Petition asks for colorblind options in Modern Warfare 2

by Alexander Sliwinski on Dec 15th 2009 10:03AM

With plenty of actual controversy surrounding Modern Warfare 2, the issues of colorblind gamers seem a relatively innocent (and common) oversight. An ongoing petition and Facebook group is requesting a patch for the game. According to the petition, those with a particular type of red/green color blindness "cannot tell friend from foe in the online matches, as their names appear in these colors, and the radar uses the colors too." Infinity Ward's community manager has acknowledged that he will bring up the concern to the team.

Our very own red/green color blind Ben Gilbert, who doesn't have a particular issue with MW2's spectrum decisions, noted, "I can think of about 20 other games that need a solution for this before MW2. How about every puzzle game ever made that depends on color matching -- I'm looking at you especially, Super Puzzle Fighter, you heart breaker."

Considering color blindness is relatively common, especially among males, it's surprising that it isn't tested for more regularly. Any QA folks who can give better insight into whether color blindness is tested for (and how) should feel free to drop a note in the comments.

[Via Escapist, Evil Avatar]

Source

Tags: call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2, color-blind, colorblind, Microsoft, modern-warfare-2, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (146)

I've worked for many years with traditional board and card game designers and most of them use a combination of symbols and colors to denote difference for color blindness. Hexic is an excellent example of using patterns to make up for color problems (however, when a bomb piece comes into play the symbol isn't shown...so it isn't the best example overall, but the concept of using colors and symbols is a good one).

I'm a hazard to everyone with friendly fire on!

I have this issue too. I've had the issue in Uncharted 2 and Killzone 2 as well. A colorblind patch would be nice, maybe bright blues and reds.

When I worked at EA Tiburon the topic of color blindness never came up at all. Though it was for sports games. But yea I think this is a very valid complaint and issue. I think infinity ward, should come out with a patch if at all possible to have option in the settings to change the color of your teammates and your enemies' names and or the arrows and dots that appear for shots fired, to the color of your (the user) choosing. Or at least add it to future games.

I'm not surprised this isn't an option in MW2 especially, as IW just doesn't seem to care about the little things. They make a whizz-bang campaign, put a lot of effort into the multiplayer game types, yet left out all kinds of easy functionality issues throughout. Why does "B" not take me back to the main menu from the submenus? Why isn't the party leader in control of the party? Why does matchmaking reset or fail so frequently? It's like they are all graphics artists and have no idea about infrastructure.

For them to get these little things wrong, there's no chance they would have picked up on something like colorblind mode. And for the record, though I'm not colorblind, I play Peggle with colorblind mode on because I think it looks nicer.

I thought the color blind were traditionally better hunters because they could track movement easier without being hindered by 'camoflaouge'...

How about something that protects those of us who experience the full sprectrum of visible light?

Lol, somewhat true, but do you want to watch other cars' behavior to double check that the light is indeed red?

I hate puzzle bobble / bust a move!
Orange and pink!!! ARGH!!!
More vivid colors! Less ambiguity!

Also... textures of red flowers on green grass just look like green grass.
And virtually every herb in WOW was invisible until they made them sparkle.
And now that I think of it, I can never tell when I've made a kill in counterstrike like my friends can. There's a second of lag because I have to see them fall to make sure, the ammo count flashing is hard to see.

My roommate can't play Flower because he's colorblind.

Ben Gilbert is correct. Puzzle Quest games, Rockstar's Table Tennis (opponent spin notification), and many other games should've been tested for colorblind players. I've not had a single problem with MW2 and I'm colorblind. Maybe this Facebook group is just a bunch of losers looking for an excuse to explain their K/D ratio? ;)

Ridiculous. Motion sickness in FPSes is much more common, yet nobody seems to factor for that.

I spoke with one of the Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo devs and he said that the reason the game isn't colorblind-friendly is because 'not enough' people are colorblind for Capcom to take the time to cater to them. He said it in nicer words than that, but what I typed is how it came across to me, a colorblind person. It's such bullshit.

More developers need to take into account that there are a LOT of colorblind gamers. Nothing's worse than playing a game and all of the sudden a puzzle pops up that requires you to pick out colors. That 'find the pictures with red in them' glyph puzzle in Assassin's Creed 2 was totally unnecessary.

My coworkers will show me a chart/whatever they are doing mock ups for and ask me if I can tell the difference. Battlefield 2 put enemy's names in yellow so it wouldn't blend in w/ trees and that worked well for me.

Could different color switching options be programmed into the consoles' video drivers?

I found Meteos on the DS unplayable until I noticed the option to put differently shaped symbols on top of the differently colored blocks. Making color blind options for games doesn't have to be costly or difficult. It's just not often thought of.

If video games want to be mainstream, they have to design for people with dissabilities. Whether through smart design or special accessible play mods.

I remember in GT3 the minimap had the cars as green and yellow. I could never tell which dot was my car... It was very frustrating.

As a UI designer, it's pretty embarrassing that the gaming industry continues to make avoidable mistakes like these.

Status indicators should always include some distinguishing characteristic besides color to differentiate different states.

Stoplights (and drag racing!) use position on the tree. For enemy/friendly, since they use positions on a map, should use shapes - so friendlies could be a green square or circle, enemies a red triangle.

If the direction is important, you could use one with a rounded pointer, the other squared off. I haven't played too much CODMW2 yet, so I'm not sure if these ideas would specifically work, but you get the idea. The game UI designers should be aware of these issues and apply them to their design constraints.

Yes please!

ha ha. i don't play modern warfare, but i'm colorblind and have problems playing certain games. the latest is that i can't tell the difference between the orange and green weapons in borderlands, save for the red text that i can use to differentiate the legendary ones.

anyhow, interesting petition, though i think it seems kind of silly. i think you just have to learn to live with it and sometimes accidentally shoot your friends.

I'm pretty sure that the colorblind options appear after your 10th prestige.

I can only see 25. I also have always change my TV(s) settings for Puzzle Fighter(s).

I am red/green colorblind as I can only see the number 25 in the above picture.(also I've had it checked by an optometrist)

I have never had a problem playing video games though.

does brown and grey effect these guys then as there the only colours allowed in ps3 x360 games

shocking art directions ah-hhmmmmmm

Hate to break it to you dude but as a core gamer (core because I've been gaming since, well since the first one) I couldn't be more dissapointed with the Wii. A handful of good to excellent titles drowned in a sea of shovelware. Shovelware that your precious Nintendo allows because they rake in licensing fees. It sold so well because of the gimmick - not the quality. Their lead in this gen, which you seem to greatly value for some reason, means nothing to me as a gamer.

This is coming from one of the biggest Metroid and Zelda fans you'll ever meet - I've called it the most successful failure of all time.

Your trolling posts show how immature you are and if one of the admins take the time to look at them your ban will be forthcoming I'm sure.

I don't know if this was said already as I didn't read through all the comments, but Call of Duty World at War has an option (at least on the PS3 ) to change the name colors in multiplayer from green/red to blue/orange (or yellow). Wouldn't be that hard to change, at least I wouldn't think it would be.

Ben Gilbert can try to play this issue off as not important all he wants, but Modern Warfare 2 is huge RIGHT NOW, so fixing this issue would help make it more accessible to everyone.

I have a red/green color blindness as well, and sometimes I've had issues telling friend from foe, though other games are worse about it. No the end of the world I guess, but a fix would be nice.

I used to do QA for Babel Media in Montreal, Canada about 2 years ago. I can't say I've ever seen, or heard of us testing for colorblind players.

B&W FTW!!

Color deficiency is more accurate. Mostly reds / greens and browns / greens affect me. It's been an issue on a few games over the years and some are impossible for me to play. Mostly puzzle games. Some FPS do give me issues, but my motto is kill everyone soo.. red or green.. you're gonna die.

I actually did not realize that your enemys and teammates had different colored names until my wife pointed it out to me. Would be great if they did something about it.

That would be a fantastic idea and is something that you would think would be taken into consideration more often. I have had countless games (mostly puzzle games) completely ruined for me because of this. I find multiplayer games to be quite difficult if the names are tagged with red and green (which is one of the most common colour deficiencies). There are some games where I literally have to play with a partner (usually one of my roommates) so that I can figure out what is going on. Hell, some of these games seem to be designed to be as confusing as possible for the colour blind.

"Put all the green blocks together, but avoid the red blocks because they are filled with INSTANT DEATH. Or possibly cake. Not really. They're filled with death."

This isnt just an issue with modern warfare 2, its will the entire gaming industry. Up to 10% of their users are colorblind, and they continually make design decisions that make things more difficult for those players. Try enjoying a game like puzzle fighter HD remix with this disability.

The thing to note, developers, is that in most different forms of colorblindness, GREEN is the problem color. I know Green means GO or GOOD to most people, but its time to stop using this color as an indicator.

hi there!! there's the same thing for Bad Company 2, please check it out, thanks!! http://www.petitiononline.com/Sr_Hyde/petition.html

I could only see 25 & 56,
But I always known I was colorblind since I was Kid, Would be a good fix. But I don't remember having it as an issue in gaming,.

hahaha awesome.

"Why are you shooting at me!?! Are you blind or something?!?!"...."...yes."

hahaha awesome!!! this happens to me XDDD.

25 - Easy, 45&6 - I don't see them, 29&56 - I see something but no chance I'd guess those numbers, 8 - looks like an 'S'. Anybody have the same colorblindness? I've known I have this. I'm surprised that the percentage (8%) is so high.

I'm colourblind and can only see the 25 and 56... have issues with red/green and blue/purple and definitely have had problems with MW2 online!

Count me in the 'didn't even know there was a difference' camp when it comes to MW2 names. I'm pretty severely color-deficient (look up 'Protanopia' for the curious). I've always had trouble with friend/foe indicators, and back in the days of Planetside (Is that game still around?), I HAD to play on the red faction, so I knew to shoot at both blue and purple, which are identical to my eyes.

Don't even get me started on Puzzle Fighter or Bust-A-Move...

what is kind of funny is my TV is loosing it's color today. The white looks purple now.

All those in favor, sign with green ink. Those who oppose, red ink.

now i know for sure im not color blind........6 is the hardest to spot.

If you can get a full team of invited members, either the red or the green lettering changes to a light blue which makes it easier to differentiate team members. Does anybody have any ideas how we can possibly organize this situation if Infinity Ward doesn't do anything?

Previous 50 Comments

Petition asks for colorblind options in Modern Warfare 2

Reader Comments (146)

Posted: Dec 15th 2009 11:35AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 15th 2009 11:38AM ColorblindMonk said

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