There's really no excuse for games to not ship with colorblind modes at this point.
Update #2: CVAA is not forcing all games to ensure that gameplay is suitable for those with disabilities. This focuses on games that have communications systems, such as text chat and voice chat. Examples could mean UI being easily readable for those with vision issues, a working VOIP for those who can’t type, text-to-speech, maybe even voice-to-text.
Does this mean all games with any form of communication must implement voice chat and text to speech?
While I think this is a great idea
(i) Operable without vision. Provide at least one mode that does not require user vision.
I don't know how anyone is going to be able to do that?
Like is something like HRTF good for that?
Also
(viii) Operable without time dependent controls. Provide at least one mode that does not require a response time or allows response time to be by passed or adjusted by the user over a wide range.
This makes me thing QTE are illegal. FINALLY.
Does any modern game have text-to-speech anymore? The only games that I remember with such thing is Unreal Tournament 2004 and Moonbase "Joh Madden" Alpha.
This is a really bad idea that attempts to force rules meant for things like Skype onto video game chats. The end result will likely be games avoiding chat systems altogether to avoid ligitation - see Berkeley removing its online lectures after being forced by the FCC to either do so or subtitle 20,000 lectures.
Something like leds, but instead of lighting up they push up. Would basically mean a whole new type of monitor, or an extra usb tablet item that is compatible with games with ingame chat.
If this mean every game gets text to speech, I'm down. That means 2019 will be John Madden's year in a big way.
In the future of 2021, where you can play any game without seeing it...
It's the opposite of Twitch.
Imagine where every game has something like FFXIV's auto-translate. This way whenever a Russian shit talks you in his native tongue, you can shittalk him right back!
Honestly I'm always for accessibility in video games, there are a lot of simple things game devs can do to make things accessible that they just don't do. Mark Brown (GMTK) has a Designing for Disabilities video series of videos that is really informative on the subject of accessible video games that I recommend. At this point if the law doesn't come down on inaccessible content then things will just stay inaccessible, because very few people give a shit and a ton of people are left out of gaming because of it.
Should also be that if your game cost under X amount to make then the rules don't apply to you also. Call it 1mil or something so that the burden is largely on the people most equipped to actually implement the changes and most likely to have a large audience.
That list sounded rediculous to me, but apparantly it's only related to the communication systems in games. For example, you can have a game that requires vision but that doesnt require vision to communicate, basically voip support.
"This focuses on games that have communications systems, such as text chat and voice chat. Examples could mean UI being easily readable for those with vision issues, a working VOIP for those who can’t type, text-to-speech, maybe even voice-to-text."
I think it's fine to expect large publishers to meet these expectations but it simply is not viable to expect indies to implement even voip in every mp game let alone text to speech, speech to text, and so on. The costs just get massive.
I'm going to assume the people who wrote this legislation haven't played a single video game in their life. This is insanity. Some of these points literally make entire swathes of game mechanics illegal if an option isn't offered to neuter them - particularly the time sensitive one. Like, to just give one example, so much in the Batman: Arkham games is dependent on some degree of reaction time, and they're not even difficult games on the easy difficulty. Interpreting this bullet point literally would mean that, if WB finally gets around to releasing another Arkham-style Batman game, they're going to have to make a mode where goons don't damage batman if he doesn't dodge or counter their attacks in time, they stop in place the second batman receives a takedown prompt in stealth mode - and if the game brings back the batmoble and car chases, the missles from any enemy vehicle are going to have to freeze in place as soon as the prompt comes up to dodge them.
This legislation is basically saying ALL games must now have an extra-easy mode that potentially goes so far as it making it impossible for you to die or even take damage. Yes, ALL games - including fucking Soulsborne games. I wonder what the developers of Nioh 2 are going to do. I wonder what most game developers are going to do. This is fucking nuts.
I am not sure this was thought through all the way.
Some of those requirements seem almost impossible / actually impossible.
e.g. "(viii) Operable without time dependent controls. Provide at least one mode that does not require a response time or allows response time to be by passed or adjusted by the user over a wide range."
How does that work in a multiplayer game?
Spectator mode.
It is the grim future of 2021, and the only game that survives in Australia is Solitaire. With physical cards with raised Braille.
I appreciate the intention of expanding accessibility but Christ these requirements.
(x) Operable with limited cognitive skills. Provide at least one mode that minimizes the cognitive, memory, language, and learning skills required of the user.
So a free copy of Rust bundled with every game sold in Australia, got it.
I imagine these rules wouldn't be unreasonably applied to multiplayer gameplay
Seems that rule is specifically targeting quick-time events, so games will probably need a 'no time limit for button prompts' option
Pretty sure Reshade has a colorblind filter that can be applied to any game.
The rest of the demands are fucking stupid, this is the wrong way to go about it and no sane dev will comply. Why not just offer "rewards" (or whatever the legal term is) to companies who offer some of these options?
Reshade can and will trigger certain anti-cheats. It's an injector, after all.
Update #2: CVAA is not forcing all games to ensure that gameplay is suitable for those with disabilities. This focuses on games that have communications systems, such as text chat and voice chat. Examples could mean UI being easily readable for those with vision issues, a working VOIP for those who can’t type, text-to-speech, maybe even voice-to-text.
That's more reasonable but still, this is a load of work. Though to be honest, I'm all for games having larger fonts/subtitles because that shit is ridiculous nowadays.
Colourblind options in every game would be nice since I have protanopia (red-green colourblindness). For instance, Wither 3 where the highligted things in the Witcher vision were red which made it pretty much impossible to use. Then I found out the colourblind options and the difference was staggering.
On the other hand, then you have games like PUBG where there are colourblind options but the devs have no idea how to design those modes so it does didly squat or even make certain UI elements harder to see. (just let me pick the UI elements colour myself jfc)
they don't. This is a case where the medium hits up against the law. this stuff isn't like movies or TV where you can have someone describe it for them, every experience is dynamic and different. The time sensative controls basically means any real time game is out of compliance too because how do you make a real time game not time sensative
I guess fallout's VATs isn't but that's not going to work everywhere.
Update #2: CVAA is not forcing all games to ensure that gameplay is suitable for those with disabilities. This focuses on games that have communications systems, such as text chat and voice chat. Examples could mean UI being easily readable for those with vision issues, a working VOIP for those who can’t type, text-to-speech, maybe even voice-to-text.
Can we PLEASE add this to the OP so that people too lazy to read the article can stop thinking that this is the end of video games
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2OVSHHPFrA
Made by people who thought video games are like phones. It mostly applies to real-time communications and maybe menus. Compliance via third party software/hardware is allowed. Exemption for features that are deemed impossible, case-by-case. That said, I think many may rely on first party developers (xbox / playstation / UE4 / etc) to feature these accessibility in their kits. Those who write their own engine and their own code, those are the ones who will be in trouble.
It's still a bad fucking law, at least when applied to video games (i. e. an artistic medium where there may be valid artistic reasons to only have voice chat and no text chat, etc.)
Only thing I can think of is that ESEA has a plugin for .tts on CSGO. It might require their client though, not 100% sure since I'm not about to pay money to mine btc for them.
There are some games that this is would still be problematic for if applied to them, some games are mechanically dependent on only being able to communicate in certain ways.
Even though this doesn't apply to general gameplay but rather menu and communication interactions, I still think that this list is, combined, an unreasonable burden on game developers (particularly small ones).
I agree that reasonable measures should be taken to accommodate those with disabilities, but the keyword is reasonable. You can't expect people to just accept any and every expense in the name of accessibility for disabled individuals.
If the government thinks it's such an important expense to bear, they should be the ones funding the development of these modes for studios that cannot afford the time and resources to comply with these regulations. It makes far more sense for society as a whole to bear the expense of accommodating disabled individuals than for every individual company regardless of size to bear these demands.
I asked my stepfather about this since he's registered disabled and his golden reaction was: "Great! Can we get ban stairs, next? I hate those fuckers."
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