ADHD in RTS

TL;DR: The accessibility issue of RTS is not in the mechanical control aspect, it is in the attention-splitting demands. This is exacerbated in people with ADHD. Therefore, the best way to make RTS accessible to the average person without impacting skill ceiling is by introducing accessibility options the same way as for other medical conditions. Providing tools that help us effectively direct our attention to important tasks among all the chaos would be the most significant innovation to make RTS less daunting to the masses and thus more mainstream.

I think the real problem with RTS is it's inherent inaccessibility to ADHD-like brains, and nobody has really tried to address this with a real "disability"-accessibility approach (even though I know disability is probably a strong word for ADHD).

For my personal experience, on my own I can't handle the number of disjointed tasks that require attention like going back every 13 seconds to build a worker, every 30 seconds to build a pylon, fixing idle workers, floating money, make sure army production is constant, keep track of upgrades. THAT is the real barrier of entry for most people, even without ADHD. Not the mechanical execution aspect. And that's what needs to be addressed if you want a truly accessible RTS.

So, no matter how much innovation they do with the QWERT command card, or making it so you don't need to select a worker to build a structure... The core issue remains of having to keep all these tasks in our attention, in direct friction with our difficulty with executive functions.

I think everyone has the right to experience games regardless of ability. You might say it's just not a game for me, and yes: I accept I won't master it. But if there's a chance to let more people experience it, why not take it? I think of it like gatekeeping color-blind people from playing games like Tetris, Splatoon, Talos Principle, instead of implementing color-blind graphics options; or like telling blind people to avoid crossing the streets instead of implementing sounds on pedestrian traffic lights.

Uncapped games certainly have an interesting approach with Battle Aces, removing all the arguably unnecessary busywork of building supply depots every 30 secs "just because". I think I agree with it and will for sure try it. But many people would argue they like the base management aspect of RTS and you shouldn't have to remove it. Indeed, removing buildings from society just because wheelchair-bound people can't access them is not a realistic solution.

So how do you improve on the accessibility aspect? I'm not sure, my point is that nobody has really thought about it. Probably some experts should be consulted, but I think it could look like some of the following examples:

• In-game implementations of build-order guides. Some ideas about this floated around in this sub but I haven't seen it in the actual game. It could be a list of actions at the top of the screen telling you what structure is next and when to build it. Or the little ghost of the perfect build order we were supposed to follow
• Global production cooldowns card. I think it's important here that when the SCV finishes, it doesn't disappear from the UI but even might start blinking to draw attention back to unit production.
• Centralized information: Some great work done here already with the SG UI. But I might suggest that alerts and similar information show up next to the cursor. As we hyperfocus on something like a chaotic fight, alerts often don't register. The cursor is the most obvious place we will be looking at, but even then I think it will be missed (((: But it's worth a shot.
• Automated production on buildings would obviously minimize the amount of attention we need to give to that task.
• Are other kinds of advanced automation possible? Like assigning a specific worker to build a pylon somewhere in your base every 50 seconds?

For the elitists out there, this would not do anything to lower the skill ceiling. If you want to express your skill by selecting a worker and building a pylon, you can still go for it. If you think it will even the field between your glorious hard-earned multitasking ability and my lack of skill, it won't. At the end of the day, having ADHD will always make me much worse than you at keeping up with those global cooldowns, cursor alerts, or when the automation couldn't build the pylon cause there wasn't enough money cause I let it build 200 workers without noticing. This is not changing anything about the core game, but only giving extra tools for accessibility to those who have a natural disadvantage. The hope is not to even the playing field - It's to let us get closer to experiencing the game.

Cheers