Colour-blind gamers

[Badnik Mechanic]

Have a look at this picture. What number do you see?

If you answered 5... congratulations, you may play Modern Warfare 2 online with no hinderence to your ability, as well as just about 90% of every other videogame on every console system as well as PC.

if you answered 2... unfortunately you will no longer be able to tell the difference between your enemies and own team in an online game, you will no longer be able to identify various objects, and you will be at a disadvantage in every online game you play...

Why you ask?

Because if you answered 2... you are colour-blind...

The mass majority of us take this for grantage, we can see colours, however a certain level of the population cannot. People who are colour-blind.

The reason why I'm talking about this here is that over at the official Sony forums, one member posted a topic asking if there was an option to change the team name colours in Modern Warfare 2, the reason being is that he is colour-blind and cannot tell the red and the green apart.

In past, Call of Duty games, they've had the option to change the colours, not been a problem... however... in MW2 there is no such option. The devs didn't include it, despite every other COD title having it.

Whilst I cannot understand what it's like, due to games like this having characters dressed to similarly, it does give people who don't suffer from being colour-blind an advantage. They don't need to identify the uniform, just see the colour and thats it, fire away.

I for one think that something so simple should be included in COD... and it would turn out I'm not the only one.

A few hours ago, a fan petition was created, to give MW2 options to change the text colour, earlier tonight it was at around 200 signatures... at the moment it's on 317 and rising.

Now I for one think that whilst the issue is good for people who have problems with colour, it's a bit misguided confining it to just MW2, surely this should be an industry standard? It's such a basic thing and cannot possibly demand much resources to both implament and work without any impact on the game?

I don't usually consider online petitions to do much, but theres just something about this one thats got me thinking that it may get people talking at least about making games as universal and as fair as possible.

Obviously some things will never be perfect, but surly something like different coloured names/icons/radar blips on multiplayer games should be an industry standard thing?

I just tried playing a game of MW2 without looking at either the map (since it's the quickest way to reference), or by targeting people based on their username (I tried to go by the uniform), and it's not easy, not by a long shot, especially when special abilities come into play. It must be so frustrating for people for something that could be so easilly fixed.

Edited November 24, 2009 by Casanova

[Chris]

If you answered 5... congratulations, you may play Modern Warfare 2 online with no hinderence to your ability, as well as just about 90% of every other videogame on every console system as well as PC.

if you answered 2... unfortunately you will no longer be able to tell the difference between your enemies and own team in an online game, you will no longer be able to identify various objects, and you will be at a disadvantage in every online game you play...

I would have answered two and I'm not colourblind (as I had a test when I was younger to verify that I was not). That image is just plain awful for making a determining such.

[Badnik Mechanic]

I would have answered two and I'm not colourblind (as I had a test when I was younger to verify that I was not). That image is just plain awful for making a determining such.

Well unfortunately I'm not an optician so I had to rely on what I believed to be something official in order to get my point across.

So are we going to talk about the issue?

Edited November 24, 2009 by Casanova

[Tornado]

I think it depends entirely on what you mean by "standard."

[Badnik Mechanic]

Well basically, that it becomes such a common practice that it would be almost unheard of for a game which has a multiplayer mode not to have this option for people.

[Tornado]

Ah, well I don't see any problem with such an idea. Making it common practice enough that lacking the option is seen as incredibly out of place is quite different from what I thought you might have been referring to.

[BlueFox]

It's such a tiny thing that makes such a differemce. I wouldn't belive it would be that much effort either. I remember Perfect Dark Zero had a system like that, you could choose sets of colours such as a regular, Red Vs Green but you could also have Red & Blue, White & Red, Pink & Orange. There was an astonishing amount.

[Blacklightning]

It's such a tiny thing that makes such a differemce. I wouldn't belive it would be that much effort either. I remember Perfect Dark Zero had a system like that, you could choose sets of colours such as a regular, Red Vs Green but you could also have Red & Blue, White & Red, Pink & Orange. There was an astonishing amount.

Funny, I was just about to mention that too. I'd imagine it'd get a bit confusing on occasion with different players referring to the other team as a different colour to what other people set them to. But hey, still fucking brilliant as far as colourblindness goes.

I find it interesting, though, how easy it is to take a disability like that for granted and how much it can royally fuck up specific people's enjoyment of a game. I'm not just talking about colour blindness here, there's also options for the deaf/hearing impared (subtitles - done fucking marvelously in L4D games I might add) and on occasion even the blind (I've seen at least one Rougelike out there that dictates important scenery and objects to you out aloud... and although it's not a game built specifically for blindness per se, I have seen a couple of youtubes out there of a blind guy using the stereo sound on the speakers to kill various OoT bosses, including Dark Link, THAT I was fucking impressed with). Frankly, games can't usually be expected to cater to disabilities all the time, a lot of us acknowledge that - but nonetheless extending the functionality just that little bit? That's a touch of kindness in a money-driven biz. You don't see a lot of that.

[SuperLink]

Making this common for accessibility sounds like the kind of thing Nintendo would do. Not to say it's a bad idea; if it won't take much effort to implement then I certainly don't see why not.

By the way, I saw 2 on the opening post aswell, but it's not a very good example. I've attached a more accurate one. 74 should be viewable for those with regular colour vision, but depending on different types of colour blindness you will see 21 or no number at all.

Althooough it also has a lot to do with your computer monitor, so really none of them are truly accurate.

PS. Infinity Ward seem to have omitted a lot of series staples in MW2 huh? :/

Edited November 25, 2009 by SuperLink

[Oroborus Alpha]

Halo 3 and ODST has already given their own response to the colorblind on online multiplayer with the showing that allies will have the tag hovering over their head all the time, while the enemy will not be.

[SuperStingray]

I recall seeing a colorblind option in L4D2, so that's a start.

But yeah, I think it's kind of stupid of IW to choose two of the most well-known colorblind hues for team colors without providing an alternative.

[Conando]

Yeah, L4D1 and L4D2 have a colorblind mode. It's good to see Valve making an effort. I don't really get why IW removed all the extra colors in MW2, though. Can't be that hard to offer more than just red and blue.

[Dr. Good Girl]

Those are some examples of colorblindness to gamers, so you can see how much fun it can be for even those puzzle games.

Have they ever tried adjusting the TV settings? Wouldn't that at least bring difference to the shades of the colors at least by a bit?

[SuperLink]

Those are some examples of colorblindness to gamers, so you can see how much fun it can be for even those puzzle games.

So all those "realistic" games are really just seen through the eyes of a colourblind person?

[JezMM]

Not just colourblindness. I'd love to see more options for people who are hard of hearing as well. Valve do this excellently with the option to have full captions for sound effects as well as character dialog. Admittidly it doesn't tell you where the sound effects are coming from, but it's a start.

In a perfect world, I would love for games to have an option which lets sound effects become visual. If there's an explosion to the right, the subtitle for "explosion" would display to the right of the screen, for example. (On less serious games, it could be presented in a much more stylish cartooney way of course).

It bugs me to no end when certain games don't even have an option for subtitles.

Anyway, yes, I also say it should fast become industry standard to add options for as many disabilities as possible, good topic Casanova.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I actually saw 4 different numbers: it was either a 2, 5, 8, or a 9.

Soo...what does that make me? I know damn well I'm not color blind.

There should be some help to those who are though, it doesn't seem tp sit well with those who can't tell one color from another.

[SuperStingray]

Not just colourblindness. I'd love to see more options for people who are hard of hearing as well. Valve do this excellently with the option to have full captions for sound effects as well as character dialog. Admittidly it doesn't tell you where the sound effects are coming from, but it's a start.

I think there are rumors that Valve is doing something with sign language for HL2 Episode 3.

[Random Rhyme]

Making this common for accessibility sounds like the kind of thing Nintendo would do. Not to say it's a bad idea; if it won't take much effort to implement then I certainly don't see why not.

By the way, I saw 2 on the opening post aswell, but it's not a very good example. I've attached a more accurate one. 74 should be viewable for those with regular colour vision, but depending on different types of colour blindness you will see 21 or no number at all.

Althooough it also has a lot to do with your computer monitor, so really none of them are truly accurate.

PS. Infinity Ward seem to have omitted a lot of series staples in MW2 huh? :/

Your example is good andi n the end I saw a 74 but I had to look a bit closer to see the middle green part of the four. I didn't have to go into the screen but I did have to concentrate into the image a bit.

Edited November 26, 2009 by Shade737

[JezMM]

I think there are rumors that Valve is doing something with sign language for HL2 Episode 3.

It's been a fact that Alyx Vance can speak sign language, so I'm guessing it's just gonna be one short scene where she has to use it at some point. I believe they're looking into it for the animation purposes rather than disability factor though. Still a great moment for equality in video-games though. It's never really been done much before as far as I'm aware.

[Remy]

I think there are rumors that Valve is doing something with sign language for HL2 Episode 3.

Wouldn't it be easier to use subtitles? pretty sure most sign languages aren't international.

[JezMM]

There's another thing that annoys me actually. It's great Sonic games have subtitles as default (the occasional option to turn them off), but I thought the Heroes ones are awful. They don't stand out from the action, and if you were deaf, you'd have no idea who was talking, especially with all the in-game dialogue.

I think it should be entirely optional since it would be distracting for those who can hear the dialogue, but I also reckon all dialogue should be marked clearly with who is talking, either by colour or by the character's face/name next to the text, etc.

[Mick]

I'm not colour blind and I can see all the colors in there. I see five colours. However, I'm not gonna play it though. I have no desire to play it. Perhaps, colour blind people have no desire to play the game either.