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Start Date
23-6-2022 12:00 AM
End Date
23-6-2022 12:00 AM
Abstract
CD Projekt RED’s 2020 video game Cyberpunk 2077 touted accessibility for audiences as part of its extensive advertising campaign, often focusing on the ability to utilize a wide variety of controllers for play and visual impairment-assistance options. Upon release, the game received mixed critical reviews from both players as well as disability activists, indicating an attempt at “reinvention” in terms of public-facing materials but not with in-game usefulness for disabled gamers. Many reviewers cited the game’s intense and vibrant colors regardless of the visual settings, and propensity for gameplay to trigger epileptic seizures. Using the methodological framework from Bizzocchi and Tanenbaum (2011), we analyze the accessibility options within Cyberpunk 2077 and the failings therein, with a specific focus on how these options impact players and their gameplay experience. The “braindance” scenes will come under targeted scrutiny in our discussion, combining their importance to the plot and gameplay but intense visual imagery and flashing strobe lights (Ruppert 2020; Moscoso 2021). Additionally, an analysis of the accessibility settings will be conducted through the lens of the game’s glitches and technical failures, a widely panned aspect of the interactive experience that can cause major hurdles for disabled gamers to engage with (Carr 2014; Gibbons 2015). The results of our examination of Cyberpunk 2077’s accessibility settings will be compared to claims made during the advertising campaign to understand the disconnect between the promises made and the final project in terms of how it could impact misled customers.
WARNING RISK OF SEIZURE: An Analysis of Cyberpunk 2077's Accessibility Campaign and Practices
CD Projekt RED’s 2020 video game Cyberpunk 2077 touted accessibility for audiences as part of its extensive advertising campaign, often focusing on the ability to utilize a wide variety of controllers for play and visual impairment-assistance options. Upon release, the game received mixed critical reviews from both players as well as disability activists, indicating an attempt at “reinvention” in terms of public-facing materials but not with in-game usefulness for disabled gamers. Many reviewers cited the game’s intense and vibrant colors regardless of the visual settings, and propensity for gameplay to trigger epileptic seizures. Using the methodological framework from Bizzocchi and Tanenbaum (2011), we analyze the accessibility options within Cyberpunk 2077 and the failings therein, with a specific focus on how these options impact players and their gameplay experience. The “braindance” scenes will come under targeted scrutiny in our discussion, combining their importance to the plot and gameplay but intense visual imagery and flashing strobe lights (Ruppert 2020; Moscoso 2021). Additionally, an analysis of the accessibility settings will be conducted through the lens of the game’s glitches and technical failures, a widely panned aspect of the interactive experience that can cause major hurdles for disabled gamers to engage with (Carr 2014; Gibbons 2015). The results of our examination of Cyberpunk 2077’s accessibility settings will be compared to claims made during the advertising campaign to understand the disconnect between the promises made and the final project in terms of how it could impact misled customers.
Bio
Matthew Stapleton (he/him) is a doctoral student at the University of Central Florida’s Texts and Technology program studying the intersection between technical communication and video game literature. Twitter: @staplefun
Lauren Rouse (they/her) MA, is a doctoral candidate in Texts and Technology at the University of Central Florida. Their work focuses on online social media platforms and the ways in which underrepresented groups, especially persons with disabilities, gather and communicate online. Their dissertation will focus on representations of PTSD in fan fiction. More information on their work and recent publications can be found at: http://www.laurenrouse.net/ or on Twitter at @rouselaurenc.