Raiding in World of Warcraft without hearing – what problems exist? Where are the biggest challenges?
Recently, we reported how the deaf guild Durus Veritas managed to defeat Xavius on Mythic difficulty in World of Warcraft. The colleagues from PCGamer interviewed the guild leader Joseph Antle. We have extracted some of the exciting passages and translated them for you.
Antle describes that before Durus Veritas, he was in a guild that attempted raids at that time. However, he did not really feel like he belonged, as the whole guild primarily discussed everything in Ventrilo – the chat was silent. He only received brief announcements such as “You dispel on the 3rd curse” or “You take care of the marked moon player”.
“I must admit that it was boring, and I felt isolated because no one used the chat, and everyone else used Ventrilo.”
In the interview, he explains in detail how the raid preparation of a deaf guild looks like during fights. The individual players have to remember many more mechanics and tasks than in a “regular” guild. No wonder that when a key player dies during the boss fight, the raid leader usually quickly announces a replacement in voice chat – but a guild with deaf players typically has little time for typing, as the mythical boss does not care about the players’ limitations.
It is also exciting that many types of physical disabilities in games have already been considered. For many games, there are settings so that colorblind people receive special displays or the color spectrum is adjusted so that the differences are clearer for them. However, one searches in vain for special settings for deaf people – and no, subtitles during cutscenes do not really count.
When asked what Blizzard could change to provide more help to the deaf and elevate them to a fairer playing field, Antler responds with a thought-provoking sentence:
“That’s a difficult question to answer, considering we don’t know exactly what we’re missing.”
There have already been some debates, especially regarding Overwatch, about whether at least the announcements of enemy ultimates could be indicated through subtitles so that deaf players can prepare for them, as these players are already at a significant disadvantage in a shooter – where hearing is generally very important.
Cortyn says: I still find it quite impressive what people with a handicap can achieve when they really love a hobby. Furthermore, it is always refreshing to get a bit of “input” from other sides to be able to understand them. I find the argument for subtitles for Overwatch ultimates particularly fascinating, but it is something I would never have thought of in my life. The responsibility lies here with the hearing people to enable a better game for those without this “normality”.
Just recently, Durus Veritas defeated Xavius in the Mythic Emerald Nightmare.
