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Colour Blind Gamers

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By evilredzombie

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I am a gamer, I am however something else….I am colour blind. This is a thorn in my flesh as a gamer. Time and time again I have been unable to play a game due to my “disability”

A few simple examples of where my “disability “impacted on my gaming joy

Puzzle bobble- I can’t differentiate between the blue and the purple the green and the yellow!

Fahrenheit – those colour sequences left me not being able to go beyond the first few minutes of the game

Tiger woods- the colours on the green (the mesh grid) I cant see how steep the slope is

Strangely enough South Africa recognises being colour blind as a disability and someone that is colour blind can apply for EE jobs (employee equity)

In my opinion developers should consider this when developing a game

I found this article very interesting

Check out Color-blind gamers: common. Developer awareness? Minimal

Here is an extract

“Gaming is a visual medium, and it’s amazing to think how much information we have to take in almost instantly to play games. Especially in action games, we need to be able to quickly take notice of subtle movements and the state of numerous dials and displays that show us how well or poorly we’re doing in the game. To do that, we have to be able to absorb a large amount of colour information. What does that soldier’s uniform look like? Is that a red or green mark above an alien’s head? Is he on my side, or is he an enemy? Now imagine that much of this crucial information was removed from a game; the challenge of dealing with situational awareness would increase very quickly.

That challenge is precisely the one faced by people who are colour-blind, which is a rather common genetic problem. A reader named Tim McDaniel contacted us about this matter, and his examples were thought-provoking. “One specific gaming example that always frustrates me is Battlefield 2142. I love the game, but the flags of the two teams are not distinct enough on the HUD, at least to me. I honestly can’t tell you what colour they are. Red, green, yellow, brown?” he told Ars. “I usually end up trying to distinguish them by brightness because one looks slightly brighter to me, but that is so slight it’s still tough.”  (source http://arstechnica.com )

So next time you thing a stage is easy when you have to navigate or do a task based on colour… take a moment and think of the evilredzombie.

PS that made me think….am I maybe the evilblackzombie?

Thanks to evilredzombie for allowing me to post this, you can check out some more of his articles over at www.redzombie.iblog.co.za

Last Updated: April 11, 2008

8 Comments

  1. RivaZA

    April 11, 2008 at 17:45

    I am colour blind. With green/brown/red/orange. So imagine my frustration when my job requires me to make up network cables, which is like every second day.

    Reply

  2. Naudran

    April 11, 2008 at 17:52

    I feel evilredzombie’s pain. I’m colour-blind myself and time and again things like the above mentioned has thwarted me.

    But I must admit, now and again, there’s a breath of fresh air. Games like Hexagon HD allows you to add signs on the gems… but over all, games like that are few and far between.

    Being a programmer myself (although not a games developer), I always try and work something for colour-blind people into my own projects.

    I mean, it’s not that much to ask…

    Some interesting stats:

    # 1 in 12 people have some sort of color deficiency. About 8% of men and 0.4% of women in the US.
    # 0.38% of women are deuteranomalous (around 95% of all color deficient women).
    # 0.005% of the population are totally colour blind.
    # 0.003% of the population have tritanopia.
    # Protanomaly occurs in about 1% of males.
    # Deuteranomaly occurs in about 5% of males. It’s the most common color deficiency.
    # Protanopia occurs in about 1% of males.
    # Deuteranopia occurs in about 1% of males.

    If anyone is interested just exactly how colour-blindess works: http://www.iamcal.com/toys/colors/whatis.php

    Reply

  3. Lupus

    April 11, 2008 at 18:29

    Seriously I can back Riva up on that, driving with him sometimes and he is flooring it when the robot is red :-D.

    Reply

  4. evilredzombie

    April 11, 2008 at 22:39

    glad to see im not alone..

    evilredzombie’s last blog post..Am I maybe the evilblackzombie?

    Reply

  5. RivaZA

    April 12, 2008 at 11:56

    I think I have either Protanomaly or Deuteranomaly. Not sure which one. If you show me red by itself I see it as red, same with green as green or orange as orange or brown as brown. But put any two of them together and immediately they look the same.

    Reply

  6. scotty777

    April 12, 2008 at 12:23

    wow guys, I didn’t know there were so many people with this disorder! But, my cousin has it were he gets confused with colours.

    Reply

  7. Avayaik

    April 12, 2008 at 17:11

    How does evilredzombie play guitar hero 3?

    Reply

  8. LazySAGamer

    April 13, 2008 at 06:23

    [re=11252]Avayaik[/re]: The same way I do I guess… go by sequence…

    Reply

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