Ew Spoiler Content and Trigger warning on Quests

[Iscah]

Having a pop up similar to "several cutscenes will now play in a sequence" that instead say "several cutscenes will now play in a sequence and some of them may include triggering imagery" is not that immersion breaking or spoilery, and I think people's mental health is more important than something like spoilers in a video game story.

As someone who doesn't need trigger warnings, being told "there will be triggering imagery" would itself set me in a state of unease.

The thing is, from a "good storytelling" perspective, that warning turns everything upside down. Instead of being shocked in the moment, you spend the whole scene anticipating that something worth a trigger warning is going to happen, and then a release of tension that it's over. Instead of being surprised and reeling in the aftermath.

Or if they do the thing where they play three or four different cutscenes one after another, and the triggering thing happens in the third scene, you're unnecessarily worried and distracted throughout the first two scenes by the expectation that something will go bad, when actually it won't and you're not supposed to expect it at all.

And what happens then if they want to show a second triggering thing within the same cutscene? Do they need to give us a count?


Also it is definitely spoilery, non-stop. Get a trigger warning? Something bad's going to happen, even if it seems like a happy scene right now. Things are looking dire? Nah, there wasn't a warning this time, it'll all get resolved without drama. It seems like an inside-out way to experience the entire plot.


If someone is really genuinely traumatised by a specific thing they can't bear to see mentioned or portrayed in a story, it's on them to seek out detailed information about what the story will show – like the PEGI ratings discussed in post #3 – to ensure that they will not come across that personal trigger. The resources are there for you to protect yourself if you need it, without affecting anyone else's game experience.

[LeonKeyh]

Having a pop up similar to "several cutscenes will now play in a sequence" that instead say "several cutscenes will now play in a sequence and some of them may include triggering imagery" is not that immersion breaking or spoilery, and I think people's mental health is more important than something like spoilers in a video game story.

If you believe that mental health is important, you should realize that trigger warnings are not helpful to peoples' mental health. Someone posted an article explaining that earlier in the topic.

You should also realize that there already are warnings, ESRB/PEGI put warnings of these kinds of things in their detailed ratings, as was mentioned before.

Pegi's website:

FINAL FANTASY XIV: Endwalker
Square Enix Ltd Expansion for the role-playing game FINAL FANTASY XIV.
Release Dates & Platforms:

07/12/2021 - PC

Advice for consumers

This game has received a PEGI 16 because it features strong and sustained depictions of violence, as well as prominent use of tobacco. Not suitable for persons under 16 years of age.
Brief outline of the game

Expansion for the role-playing game FINAL FANTASY XIV.
Content specific issues

The majority of the game's violence is mild or moderate, featuring characters taking part in turn-based battles with little injury detail shown. However, cutscenes feature more graphic and realistic violence. The game includes a scene of implied suicide, in which a character is seen holding a loaded gun to their head. The suicide is not shown, although the character's dead body is subsequently shown, with a blood stained wall also visible. The game features scenes in which characters derive a benefit from smoking a pipe.
Other issues

The game also contains use of bad language.

[Karatecatgrl]

If you believe that mental health is important, you should realize that trigger warnings are not helpful to peoples' mental health. Someone posted an article explaining that earlier in the topic.

You should also realize that there already are warnings, ESRB/PEGI put warnings of these kinds of things in their detailed ratings, as was mentioned before.

Pegi's website:

The issue here is that we don't have access to PEGI in game, nor is it listed on Square Website. You'd have to know to go there and look.

I didn't know about PEGI until this thread. And have played this game since Beta phase 3.

I just feel a setting in the menus or even just in the quest complete/turn in.

Please stop being so abelist.
Not everyone is neurotypical. Not everyone is you. We are all different and we are simply asking for an accessibility feature that is accommodating for those with mental health illness.

[ValStryder]

So I've just finished a segment of the in endwalker main senario and well I really really wish there was a content or trigger warning to warn us about just how dark and bad it is. I know you told us in live letters it was going to be bleak but this requires more warning than that.

I also wish after the end of those quests you gave us the hotline prevention number because it's absolutely important to remind people that's not okay.

Mental health is no joke and NPCs commiting suicide isn't ok, even if it's implied.

Offer us the choice to know that something like that is happening so we can prepare ourselves for it, instead of seeing it, being blindsided and then be reminded of real world losses and not want to play.

I took time off ffxiv because of that quest as it was messed up and I'm currently dealing with a pet loss and lost a cousin two years ago to suicide.

So yeah a bit more warning next time.
No I'm not okay.

This has happened multiple times throughout the game. Every time someone sacrifices themselves, it's still suicide no matter how you look at it. (There's one exception as one particular NPC didnt necessarily know they'd die) If you want to get talking about things that are not OK though.... is it really OK for us to go around murdering people just because some 12,000 year old goddess deems it necessary? (The easiest and most obvious example is Thordan and is knights). Or even when we see two adopted siblings murder each other in Stormblood?

[LeonKeyh]

The issue here is that we don't have access to PEGI in game, nor is it listed on Square Website. You'd have to know to go there and look.

I didn't know about PEGI until this thread. And have played this game since Beta phase 3.

I just feel a setting in the menus or even just in the quest complete/turn in.

Please stop being so abelist.
Not everyone is neurotypical. Not everyone is you. We are all different and we are simply asking for an accessibility feature that is accommodating for those with mental health illness.

There exists a world outside of the game, everything doesn't need to be in the game. PEGI/ESRB is there to make decisions when BUYING the game.

PEGI/ESRB have been around since the 90s and are how video games are rated based off content. If you are hyper sensitive to content, then you need to be aware of the tools that are available to you whenever making decisions to purchase games. You had to REALLY have tried to avoid knowing about them since their ratings and content warnings are literally ANYWHERE that you would have gone to purchase the game.

You asked for a tool, I told you there is a tool. Don't sit there any psychoanalyze me, because you have no idea who I am. I also shared with you that your method of avoidance is shown to be unhealthy for you. There's a difference between being "abelist" and fighting against things that are incredibly unhelpful for everyone (that already exist for the people who deem that they need it).

[Lelila38]

Having a pop up similar to "several cutscenes will now play in a sequence" that instead say "several cutscenes will now play in a sequence and some of them may include triggering imagery" is not that immersion breaking or spoilery, and I think people's mental health is more important than something like spoilers in a video game story.

Couldn't we have that as an option to toggle on or off? I see why some people would like that and while I personally wouldn't use it, its presence as an option wouldn't hurt me.
Actually I'd love to turn off the several cutscenes warning to begin with, breaks immersion.

[MellowMink]

I don’t understand why my last comment was removed without explanation. I was expressing continued discomfort toward problematic rhetoric that called at least some victims of suicide as being selfish, and yet those offensive comments still remain up; my last comment also noted that I felt that the negative labeling of those victims was a bigger concern than the game not having another warning at a specific point in the game, so I’m not clear on what rules I apparently broke...

Would it just make more sense for this overall thread to be deleted at this point? Sorry for rambling, but I’m honestly very uncomfortable now with what happened and sincerely want to understand what I did wrong so that I can improve…

[Tlamila]

Language that involves saying or implying that any victims of suicide went out with a selfish act is problematic; as someone who currently sees a psychiatrist for anxiety and also knew people who unfortunately killed themselves, I find that behavior in this thread to much be more offensive than a fantasy game not more immediately warning you of an upcoming suicide right before it happens despite that already happening in past expansions, involving major spoilers, and being talked about in content rating descriptions before you buy new content.

This. Honestly, this thread needs a trigger warning way more than the msq did.

When the OP feels like insulting mental illness victims under the excuse of campaigning in their defense, nothing can go right. And I wish I didn't see this thread.

[Beytran70]

Someone should repost this topic on General Discussion because I'm very curious how they would view such things.