Audio cues in games provide unfair advantages.

[ʙᴜɴ.ᴇ]

Some multiplayer games have audio cues for locations of certain items of interest, other players footsteps, weapon fire, etc. Which provide the player with information such as type of weapon, direction, and distance of other players as well as important items/weapon pickups which are the difference between victory and defeat.

For people that can not hear these, they are dramatically playing at a huge disadvantage and players with hearing problems can't even consider playing at a more serious level (i.e competitive modes) They also attract a lot of hatred and toxicity from team mates as you get reported and accused of "throwing" when you are trying your best.

I think all modern multiplayer games should be released with support for visual cues. Technology in game engines these days allow for these systems to be implemented, just because a small minority of players that choose to play these games are deaf must they really be shunned and play behind the others because the devs don't even consider offering a system so everyone can play? Sometimes It literally feels like everyone has cheats installed since in some games the advantages are that clear. I speak from experience. It feels like everyone has a wall hack at times.

which brings me to a thought and the reason I made this thread as its somewhat of a dilemma, what if a deaf person was to install a "cheat" which visually shows the direction of player footsteps, gunfire and important sounds which others can clearly hear, would this still be cheating?

From my experience I wouldn't consider it cheating in the sense that because playing the game as it is allows the other players to beat you by having huge advantages with audio cues similar to if they were using a cheat themselves, assuming a deaf player chose to play with an unofficial assist program to provide similar cues but visually and does not provide the type of cheating such as aimbots do, is it really a bad thing?

It could be argued (and it has on many occasions) that adding visual cues would outperform audio and would get abused by people with perfectly good hearing, but why should deaf people be forced to not be able to take part in games due to their disability?

its a tough thing to think about and most likely why devs skip over the idea of balancing audio and visual cues so everyone can get a fair chance at winning. But its always something on my mind since I do enjoy a lot of multiplayer games but I get sick of losing to other players having the upper hand and being toxic about it since they have no way to know I am partially deaf and I doubt they would care since hey they won.

I am in NO way advocating the use of any cheats, nor is this a discussion of cheats, its a simple thesis on the situation I personally find myself in and others will do so as well. I think it deserves a bit of discussion about the fairness in multiplayer gaming since it should be open for all to play on a level field.

so what do you think about this situation?

[ʙᴜɴ.ᴇ]

Origineel geplaatst door Irene💕:

This has been discussed on csgo forum before. The community agreed that there shouldn't be any visual ads. Imagine seeing text "AWP fire sound 10m away, north" or seeing an audio cue image of an awp. It just isn't right anymore. Maybe it can be substitute with other sensing device such as a vibrating mouse. I also think that those game were made to test our senses, so there shouldn't be any readable information.

That is actually a really good idea, if a mouse were to vibrate to relate to gun fire, it would need 4 motors for up, down, left, right to show direction of sound and the intensity of vibration could show distance.

The problem is cost, weight, fitting the motors and then programming it to be able to work in games as it would run via dedicated software for the mouse which would somehow have to be integrated into games,

if such a thing were to be developed and games developers were to have the option to connect their game to the software and not have to develop their own independent system, I think it would be quite useful and would also save on visual clutter.

although not sure how my hand would like taking constant vibrations could cause arthritis or something.

[Irene ❤]

Try with 4 motors so things shake when there are footsteps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxmLD8y0RNQ

[Magma Dragoon]

Alternate sensory information when combined with audio would likely once again give those can hear an advantage over the deaf.

[Schindler's Lifts]

This may or may not be helpful, but I think you'll find it interesting nonetheless.

https://youtu.be/JCkGoAYfhEQ

[Bomb Shot]

This hearing tool is being develop by a kid in Thailand.
Use the subtitle, it's being made, I think.
https://youtu.be/KPwehnCEzZw

[Bagel]

I dunno, I wouldn't use any external software to compensate for a disability.

If a game doesn't offer any help in that regard it's something I have to deal with. And I have to develop strategies to somehow get that win anyways despide having to battle uphill. It may sound harsh but It is how it is.

On the flips side, you'll feel much more rewarded and satisfied if you win against players who doen't have to deal with a handicap when you fight on the same level as them.

[Bomb Shot]

Origineel geplaatst door IOI:

This hearing tool is being develop by a kid in Thailand.
Use the subtitle, it's being made, I think.
https://youtu.be/KPwehnCEzZw

This hearing tool send wave to your ear's bone for hearing.
So it can use with people who hear nothing at all.
And not damage your eardrum.

[♥Peachboy♥]

Yes, it would be cheating to see visualized sound effects when others can’t

[ʙᴜɴ.ᴇ]

Origineel geplaatst door Schindler's Lifts:

This may or may not be helpful, but I think you'll find it interesting nonetheless.

https://youtu.be/JCkGoAYfhEQ

I am aware of what Fortnite has it would be cool if games muted their sound when visual cues are enabled so its not possible play with both audio and visual cues to stop it being misused.

[AustrAlien2010]

Dude, there is nothing to win, if you're not playing professionally. So it doesn't matter if you win or lose. You don't have to respond to their threats.
It seems to me you're having trouble with the people that you play with, and not so much with the audio cues. You can just ignore those people. Their reports won't do anything, as long as I am there. Maybe mute them?

[Galactic Yoshi]

When auditory cues aren’t enough, visual cues step up.

For people with hearing impairment, there could be a setting in games called “Visually Rich” that can be toggled on or off. This setting would make visual cues much more apparent. As an example, bullets would be outlined by a faint team-colored streak, all in-game announcements are declared in a noticeable, but not blinding, banner that can moved anywhere on the screen, footprints could be highlighted and shown on the mini-map in close proximity, and the recharge of abilities get more particle effects as an indication that they are available.

I’m not entirely sure if these are good suggestions, but it’s my first thoughts on the manner. However, this feature needs to be accordingly balanced to put hearing impaired players on equal footing as normal players without giving too much of an advantage, or such an addition would only be abused by a majority of users

[Lily]

Many games have visual sound effects, which is usually subtitles on the bottom of the screen.

[MikeBob2013]

I don't know about the multiplayer end of things, but I rely very heavily on audible cues in a lot of my single player games. Almost all of them in fact. I can't play a game with no sound and I never could. Even the blips and bloops of Pong were an absolute necessity for me to be able to focus, way back in the day.

[Dracoco OwO]

I mean same could be said of colourblind peoples, having good headphones is like a must in competitive games like this. You could say that this is unfair for peoples with bad conditions but a this time life's unfair.

[jermajingis]

Sometimes I turn on the subtitles for games, and sometimes the subtitles are different for what the characters are actually saying, and other times they simply don't include what they are saying.