Game should include a disclaimer or trigger warning

[JustSpooks_]

Personally absolutely loved the game but noticed this game has absolutely no disclaimer about certain parts of the game that isn't just gore and extreme violence, and those subjects are quite touchy and can cause high levels of distress for people who are unaware of these things being present in the game.

[Breakspear]

If you need trigger warnings you probably shouldn't be playing horror games.

[JustSpooks_]

Originally posted by Breakspear:

If you need trigger warnings you probably shouldn't be playing horror games.

A very shallow thing to say, it's like to say that people who are prone to epilepsy shouldn't play video games at all, not all horror games have all kinds of trauma triggers and having a head up what the game might have is really not much to ask for

[jra.470]

buddy its advertised as a psychological horror game...

[April]

Originally posted by jra.470:

buddy its advertised as a psychological horror game...

Buddy, this game touches on a subject that most psychological horror games don't.

[HAZE]

This game is extremely light, what do you mean? If you're that soft you probably shouldn't be playing horror games.

[JustSpooks_]

Originally posted by HAZE:

This game is extremely light, what do you mean? If you're that soft you probably shouldn't be playing horror games.

Saying that the themes of this game are light is low key alarming

[qraden]

It definitely should've. Just a quick thing at the beginning of the game saying "This work depicts violence, gore, flashing images, and discussions of sexual assault" would be simple yet probably go a long way for certain players. I also think one extra thing to help with hard of hearing players, such as during the invisible Polle maze or in one of the scenes where Jimmy gives Curly his pain meds and you can only hear audio, would've been appreciated though I am not sure of what could've been done for the latter.

[.°• Sheep ༄𖦹]

not sure why people are so adamantly against this as an idea, it wouldn't harm the experience at all and would be a nice warning for people who aren't comfortable with the subject matter. calling the game's themes "light" is extremely ridiculous to me imo and i can absolutely understand why the game might seriously upset some people, so a warning of some kind would be nice.

Originally posted by qraden:

I also think one extra thing to help with hard of hearing players, such as during the invisible Polle maze or in one of the scenes where Jimmy gives Curly his pain meds and you can only hear audio, would've been appreciated though I am not sure of what could've been done for the latter.

the maze and similar sections could probably have some sort of screen distortion effect based on how close you are to the monster, or maybe even increased screen shake (although that would introduce issues w/ motion sickness so maybe not). feeding curly his medicine could be done as simply as having text sounding out the choking, it wouldn't be as impactful i think but it'd still communicate what's happening. if you really wanted you could include an internal monologue from jimmy complaining about the sounds and that'd work too.

[Sir Aurelius of Skalitz]

Originally posted by Scylla:

not sure why people are so adamantly against this as an idea, it wouldn't harm the experience at all and would be a nice warning for people who aren't comfortable with the subject matter. calling the game's themes "light" is extremely ridiculous to me imo and i can absolutely understand why the game might seriously upset some people, so a warning of some kind would be nice.

Originally posted by qraden:

I also think one extra thing to help with hard of hearing players, such as during the invisible Polle maze or in one of the scenes where Jimmy gives Curly his pain meds and you can only hear audio, would've been appreciated though I am not sure of what could've been done for the latter.

the maze and similar sections could probably have some sort of screen distortion effect based on how close you are to the monster, or maybe even increased screen shake (although that would introduce issues w/ motion sickness so maybe not). feeding curly his medicine could be done as simply as having text sounding out the choking, it wouldn't be as impactful i think but it'd still communicate what's happening. if you really wanted you could include an internal monologue from jimmy complaining about the sounds and that'd work too.

Yeah i 100% think there should be a spoiler for every type of scare just so I dont get scared playing a horror game.

[.°• Sheep ༄𖦹]

Originally posted by Brother Aurelius:

Originally posted by Scylla:

not sure why people are so adamantly against this as an idea, it wouldn't harm the experience at all and would be a nice warning for people who aren't comfortable with the subject matter. calling the game's themes "light" is extremely ridiculous to me imo and i can absolutely understand why the game might seriously upset some people, so a warning of some kind would be nice.



the maze and similar sections could probably have some sort of screen distortion effect based on how close you are to the monster, or maybe even increased screen shake (although that would introduce issues w/ motion sickness so maybe not). feeding curly his medicine could be done as simply as having text sounding out the choking, it wouldn't be as impactful i think but it'd still communicate what's happening. if you really wanted you could include an internal monologue from jimmy complaining about the sounds and that'd work too.

Yeah i 100% think there should be a spoiler for every type of scare just so I dont get scared playing a horror game.

would you genuinely consider a warning such as the one qraden suggested to be "spoiling everything"? it's pretty vague.

[Sir Aurelius of Skalitz]

when you get the warnings at that point you're subconsciously only looking for the things they warned you about now and can kinda dull out the scare when it happens since your already expecting it

[.°• Sheep ༄𖦹]

Originally posted by Brother Aurelius:

when you get the warnings at that point you're subconsciously only looking for the things they warned you about now and can kinda dull out the scare when it happens since your already expecting it

i don't know if i agree with this necessarily, would you argue a game like outlast is "ruined" by the warning it gives you before starting the game? it pretty much lays out for you exactly what to expect but i would argue it still delivers on being an intense, stressful experience.

this won't be a universal experience, but i've always found the anticipation of a scare to be worse than the scare itself, so knowing that something will happen but not knowing when or how has never really impacted my experience with horror that much.

[JustSpooks_]

Originally posted by Brother Aurelius:

when you get the warnings at that point you're subconsciously only looking for the things they warned you about now and can kinda dull out the scare when it happens since your already expecting it

These disclaimers is a pretty common practice, saying they dull out the scare is a big exaggeration considering they only tell you about the themes you will find in the game, not the contents or how it's presented as well as it's entirely up to you to read through it or not to be "completely blind" to the game's contents, Silent Hill 2 remake has a disclaimer about what the game has and I'm more than sure it didn't ruin anyone's experience.

[Sir Aurelius of Skalitz]

giving a clue to what might scare you spoils it "hey watch out for blinking lights thats where the scares are"

[.°• Sheep ༄𖦹]

Originally posted by Brother Aurelius:

giving a clue to what might scare you spoils it "hey watch out for blinking lights thats where the scares are"

not really? it's just warning you that there are blinking lights. that doesn't tell you anything except that there are blinking lights present. if it said "just so you know every time you see blinking lights there's going to be a scare" then that'd be spoiling it but if you're telegraphing your scares like that anyway it'd become obvious after a while regardless.