Important: Health Notice/Seizure Warning for Game

@wokedup said in Important: Health Notice/Seizure Warning for Game:

A relative with epilepsy was playing with me today. He experienced a micro-seizure while playing. This was not the only time he's complained of experiencing auras or micro-seizures playing video-games. People with epilepsy should definitely consider the risks when playing video-games, but not all games are created equal. Some present as safer alternatives. Sea of Thieves certainly did, but as we've seen, this is no longer the case.

I'm unsure if this shows up on the main menu, or if it shows up the first time playing, however, I feel it would be prudent to provide a warning to gamers who are susceptible to seizures during the load-up screen. Especially prior to purchase!

Thanks for your attention to this matter. Very appreciated!

Truth be told, people who have epilepsy, should already know that playing any game, whatsoever, can trigger a seizure.

It's not the game itself that does it, it's the light from the monitor you're playing the game on... It produces bright lights... It's already bad for the eyes of normal gamers, even moreso for people with epilepsy. I don't even have epilepsy myself, and i've had to turn my screen to the lowest brightness possible so that my eyes would stop hurting. xD

This game doesn't actually need an epilepsy warning, because those with epilepsy should already know the risk of staring at screens.

That being said, there are bright flashing lights in this game... Explosions, cannonfire, lightning, firebombs and voyage riddle-solved glowies and last but not least, lantern glare.

That being said, someone in my family who had trauma-based epilepsy, could have seizures with no obvious triggers. So the fact that your friend had a micro-seizure might indeed not have anything to do with the game itself... Like i said, your friend was staring at a computer screen or a tv screen, that alone is enough to cause seizures, because you'd be staring directly at a light-source. xD

@wokedup said in Important: Health Notice/Seizure Warning for Game:

@galactic-geek said in Important: Health Notice/Seizure Warning for Game:

@wokedup Can you describe the specific incident in-game that may have caused his reaction? I'm sure that detail is pertinent and would be a boon for the development team.

He thinks it has something to do with the ocean. As far as time goes, we had only played for about an hour.

Some other folks have suggested, rightly so, that it could just be from the television. This is a person who plays other games, and has a 1-3 hr gaming session at least once a week. He also plays first person shooters. He has complained of experiencing auras before, but usually that’s if he’s well beyond his normal playing time.

Does he play with his lights on. If you have epilepsy and play games the back ground lighting in your room should be bright. I know I have it!

@jollyolsteamed said in Important: Health Notice/Seizure Warning for Game:

@sweltering-nick speaking in terms of law as laws dont care because if someone has a seizure in this game and the company doesn't warn them about the possibility rare is the one who suffers i always say better safe than sorry we wouldn't want rare to get shut down or end up in a really bad way would we? there are games out there who put a warning in despite not having much of anything that could trigger a seizure just to be safe because if something like this ended up in a court room whats rare going to defend themselves with "uh he should have known"

The highlighted sentence is completely incoherent, i cannot make sense of it, at all, lol. xD

If this ends up in a court room (Which it wont, because this isn't the USA, and cases like this don't reach the courtroom to begin with, because they make no sense), Rare will simply say "Our game is not at fault, the accusers computer screen is a light source, and its constant and rapid change in colour and hues is what their eyes and brain perceives as rapid flickering lights... Causing them to experience seizures, it's a side-effect of gaming, not our game in particular, judge." and the case will end, right there.

Rare is under no obligation to warn anyone about their own medical conditions, because Rare cannot possibly know how fragile the player in question is, and therefore, cannot be held responsible for what said player decides to do... Every person is responsible for their own actions... Rare is not responsible, for YOU.

@wokedup said in Important: Health Notice/Seizure Warning for Game:

A relative with epilepsy was playing with me today. He experienced a micro-seizure while playing. This was not the only time he's complained of experiencing auras or micro-seizures playing video-games. People with epilepsy should definitely consider the risks when playing video-games, but not all games are created equal. Some present as safer alternatives. Sea of Thieves certainly did, but as we've seen, this is no longer the case.

I'm unsure if this shows up on the main menu, or if it shows up the first time playing, however, I feel it would be prudent to provide a warning to gamers who are susceptible to seizures during the load-up screen. Especially prior to purchase!

Thanks for your attention to this matter. Very appreciated!

May not be directly related to Sea of Thieves, that condition can also be activated by choppy refresh rates on monitors and TV's.

My old Roomy had the same problem, and video games even games with effectively nothing going on (like mine sweeper) could cause this issue; this is something that epileptics need to know about because information on such a situation can be life saving.