A new World of Warcraft update has brought some relief to players suffering from motion sickness while playing two of the MMO's dungeons. Motion sickness is something which affects a lot of people in videogames, and as a result developers are always looking for accessibility options to help minimise the negative impact it can have on player experience. Recently, a World of Warcraft player posted to the Blizzard forums asking for help with one such issue, and received some good news in return.
User Maizou notes that while options such as disabling camera shake have proven helpful in mitigating the impact of motion sickness, certain areas and encounters are particularly problematic. Grimrail Depot, a dungeon which takes place aboard a moving train, and Maw of Souls, which puts players aboard a boat, both tend to cause issues due to their constantly moving backgrounds.
Maizou emphasises that this can’t be alleviated with careful camera placement, as certain mechanics in the dungeons require players to see the entire arena, and that the motion sickness was severe enough that each time they were put into Grimrail Depot by the Timewalking dungeon rotation left them “in bed for hours afterwards feeling like I’m going to throw up, to be blunt.”
Thankfully, one of the designers on the WoW team, who introduces himself as Ken, has come up with a clever solution based on suggestions from players dealing with motion sickness. By consuming an elixir that you can collect from a “Motion Sick Peon” NPC found at the start of the two aforementioned dungeons, the moving backgrounds will now be replaced with static ones for the duration of the dungeon. Ken notes that “this is a localised fix for these two problematic locations.”
Both Grimrail Depot and Maw of Souls are fairly old dungeons at this point, but this issue resurfaced due to Grimrail Dungeon being considered for Mythic+ status in an upcoming Shadowlands update. Regardless of the reason, more accessibility options are always a plus and this will surely be a welcome change for many players who suffer from motion sickness. Community manager Bornakk notes that the team will continue to keep an eye out for other areas where a similar system might be applicable.
In July 2021, the state of California filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard alleging years of workplace discrimination and harassment. The story has since embroiled CEO Bobby Kotick and prompted the US federal government to open an investigation. It continues to unfold and to be of immense importance to the game industry. You can catch up on all the developments so far in this regularly updated explainer article.
In other World of Warcraft news, WoW’s next expansion is set to be revealed in April, while servers for WoW Classic’s The Wrath of the Lich King also seem to be in the works. For more on the best PC MMORPGs, just click that link.
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