How content warnings became invaluable in modern games
There’s nothing more frustrating than working your way through a game only to bump up against some barrier — an unbeatable boss, a terrible platforming section, or the sudden appearance of a phobia. As time goes on, games are becoming increasingly sophisticated in how they break these barriers. One tool at a developer’s disposal looks simple, but can work well in concert with other options: the content warning.
A content warning is simple in purpose but difficult in practice. It’s a brief warning that allows someone to gird themselves before heading into a difficult scene or potentially triggering moment. A basic implementation is a simple string of text that appears before the game begins, describing the types of potentially upsetting themes or moments in the game. But content warning systems have also become more sophisticated and creative over time, with a range of more complex implementations. The recent Dead Space remake, for example, shows content warnings before relevant scenes, and informs the player of the specific concern: self-inflicted death, medical malpractice, or graphic death by gunshot.
Dead Space is one of the largest games to have such a system, but it’s not the first. Joanna Blackhart, an accessibility and sensitivity specialist currently working on indie titles Frogsong and Way to the Woods, has experience with the challenge. Blackhart worked on Ikenfell as a sensitivity reader. At the time, the team realized that going through the full script was surprisingly fraught, as the player encounters sensitive topics while exploring the inner lives of magical teens attending the wizard school Ikenfell.
“[Chevy Ray Johnston, creator of Ikenfell] created the first iteration in minutes,” says Blackhart in a
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