Important Health thread people !- Gameinformer 'Cyberpunk 2077 Epileptic PSA' (regarding Braindance mechanic and Johnny silverhand flickering)

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'Over the years, accessibility has been garnering more and more attention in the gaming space, and for good reason. While many studios have been making an incredible effort to make games more accessible to all, there is always more work to be done in entertainment; not just games. After playing Cyberpunk 2077 for the past week and a half (our full review can be seen here), there is an epileptic warning I'd like to offer to those Samurai heading into Night City. Enjoy your time, but here is a heads up to do so safely if you're vulnerable to epileptic triggers.

A common trigger for epileptics in media are rapid blinking lights, specifically of the red and white variety. As someone that does have seizures myself due to an injury from my time when I was active duty, the past few years have been a massive learning experience for me when navigating some of my favorite and most anticipated games. I no longer can enjoy titles like Dead Space freely like I used to, which opened up an entirely new world of development that I was previously blind to. Since seizures have become my new norm, I often make sure to pay special attention to certain design choices that can be harmful to those sensitive to neurological traps so that I can decide for myself if something is safe to play, decide if there is a way to work around those obstacles, and try to offer some navigational tools for others that may be facing the same roadblock.

During my time with Cyberpunk 2077, I suffered one major seizure and felt several moments where I was close to another one. I kept going because I made that decision to, and I feel like that decision helped me sort of slap together a small little guide for players wanting to take part in this game for fear of missing out.

Cyberpunk 2077 is about hedonistic excess. Much like the tabletop game that inspired the open-world RPG, everything is brighter, louder, and more in your face. Pair that with the reliance on technological interfacing, and some triggers were expected. With Cyberpunk 2077, however, there are a lot that you need to be aware of. For those excited to experience CD Projekt RED's latest adventure, there is still a way to do so - though there is a risk - but you'll need to know a few things going in.

General triggers
Due to the nature of interfacing, there is a lot of red glitching animations seen throughout the game's progression. My monitor has an "eye-saving mode" that dims the blue light in my screen that I often use to help with things like this, and that has helped immensely. During my time with Night City, there were moments when walking into clubs and bars that were immediate "danger zones" for epileptics. While I would never recommend someone push past their limits, especially with something as serious as epilepsy, I do know how excitement can push that desire so if it's going to happen, I want you to be as safe as possible. Trust me, I get it. My stubborn butt continues to play Dead Space over and over again despite knowing it usually ends up poorly for me.

Further in the story, interactions with Johnny Silverhand (which was shown in the pre-launch trailers) will be highlighted with a flickering pale blue glitch effect. This won't be a trigger for everyone, but it will for some forms of epilepsy, so that is something to be mindful as well. Look away from the screen with this happens, turn down the brightness of your screen, play around with the colorblind modes; there are a few workarounds here to use if you insist on playing.

Braindance warning
Braindances are something that CDPR has been talking about as a feature for awhile now, and it's an intricate part of the story from start to finish. BD's allow players to interface with memories, often of the deceased, by plugging into a mainframe and diving in. Pretty much everything about this is a trigger and this is something that caused me to have a grand mal seizure when playing to help with our review. This is also a trigger on many levels, starting with the device itself.

When "suiting up" for a BD, especially with Judy, V will be given a headset that is meant to onset the instance. The headset fits over both eyes and features a rapid onslaught of white and red blinking LEDs, much like the actual device neurologists use in real life to trigger a seizure when they need to trigger one for diagnosis purposes. If not modeled off of the IRL design, it's a very spot-on coincidence, and because of that this is one aspect that I would personally advise you to avoid altogether. When you notice the headset come into play, look away completely or close your eyes. This is a pattern of lights designed to trigger an epileptic episode and it very much did that in my own personal playthrough.

Once inside of a BD, there are several layers to "explore" the memory, including a soundwave layer, a thermal layer, and a more digitized way of scanning. Each offers specific glitch animations that could be a danger, especially with the digitized layer. While these can't be avoided for the story, you can pause and play as you wish within these scenarios, making it easier to tailor them where needed, or to call in a gamer backup buddy if absolutely necessary (shoutout to my husband for helping me when the BD's were longer than usual).

Cyberpunk 2077 is a game that is massive with content that will crawl under your skin in true hedonistic fashion, sometimes in the best way. Our own Andrew Reiner gave the CDPR title a 9 out of 10, which you can learn more about right here.

For more on epilepsy and how to protect yourself, you can check out more right here through the Epilepsy Foundation to learn more. You can also check out our interview with Microsoft to see how they are tackling neurological episodes such as this. '

 
This thread is worth being stickied in my opinion. I hope CDPR takes note. Great information.

I do remember myself wondering whats the point of the braindance device, since it seemed like the worst kind of design possible for real life. Bright blinking lights on your face is not an enjoyable experience even for those who don't have epilepsy. I hope CDPR just changes that into something else altogether, or at the very least changes the light to a solid non-blinking one? Would that help?

I keep wondering what kind of people thought the braindance device was a good idea...
 
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I don't personally suffer epilepsy, but I tend to naturally avoid flashy and blinking lights just as much as possible so I don't provoke any health trouble of this sort. (EDIT: and also because it's NOT comfortable anyway).

I remember there was a fun game not long ago, PUSS! (that's its name), that had such intense colors that I could just play about 10-20 mins each session or risk a retinal migraine.

Stay safe guys !
 
Interesting how they mentioned Dead Space. I dont experience ES but I am aware of the effect, and I remember feeling like I was in a strobe light when playing Dead Space in the dark. I dont like that stuff, even without ES
V will be given a headset that is meant to onset the instance. The headset fits over both eyes and features a rapid onslaught of white and red blinking LEDs, much like the actual device neurologists use in real life to trigger a seizure when they need to trigger one for diagnosis purposes. If not modeled off of the IRL design, it's a very spot-on coincidence, and because of that this is one aspect that I would personally advise you to avoid altogether. When you notice the headset come into play, look away completely or close your eyes. This is a pattern of lights designed to trigger an epileptic episode and it very much did that in my own personal playthrough.
this seems unnecessary like, they added various setting for streamers to block copyrighted material or nudity... so how about an option to disable this crap?
there are several layers to "explore" the memory, including a soundwave layer, a thermal layer, and a more digitized way of scanning. Each offers specific glitch animations that could be a danger, especially with the digitized layer. While these can't be avoided for the story, you can pause and play as you wish within these scenarios
so basically, millions of people who do not experience ES will play these sequences without realizing or caring how they are being put into a trance while playing this games for 20+hours a week... lol time to put on my tin foil hat and 80s style ray-bans
 

Ramzah

Forum regular
Don't videogames usually have a "This game may induce epilepsy, use caution" disclaimer?
I thought all games did since PSX era...
It's good if developers add accessibility options but i don't think if they are missing we should blame them (Like a lot of people are currently doing on the web due to this article).

EDIT: (Found the relative EULA part)
3.2 Seizure Warning. Cyberpunk 2077 may contain flashing lights and images, which may induce epileptic seizures. If you or anyone in your household has an epileptic condition, please consult your doctor before playing Cyberpunk 2077. If you experience dizziness, altered vision, eye or muscle twitches, loss of awareness, disorientation, any involuntary movement, or convulsions while playing, immediately discontinue use and consult your doctor.
 
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The sad thing is that the person who brought this to light is now being trolled by people who are sending them clips of the braindance effects that were mentioned as being a trigger for seizures.

WTF is wrong with these people?!

That some people get so triggered by any form of criticism of a product that they love that they start resorting to behavior like that [Post edited ~Riven.]
 
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I know that it's been reported by many people who got early review copies, and CDPR have said they're doing something to fix the issue.

I was just curious what that was. I mean, for most things a simple graphical change to reduce the risk would be fine.
I know the big issue was the net dive device that was made to show the same sort of thing doctors use to induce seizures in patients, which seems like an incredibly bad idea and I have no clue how that got off the ground without someone getting a smack to the head. I mean, I get realism, and yes, if you're putting someone in a neural trance a device like that makes sense... but when realism is causing grand mal seizures in people... that's gone WAY too far.

Will the offending device simply have its flashing display changed? Or will there be some other method of fixing it?
 
From what I saw they were already working on a patch to disable epileptic triggers. It makes so much sense to finally address this issue after gaming companies have been plastering the warning everywhere, but have done absolutely zero to just put the option to turn them off.
 
From what I saw they were already working on a patch to disable epileptic triggers. It makes so much sense to finally address this issue after gaming companies have been plastering the warning everywhere, but have done absolutely zero to just put the option to turn them off.
Agreed. I'm happy to see that they're doing something to fix this. Risking the lives of customers is never a good thing.

I'm just curious as to the actual mechanics behind their changes. :)

While I'm still incredibly disappointed in CDPR using excessive crunch to make their games (and being caught lying about it)... I am at least happy to see them taking a more active approach to fixing other issues that tend to be common with a lot of games.
 
I'm just curious as to the actual mechanics behind their changes. :)
Most of it is just a lighting thing. It isn't too much to just turn off the lights from flickering. It's just leaving them on instead of playing with them like a 5y/o. In a practical sense.
In a design sense. That's a LOT of freaking light switches.
Beyond flashing lights, I don't know enough about either subjects to know for absolute sure.
 
Don't videogames usually have a "This game may induce epilepsy, use caution" disclaimer?
I thought all games did since PSX era...
It's good if developers add accessibility options but i don't think if they are missing we should blame them (Like a lot of people are currently doing on the web due to this article).

EDIT: (Found the relative EULA part)
3.2 Seizure Warning. Cyberpunk 2077 may contain flashing lights and images, which may induce epileptic seizures. If you or anyone in your household has an epileptic condition, please consult your doctor before playing Cyberpunk 2077. If you experience dizziness, altered vision, eye or muscle twitches, loss of awareness, disorientation, any involuntary movement, or convulsions while playing, immediately discontinue use and consult your doctor.

As of game version 1.03 the game now has an epilepsy disclaimer as part of the opening sequence of the game. The disclaimer directly follows the message saying the game characters are fictional and not based on real people.

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One suggestion I have is to either have the disclaimer stay visible longer or require a key-press (like spacebar) to continue to the next message.

The reason I say this is that I was only able to read about half of the disclaimer. If somebody actually had a health issue where this message was relevant I could see them missing the message entirely since on my computer at least, it only stays visible for about 3 seconds.

I also definitely think the message should be able to be skipped since it is only important the first time a person loads the game. However, if the message did stay visible long enough to be read every single time the game loaded it would then be annoying and also be a waste of time not being able to play the game that would add up each time I opened the game.
 
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