Perfect games

This one is a real noodle scratcher to me. During a conversation with friends over on Discord the topic of perfect games came up. At first, I offered a few examples of perfect games myself, but then I got thinking, that’s when I’m at my most dangerous (I think).

Is there A perfect game. A game playable by all, easily understood. Can be picked up by any skill level,… fits all the parameters you could think of for a game. A game that transcends language barriers,… Any parameter you can throw at it. Anything.

Games about language or spoken in the english language are out already. i had to learn english to be able to play those, so somebody with an intellectual disability that has the inability to learn a language couldn’t play those.

What about games that rely on colour? What about a colour blind person? They would have difficulty with those. Could they actually play them? Don’t know.

Games based on sound or rhythm as they need music to function are then not playable by deaf people. Or the rhythm has to be made tactical by a rumble motor, so they can feel the rhythm. Again, if that rumble motor or anything wasn’t put in the game or in the controller, there was no way to play for the deaf person.

In my mind there is no one perfect game. Disabled folks will always need help with any game but I think the one that needs the least help with or can be enjoyed by anyone at some level… is a puzzle game like tetris. There is a reason tetris has existed for so long and has been enjoyed by so many.

Tetris is the perfect pick up and play game. You don’t need to teach people how to play it. They can find out on their own. It has no large difficulty curve to start playing just stack blocks and make them vanish, that’s the loop. Tetris can be played in both black and white and in colour, so there is a version that colourblind people can play easily.

The only disabled group I have difficulty with are the blind folks. I know they can enjoy gaming too if they have enough accesibility in games like sounds or other indicators. As a sighted person I rely on sight for a lot of things, so I wouldnt’ know how they would play tetris. So for them almost no games would be perfect pick up and play. I know gaming for them can be done, as I have seen clips of it, but I myself can not give enough examples on how because I have no lived experience.

It’s easy calling something perfect when you have all your senses and are able-bodied. For me, as an autistic disabled person, a perfect game is either session based, like a lot of roguelikes are, or just short and sweet like a story-driven single player game. Tetris DS is my preferred version of pick up and play tetris. Dead cells is my favourite session based game. I’m not good at it, but I love playing it.

I came up with the analogy of a room. “Give me the perfect colour”, one could ask me. But I wouldn’t be able to give you an answer. Next you ask me. “Give me a perfect colour for that wall”. I could give a few options, but I wouldn’t give you the perfect one, until you narrow it down. What will the room be used for? Where is the sunlight coming from? Will it be used for leisure or study, so busy colours are a no go in the latter option.

Perfect as a catch-all is a meaningless word to me. Close-to-perfect would be better, but perfect is still useable, if you narrow it down with questions. In those specific sets of circumstances and options and all things considered, there could be a perfect option.

My autism probably defines Perfect as too rigid. Perfect could mean close-to-perfect or something, but to me it means perfect in all circumstances and that is simply not possible, and why as I have outlined above.

Addendum after writing this:
A friend sent me this video, after I told him about my ideas around the topic and… yeah, it’s a great video. Explains everything really well and puts me in my place. (in case the link doesn’t work: Daryl Talks games: Can games be objectively bad)