A player has achieved an exceptional performance in Call of Duty: World War II. More than 7,600 kills are now credited to him – and that, despite the fact that he is blind.
An exceptional achievement: YouTuber “tj the blind gamer” recently shared his accomplishments on Reddit, reporting that he has now recorded more than 7,600 kills in Call of Duty: World War II. Some may think that is not really something special. However, in this case, it truly is, because TJ sees nothing of the game. He is blind.
How did he accomplish this feat? He revealed this in an interview with Kotaku.
Headset and helpful in-game features make playing possible
Previously an enthusiastic CoD fan: Even before he lost his eyesight, TJ was an avid Call of Duty player. The now 19-year-old began his CoD career at the age of 8 in the “World at War” zombie mode, then switched to the multiplayer of Modern Warfare 2. At that time, he was already blind in one eye and wore glasses.
He continued playing the Call of Duty franchise until Black Ops 2, but returned to Black Ops 3, even though he had already lost his sight in both eyes by then.
Headset and helpful perks are the secret
How do you play without being able to see? According to him, the adjustment was really tough. He was not used to using a headset. But he was now highly dependent on it. Because environmental sounds, like the buzzing of a lamp or weapon sounds, as well as certain settings and perks in Black Ops 3 serve as a random but significant help for many players with disabilities:
- For example, the perk “Awareness” can enhance the sound and range of enemy footsteps.
- “Sixth Sense” creates an audio effect for players with limited vision and a visual effect for hearing-impaired fans.
- And the perk Tracker helps players with poor eyesight.
The recently added Alexa Skill proves to be extremely helpful. This allows for voice input to be given and received. Alexa, according to TJ, helps to gain more information in a non-visual way.
What can Call of Duty do better? When TJ was asked how Activision could make the Call of Duty experience more accessible for players with limited vision, he expressed numerous ideas.
He would like a dedicated audio effect for all objectives in the game. This would mean that flags, tags, or bombs would send a constant audio signal, making it easier for affected players to find them.
A screen reader function would also be desirable. This would allow all text on the screen to be read aloud. Currently, blind or visually impaired players rely on someone else to read texts, like weapon names, to them.
What are TJ’s future plans? In the short term, he wants to break the 10,000 kill mark. Because he has not heard of any blind person achieving that. He also hopes to be the first blind player to reach the master prestige level in Call of Duty: WW II.
And when he is not playing Call of Duty, he enjoys playing Diablo 3 – a game that, according to him, is particularly accessible for fans with limited vision.
By the way: If you want to learn more about TJ, you can visit his YouTube channel.
