Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback BG3 Features for AbleGamers?

In my guild, Tyrs Paladium, we proudly support the AbleGamers Foundation, which creates opportunities for gamers with disabilities to combat social isolation, foster inclusive communities, and improve their quality of life. Some of our veterans (and others) over the years came to play with us solely for this reason. We met some AWESOME PEOPLE this way!!!

So I ask Larian Studios, can you describe your UI and how it might help or hinder play for those in this community?

20% of the gaming population across the world are considered having a disability. There are over 2.8 billion gamers across the world. That equates to 560 MILLION gamers playing with a disability. Together, gamers are estimated to have generated $180 BILLION DOLLARS in revenue in 2021 ALONE.

I've approached developers in each game that we reside in, and must say that so far, they all listened, but Standing Stone Games (DDO) has stood out as a company that actually changed code, and in game art and sound to better support this community.

Here's a pretty cool educational video that I did a few years back that I showed to game developers.

WE SEE YOU ABLE GAMERS!

What a great initiative and an interesting video.

As I’ve PM-ed you to say, if you’re looking for a direct response from Larian you might be better contacting their support team directly.

But I’d be curious to know what gamers with disabilities make of BG3, and what else they’d like to see from it both in terms of maximising accessibility (which feels as though it should be a given for a major computer game these days, though unfortunately probably isn’t) but also potentially in terms of content. And just because I’m a bit worried that sounds like I’m thinking of disabled gamers as a homogeneous group or that all their preferences will be shaped by their disabilities, I should make clear I am fully aware different folk will have different answers to those questions and that mostly those views are likely to be just the same as (or just as diverse as!) those of the mass of BG3 players taken as a whole.

I don’t recall seeing any specific discussion of this here, or on Reddit or Discord. Is anyone else aware of this topic already having been addressed anywhere that I could read up on?

Bumping this thread. What a great way to utilize your guild!

yes it is possible to play the game one handed... its bloody hard but possible and the AbleGamers Foundation isn't making any difference one way or the other

imo the big Ui issue is camera control and its hardest during the multi-level battles... even if you don't have some disabilities

Then again it's not THAT exciting.

One note I'll add - For a game focused on multi-player, as Larian has suggested their game is, inter-player communication is seemingly non-existent at the moment.

How are players meant to communicate with each other, in a multi-player game? If there is a means of doing so, it's buried well enough that I've never encountered it, and couldn't immediately find it with afresh look around either - the multi-player lobby supposed that it will have a chat, though this chat doesn't work at the moment; once you're into the game itself, however, there seems to be no in-game method of communication.

The reason I'm posting about this in this thread in particular is because most people assume that folks will have and be using their external voice program of choice to communicate - discord, etc. - but that's not really a function option for some. As a player who cannot speak vocally, I rely on the existence of in-game text-based interfaces to communicate with my friends and companions while we play games together. As far as I've been able to tell, BG3 does not support this at present time - just as their previous titles have not. I'd be interested to know if there are plans to improve this situation.

BINGO. We need to advocate for this feature TO BE INCLUDED BEFORE LAUNCH.

@The Red Queen -- This is where we'd need your help. You have a link to the upper ups. This is D&D. Inter game communication by TEXT is an absolute must. Don't worry about voice, but text is very very important. Many in this style of gaming need it. In DDO there is built in voice and built in text chat. Text chat is used 4 to 1 over voice. Its often the FIRST WAY we get to meet guildies.

No inter-game text chat will sadly place this game in the circular file in a FRACTION OF THE TIME by gamers... I PROMISE developers that. Add global text chat and player-to-player (private) text chat features.

@Larian Developers:


Remember those words Larian, discuss it at your meetings... because many, many thousands of BG3 gamers will REQUIRE this feature for basic necessity communication and it will simply be a game-breaker to not have it.

Thank you so much for giving this thread topic your attention! I have played D&D 1st ed in 1976, Infocom Zork text adventures, SSI Gold Box games, most D&D games on multiple platforms, DDO, Neverwinter, Baldurs Gate 1 and 2. I know how this game can go very right or very wrong. This is very promising to see at the forum level. Now we must elevate and see if there is interest to add a text based chat option BEFORE LAUNCH. I think that is the #1 ASK at this juncture.

Helping out gamers meet ACCESSIBILITY CHALLENGES is one GREAT WAY to EARN positive coverage in many gaming sites for that alone and its all free marketing, the best marketing imho.

We have a couple people on the Discord that are unable to speak in voice chat, but they utilize the text to voice function - it just needs to be enabled and the player has to have the permissions to use it. it is not ideal though.

However, you are right, there is no in-game chat at all and it's just kind of...odd. There is a space for it in the multiplayer creation screen but it has been disabled since the start of EA.

Really? I didn't know that Blackheifer.

Larian... It's OPPORTUNITY TIME.

I think if you are trying to @ the Larian devs, you may be better served getting an email sent out. My understanding of this board is that the moderators/administrators/community managers collect the most useful/prominent feedback into some kind of shared document to which Larian has access, not that developers are actively checking this forum.

Unfortunately not. I am a forum member like anyone else, just one who has volunteered to support this community as a moderator here. I do have access to a different forum where I can speak to other mods and Larian support about issues specifically related to these forums, but that’s the only difference in my relationship with Larian. Salo, the Larian community manager, has told us all here in the past that they read and collate feedback here, but that’s not a process I’m part of or have visibility of.

I can only repeat what I’ve said before, that when specifically looking for a response from Larian, my experience as a gamer is that it’s best to email/submit a feedback form. I think I dropped you a link to that by PM earlier.

Personally, I very much hope Larian has been actively seeking feedback from gamers with various accessibility requirements throughout Early Access and have been building more such features into the full release they’re preparing for August, as if they were only thinking about this stuff now, in EA’s dying days, that would be very late in the day. But, worst case, better late than never and it surely can’t hurt to give them a nudge.

I am surprised that BG3 didn't get (at least as of yet) a more robust ping system. Some of the recent games (Overwatch2) allow for a pretty robust communication with the ping system. I could see something of that sort working rather well for BG3, especially if they would record appropriate barks with voice of our choice. At least it would excuse the ever present, at the moment useless, minimap taking a big chunk of the screen's real estate.

+

As it turns out Ping is implemented, as of the last Patch I think. You hit Alt-Right mouse. It pings the location on screen and on the minimap.

Yeah, but it doesn't allow you to communicate what you want, no? I think Apex Legends was the first game to really try to create ping system, so it could make up for lack of VO communication. Didn't play it, so can't speak for it, but ping in Overwatch2 has been pretty excellent - not only showing ping, but verbally communicating what you have pinged, plus a selection of options one can pick manually - early showcase below.

Yeah, but, not ideal is very much right. Setting aside my own dislike and discomfort with TSS (that's a person, me thing), The main issue is that the TTS support in 3rd party chat programs still requires screen focus outside of the game to use - so you have to constantly switch back and forth between the game, and the external program if you want to communicate using it. For some games that's just not a tenable proposition at all - especially live or real-time ones - and while that's not necessarily an issue in BG3, it's still a very big hassle, and what it ultimately results in is players that need to use such a method simply communicating less than they'd like to, because of that awkwardness. It's definitely A solution, and I won't knock it for that, but it's not a great one, sadly... I could not, for example, imagine running a raid group using TTS - I've done that in the past using a robust combination of text chat, pings, plus a selection of pre-stored targeted whispers/tells and raid-shouts, but that's all got to come from within the game itself, for players to receive without needing extra effort on their part.

It's an interesting point to consider that a lot of folks don't think about until it comes up - When someone talks using voice, people hear it, and they process the information, no action required on their part; you can't choose not to hear something without taking active steps not to. When you communicate non-verbally, however, be that through text, or with your hands in person, that communication requires active engagement from the person you're communicating to, which they have to extend consciously to you... something that it's very east for them to simply not do, to choose not to do if they wish to ignore you, or to not even realise they need to do in the first place, and that's actually a big hurdle to overcome, just from the starting block. In pick up groups, I might say something half a dozen times, and others in the group will still be asking the question, or making other suggestions... and it's not until someone reads what I've said, and then repeats it over voice, that it's acknowledged... That's happened rather a lot, a real lot, in fact. Any tools that can help lower that hurdle are always welcome.

It’s not something I’ve come across in gaming (I don’t do multiplayer), but as someone who suffers from recurring laryngitis and who has had plenty of experience trying to contribute to phone meetings by instant message while everyone else is speaking, I absolutely recognise this problem.

No surprise. I was a volunteer forum moderator for NEVERWINTER for a few years and it was the same thing. I was lucky because I was also a podcaster and was able to interview some of the upper ups right up to the CEO before the game launched lol

But yeah, they were all insulated with the exception of a forum community manager who was a paid employee. They are the real conduit.

I think the access that you have is fine. I'll put together an email/feedback form, and perhaps a nudge or two on your behalf to the community manager or whoever sits in that seat here is all that it may take to get some positive friction. If it works great, if not? Oh well, we tried. Bottom line, Im VERY GRATEFUL for anything you can do, and have done already Red Queen!