Please help those of us who are experiencing negative symptoms while playing?

[BlueJin.4127]

Yep. I definitely want options to adjust various settings myself. It is Anet who doesn’t want to (or can’t in some situations). That is why I’m saying to remove flashing effects that have no purpose in the game. I’m not making an unreasonable request that Anet should change the game just for me.

 

By comparison, I have a disability that causes pain and prevents me from playing for long periods without adjusting and stretching. As such, long story missions can be very painful for me. This also means that I can’t take part in raids. However, long sessions can create an atmosphere and flow that will be ruined by dissecting them into parts. Combined with the fact that the general public has no issues with long sessions, it would be unreasonable for me to ask others to make sacrifices and make everything short, just for me.

 

The flashing effects are a different story. They have no benefts, they’re bad for everybody’s health (nobody has eyes that are immune to fatigue, wear and tear, and damages), and impede gameplay with visual clutter for everybody who does large open world contents. It would be better for the game if the ridiculous camera flashes are gone altogether.

 

> @"Zaklex.6308" said:

> Also, for everyone that has posted in this and identical threads in the past. This is not intended to disrespect those with the above problems, but in all honesty the first question anyone should ask themselves when presented with these problems is: do I have any of these symptoms outside of gaming? If the answer is yes, then you should probably seek medical attention as it's not the game causing the issue.

 

Well, there’s no such thing as a symptom exclusive to games, of course. :smile: All medical issues are general and can happen with any activity, or any person. 10 years ago, I could look at bright lights and not be bothered at all. Unfortunately, like many people in the digital age where people spend so much time looking at screens, combined with age, my eyes aren’t as healthy as they used to be.

 

But in terms of games causing me eye pain, in 30+ years of gaming, GW2 is the only game I have ever played where I have to deal with eye pain. The bright flashing effects are the problem. I have to turn my monitor’s brightness way down just for this game.

 

Though if I look back into when my eyes started experiencing these, it goes back to the game I used to work on. I worked for a game company for years and my last project was a musical game where, understandably, there was a lot of flashing colors. Shortly after finishing that project was when I started to notice my eyes became a lot more sensitive. This is one of the reasons I push so strongly for this to get fixed. It’s not until somebody gets hurt or injured that people learn they need to take better care of their health. I don’t want to see people make the mistakes I made and suffer.

[Fat Disgrace.4275]

I can't tell the difference between mount and toon camera, flashy effects? You can change a setting in gfx, post something? To none.

[Rhyse.8179]

> @"Zaklex.6308" said:

>It's been asked for before numerous times and the Devs and given the same response numerous times, I'm not going to look them up for you or repeat them....suffice it to say it is not going to happen.

 

Oh, I know. "We took it out, the new system isn't coded to modular, and now we can't put it back in without re-doing the entire UI." In other words they were stupid, and now they are lazy, and all of us get to pay the price by having to make do with a UI that makes Diablo 2 look like the state of the art. I don't care if it'll never change, I'm never going to stop reminding them that it's horrible and it's their own fault.

[Zaklex.6308]

> @"Rhyse.8179" said:

> > @"Zaklex.6308" said:

> >It's been asked for before numerous times and the Devs and given the same response numerous times, I'm not going to look them up for you or repeat them....suffice it to say it is not going to happen.

>

> Oh, I know. "We took it out, the new system isn't coded to modular, and now we can't put it back in without re-doing the entire UI." In other words they were stupid, and now they are lazy, and all of us get to pay the price by having to make do with a UI that makes Diablo 2 look like the state of the art. I don't care if it'll never change, I'm never going to stop reminding them that it's horrible and it's their own fault.

 

That's not the answer they've given and you know it, so why give a flippant sarcastic response that is incorrect?

[Elvirais.5472]

I never had much problems with the game until now. The PoF and following living world story feature fights with the entire screen flashing, it's unplayable and makes me feel like giving up on the story altogether. Does no one there realize how problematic that is... the fight with the facet I only won by afk-ing, i couldn't handle it so i auto-attacked and took a break.

[Orodret.8230]

I actually don't have health issues and still i find GW2 to be very unpleasant for my mind.

Ever since release i was trying to figure out why am i getting addicted to this game when they clearly made it to be easy to leave and return whenever you want. In the end i think i got to the bottom of it, and my opinion is that GW2 makes you invest emotions like crazy. Not by getting bonded with story characters or anything such, but pure amount of frustration and fear when you consistently trying to finish that jumping puzzle, or raid boss, or some other, so to say, difficult content. Your character is always doing doing micro movements that are just not in line with amount of button pressing you do, so even when you think you did everything as it should be, you can still fail, just because. There are those small movements when you press WASD, delay before executing command etc...

Emotional investment is real here, its not slow paced, strategically thinking game, but more of a disco club fest.

On other hand there are crazy dopamin spikes all the time, because game is constantly giving rewards for everything, so you just want more and more shiny loot. You lift you finger and there is flashing message across the monitor screaming YOU ACCOMPLISHED this and that... like discovered a new area, or got new level, reward... And dopamine is very addictive.

Then, there is all the fleshines and fast movements everywhere, that puts me in some euphoric state. When i log out i literally have to close my eyes and calm down for 10-15 minutes.

Personally, i think it would be OK if parts of game are like that, disco club effect, like raids, or dungeons... but here everything feels like fighting for bare life. There is no relaxed running around the world, finishing simple quests, finding interesting books, but everything is like car race all the time, and its very hard to keep up. Feels like work all the time, not like spare time relaxation.

[Cerioth.7062]

> @"Orodret.8230" said:

> I actually don't have health issues and still i find GW2 to be very unpleasant for my mind.

> Ever since release i was trying to figure out why am i getting addicted to this game when they clearly made it to be easy to leave and return whenever you want. In the end i think i got to the bottom of it, and my opinion is that GW2 makes you invest emotions like crazy. Not by getting bonded with story characters or anything such, but pure amount of frustration and fear when you consistently trying to finish that jumping puzzle, or raid boss, or some other, so to say, difficult content. Your character is always doing doing micro movements that are just not in line with amount of button pressing you do, so even when you think you did everything as it should be, you can still fail, just because. There are those small movements when you press WASD, delay before executing command etc...

> Emotional investment is real here, its not slow paced, strategically thinking game, but more of a disco club fest.

> On other hand there are crazy dopamin spikes all the time, because game is constantly giving rewards for everything, so you just want more and more shiny loot. You lift you finger and there is flashing message across the monitor screaming YOU ACCOMPLISHED this and that... like discovered a new area, or got new level, reward... And dopamine is very addictive.

> Then, there is all the fleshines and fast movements everywhere, that puts me in some euphoric state. When i log out i literally have to close my eyes and calm down for 10-15 minutes.

> Personally, i think it would be OK if parts of game are like that, disco club effect, like raids, or dungeons... but here everything feels like fighting for bare life. There is no relaxed running around the world, finishing simple quests, finding interesting books, but everything is like car race all the time, and its very hard to keep up. Feels like work all the time, not like spare time relaxation.

 

the what now

 

I have never experienced any of this during my 10k hours of this game

[Menadena.7482]

> @"Cerioth.7062" said:

> > @"Orodret.8230" said:

> > I actually don't have health issues and still i find GW2 to be very unpleasant for my mind.

> > Ever since release i was trying to figure out why am i getting addicted to this game when they clearly made it to be easy to leave and return whenever you want. In the end i think i got to the bottom of it, and my opinion is that GW2 makes you invest emotions like crazy. Not by getting bonded with story characters or anything such, but pure amount of frustration and fear when you consistently trying to finish that jumping puzzle, or raid boss, or some other, so to say, difficult content. Your character is always doing doing micro movements that are just not in line with amount of button pressing you do, so even when you think you did everything as it should be, you can still fail, just because. There are those small movements when you press WASD, delay before executing command etc...

> > Emotional investment is real here, its not slow paced, strategically thinking game, but more of a disco club fest.

> > On other hand there are crazy dopamin spikes all the time, because game is constantly giving rewards for everything, so you just want more and more shiny loot. You lift you finger and there is flashing message across the monitor screaming YOU ACCOMPLISHED this and that... like discovered a new area, or got new level, reward... And dopamine is very addictive.

> > Then, there is all the fleshines and fast movements everywhere, that puts me in some euphoric state. When i log out i literally have to close my eyes and calm down for 10-15 minutes.

> > Personally, i think it would be OK if parts of game are like that, disco club effect, like raids, or dungeons... but here everything feels like fighting for bare life. There is no relaxed running around the world, finishing simple quests, finding interesting books, but everything is like car race all the time, and its very hard to keep up. Feels like work all the time, not like spare time relaxation.

>

> the what now

>

> I have never experienced any of this during my 10k hours of this game

 

The example I always bring up ... the first instance to get to Isle of Janthir ...... multiple layers of purple, some flashing, some not. How does ANY of it have a positive contribution? Why is it needed?

 

Of course there are other examples but most people are familiar with that one by now.

[Batel.9206]

@"Gaile Gray.6029", could you pass this thread (and the ones linked within the OP's post) along to the devs, please? :)

 

Personally, I'd just like the option to do this:

_- Turn off skill/camera effects_

 

That means that projectiles/impacts (arrows, sword, melee staff, etc.) won't cause flashes of light every time they hit a target. That means the giant explosions of light whenever we activate a skill (Firebrand and Holosmith are huge offenders here) will be muted[1]. The camera doesn't tip and roll on a mount, or twirl about when our characters are caught in a vortex in some boss fight, or automatically zoom in when we don't want it to. And most importantly, *no gigantic bursts of light that flash all over the screen*. Yes, the game will seem visually duller for it, should people choose to toggle that option - but it would save people from a *ton* of eyestrain, headaches, nausea, and dizziness.

 

[1]I tried holosmith in PVP, just for fun. I probably would have had fun playing it, too...if I could *see what I was doing*. There were so many bursts of light that I couldn't even see my own character! And that was with all settings on low, post-processing turned off entirely, and the brightness on my computer monitor turned down, as it always is.

[BlueJin.4127]

What makes you think these are unhealthy for the players' health and the reputation of the game? :tongue: Look at how pretty the game looks. Just look at 'em! Burn them into your eyes! Burn, baby, burn!