Asklemmy

How does the existence of an option you never use degrade your experience?

It would be pretty crappy to never give a description of a painting to a blind person though. Like could you imagine if we never described the Mona Lisa to a blind person and they just to guess what it was a picture of.

I think it's sort of a matter of perspective. You may feel like having an easier mode degrades the experience, but for others it makes the game enjoyable/playable to them.

Do you have the same perspective on people that like the sandbox style of the sims games and so would use cheat codes for infinite money? It certainly alters the experience in a way that is different from the intentions of the devs, and to you may degrade the experience of the game, but for other people it elevates the game, and makes it more interesting or fun for them.

A similar argument could be made about the modding scene. Although it's community driven rather than done by the actual devs of the games, allowing people to mod the game to customize their experience with quality of life mods, or mods that make the game easier/harder allows people to tweak the game more to their tastes and what they're looking for in a game.

You might say that if a game isn't appealing to someone they should just play another game. But if the game is very close to the experience they are looking for, but there are a few hangups that are a deal breaker for them, why force them to look for the perfect unicorn game instead of acknowledging that allowing players to cater the game to their own tastes is better. Having an easy mode does nothing to harm you, or your experience of the game, you can still play at your desired difficulty. And it only opens the game up for other people to enjoy.

You can't make a blind person see a painting. But you can put a braille placard in front of it with a description of the painting. Or have audio tours that describe the paintings. And to you, that may degrade the art, but for someone who otherwise wouldn't be able to experience it at all, it allows them to at least share somewhat in the experience that everyone else in the exhibit is having.

You can also offer an audible description of the painting, and, just so the analogy makes sense, you can warn the audience that hearing the explaination isn't the experience the author intended to craft.

CrossCode did that...

The point I'm making is that you need not alter the painting. Adding an option to a game does not alter it for those that do not select it.

You're arguing for letting perfect be the enemy of good. The fact that a blind person can't perceive the visual aspect of an experience doesn't mean that they should be excluded entirely.