Color blindness and gaming.

[Pantechnicon]

My wife and I recently learned that our 8-year-old son is color-blind of the type that has trouble seeing certain shades of red. We haven't told him about this yet because we don't want to give him unneccessary cause for concern.

So today he was playing Dragon's Lair 3D on the Gamecube and was having trouble getting past the Robot Knight (1st boss fight) because he could barely make out the red lightning shooting across the floor. Clever boy that he is, he started fiddling with the tint and brightness controls on the monitor until he got the game into a hue where he could see the lightning pattern and proceeded to make short work of the knight.

This got me to thinking about the issue as it relates to our favorite past-time here. So...are you color-blind or know someone who's color-blind and in either case how does this affect your gaming? Are there games that you cannot play well owing to the condition? Conversely, are there games wherein you've found color-blindness to give some sort of advantage? Please share your insights.

[Jibbajaba]

Hopefully evg2000 sees this thread, as he is colorblind. He also has the biggest game collection that I have ever seen in person.

Chris

[pacmanhat]

I'm partially color blind. It can cause some trouble (especially in shmups with bullets that look far too similar to the backgrounds), but for the most part it doesn't deter my experience. I'm probably not the best person to ask, though, as my CB-ness is far from severe or complete.

[Nez]

I'm fairly color blind if there is a color puzzle I go right for a game faq. I cannot deal with stuff like that. I also have problem with some times the bulets will dissapear from the background, not completely but it its like camo to me. But its not all that bad.

Although color by number book were the bane of my existance in preschool and kinder.

[Dimitri]

I was playing Halo with a colorblind guy once, and he kept trying to shoot his teammates because he couldn't tell the difference between the colors we had. We just switched the team colors and were good to go.

We also play Smash Bros sometimes, but we never do team matches anyway so it's only an issue when him and someone else pick the same character.

[mario2butts]

I have a colorblind friend who I play StarCraft with a lot, and sometimes he gets players mixed up. Usually it's not a big deal. Example:

friend: "Ok, I think we should attack blue protoss."

me: Wait, what? You mean purple protoss?

friend: Um... yeah, whatever.

etc etc

[Haoie]

This topic would make a very interesting research topic for anyone up to it, especially those with a medical background. Now we've all seen those studies about how VG stimulates violence, blah blah blah, but this would be a non bash sort of study.

[Nez]

I have a colorblind friend who I play StarCraft with a lot, and sometimes he gets players mixed up. Usually it's not a big deal. Example:

friend: "Ok, I think we should attack blue protoss."

me: Wait, what? You mean purple protoss?

friend: Um... yeah, whatever.

etc etc

Here another area I forgot about, ugh if the colors are anywere close to each other in the color spectrum I will mix em up. Green brown orange yellow also lighter colors like pink I'll think is white. Wich explains my pink shirt....

[Postermen]

I am red-green colorblind, and have trouble with some games. Ironically one of my favorite games, Mad Maestro is also one of the hardest for me to play due to the use of red and green on the screen. Even in Dragon Quest VIII, one side quest involved finding a red tree, which proved impossible for me. There are a few others on this board who will probably tell you the same thind. Super Puzzle Fighter II is probably the most difficult game for a red-green colorblind person.

[Julio III]

I'm only a tiny bit colourblind so doesn't cause me problems in pretty much anything I do. Puzzle Bubble Mini is a bitch to play on the NGPC though - i guess the lack of backlighting doesn't help distinguish the colours enough

[ashardin]

I'm pretty color blind and Super Puzzle Fighter II is one game I would love to play more, but just can't.

The green/yellow blocks look almost the same, and I screw them up repeatedly. I cannot tell the difference on the spinning rings so its a guessing game at that point.

Makes the game a little more difficult (to say the least)!

[ProgrammingAce]

I'm almost completely color blind, and i just can't play some games. I was playing Halo 2 with some friends, and one guy was blue against a purple background... he might as well have been invisible. That Hexic game for Xbox live is impossible for me to play, 80% of the pices look identical to me. Honstly tho, i don't think it's that big an issue. I didn't realize i was color blind until i was 12, plus i play more games then anyone would believe.

[imanerd0011]

Well, I am colorblind pretty badly. I also lack the ability to see shades of red in other colors (just like your son). I went to an eye specialist last year to see if there were contact lenses that could possibly correct my problem, and there were not.
As far as video gaming goes, it doesn't bother me all that much. Sometimes in sports games (ex.Blades of Steal)I need to select two teams that look much different from each other, so I'm not messing up constantly.

I also think you should tell your son about his problem. I found out in 2nd grade, when my Art teacher told my parents that she thought I might be colorblind because I couldn't tell the difference between Blue and Purple. If you don't tell him, he will eventually find out when his peers start making fun of him because he can't figure out which color is which.

[Mr.FoodMonster]

I'm color blind as well. When there are puzzle games that use shades of green/yellow that are similar to me, I just kinda have to guess. I can still manage. Also, like someone said in the thread earlier, when I played starcraft I would always mix that kinda thing up. Blue/purp are sometimes hard as well, but I've actually tought myself to tell the difference, if you can believe it.

[evg2000]

I'm hue impaired (the pc way of saying color blind), and playing VG games can be a royal pain in the butt! There are many forms of color blindness, minor problems with shades all the way to only seeing black and white, and shades of grey. The games that I find the hardest are games were you have colored key that match colored doors, puzzle games, games like HALO, though once I bought a new TV with component video the sharpness of the picture actually helped. I had played HALO for a couple of months and got pissed off because I couldn't get very far, but with the new TV I saw things that just blened in before and finished the game in a couple of weeks. Games without too much color like DR Mario are o.k. at first as I can match up the colors, but as the game speeds up I can't do the color matching.
In regards to contacts for color blindness, back in the 80's when I wanted to be a cop I found a Dr. in Beverly Hills doing color blindness research. He set me up with a blood red contact that filtered out red, and your brain was supposed to be able to compensate and be better able to distinguish color. I learned that if I looked at a color that I thought was blue or purple I would look at it with one eye closed, then open that eye and close the other, if the color changed it contained red and the color was purple, if it didn't change it was blue. With the contact I could actually find more of the figures in the color blind test. They wouldn't let me wear the contact at the vision test for the Sheriff's depart, but didn't matter as the nurse cheated for me!
Want to see a color blind test?
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/8833/coloreye.html
I'm able to see on number clearly, and I can sorta see another number.
How did you do? Maybe you are color blind and didn't know it!

Oh yea, and I never know what's on sale at the thrifts!

[Fighter17]

I'm not too suprise that many male gamers are colorblind. I'm not colorblind, but I feel sorry for a colorblind person if he has to drive a car on the road. If you study genetics, males need one bad sex chormosome from a parent to be colorblind. Females are rarely colorblind because they need two bad sex chormosomes to be effected by it. Males have a X Y sex chormosomes, and Females have a X X sex chormosomes. As you can see, Males only have one X, if the X gets the gene for colorblindness, then the male becomes colorblind. I hope this helps. :)

[poopnes]

I'm almost completely color blind, and i just can't play some games. I was playing Halo 2 with some friends, and one guy was blue against a purple background... he might as well have been invisible. That Hexic game for Xbox live is impossible for me to play, 80% of the pices look identical to me. Honstly tho, i don't think it's that big an issue. I didn't realize i was color blind until i was 12, plus i play more games then anyone would believe.

Just a commemt on Hexic HD. In the options, there's a setting to put symbols on the pieces. It was specifically put there for people who are color blind. I actually found the game easier with symbols on and I'm not color blind at all. I did take a moment and appreciate this little effort that the developers put in the game. They realized a problem, fixed it, and now their game can be played by more people.

[mills]

I'm color blind, doesnt bother me too much, cant play puzzle games with alot of colors though.

Shades that are very close to eachother look the same to me, like brown/tan, purple/blue.

[rbudrick]

http://www.tshirthell.com/shirts/products/a559/a559.gif

-Rob

[Mr.FoodMonster]

I can barely make out what that shirt says, but I did. I also only could see 2 of the 6 of those color blind tests. A friend of mine has a shirt that has 'I love color' in one of those. I had to ask him what it said.

[Chuplayer]

My wife and I recently learned that our 8-year-old son is color-blind of the type that has trouble seeing certain shades of red. We haven't told him about this yet because we don't want to give him unneccessary cause for concern.

Gotta get your attention here. This is important.

TELL HIM. TELL THE SCHOOL. TELL THE TEACHERS INDIVIDUALLY. DON'T COUNT ON THE SCHOOL TELLING THE TEACHERS. DO IT YOURSELF. EVERYBODY HAS TO KNOW, ESPECIALLY YOUR SON.

I'm colorblind. It was a big help that I knew almost all through my life. For almost as long as I can remember, I was aware that I'm colorblind. My parents told the school in kindergarten. The school was supposed to contact my teachers. Second grade came along and my art teacher was wondering why I was using strange colors. She was surprised when I told her she should've already known I was colorblind. My mom was furious and went straight to the school to chew the principal out. Since then, my mom gave me notes to give to my teachers informing them of my colorblindness. Of course, in later years I just told them myself.

I wish I could go on with a big list of bad things that'll happen when you're colorblind, but really, I can't think of any. I guess if you're colorblind, you're going to use your head and find some way around your problem. That's the way it is with me, and it's the way with most colorblind people. Every situation's different, though, and that's why it's important for your son to know what he's dealing with. He's probably already coping with it. Before I was officially diagnosed colorblind, I was able to fool my parents into thinking I was just fine. My mom would hold a crayon up to my face and tell me to name the color. I didn't want to get the answer wrong, so I cheated. I just read the label LOL Even before I knew what was going on, I was already well on my way to dealing with my colorblindness. Still, I was screwing up colors elsewhere, and my mom figured I might still be colorblind somehow. And I was. I was just cleverly masking it, and the amazing part was, I didn't even realize it. It was all natural to me.

I know, I'm only 20, and I don't know about being a parent, and blah blah blah, but just tell the kid. Get it over with. It's not helping him that he doesn't know. It just isn't. I suspect my cousin is colorblind, but his mom either won't get him tested for it or won't tell him. He's strugging with colors, and he doesn't know why. I guess the worst part about colorblindness is not knowing you're colorblind.

But don't take my word for it. Definitely seek professional help, too.

Now that that's out of the way, back to the game stuff! Bust a Move is one of my favorite games, but I can't play it by colors. I have to go by the little pictures inside the bubbles. It works, and I can play it like a pro. It's the versions like the NGPC version that doesn't have pictures inside the bubbles that gives me problems.

I also found it very hard to play Starcraft, but that's about it. Colorblindness doesn't really affect my gaming.

[Postermen]

http://www.tshirthell.com/shirts/products/a559/a559.gif

-Rob

My brother got me that shirt for Christmas. The bastard told me it had Mario and Luigi on it. Strangely, I can make out the writing on the pic, but can't on the actual shirt.

[johno590]

I'm surprised at how many people are actually colorblind on these boards. Interesting.

[Pantechnicon]

I also think you should tell your son about his problem. I found out in 2nd grade, when my Art teacher told my parents that she thought I might be colorblind because I couldn't tell the difference between Blue and Purple. If you don't tell him, he will eventually find out when his peers start making fun of him because he can't figure out which color is which.


TELL HIM. TELL THE SCHOOL. TELL THE TEACHERS INDIVIDUALLY. DON'T COUNT ON THE SCHOOL TELLING THE TEACHERS. DO IT YOURSELF. EVERYBODY HAS TO KNOW, ESPECIALLY YOUR SON.

First off, thank you both sincerely for your empathy, insights and concern.

I never said I wasn't going to ever tell him, only that my wife and I hadn't told him yet. We found this out only a week ago ourselves and I guess you could say we're still in the "information gathering" stage: What does this mean? Is it going to be a problem? Is it treatable? And of course, Will he still be able to beat Dragon's Lair 3-D? LOL

My family in any case is no stranger to health problems as such. My daughter, age 5, has had partial paralysis of her right arm since birth. Nobody sweeps it under the rug, and both my wife and I, along with our son, are always creating impromptu therapeutic opportunities to help her along with this. Ours is a family that tackles these problems head-on.

So it's a fortuitous coincidence, but we decided to talk to our son about the C-B tonight. He took it pretty well. Actually he didn't seem to think he had a problem, or didn't understand the nature of it, so we jumped on the Web and took a couple of the online tests. He failed, and seemed more ashamed than anything. We assured him that this wasn't going to be a huge problem, and that if he became aware of having difficulties related to C-B in school or something to let us know so we could find a workaround.

The reason, incidentally, that all of this came to light was because a school-administered physical is one of the requirements for kids who get into the local school system's "gifted" program, which our son got enrolled into last week. His teacher is on the school's advisory panel for the gifted program, so she's already aware of the C-B result. Actually she learned about it before we did. In other words, his teachers already know, and I trust them to make whatever accommodations are needed.

Anyway, full disclosure has been made and all is well. Back to the main topic: It is quite interesting that there are as many of you here experiencing color blindness as have posted. But I'm glad nobody regards it as that big of a hassle concerning gaming.

[§ Gideon §]

You reminded me of this (http://gc.advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=4646).


In previous Resident Evil games, the puzzles were retarded but challenging. In Resident Evil 4, they don’t serve any real purpose but to annoy – they’re so obvious and simple that there doesn’t seem to be a point. Take, for example, one area with a hexagonal-shaped imprint on a locked door. Leon checked it out, and the game slyly suggested, "Hmmm… I wonder if some sort of HEXAGONAL-SHAPED EMBLEM would fit in here." Sure enough, I came across such an object. Gee, what the hell I’m going to use it for? It’s like if your friend says to you, "Hey, I bet you can’t get this prostitute to sleep with you." It’s pretty obvious that you could win the bet, but is it worth the time, money, and STDs just to prove your friend is a dumbass? That’s what the puzzles in RE4 are like: sleeping with some slut and not even enjoying it.

However, I think Capcom sensed my frustration and included a puzzle that was literally impossible for me to solve. It didn’t seem too hard initially; it was focused on matching colors up. The problem? I’m colorblind. So I spent a half hour trying random combinations to solve this damn thing, all to the delight of those evil bastards at Capcom. In the end I was forced to use methods against my morals – hell, against my religion to win: a guide on the internet. It made me feel dirty, like I had been sent back to Kindergarten, didn’t pass, and then was molested by the teacher. I deserve two million dollars just for this one instance, but I’m being gracious by asking for one.

[Nez]

Luckily I didn't have too much of a problem with this puzzle I'll give that up to the sharpness of component video though. The block puzzel with ashley on the other hand ughh.

[Truffle]

My grampa found out he was color blind at school :/
The kids and the art teacher made fun of him for having the green and brown reversed in his drawing of a tree.
People can be so cruel.

[poopnes]

I'm surprised at how many people are actually colorblind on these boards. Interesting.

I just read about how many males are color blind a week ago or so. Something through digg. Anyway it was something crazy like 1 in 20 or something. I never knew it was so high!

[imanerd0011]

Well, I just looked at the link someone left that had the Colorblind tests. I have taken them many times before, and as always, can rarely see any of the numbers. I can only see the first one (25).

If any of you guys remember back to around 1992 or so, there were books called "Imagine" or something like that. They had pictures of animals and buildings that were hidden in many small dots (just like the color blind test). I remember I could only see a couple of them ever, and I always thought everyone was lying to me, and that there was nothing there. LOL

[Dji]

I'm slightly colorblind. I never could play Super Puzzle Fighter II for GBA adequately, because the yellow and green blocks seemed almost identical to me. I don't think I've ever had any other game-related color blindness issues.

[Corsican]

when it comes to games that have very dark shading and coloring I have a hard time. Hexen N64 drove my eyes nuts. Even some resident evil and other horror games give me fits. I see bright colors well, but darker colors dark browns, blues and black bleed into each other in my eyesight.

[Ed Oscuro]

Interesting how this topic brings people to post who don't usually :)

I'm fortunate in that I don't have any color blindness...possible depth perception trouble makes up for that a little, though LOL

[princess zelda]

This is an interesting concept something I've never really given to much thought to. I see how something like colorblindness could be a problem.

Now that I think about it a lot of games have things that those people would not be able to see. I am a fairly new gamer and so I have not had as much time to think about this type of thing, but now I think I will think about it more often.