Epilepsy and Gaming

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The Issue

(Excuse if my writing does make the most sense but I will try my best!)

People with epilepsy, me for example, can really struggle to play some games that have flashing. Games that come to mind that I would love to play but can't are:

  • Mina The Hollower
  • Shovel Knight
  • War Frame
  • Elden Ring (Certain Lightning Bosses)
  • Any game that requires shooting in dark areas

 

I understand some games do have an option to minimise the flashing - but that focus if mainly on full screen strobe. While that does help, it does not fix my issue. Games where you damage enemies then they flash multiple times in a second is the other issue. I understand it's petty but I love games so much and I want everyone who suffers epilepsy to have a chance to play great works of art.

 

It can be hard to implement fixes and accessibility of this type but I do have suggestions:

  • Flashing enemies - can be change to just flash a single time instead of multiple. It may not be as noticeable that we damage enemies.. but we won't die at least.
  • Flickering (Lightning and when in War Frame a certain person hunts you down?) - It doesn't need to flicker and flash. I'm sure people like me will be happy with static lights or VERY turned down intensity
  • Games where shooting in the dark (Stalker comes to mind) - The option could be when you fire your gun it's a static light from the muzzles instead of every time a shot is fired.

 

I don't blame anyone if this is not of importance to you but it has bothered me for some time and would like games to consider epilepsy a proper problem when it comes to games. These accessibility options might not make the games pretty or immersive, but it will hopefully let us enjoy the games how everyone else does.

Thank you all for those who took the time to read and a bigger thank you for those who think we can do something about this <3

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