Borderlands 2 Gets Color-Blind Friendly

Cognimancer

Imperial Intelligence
Jun 13, 2012
1,906
0
0
Borderlands 2 Gets Color-Blind Friendly



Color blind gamers can now enjoy Borderlands 2's color-coded looting, thanks to an accessibility-focused update.

If you've played a loot-em-up RPG like Diablo or most MMOs, you know that gamers can get unreasonably excited over text colors. Green, blue, purple, and orange text is what separates the epic loot from the vendor trash, and the color-coded rarity system has embedded itself in that genre - much to the dismay of color blind gamers, who usually have trouble sorting gear like this. Borderlands 2, which is pretty firmly entrenched in this color-dependent system, will finally be addressing this problem in an upcoming patch to support multiple types of color blindness.

Color blindness falls into three categories, all of which are more common in men than women. The most common variant, deuteranomaly, affects 7% of males and 0.5% of females, and makes it difficult to distinguish red and green from other colors - an understandably serious issue for color blind gamers. Borderlands 2 addresses these problems with three different modes, each altering the game's loot colors to be easier to distinguish.

The changes are subtle, but effective. Each type of item rarity is still tied to its original color, since players with normal vision shouldn't be baffled when playing split-screen with color blind friends. Instead, the shades of each color are adjusted to be easier to distinguish, and the name of the color itself is displayed on each item's stats for complete clarity. It won't be perfect, but hopefully the update will let color blind gamers enjoy the loot-a-thon.

Source: Gearbox Software [http://www.gearboxsoftware.com/community/articles/1128]

Permalink
 

Weaver

Overcaffeinated
Apr 28, 2008
8,977
0
0
Did they have to label them [Orange] and [Green] and the like instead of just Common, Uncommon, Rare, Legendary, Unique? In a weird way that seems kind of rubbing it in the face of the colourblind.

Still, it's great Color Blind people can play! IMO I recall the GUI designer of Relic's Dawn or War franchise was, in fact, colourblind. Which is a pretty great idea IMO.
 

an annoyed writer

Exalted Lady of The Meep :3
Jun 21, 2012
1,409
0
0
Very good idea! Borderlands 2 already has a pretty good track record when it comes to accessibility, with the multiple controller presets, and fully button-mappable controls in case you don't like those, so this is no surprise, but another reason why Borderlands should be upheld as an example of good design, at least here.
 

Hero in a half shell

It's not easy being green
Dec 30, 2009
4,286
0
0
Weaver said:
Did they have to label them [Orange] and [Green] and the like instead of just Common, Uncommon, Rare, Legendary, Unique?
Still, it's great Color Blind people can play! IMO I recall the GUI designer of Relic's Dawn or War franchise was, in fact, colourblind. Which is a pretty great idea IMO.
I remember watching a Yogscast lets play of the newest Civ, and one of the players was getting attacked by a particular enemy he was telling everyone else was purple and yellow, after about 5 minutes of debate that there was no purple and yellow player he finally admitted, "Oh wait, I am colourblind, maybe it's not purple and yellow!" and they deduced from that who it was, turning out to be a completely different colour code.

also I feel this is relevant:

 

SageRuffin

M-f-ing Jedi Master
Dec 19, 2009
2,005
0
0
Ah, what the hell? Are you serious about this right now?! Really, what kind of shit is this?!

I've been through the game and all the expansions with all the (base) characters and haven't gotten one single Conference Call!
 
Aug 1, 2010
2,768
0
0
Hero in a half shell said:
also I feel this is relevant:

Pfffffffffeeheheheheheheeheheehe

Oh shit, that's fantastic.

OT:
Pretty damn neat. It's one of those things I never even thought about, but I can certainly see how it could be a major issue in Borderlands especially.
 

Glaice

New member
Mar 18, 2013
577
0
0
I'd figure the Common/Uncommon/etc would be better to distinguish. I'm hoping it's just a setting to turn on and off in the options menu.
 

Diablo1099_v1legacy

Doom needs Yoghurt, Badly
Dec 12, 2009
9,732
0
0
To all the people wondering why they just didn't do "Common/Uncommon/etc.", when were those terms actually used in game?
Think about it, they made it extremely clear in the loading screens and whatnot that they tied rarity to the colors so it might be considered confusing for long time players and newcomers to add another chart.

"Remember: Color of the weapon shows how rare it is. Now ignore that completely while we just flat out tell you how rare it is."

It took too much player training to get that concept to the player to just flip-flop on it.
 

praetor_alpha

LOL, Canada!
Mar 4, 2010
338
0
0
I'm not colorblind, but I thought the Purple and Pink colors were too similar, especially when you glance at them in a menu for a half second.
 
Oct 10, 2011
4,488
0
0
SageRuffin said:
Ah, what the hell? Are you serious about this right now?! Really, what kind of shit is this?!

I've been through the game and all the expansions with all the (base) characters and haven't gotten one single Conference Call!
Really? I got one on all of my base character plathroughs. I always thought it was a guaranteed drop from The Warrior. All my friends were getting them too, and I did some trading with my gunzerker so I could have a loadout with four Conference Calls. Bullets went everywhere when I went Gunzerk.

Either you weren't looking hard enough, or your colleagues are loot ninjas.

Anyway, about that colorblind friendly stuff, I hardly even look at the color when I play. After finding that the green and blue items tended to be the best, I decided that the stats are what matters.
 

-Dragmire-

King over my mind
Mar 29, 2011
2,821
0
0
Depending on the screen contrast, pearlesent were hard to notice... if they ever dropped.

[small]never found one...[/small]
 

Rutskarn

New member
Feb 20, 2010
243
0
0
So how did this game not have colorblind accessibility when its fucking LEAD WRITER is colorblind?
 

Scarim Coral

Jumped the ship
Legacy
Oct 29, 2010
18,157
2
3
Country
UK
While I'm not colour blind but I didn't notice the difference in the image until I read the news about the said difference. Maybe they should had made the colour word more noticeable especially those who are colour blind and new to the game.
 

Aerosteam

Get out while you still can
Sep 22, 2011
4,267
0
0
Awesome! This is great, I could never tell if a gun had green or orange rarity apart from looking at its stats, this will help a lot. Kinda a shame it took so long to implement.
 
Apr 5, 2008
3,736
0
0
Doesn't affect me one way or the other, but considering that some clever, well thought out adjustments can make a game just that little bit better and inclusive, I'm all for it.

Shame the game is fundamentally a boring loot grind.