Call of Duty: Enabled Warfare

No, it’s not a future title from everybody’s favorite publisher; it’s some possibly helpful suggestions that might make the game a bit friendlier for those with varying disabilities, but of course, I’ll be using my personal experience as a person with multiple disabilities as a base for this article, so ultimately my suggestions will be making the game better for someone without the best vision (size and color) and without the best reflexes/mobility. Without taking up too many more words, let the suggestions begin.

#1: Let us put together our own control schemes!
Giving us nine presets is a start, but considering that here are games out there that allow for almost five-hundred schemes to be custom built on either a PS3 or XBOX 360 controller, nine variations the same basic layout hardly seems sufficient. Not only would the disabled gaming community take advantage of the ability to make the game more playable, but there are probably far more able-bodied Call of Duty fans that would take advantage of this feature than you’d think.

#2: More text isn’t going to kill anyone!
Well, there might be someone out there who cries over their KD ratio, but in the process of spilling a little bit of milk, the hearing accessibility of the game would go way up. How many times have you been in a room where it was easier to just mute the game than it was to quit? I’ve been there on more than a few occasions, and I bet there are others out there who have, too. What if mute wasn’t an optional thing, what if you had to live in a game where it isn’t captioned that there’s on RCXD in your area, and before you knew it, you were re-spawning? Imagine where this leaves those with hearing impairments. Would it be so hard to have a little more text appear onscreen and present everyone with the same information despite their ability or lack thereof?

#3: If the mini-map has to be there, don’t make it the enemy!
Through Modern Warfare, World at War, and part of the way through my run with Modern Warfare 2, I had no idea the mini-map displayed any information other than the lay of the land; it took passing the controller back and forth with an able-bodied gamer to decide that the mini-map can be used to find enemies, and that not all meetings are chance meetings. From that day on, I’ve felt the mini-map is an evil thing that should be banished from the game and reserved for only those who have a spy-plane in the air… but, let’s face it, that won’t be happening any time soon because even the most mature CoD who uses the mini-map in their quest to dominate the game would turn into a prepubescent Neanderthal without it, so we’re left to explore two options.

Option number one, make combat a bit more realistic; since it’s doubtful that any soldier out there is being presented with information second by second informing them where the opposition lies, make the mini-map a perk that is available to anyone from the start, and force people to abandon it in order to use other perks that may be equally beneficial to others who can’t use the mini-map (I’ll get to that in a few paragraphs).

Or, option number two (which is probably far more appealing to the masses); let players decide where the mini-map is to appear on the HUD. The upper right hand corner isn’t exactly conducive to my visual disability. It would be far more conveniently placed if it was to be located on the right side of my screen – top or bottom would be fine, but that’d only be more convenient for me. What about someone who wanted it in the lower left corner of their screen? They’d be up the creek without a paddle, or at least in the same situation they’re in now.

#4: Yet another issue with the mini-map, and this time, it’s even more personal!
Contrast isn’t an easy thing to get right, and in a game where camouflage is important, it’s even harder to get right. This does reflect the sentiment of the previous issue – what good does it do if it’s not usable? Black and white is the easiest high-contrast color scheme to do. There’s no having to worry about colorblindness with the use of these non-colors or anything. There’s a reason why the cliché is “it’s as simple as black and white”. Worried about interfering with the realism of the mini-map? Don’t be, as previously stated, unless there’s a spy-plane in the air, it’s probably not likely that there’s a soldier alive being fed such precise information about an enemy’s location anyway. In other words, it’s okay to make the mini-map accessible in such a way.

#5: Don’t make accessibility a brass ring!
In Black Ops, somewhere in the lower to mid-level 20’s, players were able to take advantage of the game’s colorblind options and change the colors of their reticle and parts of it to make scoping less of a chore than it would have been otherwise. That was wrong of Treyarch to do, and I wish I would have torn into them for it more than I did in my review. Fair warning to any Call of Duty game I review in the future, if accessibility is ever treated as if it’s a brass ring, you will have effectively shot your game in the foot, and it will very much hurt the way I score your game. Give it to us up front or don’t give it to us at all; it’s less painful to have to play through a game without an accessibility option than it is to have to say over and over “the game will get fun when I get there”, and never actually get there.

#6: Three words – Sore Thumb Pro!
Earlier, I wrote about being willing to trade my mini-map for something that would be of far more use to me – the Klondike Bar of Call of Duty perks, the ability to see any player anywhere no matter their choice of camouflage making anyone not with you stick out in any environment stick out like a sore thumb. Get it? By this, I’m thinking an ACOG scoped view without having to walk around as slowly as you would have to if you walked around with the ACOG attachment scoped at all times. It would really benefit those who are dependent upon movement in order to spot what hopeful is an enemy and not just waste rounds shooting at rustling bushes.

So, where does the “Sore Thumb Pro” aspect come into play? X-ray vision, baby! Not in the form of something as trivial as telling if the sniper you just snuck up on is wearing boxers or briefs, but instead being able to see them through the wall which would then make those penetration rounds a bit more useful to have equipped.

#7: Listen!
Number seven is more a hope that the AbleGamers community will run with the idea of helping fill- the blanks that I’m sure I left in this article. “If a tree falls and there’s no one around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Well, AbleGamers, it’s time for us to be heard – if there’s something you think would be more helpful than my suggestions, by all means write about it down below in the comments section. If you want to run with one of the ideas I had, by all means write about it and expand upon it in the comments section below. Let’s force change. Be lucky number 7!