The developers of Tekken 8 are increasing the accessibility of the game by adding options for the color blind. But some experts and users claim that certain settings can do more harm than good. One of the filters in particular, which displays horizontal and vertical black and white lines, appears to be causing headaches and dizziness, gaming accessibility expert Ian Hamilton said in a post on the X Network.
Various filters of the upcoming game were posted by @itwhiffed on the X Network, to which he wrote: “Why isn’t anyone talking about Tekken 8 being colorblind?” His post thread shows sets of filters for different visual conditions where one set of filters shows characters as vertical and horizontal lines with varying white or black backgrounds. (We’ve embedded a screenshot of the game below the article. However, we advise readers to exercise caution.)
James Berg, EA’s senior GM of accessibility, asked users not to share the post with the filter: “The autoplay video is giving people migraines…,” adding that “the line patterns moving across the screen create a continuous area of high-frequency flashing, like an invisible strobe light…,” which is not a pleasant stimulus for the human brain. This was also confirmed by some users on X, with one of them stating that filter “made me instantly dizzy from just a 2-3 second clip, which I happened to see”. At the same time, Berg added that “the intent is fantastic – it’s great to see Tekken becoming more accessible.”
Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada responded to the criticism by saying, “A few people, albeit very few, have either misunderstood the accessibility options we’re trying or have only seen the video without actually trying such options in-game.” He added that the game features “multiple types of color vision options” for players with color blindness, not just one pattern, and that there is a “fairly wide range of settings”. He also noted that the feature received positive feedback from many of the game’s demo participants.
We will soon see how the developers will deal with the filters in the end, the game is scheduled to be released on January 26th.
Source: engadget.com
