And you thought the WoW 'plague' was bad....

[Itzena]

http://www.gamerifts.com/news/archives/arc9-2005.shtml

Players within City of Heroes from Cryptic Studios are reporting an alarming growth in photo-sensitve seizures after a recent patch into the game updated one of the "Sonic Powers Buff" to characters enhancing the visual effects associated with the power.

Over-three-threads on the official message boards averaging six pages on the issue explain the symptoms players are experiencing and the cause which include:

...think the flicker rate, level of color (or lack of) and the direction of its spin - PLUS - monitor and graphics card issues.... They all add up to a very disturbing graphic. I already spoke to someone in here about their epilepsy problems being spiked because of that particular graphic, in the Test server before it even went live. The moment I saw it, I started to get a severe headache - so bad that I wondered if I wasn't growing a tumor or having a huge migrane. The nausea begins if you keep looking at the darn thing. Especially if there are more than one on screen at the same time, that's so ... queasy...

Instead of a hot patch to correct the issue, NCSoft was informed by Cryptic that a patch would go in with the next update to correct this, after it's been through test. Now, we are talking possibly months before this fix will be put in place.

If players are reporting illness due to a change, should not the change be reverted, especially when this issue was reported during the original test phase prior to being implemented onto the live servers?

And cue the 'Japanese Seizure Robots!' gifs.

[kudos]

They deserve a seizure for playing that shitty game.

[Hateyou]

I can see the YTMND's already...

[Samus Aran]

Oh hey hey.

Seizure Robots!

[Metranon]

people who have epilepsy and play video games should be WELL INFORMED of the risks involved

if you were allergic to nuts and went to a bakery and ordered a cake and then ate a slice, is it the bakery's fault if you die? no

same deal. if you get fuckin seizures, maybe don't play games that have flashing bright lights, k?

[findar]

cakes come standard with nuts now?

[Hateyou]

Originally Posted by Metranon

people who have epilepsy and play video games should be WELL INFORMED of the risks involved

if you were allergic to nuts and went to a bakery and ordered a cake and then ate a slice, is it the bakery's fault if you die? no

same deal. if you get fuckin seizures, maybe don't play games that have flashing bright lights, k?

Well there wasn't a problem before the recent patch. So you're eatting your no nut containing cake, go to the bathroom and the baker slips in half a can of nuts. Damn straight it's his fault

[Obtenor]

http://www.seizurerobots.com/

Anyone?

[Aamry]

The real kicker is that less-than-mature players are using this beneficial tactic within game to grief other players.

Meh, I would be too.

[Cadrid]

Maybe CoH doesn't do it, but I recall at least EQ warning people susceptible to epileptic seizures that some effects might cause them to have a seizure.

But hey, if you can spill coffee on your lap and sue, why not do the same with videogames?

[Iannis]

I recall on the news someone was trying to sue George Lucas because the Episode 3 game gave their kid a seizure.

Then I proceeded to open a manual at random and OH LOOK A WARNING ON THE INSIDE COVER.

It's straight up ignant to not immediately do something to tone down the sonic set. Although, from screenshots, it looks like it's EXACTLY THE SAME as existing powers. So I don't know how the fuck someone complains now when they never seemed to have a beef with the powers when they were purple instead of white.

[findar]

certain color / shape combos will fuck with you more then others, simple as that.

[titan_atlas]

Originally Posted by findar

cakes come standard with nuts now?

Everyone loves nutcakes.

[Fizbenx]

You can't tell me that everytime you go into a bakery / donut shop / etc . . you don't see the big fucking sign saying "EVEN IF YOU ORDER SOMETHING W/OUT NUTS, WE USE LOTS OF NUTS IN COOKING, AND YOUR FOOD WILL PROBABLY GET SOME NUTS IN IT. IF YOU ARE ALLERGIC TO NUTS, DONT EAT OUR SHIT!"

[Kevincheese]

Maybe it's just me, but video games possibly causing problems, and letting a specific visual effect which is EXTREMELY likely to cause something in "accidently" are two different things.