Blizzard speaks to AbleGamers on the new accessibility options in World of Warcraft

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Published on Monday, 30 March 2009 20:55

Written by Steve Spohn

{sidebar id=3}{sidebar id=1}In the next few weeks, Blizzard will be releasing patch 3.1, which holds many new features and upgrades to the MMO juggernaut World of Warcraft.  The features include a reduction to the hearthstone cool down, dual specialization, class changes, and a helping hand to the disabled.

World of Warcraft's scripting community is second to none.  Unpaid players spend untold periods of time developing custom UI add-ons to improve the basic Blizzard standard interface.  These add-ons are available to download for free from any number of websites dedicated to improving World of Warcraft's user interface.

One such add-on was ColorBlind 4.0, which adjusted the player's screen to improve the game for the colorblind.  Soon this add-on will no longer be necessary.

Patch 3.1 will introduce a new feature for the colorblind, which adds letters and/or symbols to objects that have traditionally been color-coded to convey information.  We wanted to find out more specifics about the new option for colorblind disabled gamers, so we reached out to Blizzard.   One of Blizzard's lead developers, Tom Chilton aka Kalgan, sat down with AbleGamers to talk about the colorblind option.

AbleGamers: Why have you made colorblind option available in game?  What are some examples of the feature in use?

Kalgan: In World of Warcraft, we sometimes convey the quality of items, the difficulty of quests, and other information about the game through text color or the color of an element in the user interface. The name of a challenging quest might be color-coded red instead of green, for example, while a particularly good item may be colored purple instead of blue. Over the years, there have been some great player-created user interfaces to help make this information clearer for color-blind players -- but as the game keeps changing, it is sometimes difficult for UI authors and players to keep updating add-ons themselves. As a result, we wanted to design our own system to help address these issues and make it easier for players to access them.

The Color Blind option, accessed through the game's Interface menu, offers an alternative way to display such color-coded information. Creatures and enemies, for example, will have tags that designate them as friendly, neutral, or hostile to accompany their green, yellow, or red nameplates. Gear quality, which is color-coded from grey to purple, will have new text descriptions from "common" to "epic."  Gold, silver, and copper coins will show a "g," "s," or "c" next to the amount -- for example, 1g23s45c. This feature will also be localized to show the appropriate symbol next to the corresponding number throughout the various regions World of Warcraft is played in.

In addition, the quest log will now display the recommended character level as a number, while recipes you've learned for your professions will have a +, ++, or +++ rating to correspond with the green, yellow, and orange skill-up chances. We are also adding text to denote the color of gem sockets.

AbleGamers: What is the best way for the Able Gamer community to submit feedback or provide ideas to the development team?

Kalgan: Our community and development teams actively read the World of Warcraft forums, and that is the best place for any player to give us feedback. In addition, we highly encourage players who want to offer feedback to take part in the public test realms (PTRs) prior to patches going live. This can help make the development team aware of any issues you may encounter. We also have a section of our forums dedicated to suggestions, and we highly encourage players to submit their ideas.

The accessibility of this feature is a welcome addition to an already impressively disabled friendly game because one in seven men and one in 12 people live with some form of colorblindness. Unfortunately, Blizzard painted colorblindness with a broad stroke.  Not everyone who is colorblind suffers from the same deficiency in the ability to see all colors.

The colorblind option for World of Warcraft is an all or nothing type of deal.  Whereas with the player base's version of the same add-on, the script would only affect the parts of the game that the player chose to alter it in options menu.

For example, someone may be able to see the difference between gold and silver coins but they may not be able to see the difference between an easy or difficult monster.  Again, this is because there are different amounts of colors each individual can see.  In this situation, the person would be able to see the difference between the colors gold and silver but not green and red.

The third-party add-on would allow the user to check option such as "colorblindness for monster level."  The add-on would place the letter G for a green or easy mob and R for a red or deadly mob.  Some say this is splitting hairs but the ability to choose which options the user would like to be turned on is something many hope for in the future.

Additionally, some things were overlooked in Blizzard's version of this add-on.  Rogues accumulate combo points as they attack their victims.  These combo points are shown as red dots in an arc around the picture of the rogue's target.  As the points are accumulated, the red dots are filled in.

Someone who was colorblind to the color red would not be able to tell the difference between a red dot filled in with red and a red dot lightly shaded with red.  One member of the player base identified this problem and created a specific add-on called Kast Combo Points that would change the way the points are displayed.  This modification changed the red dots so that they are completely hidden until a combo point is awarded.

Blizzard has since been made aware of the need for such an option and promises to add it as soon as possible.  This is a shining example of why it is important for our readers and Warcraft players to leave feedback for Blizzard on any accessibility related issue he or she might have.  The developers do read the forums and consider the feedback extremely valuable.

You can submit ideas on improving the colorblind options before the patch goes live by submitting feedback on the public test realm forums.  In addition, you can e-mail us at admin @ ablegamers dot com with your accessibility problems and we will contact blizzard directly.

Overall, the colorblind option to the world of Warcraft is a welcome addition.  Blizzard still has some fine-tuning to do when it comes to accessibility but with the help of the community; Warcraft is becoming more accessible to disabled gamers with every patch.

About the Author

Author: Steve Spohn

Steve Spohn is the Editor-in-Chief of AbleGamers & Outreach Chair for the Foundation. He is an expert in gaming with disabilities and assistive technologies and can be seen on MSNBC, CNN, G4 and more.