Modern Warfare 3 to include color blind support

Sledgehammer Games has announced that Modern Warfare 3 will have a Color Blind Assist option, to create recognizable differences between color-coded markers for color blind gamers.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will feature support for one of the most common -- and commonly overlooked -- disabilities. Responding to a fan question, Sledgehammer Games confirmed that it is working on a Color Blind Assist option for the title, similar to the option found in Black Ops.

Color blindness impacts roughly 6% of the general population, and men are especially susceptible to it at a whopping 9-12%. Since men at least seem to make up the vast majority of COD players, some are bound to be color blind. The problem can manifest itself in color-coded objective markers or enemy identification, so a shift in tone helps make the game interface clearer.

We've seen more of a push to include disability features in games, from subtitles for hearing impairments to color blind options, and even occasional controller mapping to account for mobility impairments. Most fixes are relatively simple, and open up the game to a wider audience, so developers are getting on-board.

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  • reply
    July 8, 2011 8:30 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Modern Warfare 3 to include color blind support.

    Sledgehammer Games has announced that Modern Warfare 3 will have a Color Blind Assist option, to create recognizable differences between color-coded markers for color blind gamers.

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      July 8, 2011 8:33 AM

      Eff yeah.

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      July 8, 2011 8:35 AM

      Nice.

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      July 8, 2011 8:35 AM

      Well that's nice of them.

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      July 8, 2011 8:39 AM

      What about regular blind support!?

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        July 8, 2011 8:52 AM

        It's pretty fucked of them not to have a braille mode.

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      July 8, 2011 8:50 AM

      Now you can distinguish between the shades of grey and the new grey.

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      July 8, 2011 8:52 AM

      EFFYEAH

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      July 8, 2011 9:42 AM

      A good friend of mine is color blind and I'll tell you what: I wouldn't want him on a bomb-disposal unit. "Cut the brown wire, NOT the red wire."

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      July 8, 2011 12:53 PM

      In a related note, the method does nothing to id games.

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      July 8, 2011 2:26 PM

      KEEL\BRIGHT

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      July 8, 2011 2:46 PM

      I really love when devs do stuff like this, I dont think people realise what a problem colourblindness can be in gaming :/

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        July 8, 2011 3:02 PM

        I appreciate it greatly in Bad Company 2

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      July 8, 2011 3:13 PM

      This is great.

      If I'm understanding this correctly, it means changing the CoD standard red/green waypoint markers to some other combination. Does anyone know if those colors are user customisable or are there some standard red/green alternatives that are normally used?

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        July 9, 2011 7:13 PM

        IIRC, red and blue end up working better for everyone but monochromatic color-blind people. Kinda funny, since back in the old days, those were the colors of most multiplayer FPS game teams: red vs. blue.

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      July 11, 2011 8:08 AM

      That's awesome. I did an article for my Technical Writing course last term on the subject of gaming for the alter-abled. Ever since I've been much more aware of which companies are and aren't considering this section of the gaming public.

      These stories always brighten my day just a bit.

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