Should games with high RSI risk notify their user about potential of such risk?

[Moonzy]

I recently stopped gaming because i have developed RSI from playing certain games

understand that I'm not blaming the game for my RSI as everyone should be responsible to look after their body and not overstrain it

 

but should games with high RSI risk notify or educate their user one way or the other about the existence of RSI?

 

before i got RSI i have heard stories of people getting RSI from playing the game i did, but i did not delve further into it until i got it myself

[samcool55]

Well RSI is different for everyone so while warning someone is nice, it's really difficult to put a certain game on an RSI scale. And if they do get the warning, they will just end up with the epilepsy warning we see on every single game.

[Kisai]

3 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

I recently stopped gaming because i have developed RSI from playing certain games

understand that I'm not blaming the game for my RSI as everyone should be responsible to look after their body and not overstrain it

 

but should games with high RSI risk notify or educate their user one way or the other about the existence of RSI?

 

before i got RSI i have heard stories of people getting RSI from playing the game i did, but i did not delve further into it until i got it myself

There's been a few games that I stopped playing because the controls started really hurting. "Remember Me", was one of them. I was using a Xbox 360 controller. Other "fighting" style games tend to do the same.

 

Games are probably hard to know in advance about RSI unless QA testers make note of it, and even then it might be dismissive since game QA tends to be people literately working for free (which is literately what EA does) that they can dispose of at any time.

 

[Skipple]

I'm on the fence. I honestly don't know how RSI risk is measured so I doubt many development studios would know, especially indie studios. 

 

I fear that forcing labeling onto games that have a RSI risk at a legislative level would cause every game to have that labeling. It would be cheaper to slap a RSI warning label on every game than to actually analyze if the game is a risk. Also, ... just for the sake of avoiding lawsuit.

 

At this point, for larger studios there really is no excuse. They have the budget and should always label their games accurately.

 

That said, I find that games that clearly have lights strobing, etc. often do have a proper warning before the game launches. 

 

I confused RSI with PSE (photosensitive epilepsy). Ignore me.

[Moonzy]

Just now, BlueScope819 said:

How are certain games more RSI enduing than others? It depends on your KB / mouse and that's not on the game to decide for you.

3 minutes ago, samcool55 said:

it's really difficult to put a certain game on an RSI scale.

4 minutes ago, Kisai said:

Games are probably hard to know in advance about RSI unless QA testers make note of it

i have thought about this, and this is a valid question that i have no answer for unfortunately

 

but if a game have more user that reports RSI than others, maybe they should put up notifications to notify the userbase that RSI is a thing at least? u cant avoid what you dont know exist.

 

as far as i can tell, the game i played is now putting up slight hints about it, which is a good thing

 

i guess the solution is probably to educate people more about RSI

i think it's a serious issue and once u have it, it's very hard to recover from

[Kisai]

4 minutes ago, Skipple said:

I'm on the fence. I honestly don't know how RSI risk is measured so I doubt many development studios would know, especially indie studios. 

 

I fear that forcing labeling onto games that have a RSI risk at a legislative level would cause every game to have that labeling. It would be cheaper to slap a RSI warning label on every game than to actually analyze if the game is a risk. Also, ... just for the sake of avoiding lawsuit.

 

At this point, for larger studios there really is no excuse. They have the budget and should always label their games accurately.

 

That said, I find that games that clearly have lights strobing, etc. often do have a proper warning before the game launches. 

 

I confused RSI with PSE (photosensitive epilepsy). Ignore me.

PSE is unavoidable for any game unless you were to force the games to always run at 12fps, and some games let you turn flashing off which helps. Motion Sickness tends to be induced in games with first-person perspectives as well, one reason why "head bob" effects tend to not be present in FPS games.

 

But those are eye-brain related issues, not RSI which is repetative strain injury, which is what happens when you sit with bad posture or the gameplay makes you have to make awkward finger movements, or the UI is awful, or "infinite scroller" mobile (tends to trigger RSI on desktop users.)

[Kilrah]

27 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

but should games with high RSI risk notify or educate their user one way or the other about the existence of RSI?

Every game would basically have to have the warning, and like all ubiquitous warnings people would ignore it anyway. 

 

It has more to do about you than about the game. I had my hand hurt in games where it usually didn't happen just because some day I was somehow more tense while playing and putting way too much force on my keys...

[Korben]

Publishers won't do it until they are forced to. Reduces profit.

[Paranoid Kami]

Continous strain over a long period of time causes RSI. Take breaks, get ergonomic, do stretches/exercises for your hand/wrist/forearm. It's a common sense thing and not the responsibility of the developer.

 

It is a problem for those who don't know. It should be a basic thing you learn in a computer science class to be honest about it.