It’s as if GamerGate never went away.
On Monday, Game Informer Associate Editor Liana Ruppert posted what she called an “Epileptic PSA” for the much-anticipated open-world game Cyberpunk 2077, noting that one sequence in the game literally triggered an epileptic seizure when she was playing the game.
Naturally, some gamers decided to punish her for her crime of speaking ill about a game they haven’t even played yet (it comes out tomorrow), sending her hundreds of videos featuring flashing lights in an attempt to give her another seizure.
Apparently Ruppert’s critics are outraged that someone would criticize a cyberpunk game for having flashing lights because FLaShinG LigHTs ArE pArT oF tHe cYBeRpuNK aEsthEtiC!!1!
Others decided based on nothing — and certainly without reading Ruppert’s post — that the seizure-inducing elements of the game couldn’t possibly be seizure-inducing.
Others declared that lots of things are seizure inducing, so why single out this one game?
One commenter insisted that ART must come before accessibility. “Games are a form of art,” wrote rndsum on Twitter. “While I want accessibility I also want art and the game to come first and censorship as an option.”
Cyberpunk developer CD Projekt RED says it will now be putting specific seizure warnings in the game itself while it looks for a “more permanent solution” to the problem, which will likely mean new settings for the game designed to eliminate or reduce flickering lights and other potential seizure-causing visuals.
You can have both art and accessibility. I’m just a teensy bit appalled that this didn’t occur to CD Projekt RED before this controversy erupted.
Follow me on Mastodon.
Send tips to dfutrelle at gmail dot com.
We Hunted the Mammoth relies on support from you, its readers, to survive. So please donate here if you can, or at David-Futrelle-1 on Venmo.
From what I’ve heard, the seizure-causing feature is a deliberate move by the developers in maybe the worst way possible. By which I mean, it’s an in-game device that appears to be modeled off of the real life medical device that is used to induce seizures for diagnostic purposes, and it doesn’t carry a warning. This is just the cherry on top for a game that is already notably misogynistic and transphobic.
I read her PSA from the link you sent.
She’s not even criticising the game! She’s saying the game is great! She is in fact saying the game is so great that she wants to play it despite the seizures, and here is a guide for people with similar conditions to mitigate the worst effects so they can play it anyway.
How much better of a review can you get than – this literally gave me seizures but it was so good I will not be avoiding it forever? In fact I did something severely risky in order to share the experience safely.
Which do you think is her worst crime to the Miggies – being a woman, being disabled, being community minded, or being a hell of a lot braver than them?
@Mogwitch
Why not all at the same time? 😛
@ mogwitch
“Aside from that, the service was terrific. I will definitely be re-booking. On the RMS Olympic obviously. Just as soon as I’ve thawed out.”
A lot of people have been asking about this on Twitter so in case anyone is confused: yes, due to the nature of TV, film, and video games being basically a series of flashing images its possible that they could cause a seizure, and some patients will be told to avoid all video games because they have that potential. No, it’s not common or likely, even in photosensitive epileptics, to be triggered by a video game unless it contains flashing light sequences between 3 and 30 hertz. Also, there’s a test just for this, but I’m not surprised it’s not part of console certification since the video game industry decided just slapping a blanket seizure warning on everything was sufficient.
ETA: I’m not an expert, just have read up on it because I have a photosensitivity to similar light patterns, but thankfully not epilepsy. It just makes me feel a little off and may have caused migraines in the past, though it’s hard to say what causes those for me.
There’s also the Gamespot reviewer who dared to give the game a 7 out of 10. Much outrage, many death threats – of course. I just saw her thread about it this morning on Twitter.
Side note: my son just started playing the game a few hours ago. I will miss him 🙂
Absolutely disgusting that people would be so attached to a fucking game that they’d try to force someone to have a seizure over saying they like the game but it did have a bit of a seizure-causing problem.
And I saw so many people going “well there’s a warning in the EULA” as if most people can’t count the number of EULA’s they’ve read in full on no hands. Even if there were a proper seizure warning mixed in with the titles, that wouldn’t be enough. Aside from those being so common they’re practically meaningless, it’s been described as a near-1:1 recreation of a device doctors use to deliberately induce seizures as a test. I’m sure it’s a coincidence, but if they don’t change it, people are going to learn they have epilepsy.
Naglfar, do you have a source on including this as a deliberate decision by the devs?
@Cheesynougats
I do not have a source stating that explicitly, however, given what I do know I can’t think of any way this is not deliberate. There is an in-game object that looks exactly like the medical device that is used to induce seizures, and it is what seems to be inducing seizures for players. I can’t think of a way that that is unintentional.
I’m still avoiding the game to avoid disappointment with mechanics, but as someone who hasn’t yet had seizures from games but feels they may be vulnerable to experiencing seizures, I have another, more legitimate reason to avoid it.
Don’t worry. I’m sure deliberately sending someone seizure inducing videos was done for the sake of ethics in gaming journalism.
Pretty sure the justification would be something like this: “Of course! We had to test whether the person was actually sensitive to seizures. She was capable of responding, so obviously she is a liar!”
I was looking forward to this game, until the first hints of transphobia showed up. Given the studio is polish, and a third of poland has been declared a “LGBTQ-free zone”, that definitely made me very wary. Now this.
Also, I’m pretty sure knowingly sending seizure-inducing videos to someone susceptible to them under the guise of something else should count as assault?
Kurt Eichenwald recently won six figures in a civil lawsuit against the MAGA who sent him a seizure-inducing gif on Twitter. He also uncovered a white supremacist network that was involved in sending those gifs to others in the epilepsy community, including the Epilepsy Foundation.
The criminal lawsuit is next. Hopefully by then, the current Justice Department will be fumigated.
I don’t believe it went away, but maybe that’s just because I post on /v/ every day
@[email protected]
GamerGate didn’t go away. I’m pretty sure David was asking rhetorically, but the truth is that it didn’t go anywhere. Anita Sarkeesian and Zoë Quinn are still bombarded with harassment, women in gaming (including gamers, developers, journalists, etc) are still abused. Just check the replies to any tweet by Anita Sarkeesian, it’s a perfect demonstration of Lewis’s Law.
@Naglfar
Checking the Steam store page, the minimum hardware requirements does state in the additional notes about health warnings – this itself is unusual compared to the other games I’ve played, and while I haven’t played the game and don’t intend to in the short term (to avoid disappointment), if the health warning isn’t shown in the game itself, then yes, it could be placed in a more prominent medium.
Don’t people have better things to do with their time than harass a woman for sharing a PSA that helps disabled people?
What am I thinking, of course they don’t have better things to do or they would be doing them. Even if they did, they’d still harass women for having talking about games.
“Just a heads up, this game might cause a medical problem for some people.”
“Death! Betrayal! How dare you be concerned for your own welfare and the welfare of others?! The only right action is deeply immature, self-absorbed, narcissistic behavior!”
Gawd, I hate these little man babies throwing a fit every time someone somewhere dares to breathe slightly differently than what they’re comfortable with.
O/T: JK Rowling has decided to attack trans people in the press again. She claims 90% of her fans agree with her but are afraid to speak out.
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2020/12/j-k-rowling-says-90-fans-agree-transphobia-theyre-afraid-say-publicly/
She may be right that 90% of her remaining fans are there for the transphobia.
@numerobis
Maybe so, but for a group that claims to be afraid to speak out, they’re awfully loud.
What? WHY??
Way not to be assholes, assholes.
How is having a different option “censorship”?
This website has a “night mode” that makes the background dark. Is that censorship??
And this is why people who whine about “Cancel Culture” are the worst. Because you have a group of people ACTIVELY trying to harm a journalist, potentially to the point of death, and yet this won’t even be considered an example of the “Cancel Culture” movement. Because it involves a woman daring to point out a harmful fact about their sacred video games instead of someone being called out and shunned for being an awful shitstain of a person.
I have this game on my steam wishlist but haven’t be following it really. What are the transphobic elements to it?
Aside from all the other garbage in this post… wait what? This game caused a seizure so she may enjoy League of Legends? The 4th highest-earning esport in the world is for supposed wussies now?
Maybe it’s because AOC tainted it by being good at it. *scary jazz hands*
@Schnookums Von Fancypants, Naughty Basic Horse
You said it perfectly.