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Photosensitive Seizures and Thoughtful Game Development

  • Writer: Kartik Tiwari
    Kartik Tiwari
  • Jun 14, 2020
  • 3 min read

Blog - 2

A seizure is a sudden uncontrolled electrical disturbance in the brain. About 3-5% of the people who have been diagnosed with epilepsy experience ‘photosensitive seizures’ but even if a person does not have epilepsy, they still can experience a seizure. This is the most common type of seizures induced by video games.


According to a website called Epilepsy.com, about 87% of their patients were of age 7 to age 19 ("Video Game-Induced Seizures (VGS)", 2006). This is relevant because children and young adults are also the major consumers of video games.


Usually in a seizure, the person experiences uncontrolled movement in arms and legs, in extreme cases it also leads to loss of consciousness and awareness("Seizures - Symptoms and causes", n.d.). It can also cause permanent brain damage in the long term. Hence, there should always be a warning of some kind to inform the players that they should seek medical attention in case they feel any kind of discomfort while playing the game.


So, what causes a seizure? Below is a screenshot of the fact sheet provided by epilepsy.com.




(Photosensitivity Factsheet, n.d.)


The most common cause being strobe,flickering or disco lights in the case of photosensitive seizures. In fact, On December 16, 1997 an episode of the illustrious series ‘Pokemon’ aired in Japan, post which 685 ("The Banned Pokémon Episode That Gave Children Seizures", 2011) children were admitted to the hospital suffering from a medical problem immediately after watching the video three-quarters of them had never even shown symptoms of epilepsy before (“Pokemon Shock video clip”,2016. Readers are highly advised to take caution while watching this video).


I know none of us should be watching that video but it’s important to know what caused such a huge discomfort in the children consuming this piece of media. This is also why it’s important to keep these things in mind while developing games. The video has a section of multiple strobe lights flashing really quickly on the screen which is believed to have caused this unfortunate thing to happen.


We can try avoid these issues by: -

- In my time at Ubisoft as a tester, we had to report bugs that may cause these types of seizures and it had its own classification as well as exclusive epilepsy testers. Ubisoft have also made a public commitment to have epilepsy testing practices in their pipeline ("Game accessibility guidelines | Avoid flickering images and repetitive patterns", n.d.).


- Taking the Harding test for epilepsy by providing them with a video of the gameplay ("Harding Test", n.d.)


However, the game accessible guideline article suggests that,


“There is always a chance of seizure from any game, even a game that avoids all common triggers. So the term ‘epilepsy safe’ must never be used. If you include a setting called ‘epilepsy safe mode’, you risk harming players and risk legal action being brought against yourself. Instead, describe what the setting relates to – ‘screen flash effects’, ‘effects intensity’, etc.”


("Game accessibility guidelines | Avoid flickering images and repetitive patterns", n.d.).


It’s inexcusable to cause someone so much discomfort while playing our games no matter how much we need to get our creative vision across because accessibility can become a hindrance for players who want to experience our games. There is a fine balance between implementing a creative vision and making it accessible, and as designers, we have to ensure the product is accessible to the maximum number of people it can be while keeping the creative vision intact.

 

References:-





The Banned Pokémon Episode That Gave Children Seizures. (2011). Retrieved from https://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/02/the-banned-pokemon-episode-that-gave-children-seizures/


A short clip that caused that infamous incident "Pokemon Shock".. (2016). [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu-KAY3lJ6A


Game accessibility guidelines | Avoid flickering images and repetitive patterns. Retrieved from http://gameaccessibilityguidelines.com/avoid-flickering-images-and-repetitive-patterns/


 
 
 

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