We ALL Lift Together -- Things that Help Players with Handicaps/Disabilities

[NuttyNuti]

tr;dr: Let's talk about Warframe features (and other things) and how they could assist gaming experience of the handicapped/disabled players!

 

I have every now and then noticed threads on issues related to players with mental or physical handicaps/challenges/disadvantages/disabilities, ranging for hearing impairments to panic attacks to motion sickness. Those have been super duper interesting to me, reflecting my own experiences (more later). So, I wanted to create a thread talking about these kind of issues more broadly. In addition to mentioning what yet unimplemented features could help players with handicaps/disabilities, let's also talk about how you have already figured out ways to do that! And whatever the topic brings to everyone's mind.

 

(Also, if my post here had any langauge that you find disrespectful, please address me and I promise to correct my language. I'm not a native English-speaker, and I want to be as respectful as possible so I gladly take feedback.)

 

But first, some guideline bulk.

 

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!!!PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY!!!

I would like to make everyone to take a look to the forum guidelines. Specifically, I would like to point out the two first bullet points:

Quote

1) RESPECT - Let’s respect each-other and have fun. Respecting people means not insulting anyone’s race, religion, sexual orientation, skill-level, platform preference, or any other possible way to make someone feel uncomfortable in the Warframe community.

1a) BULLYING - Our forums are a place of understanding, and players with disabilities, handicaps, language barriers, etc should not be treated any differently. There is zero tolerance for bullying in our forums. Picking on, or pointing out, others’ flaws is anything but constructive. 

Moreover, I'd like to add more specific guidelines:

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A. Everybody is welcome to talk in this thread, handicaps or no handicaps.

 

B. Handicaps we talk about here DON'T need to be, well, medically diagnosed. We also can talk about more mundane things such as motion sickness or mediocore hand-to-eye coordination.

C. NEVER EVER EVER invalidate other people's experiences. Just because you haven't experienced a problem with specific part of the game, it doesn't mean someone else haven't had that experience. There is no universal standard of a player, and you can't read the minds of the fellow posters.

Example:

GOOD: "While X is no issue to me, I understand that X makes things harder to you."

BAD: "Just suck it up, X is no issue to me, Average Human Being™, and it shouldn't be an issue to you, either!"

D. You can give ideas and tricks to other people (even if you don't have the specific handicap/disabilty), but respect that not every trick will work for everyone. Don't press on your advice if the other person tells that it doesn't work for them. We are individuals, we function differently. Even normal hiccup doesn't have an universal cure.

 

 

Everyone on the same page? Good. Now when everyone knows to play nice, let's continue.

 

***

 

To flavor the thread starter, I tell a bit of my own experiences.

My handicaps are a generalized anxiety disorder and suspectibility to sensory overload. I was first a bit suspicious towards Warframe as it seemed very fast-paced, but I decided to give a try after my friend's recommendations and realizing that ninjas play free. I started to like the game. And a couple of changes made my game experience even better.

 

For anxiety, I quite instinctively modulated my playing experience. I removed blood splatters from animations, as I have universally noticed that blood splatters in games tend to spook me pretty badly. I also have a tendency to keep Wiki open when I do quests, so I can read a bit in forward what is going to happen next and hence better prepare to anything that might scare me (things like surprises and spooky elements). Yes, I know that I could get some more oomph from the story by not spoiling myself beforehand, but then again, it is a tradeoff between the oomph and between the eeek.

 

What comes to sensory overload, my common problem with games like this has been feeling overwhelmed and disorientated, especially when there are several enemies around. What helped me? Enemy Radar mod. Many probably think that Enemy Radar works best with for stealth missions, but I use Enemy Radar pretty much all the time. Seeing enemies on the map helps me to process what is the general situation on the battlefield and where I should point my Ignis at. I have noticed that without Enemy Radar, I tend to feel very overwhelmed in missions and feel like everything comes from everywhere and I must see around arrrgh. Hearing doesn't help me too much; while I'm not hearing impaired, I'm not that good at spotting which way a certain sound comes from.

I'm glad to hear more stories!

Edited September 3, 2019 by NuttyNuti
Generalized the title.

[trunks013]

If you like enemy radar try it with khora and vinari and a pet with animal instinct and Vigilante Pursuit stacked!.

Believe me with that if something get the jump on you with that it was realy fast !

^.^ 

Edited September 3, 2019 by trunks013

[Toppien]

im srry i cant take you seriously with that extra credits icon on

[Fallen77]

Yeah, WF is not the most handicap friendly game.

Personnaly, my left middle finger is badly healed up, crooked toward the right. That makes chaining some ability while moving pretty stressfull for my hand. (I boycotted spoiler for months because it's on 5).

Yes I tried controller, but even with my drunk hand, I was still twice as efficient with a keyboard.

So keybinding has been quite an adventure, you can imagine. Involving keyboard choices that will make many scratch their head, and a macro heavy mouse.

What am I getting at ? (Beyound telling a life story) Well, one keybinding many might like, morover if your hand is as busted as mine : Q (a for AZERTY) to slide. Since I could not have my hand stretched from ctrl to 5, this finding was a godsent. I remember, before my hand got sockerkicked in the wrong direction (never ever beeing the goal again), I was already frustrated by ctrl crouch in many games. And I might have ended up with that config, even if my fingers would have escaped that foot on that fatefull day.

Try it, it's so comfortable !

[Helch0rn]

I think the game needs a colorblind setting (maybe) (I wouldn't know if it would help, but then again I am not colorblind) and something to help people with hearing problems (and those that play without sound for one reason or another)

[Cephalon_Saryndipity]

I am nearsighted. Not so much as to differently-abled, but I've often thought that a way to change the color of the reticule to make it more obvious would work well and be easy to implement. 

[Gundergun]

I have really weak bones (OI) so clicking too much has caused stress fractures hence i use macros for slide and melee (hold macros not automatic ones) and the scroll wheel as the alt for firing guns, I love the game but the play style required to yield enough damage without aoe frames is quite stressful on fingers. I would love a clear definition on what kind of macros are too much instead having to worry about using them.

[(NSW)Sk0rp1on]

That Microsoft adaptive controller might help. Does anyone here use it with warframe? 

Edited September 3, 2019 by (NSW)Sk0rp1on
Clarity

[Corvid]

34 minutes ago, Helch0rn said:

I think the game needs a colorblind setting (maybe) (I wouldn't know if it would help, but then again I am not colorblind) and something to help people with hearing problems (and those that play without sound for one reason or another)

Pretty much everything that could confuse a colourblind individual (doors and lockers, most prominently) has been updated to display icons instead of solely relying on colour to distinguish themselves.

Only thing that doesn't by my recollection would be the two frames that use colour to change their elements (Chroma and Excalibur. Equinox technically fits, but her default form is selected based on luminosity IIRC, which isn't as much of a problem), and even they display an icon once you've picked your colour.

[Frenotx]

1 hour ago, Helch0rn said:

I think the game needs a colorblind setting (maybe) (I wouldn't know if it would help, but then again I am not colorblind) and something to help people with hearing problems (and those that play without sound for one reason or another)

I've got a buddy that's monochromatic colorblind, and I don't recall him having any complaints with Warframe. Most things that have a color cue have some other identifier, too. Even the new disruption mode has the foresight for the keys to be both color coded, and shape coded. I was pleased when I saw this.

As for my own experience- my muscles and such get fatigued very easily, leaving me pretty succeptible to repetitive stress injuries. As such, I can't really use any of the higher-RoF semi-auto weapons. I know scripts for those are generally ok with the devs, but I switch weapons often and don't want to go through that hassle. It would be nice if the devs added an option in the menu, a keybind, a switch for the weapon in the arsenal, or just an alternate fire mode to auto-fire semi-auto weapons. Basically, a built-in first-party auto fire script.

 

[kikasnoob]

9 hours ago, Helch0rn said:

I think the game needs a colorblind setting (maybe) (I wouldn't know if it would help, but then again I am not colorblind) and something to help people with hearing problems (and those that play without sound for one reason or another)

This!! I’ve been MR5 for about 1,000 mission hours because the next MR test is to shoot red orbs, kind of hard to pass when all the orbs are the same colour.