Over the last year, UK mom ("mum" is the word over there, we believe) Gaye Herford has been fighting to change the way games are tested before they are sent to retail. Her 10-year-old son, while playing Rayman Raving Rabbids, went into an epileptic fit. She had no idea that games could send players into photo sensitive epileptic (PSE) seizures. We guess she hasn't seen the intro splash screen Nintendo has had around since the Pokémon incident.But, after a long year, she has won her battle. Ubisoft has volunteered to do the testing itself and will try to ensure such a thing does not happen again. Herford also managed to secure a debate in Parliament, for a future date that is yet to be determined. "As a parent myself, I was shocked that a single game could possibly trigger a sudden first-time seizure, with its life-long implications," says Weston-super-Mare MP John Penrose, who helped Herford in her battle. "Right now, most electronic game publishers simply issue written warnings about PSE on or inside their products - and that's on a voluntary basis. But that's no good for the thousands of people with dormant PSE because they don't know the warnings - if they even read them - apply to them."
At the time of the article, no comment was made by Nintendo. Ubisoft did say, though, that testing of Rayman: Raving Rabbids on the DS "showed that no images posed a high risk for photosensitivity epilepsy. However, we made a corporate decision to pre-screen and pre-test all Ubisoft in-house developed games regardless of platform, prior to publication."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-12-2008 @ 6:10PM
Kimiko said...
What kind of testing would that be? They wouldn't test it on someone who gets such seizures, would they?
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6-12-2008 @ 6:44PM
Who Cares? said...
No They Test it On Children. BA-ZING!
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6-12-2008 @ 7:06PM
tkAshur said...
...wow...this is just as bad as a parent saying the M rating on a game just doesn't say enough. It's ALL there...wow. They'll probably someday have parents sign a waiver at K-mart with every, single POSSIBLE warning on it. And somehow they will STILL win these court things.
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6-12-2008 @ 7:13PM
ssuk said...
Britain. It happened a few good thousand miles away from any K-Mart and ESRB ratings. We're also not as sue happy as you, however your fellow countrymen's shining influence is bastardising us...
6-12-2008 @ 9:45PM
TheFreak said...
You're welcome.
6-14-2008 @ 4:16AM
Matdredalia said...
I would like to point out that this woman didn't know her kid had dormant epilepsy. It's not like she's just some twit who let her kid play video games, knowing that he had epilepsy and that video games could trigger a seizure.
The fact that the game had imaging that was powerful enough to bring on a first time seizure is kind of disturbing, to be honest.
6-12-2008 @ 7:12PM
Roto13 said...
Epileptics aren't supposed to be playing DS' anyway.
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6-14-2008 @ 4:17AM
Matdredalia said...
Read the article. It was the child's first seizure. He had dormant epilepsy, and his mother was not aware of the fact.
6-14-2008 @ 10:55AM
Roto13 said...
What's your point? He still had epilepsy. It's not anyone else's fault that he didn't know. It's like saying it's a chocolate bar manufacturer's fault if someone who doesn't know they're allergic to chocolate eats one of their bars.
6-12-2008 @ 7:13PM
Conda said...
well I think for the most part the testing will involve making sure it doesn't have the possibilities of triggering PSE. they mention the Pokemon incident of yestercentury, but the wikipedia article doesn't mention the other steps that came as a result of that.
the warning screen is what we need to deal with all the time. the animation companies in Japan were all also issued guidelines as to visual sorts of things that can trigger PSE, with strict rules about what colors and how many frames a color has to be on a screen if they are going to flash. the guidelines used to be on the japanese TV Tokyo website linked on the Pokemon page there, don't know if it still is anymore. i'm sure its elsewhere though. but the main point is avoiding certain colors and speeds of flashing can avoid triggering of PSE.
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6-12-2008 @ 7:19PM
Kimiko said...
I dunno. It seems to be saying that some people could be susceptible to this variety of epilepsy without knowing that. Of course, if you've played dozens of games without any problem, you're probably not one of those, but what if you've never played a videogame before? Either you require everyone who wants to play a videogame to be tested for vulnerability, or you test if the game is dangerous. Seems reasonable to test the game then, right?
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6-12-2008 @ 7:47PM
Ironraptor Albion said...
Well this is UK, the Nanny state.
This is the country that threatened to arrest a man at Heathrow because he was wearing a T-shirt with Megatron brandishing his bigass arm cannon.
This is what happens when you aren't vigilent and watchful what kind of laws a democratic government passes. Any democratic government can slowly turn into a dictatorship or socialist state, and... we see that happening in the UK more and more.
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6-12-2008 @ 9:53PM
Fiefdom said...
Clearly there should just be warnings written specifically for those with dormant PSE.
"If you have never had a seizure before, we advise against playing this game just in case. We can be held accountable for all damages you may incur from any illnesses you were not aware that you had while playing our games."
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6-13-2008 @ 8:11AM
rikki said...
What these good-intentioned but misinformed people do not realize is that it is impossible to prevent PSE episodes 100% of the time in all cases, because every individual with PSE has slightly different triggers. And there will always be someone out there who -- like this kid -- only finds out they have epilepsy via their first seizure.
What will Ubisoft do to change their testing methods, anyway? Since the general advice given by the medical industry isn't specific enough for this one little boy, will they ask various PSE individuals to come in and risk having a seizure?
...For some reason I don't see that as being very successful.
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6-13-2008 @ 10:02AM
bones3d said...
Ridiculous... absolutely ridiculous.
How can anyone be held accountable for someone else's pre-existing condition, especially when that person doesn't even know they have it yet?
Even after that, how is someone outside of the medical industry supposed to convince any random person that something might be so horrifically wrong with them that they should always have medical support on hand and waiting in the room right from the moment they pop in the game, just in case?
This is an extremely unreasonable case to make... even if you were dealing with an actual medical professional's product, when the defendant in question has no prior experience with the plaintiff or were given any information about this particular individual ahead of product development.
If this doesn't get overturned somehow, game companies and other media properties will need to require a medical waiver to be signed by all parties that will ever handle the game, as well as contractual agreements that the game will never be used by or around anyone other than those who have actively signed the agreement as the terms of for purchasing the game.... for every game, every time.
Handled in such a reckless manner, this could be an industry killer... just because someone was stupid, greedy and foolishly believed they were invincible...just like your average teenager.
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6-13-2008 @ 10:31AM
Christopher said...
Well, in this case, as you said, the kid or Mom had no clue, so the invincibility statement doesn't hold here. I do however agree with the rest of your statement 100%. How should game companies be held accountable for something that the user wasn't even aware they had? Even if there was a warning on that product, the kid still likely would have played it and had the seizure. The idea for compulsive testing though isn't a BAD one. There are specific triggers that cause this to happen. It's not a random thing that triggers this. In that sense you could say a company was negligent in not thinking that this might be an issue. The article doesn't say exactly what triggered the seizure, but I'm betting it was a series of flashes, in which case shouldn't a company be held liable for not thinking it could be an issue? I don't know. I can see both sides to this.
6-13-2008 @ 11:40AM
Eleniel said...
Honestly I don't see a problem with having more rigorous testing; to me it seems like the responsible thing to do. If something has the possibility of causing irreparable health damage to someone, it's worth it to minimize the risk. That said, I don't see how this particular incident is the fault of Ubisoft.
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6-13-2008 @ 1:42PM
john said...
so the stupid woman didnt know a game could cause epilepsy
despite the ds box clearly stating that games may trigger epilepsy. all ds games boxs also stated this fact. as mentioned each time u turn on the ds you get this warning. all three also state that you should read the health and safety
book before playing which is the fist book you see when you open the book which also warners about epilepsy and gives symptons to watch out far. also warns that children should be supervised while playing. not play wen tired and take regular breaks. none of these cleary stated. so this purly the mother incompetents for being a poor parent. if she bothered to read the back of the box before allowing her child to play th system she would have know.
so i dont see why nintendo or ubisoft should have to do anything in respond to this case
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