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Discrimination against hearing impaired in a new mmo?(ESO)
Crownregent
Member UncommonPosts: 9
Hello.
As a born deaf person of 35 years old, I have played my share of mmos through the years.
Ultima Online was my first fully invested mmo and I was really thrilled that everything had to be written in order to be conveyed.
Then SWG came along and the same thread of info conveying was followed.
Wow started with missing speech bubbles here and there but they got fixed along the way.
Then there is Elder Scrolls Online...
Where to start? First Lydia and then the prophet... most people who is over the age of 20 cant properly hear what they say.
Then lots of the story chains where you have to follow people and they chat away you don't understand or hear what they say due to either crappy voice actors, weird accents or other issues.
Is any of this speech in writing? NO..... Not even in chat screen which would made it bearable.. but there has been times I have had to guess what the answer to questions were just because there wasn't any written proof to back up what I guessed.
Try to play the game from beginning to scratch with NO sound whatsoever... and then you maybe get what im upset about.
So in my honest opnion Eso is a discriminatory game against anyone who has a hearing impediment.
So Zenimax... unless u fix this shit.. u can forget me as a subscriber and probably everyone else who like to know the story in whole.
Crownregent
Comments
Fine, we'll compromise. I'll get my way & you'll find a way to be okay with that.
Same here! I am fairly hard of hearing and I have a pretty high reading speed as it is anyway. So listening to things get tedious fast.
I was very dissipointed to find that ESO doesn't have subtitles. I don't play with sound as it is because it's hard enough to hear anything as it is.
Bleh!
it sucks that they don't take your disability into account, it really does.
It is NOT "discrimination", however. No company anywhere has any obligation to provide a product that meets your needs. Contact them and give them tips on how they can make the game more accessible and if they feel it's worth their time and resources to capture your segment of the market I'm sure they will totally work with you. If not, you'll either have to make do, or move on.
Either way "discrimination" is a pretty heavy word to be throwing around when talking about completely optional leisure activities.
Somebody, somewhere has better skills as you have, more experience as you have, is smarter than you, has more friends as you do and can stay online longer. Just pray he's not out to get you.
Here's a guide on getting NPC subtitles in ESO:
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/62023/guide-how-to-get-npc-subtitles
Also there is an to make subtitles more visible here:
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/61852/please-tell-me-there-are-subtitles-otherwise-almost-all-lore-is-lost-to-me
and here:
http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info8-WykkydsFramework.html
I hope that this helps
"As you read these words, a release is seven days or less away or has just happened within the last seven days those are now the only two states youll find the world of Tyria."...Guild Wars 2
This doesn't negate your crusade, but the best subtitle adding mod is here:
http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info8-WykkydsFramework.html
If you don't like using addons you can disable everything but the subtitles. It's no different (and possibly better) than if ZOS did it themselves.
I'm only partially hearing impaired from my days in car audio / SPL competition before safety was put into consideration, but I need the subtitles. It's not a question of volume, it's the fact that I'm deaf to so many tones in the sound* spectrum.
I understand that this doesn't justify anything, or whatever.
I'm just offering a solution provided by players due to Zenimax allowing addons like this to be used with the game.
EDIT: Vorch beat me to it. Ah well, here's confirmation.
Totally not true. I work in the financial industry, and recently many banks have been sued because their websites were not fully accessible for the hard of hearing, blind, and physically challenged.
I just took a training course on how to properly design all of our user interfaces to always include allowances for voice, speech and physically impaired so that in every situation, the user can opt to listen, magnify, read, or click via keyboard instead of a mouse to any functionality on the screen.
The OP has a legitimate complaint, the characters in game frequently have conversations that you walk up on, and without proper chat bubbles over their heads, I doubt the OP is even aware of the information being delivered.
Perhaps the rules are different for games vs financial or service user interfaces, but know in our industry companies have had to pay out hundreds of millions of dollars for failing to provide for proper accessibility.
Just one of many articles you can easily find via Google:
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324373204578374483679498140
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
+11!!
Awesome tip! I have perfect hearing and sometimes don't walk close enough to understand wtf they're saying. Plus, no option to say, "What'd you just say? Sorry I was just collecting some Jute."
Crazkanuk
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If they were discriminatory then they would being these things to PURPOSELY get rid of you.
So think about just how arrogant the use of discriminatory is in this context.
I know, I know this is the nature of current times in the western world. But think about it for a second. Just because they don't give a rat's ass about your needs doesn't mean they are purposely trying to "get" you. And if you expect everyone to always attempt to meet your needs you may be a self absorbed fool.
Unfortunately this is the status of discourse in modern times. Apparently everyone else thinks everyone else is stupid or evil. Well, eventually that sort of has to breakdown now doesn't it? As the end of the circle gets back to the beginning, you guarantee a finger gets pointed at you as well.
Agreed, this works great, I didn't even know you could get subtitles, thanks Vorch.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
This.
At the end of the day this is just entertainment folks...
There is no excuse for them not having a subtitle option in game I agree.
However as a fix you can install this mod http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info8-WykkydsFramework.html which does add it. I use it because often I have the volume turned down and can have a hard time hearing NPC's and it helps a lot.
Better check again ADA here in American is only that accommadations have to be made for communications with the deaf. The actual product does not have to be. The game would be the actual product the communication from them would be ZOS emails, phone calls, or advertisements. Not all TV shows do closed captioning as an example, but the TV station has to close caption all news or messages from the stations to viewers.
Or you can read this thread.... there is a setting already in game and you can make it pretty with add-ons... it was posted by Vorch.
Go pity-fish somewhere else. It was already explained that companies aren't required to have disability related support in their products, only in communication with customers. As I said in your other thread, stop trying to be a victim and take some personal responsibility. This sort of behavior is really pathetic.
Pyatra, what the hell did you do to your post and was it on purpose because it sucks?
Those are not subtitles they put the NPC chat into the text box which is already busy enough thank you. The add-on adds a true subtitle bar to the screen that I find much more useful.
Use it or don't I'm just making a suggestion to try and be helpful.
I would think after 35 years of being deaf you'd be more understanding that not all of society sees your issue as a high priority.
I was born with a blood problem that makes me susceptible to blood clots (I'm 26). This makes sitting in chairs for long amounts of time risky for me because the blood pools in my legs. However I don't go and bitch at every movie theater, stadium, car, bus, train, or office calling it "discriminatory" for not allowing me to stand up or move around as much as I need to.
90% of the audio content in ESO is also written out on your screen. Should the other 10% have subtitles? Sure. Does that mean you're justified in calling the company "discriminatory" and bitching about it? No.
Next time write a constructive suggestion on their forums. All you needed to say was, "Hey! I'm deaf. It'd be nice if everything had subtitles. Thanks!" Instead you came here to rant and bitch.
I'm sorry you're deaf, but you get absolutely no sympathy from me.
It is still not discrimination though. I assume banks have other rules as they have a social responsiblity. A bigger one at least then I would have if I made some random webshop. Now do not get me wrong, it is good pratice to just design with impaired poeple in mind and once you get the hang of it, it does not even cost you time. However by doing something special for someone who is blind, you do not treat him equally. Ignoring there needs however means you threat them equally.
Else every website is discriminating, unless offcourse they are written in every language known to man.
Financial institutions are NEEDED services and need to cater to all. Playing an MMO is NOT a "needed" service it is a game. While I appreciate the fact the OP has a disability and his desire to experience the game as it was intended there is no LEGAL obligation to make the game handicap accessible so to speak.