1 reply »

1. You misrepresented what actually causes seizures, there’s no secret morse code of flashing lights that triggers a seizure in everyone with epilepsy, it’s different for everyone. This excellent post from the Jim Sterling sub-reddit says it better then I can, so i’ll just quote that:

   “My main point here is that this is already a false representation of how PSE works. There is no specific seizure trigger (and test don’t typically involve actually triggering a seizure). Let me quote wiki here for just a range of examples:

   Several characteristics are common in the trigger stimuli of many people with PSE. The patterns are usually high in luminance contrast (bright flashes of light alternating with darkness, or white bars against a black background). Contrasts in colour alone (without changes in luminance) are rarely triggers for PSE. Some patients are more affected by patterns of certain colours than by patterns of other colours. The exact spacing of a pattern in time or space is important and varies from one individual to another: a patient may readily experience seizures when exposed to lights that flash seven times per second, but may be unaffected by lights that flash twice per second or twenty times per second. Stimuli that fill the entire visual field are more likely to cause seizures than those that appear in only a portion of the visual field. Stimuli perceived with both eyes are usually much more likely to cause seizures than stimuli seen with one eye only (which is why covering one eye may allow patients to avoid seizures when presented with visual challenges). Some patients are more sensitive with their eyes closed; others are more sensitive with their eyes open.

   What CDPR had in the game (having see it in youtube) is white strobe lights that flicker for ~2 seconds at a frequency that falls withing a range that more commonly than others triggers seizures. If you want to see it for yourself, you can search for it on youtube (“braindance” for the part of the game).

   CDPR shouldn’t have been going anywhere near things that even might

   That’s not possible. Anything “might” trigger a seizure. That’s my point. There’s no secret brain-frying morse code, there’s only individual triggers for individual patients with some being more common than others. Avoiding all possible PSE triggers in a game is about as realistic as avoiding all possible phobia triggers or PTSD triggers. CDPR obviously had no clue about PSE, but neither had i before looking into it and i don’t think it’s reasonable to say they should. PSE is very rare, PSE being triggered by strobe lights is incredibly rare, i can’t fault them for thinking that there’d be nothing special about this beyond what the normal epilepsy warning on most games talks about. I mean, did you know a week ago that people with PSE have specific enough triggers that many can play action games with little risk of siezures? I didn’t. And i don’t think anyone at CDPR did.

   being enraged that critics point out that someone actually had a seizure from it, and then trying to harm the person who did by getting them to seizure too is… well, it’s fucked up obviously.

   Of course it is, but that’s the way a certain section of the population reacts to anything. And i think it’s important to point out that this was not at all the reaction of CDPR. CCDPR have handled this pretty much perfectly, they immediately responded by saying they’d look into it and included a big warning, then patched the game a day later. Blaming CDPR for what the nutters among the fans do is no more justified than blaming Naughty Dog for the same. A developer isn’t responsible for them just because they think they’re defending a game instead of attacking it. At least not unless they’re actually being enccouraged.

   While i think (being far more lefty than average) CDPR needs to be critizised harshly for their labour practices, that shouldn’t devolve into undifferentiated all-out shitting on them. When it comes to the relationship with their customers, CDPR have pretty much the best record in the industry aside from some small indie studios. And i don’t think the industry will ever improve if the only two attitudes toward a company are “they’re perfect angels” or “literally the devil”. I’ll support anyone protesting CDPR because of the things they do wrong (like crunch) but it is also wrong to talk like they’re as bad as (random example) Ubisoft. Because Ubisoft does crunch as well, on top of preying on gambling addicts and, oh yeah, protecting sexual harassers.”