PSA: Macro Sound Effects Harm People with Sensory Issues

[BillyKaplan]

Also I doubt it's harassment, mostly people don't see the point of changing their settings or play style for one person.

You're double-standarding. You're saying they shouldn't change their settings for the one person (and it is not, in fact, the one person, as is evident by the many people who replied in this thread and would like to mute macro sounds) but for the duration of this thread you have constantly rejected an option that would let us enjoy the same freedom of muting the macro sounds the one time and move on with our lives.
That said, you're strawmanning. Yeah not everyone are trolls, the post your replied to stated that most people take out the macro sounds like decent human beings. But we're talking about people who have been told explicitly that their continued usage of macros is causing the people in their party harm. And once that has been done, and they continue to use macros while knowing they are inflicting anywhere from discomfort to outright pain on their party members, that is the definition of harassment. And yeah they can mute the sounds. Doesn't change the fact that the person who spammed the macro sounds after being told that is a huge jerkface.

[ManuelBravo]

You're double-standarding. You're saying they shouldn't change their settings for the one person (and it is not, in fact, the one person, as is evident by the many people who replied in this thread and would like to mute macro sounds) but for the duration of this thread you have constantly rejected an option that would let us enjoy the same freedom of muting the macro sounds the one time and move on with our lives.
That said, you're strawmanning. Yeah not everyone are trolls, the post your replied to stated that most people take out the macro sounds like decent human beings. But we're talking about people who have been told explicitly that their continued usage of macros is causing the people in their party harm. And once that has been done, and they continue to use macros while knowing they are inflicting anywhere from discomfort to outright pain on their party members, that is the definition of harassment. And yeah they can mute the sounds. Doesn't change the fact that the person who spammed the macro sounds after being told that is a huge jerkface.

First off no, just gave options and alternatives. Second get off your high horse and read carefully. In a perfect world yes everyone would hold hands and would put their online gaming experience on hold so that everyone can play perfectly, they would also listen to advice and stick to mechanics. The reality is that no, people want to get things done fast and expect others to take proper precautions before playing a game that everyone knows is not MSE friendly. That time and time again has been brought up and little has been done. The few options and advice that has been given has had no acceptable results, based on the community forums standards who have this issue, everyone pays a subscription. While changes take time, probably will take longer do to the small percentage of world wide players being affected compared to the larger percentage that are not affected, people have choices. To expect everyone to be sympathetic about it and stop their world for those who need it would be nice. is it reality? No.

[Kisagami]

Look, we’ve already done everything on our end we can do and all we are suggesting is a solution. It’s not even a major suggestion that will remove your enjoyment out of sound macros - if you like em, you don’t have to click the box. You’ve done everything and said everything to try to get us to back down. I don’t need you saving, patronizing, or telling me how to take care of myself. Your suggestions may seem logical to you, but they do not work for me. Thus - I made a suggestion.

Like I said, I’m perfectly capable of finding another game until it is fixed, if ever. Picked up Guild Wars 2 again - cheaper, no user-forced macro spam - and I can do much of the content solo if I want. I don’t need your advice. But i’m making a suggestion to square Enix so they don’t lose players like me to the competition.

Now what are you arguing about? Did we inconvenience you somehow by asking for a toggle when no other options worked. I mean, goodness gracious, you’re acting like I asked for butt sliders or something.

[Solarra]

get off your high horse

Pot, I'd like you to meet Kettle...

Seriously though, do you have something against people with disabilities?
The only players who would be affected negatively by this are the trolls who think it's funny to cause someone pain.

[Alleo]

Anyone that still uses their makro when someone told them in a dungeon that they are harmed by this in real life is just bad...Heck I do like my image makros (without sound) but if someone in the group would speak up that they dislike it or that they are harming them in any way I would just stop using them in that dungeon. Its just the actions of reasonable and adult people..

Its not the fault of the person to have health issues and its probably not easy to speak to other people about this..why is it then so hard to just stop using the makros for at least that run? I mean if you have all of your skills with makros I kinda question if you dont just want any kind of attention..

And the OP even wanted a small change to the system so that they can stop the sounds and this would also mean that other people can still use their own makros without hurting anyone..win win for everyone..

[Vnecat]

I'm very sorry that this has happened to you, Kisagami. A close friend of mine is rather low on the Autism spectrum but she's shared with me in the past that some of the sounds have caused her a lot of difficulty, too. I understand that this can be a very troubling and frustrating experience and I truly do hope that the developers are able to find a solution. Some of the ideas in here are fantastic; I particularly like the idea of a volume button for macro sounds. It frustrates me to no end when people spam them in an attempt to be humorous and I quickly get headaches, so I can't even imagine how it must feel for someone who suffers sensitivity to sound.

[Reinha]

Its not the fault of the person to have health issues and its probably not easy to speak to other people about this..why is it then so hard to just stop using the makros for at least that run?

Removing sounds effects from macros when requested is very kind, but I do wonder why it is the responsibility of other players to adapt to some players' sound disabilities when they are perfectly capable of turning off system sounds for the duration of the dungeon. It's not the fault of party members either if someone has health issues, and one person turning off a sound setting is less hassle than 1-7 other people rewriting their macros or action bars. I'm not opposed to more detailed sound options of course.

[Paladinleeds]

I don’t need a lecture of “Oh you’re disabled you shouldn’t play.” My psycologist has been hugely supportive of the social steps I have made through MMOs.

I'm in the same position. After mental health issues caused me great stress (to the point I became unfit for work) in my last job, I've been struggling, my socialising had gone down, causing my social issues to become more acute again. My CBT therapist supported this avenue (though also believes I should try to get some IRL social training in, which I am working on). While you cannot please everyone at once, I do feel like offering this as an option (similar to how the colourblind mode was added for people with colour blindness), would be a simple and effective tool for accessibility.

[Alleo]

Removing sounds effects from macros when requested is very kind, but I do wonder why it is the responsibility of other players to adapt to some players' sound disabilities when they are perfectly capable of turning off system sounds for the duration of the dungeon. It's not the fault of party members either if someone has health issues, and one person turning off a sound setting is less hassle than 1-7 other people rewriting their macros or action bars. I'm not opposed to more detailed sound options of course.

Well imo because for them it means that any kind of sound would be turned off while for the person with the macro only that sound would be missing. I mean I honestly dont really know why we would even need macro sounds at all. It might be bad if people did not see that someone already used a raise but they could still just watch the chat for that. Or maybe some of the tank skills are useful but honestly a lot of macro sounds that I have seen are kinda useless and just makes one feel like they do it to get some attention.

I mean the only part where macros with sound might be truly necessary is with savage raids. But even there people already use their parser to call out the attacks.

In the end I am just a bit sad that there are some people in this thread (and in runs from other people) that will use as many macro sounds as possible now just because the OP wanted a small change.

[Catwho]

The macro sounds are helpful for groups in which people don't have the sensory issues, because they can act as an audible cue for specific things coming up. So there's a valid use case for having them.

It's just be swell if they had their own separate volume control, outside from the rest of the system sounds, so I could still hear a Divebomb warning from the game and not have to deal with some rando's "DIVEBOMBS ARE COMING (BOOM BOOM) (BOOM BOOM) alarm alarm alarm" macro when I wasn't expecting it.