Gaming and colour-blindness

[SckizoBoy]

So, I finally got around to playing MW2 the other day...

Now, leaving aside the disappointment of a rather crappy single player campaign, I rather lost count of the number of times I opened fire on (or outright killed) squadmates. You may call me a shit FPSer (OK, I am), but that could hardly be helped in this game because in some levels, everyone looked the same... no thanks to me being partially colour-blind. Virtually everyone in the US-based levels merged into a mass of green/grey and just when I was proud of a snap headshot, game re-loads because I just shot Cpl Dunn across the road.

Just as well I didn't join the army...

Anyway, anyone else got this problem and what are the dumbest incidences you've been involved in were it not for your colour-blindness?

Also, are there any games (TF2 notwithstanding) that are colour-blind player friendly?

 

[Kahunaburger]

There's definitely a major accessibility problem in Mass Effect 3 - color-blind players seem to be only getting one ending.

 

[Dandark]

There's definitely a major accessibility problem in Mass Effect 3 - color-blind players seem to be only getting one ending.

It's funny because of how true it is


This has been a recent problem with modern games, I assume it can just be contributed to lazy aesthetic design in most games, except for when it's intentional.

 

[WoW Killer]

There's definitely a major accessibility problem in Mass Effect 3 - color-blind players seem to be only getting one ending.

I lol'd.

Errrm. In Minecraft it can sometimes be difficult to see between different ore types depending on your texture pack, especially with the Technic mod.

 

[daveman247]

snip

Oh lawd, happens too many times in those games. All the soldiers look the same.

Now what kind of colourblindness we talking? Total? Certain colours?

I just have trouble with certain shades mixing together sometimes. Not too bad


But yellow text on an orange background? fergederaboutit. Or vice versa

 

[SckizoBoy]

Oh lawd, happens too many times in those games. All the soldiers look the same.

Now what kind of colourblindness we talking? Total? Certain colours?

I just have trouble with certain shades mixing together sometimes. Not too bad


But yellow text on an orange background? fergederaboutit. Or vice versa

Thankfully, I'm not completely colour blind, though a lot of combinations give me headaches... relevant to gaming, green/orange, green/grey (anything that isn't bright), brown/grey (virtually any shade), brown/green (dark) combos have me triple-taking and looking like a total eejit in multiplayer unless I just take the shot... whereupon mass-raging.

So in these 'realistic' shooters, everything just turns from shades of green/grey/brown into a mass of just greyness, so I end up just killing anything that moves especially in SP.

What's really annoying was that when I played CS, I couldn't go anywhere near the darkened parts of the map because I'd TK without fail...

captcha - 'just dance' ... rather apt in a way...

 

[Scrustle]

This brings up a question about colour blindness I've been pondering. I've always wondered how colour blind people deal with the HUD in the Portal 2 co-op. The colours they use in that, especially for ATLUS look really terrible for colour blind people. So, is it?

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I'm mildly colorblind. I find that I only really have trouble in games with lots of character customization options like MMORPGs.

Some MMOs give 'colorblind modes' - but it pretty much universally doesn't apply to character generation.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

This brings up a question about colour blindness I've been pondering. I've always wondered how colour blind people deal with the HUD in the Portal 2 co-op. The colours they use in that, especially for ATLUS look really terrible for colour blind people. So, is it?

I'm partly color blind, and I have had problems with some other games, but never that I can remember with anything from Valve. They seem to be rather deliberate with decisions they make to avoid issues like that. At first glance it looks like the Portal 2 co-op portal colors are pretty weird choices, but they're actually pretty good ones. They avoid the obvious and most common red-green problem entirely by not having green at all, of course. The darker red and lighter yellow used both have high contrast with each other and most stuff in the environments, and while I often have problems with blue and purple if they're similar in brightness, they solved that too. The lighter blue and darker purple give them good contrast with each other and are both very distinct from the red and yellow. I'm not entirely sure off the top of my head what they do about blue-yellow, which is another somewhat common problem, because it's not something I have trouble with and I can't picture the colors in my head right now, but for the most part they do a well above average job of making things visually distinct.

 

[SajuukKhar]

I have a red-green color deficiency and the only game I have ever had problems with was bioshock 2's hacking min-game.

 

[ChickNaney]

I'm not colorblind, myself, but a friend of mine that I play with is. From what he tells me, colorblind people can't really read maps that well. I didn't really know that until he told me, (I had just thought it was his own problem with reading maps, not because of being color blind) and it's caused us some really annoying times in games like Sacred 2 and such, where I'd have to direct him, turn for turn, to a specific spot, or lead him myself, if we're playing together. I've actually learned more about colorblindness from him than from anywhere else. Pretty interesting stuff.

 

[SckizoBoy]

I couldn't play Black Ops or MW2 because I'm red/green color blind, and that causes issues...

But Black Ops has a color blind feature, as well as League of Legends.

Oddly enough, while I'm red/green colour blind as well, I could play... most of Black Ops, though again, it was just a case of my shooting anything that moves and letting the game reload if it was friendly-fire.

But in MW2, it just got ridiculous in all except the tundra levels.

 

[TheColdHeart]

I'm colour blind with reds-greens and shades of some other colours and most games don't really cause any issues. However a problem I do get is on multiplayer games with a wide range of team colours, if there is a green and a brown team or blue and purple I find I can't see the difference on the mini-map or skin colours.

 

[ElPatron]

Wait.

If you people are color blind does it mean you guys can see people in camouflage better?

Anyway, MW2 has a pretty good deal of "differentiation".

Doesn't change shit when you are on the opposite team, but at least you can clearly identify the differences TF141 and Favela Gang members.

There's definitely a major accessibility problem in Mass Effect 3 - color-blind players seem to be only getting one ending.

ZING!

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

The only time I notice this is in Mount and Blade Warband. The green and red outfits are such a close shade that I often times end up lancing my own team member. It's literally the only time I've noticed my red-green vision impacting my life.