk too close all the time. 2. Give us a setting that controlls how aggressive our buggies are. Id like to be able to tell it not to attack anything, everything, just the stuff i attack, or (as it is now) anything aggroed. 3. Give us a command that lets us tell it to go to a spot we point at and wait there, attack that creature, or do a task specific to that bug like breaking roots or carrying planks (for ants). 4. Give us a light source on our buggies so we can still use two handed weapons in dark areas if they are with us. 5. Maybe multiple saddle styles that provide different buffs or abilities or armor ratings. I hope a dev sees these and considers them.

Economic related news: Without data centers, GDP growth was 0.1% in the first half of 2025, Harvard economist says Yes, you are feeling it: 22 states are officially in a recession — is yours on the list? It’s not just Sam Altman warning about an AI bubble. Now Mark Zuckerberg says a ‘collapse’ is ‘definitely a possibility’ I get the sense that the only reason the economy isn't fully in the tank is the billions being spend on technology and data centers. That investment is heading for bubble perhaps greater than the dot com era. Once that goes, we may be in deep doo-doo. When that happens, whomever is President at the time will be dealing with a mess. Interesting times.

I am fairly terrible and getting mods to work, so those collections seemed like a good idea. But yeah I probably wouldn't do that again.

New community blog is live by @Fishtick The Unintentional Gatekeeping of Video Games

Silent Hill f has been added to GOG as a last anniversary deal today. After Crysis Remastered Trilogy yesterday. https://www.gog.com/en/game/silent_hill_f As always no new MS titles like Awoved or Pentiment

You have to do research on any mod collection that interests you so you avoid that type of unexpected change I use YT because if a review of any mod collection is not on YT then its not very popular and then not worth the risk of installing it Almost all these mod collections have readme files and Discord links which I use but I still consider the YT reviews more credible and informative

Nanotech ‘switch’ reverses Alzheimer’s in mice by restoring brain’s protective barrier If this works in humans, it would be a revolutionary medical treatment.

Decided to finally get Warhammer 40K Space Marines 2, since it was 50% off in Steam sale. So far I like it. The graphics are very crips and sharp. Can't really remember much of the first game, tbh, but I think they added lots of new stuff like combos, parry, dodge, etc? Anyways. So far not bad, but I can't play for more than an hour or so, then it starts to get a bit much for me.

1. PC Game Pass (user-TecknoTot2), shared world 2. Continue to get crash after I choose Pete. The game either loads in and immediately crashes OR just crashes before I can see anything. 3. I even lowered my settings to Medium and Low, the last build was more stable then this one. I tried to lower my Render Scale too and nothing seems to fix it this time. I think I need to revert to an older NVIDIA driver again. sad face. LoginId:863fb4b542bec3bfa1badaa19edb2cc1 EpicAccountId:1e793af2e9ba459c9592c2bac4c97a21 GPU Crash dump Triggered Grounded2_WinGDK_Shipping Grounded2_WinGDK_Shipping Grounded2_WinGDK_Shipping Grounded2_WinGDK_Shipping Grounded2_WinGDK_Shipping Grounded2_WinGDK_Shipping Grounded2_WinGDK_Shipping Grounded2_WinGDK_Shipping kernel32 ntdll DxDiag.txt

Yes, it depends on how long it lasts. In the US, recessions tend to have political repercussions, so exaggerated or not there is an impact. Personally I thought we had a brief recession in 2022, but the (unpopular) administration seemed to white-washed it. The difference this time is we may see increased inflation as a result of the tariffs; the last time we had a lengthy recession with increased inflation (stagflation) was under J. Carter, which led to the election of R. Reagan. With the current administration's handling of government data, we may not even know for certain what's happening. But that results in business uncertainty, causing more conservative behavior and less growth. Worse case, the economy tanks, the AI bubble bursts, and we have long, deep recession.