Riot Games Acts Fast to Remove Possible Epileptic Seizure Trigger

Riot Games

WARNING POSSIBLE EPILEPTIC TRIGGER - STROBING LIGHTS

A League of Legends player, Apricot Princess, took to the forums a last week to let Riot Games know that the Trial House Finishers - a new animation that had been added a few weeks ago - were causing issues for people with epilepsy. In her post, she writes

However, the new kill/death animations for the house missions–those big strobey house logos that pop up over a champion you kill– are a huge issue for photosensitive epilepsy and cannot be turned off nor the effects turned down. I understand that epileptics are in the minority for those who play the game, but League has brought me a lot of joy these past few years and it's heartbreaking that Riot doesn't take epilepsy seriously when developing and designing new game mechanics.

On the post, one of the game's developers apologized for the problem but noted that they didn’t have the “time or bandwidth” to create a toggle to turn them off. The developer wrote “we would rather ship [the finishers] with no toggle than not ship them because we couldn't do a toggle, but we knew there would be some level of frustration and risk with that. So again, my apologies for making League less enjoyable for you in the meantime.” Since then, Riot Games - possibly due to community backlash - has decided to remove finishers completely for the time being.

Apricot Princess added to her post, saying that she’s submitted multiple support tickets to Riot Games about things that could be changed to make the game safer for her and other photosensitive epileptics. League of Legends has a colorblind mode but has never had a photosensitive mode. “Ultimately, I was told that it has been brought up to devs before and that they, unfortunately, don't care or see it as a priority,” she wrote, but still has hopes that they will add a photosensitive mode in the future and has offered to answer any questions Riot Games might have about what could help.

Riot added to their response: “Because we take photosensitive epilepsy issues extremely seriously, Trials finisher animations have been disabled. When we bring finishers back, we’ll make sure players have the option to turn them off themselves.” The finishers were a reward for completing missions during the Trial House Event. Since removing the finishers, Riot Games has replaced the reward with a loot box, which seems to be a decent trade to the community.

Here’s hoping that Riot listens to the community and adds a photosensitive mode in the future, ideally referencing their epileptic player base to do so. Comments? Suggestions? Things we missed or that you disagree with? Drop them in the comments below or hit us up on our Facebook Fan page or @ us on Twitter!

Stan Lee's Former Manager Charged With Elder Abuse

Photo: Jordan Strauss / Invision via LA Times

Before the death of the amazing Stan Lee, he suffered abuses that seemed to come out of left field after the death of his lovely wife. Now, his former manager is being accused of fostering that abuse.

The LA Times reports that Keya Morgan, 43, is facing federal charges for “theft, embezzlement, forgery or fraud against an elder adult, and false imprisonment of an elder adult.” Morgan is also facing misdemeanor charges for elder abuse.

Morgan worked with Lee for ten years and becoming an intricate part in Lee’s private life in 2016. But in June 2018, Stan Lee’s daughter filed a restraining order against Morgan on behalf of her father, alleging that Morgan was manipulating Stan Lee and kept him away from family and friends. And in August 2018, Stan Lee and his daughter were granted a three-year restraining order that prevented Morgan from contacting Stan Lee or coming within 100 feet of him.

Stan Lee is the beloved co-creator of Marvel Comics’ mightiest heroes and villains. The Lee family’s bizarre tumble into legal battles began after the death of his wife of 70 years, Joan B. Lee, in 2017.

Photo: Ryan Pfluger for The New York Times

Attorneys for Lee’s estate allege that Keya Morgan took advantage of Lee’s deteriorating health. The details for the restraining order against Morgan mentioned that Morgan was under investigation for allegedly filing a false police report claiming that there were burglars in his house. The investigation concluded that there were no burglars, but a social worker and two detectives visited to conduct a welfare on Stan Lee. The LA Times also reported that when police interviewed Lee, he “acknowledged that Mr. Morgan had helped him, but would frequently forget his name when talking about him.”

Morgan maintains his innocence in the allegations of elder abuse and reached out to entertainment website Showbiz 411 and shared a document alleged written by Lee but definitely signed by Lee from April 2018 that exonerates Morgan, saying, “Keya Morgan has been my most loyal and supportive friend in the last several years.”

Morgan claimed that he was the one who first noticed suspicious financial transactions and began acting on Stan Lee’s behalf after the estate fired their financial advisers of over 20 years after Joan’s death.

Keya Morgan is a wealthy historian, memorabilia collector, producer, writer, director, and entrepreneur from New York. His celebrity friends’ list include Buzz Aldrin, Muhammad Ali, and President (former) Barack Obama.

Former Overwatch Pro Has Sexist Meltdown While Streaming Apex Legends

His behavior is nothing new, especially among “pros” but it was kinda hilariously sad.

Matt 'Dellor' Vaughn is under fire for his sexist tirade while playing Apex Legends live on Twitch. When a level two player took armor Dellor had sat down, he asked for the armor back a few times to no response. He seemed to already be agitated but grew angry with his pleas being repeatedly ignored.

When he cried, “Can I have the armor or I’m going to leave!,” his teammate finally responded with, “Leave, I don’t give a fuck.” Which seems to have pushed him over the edge.

Then he erupted, “Fucking trash, go cook a fucking sandwich, you fucking bitch.” He really said “go COOK a fucking sandwich.”

This isn’t the first time Dellor has come under fire for toxic raging. The former Toronto Overwatch player’s esports career was cut short when he went on a racist rant while streaming on Twitch. His rant lasted for about 30 seconds, repeatedly shouting the N-word. Of course he apologized, simply saying he “fucked up.”

Here’s the problem with that so-called apology. If, in a moment of anger, your go-to is racial epithets and sexist stereotypes, then you didn’t fuck—it’s something ingrained in you and THAT is what you need to work on. Part of the reason people get away with racist and sexist tirades as having simply made a mistake is that we have a community that continues to brush it off while telling women and Black gamers to just “suck it up” and “just ignore it.” Unfortunately, this includes the little slaps on the wrist that Twitch gives them.

Now, here he is again, on Twitch in a misogyny-filled rant. This begs the question, why does Twitch keep giving chances to racists and misogynists? Is profitability more important than fighting the toxicity that plagues the gaming community?

If I had to guess, Twitch will give Dellor a 30-day ban and he’ll be right back to streaming and this will happen again, and again. And thus, the cycle will continue.

Overwatch Esports Team Philadelphia Fusion is Getting a $50 Million Arena in South Philadelphia Courtesy of Comcast Spectacor

The Esports arena will be the first arena in the U.S. specifically for esports.

On Monday March 25, Comcast Spectacor announced that they are building the “First-of-Its-Kind Venue Will Stand as the Largest, New-Construction, Purpose-Built Esports Arena in the Western Hemisphere .”

The Fusion Arena features:

• 60,000 square feet

• 6,000-square-foot public entry and 2,000 square feet of interactive media surface hovering 30 feet above

• 3,500-Seat Venue to Serve as Home of the Philadelphia Fusion Esports Franchise and Premiere Destination for Competitive Gaming

Entry

Arena Interior

Arena Training Center

High-resolution renderings from Comcast-Spectacor

Fusion Arena will be in the Philadelphia Sports Complex, home to the Wells Fargo Center - home of the Flyers and the 76ers, Lincoln Financial Field - home to the Eagles and Citizens Bank Park - home of the Phillies. Construction for the arena will begin Summer 2019 and is expected to be completed by 2021.

Say Goodbye to Loot Boxes in Heroes of the Storm

Until The week of March 26, Gems were the only in-game currency that players could purchase with real currency in Heroes of the Storm. That option has been removed.

In recent years, Loot Boxes have become a fixture in the most popular games (Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Objective, Apex Legends, etc.). But Blizzard Entertainment has decided to make changes to how players can purchase loot chests in HotS.

Since the controversy with the loot boxes of Star Wars: Battlefront II, developers have been eyeing options to remove loot boxes or improve their loot box system so as not to be seen as creating “pay to win” games. The March 18, 2019 patch does not go into detail about why Blizzard is making changes to loot boxes. They only make it clear that players will no longer be able to use real currency to purchase loot boxes.

Starting the week of March 26, all Loot chests earned through progression (except Hero-specific Chests), Heroes Brawl, or by spending Gold will be Caldeum Complex Loot Chests. These loot chests guarantee at least one item from the Caldeum Complex or previous years’ Lunar New Year Spring events. Carve out your place among the infamous gangs and score yourself some sweet loot before the streets calm on April 30!

HotS players will still be able to use real currency to buy Gems, Heroes, Bundles, Stimpacks, and Featured Items. But because the randomized loot boxes are seen as a form of gambling, Gems cannot be used to purchase them.

The changes could be influenced by recent concerns about paid loot boxes being a form of gambling and politicians both in the U.S. and the EU have proposed legislation to remove loot boxes from games. And to comply with the Belgian Gaming Commission, Blizzard removed paid loot boxes from both Overwatch and HotS in 2018 from their games in Belgium.

Finally! "Heavy Rain" and Detroit: Becoming Human Are Coming to PC

Quantic Dream via Twitter

Quantic Dream Studio is bringing their latest titles to PC.

Quantic Dream Games’s Playstation exclusives, Detroit: Become Human, Beyond: Two Souls, and Heavy Rain are coming to Windows PC through the Epic Games store. The two companies announced their collaboration at the 2019 Game Developers Conference.

The Paris-based games studio is known to release their titles exclusively through Sony Interactive Entertainment, much to the chagrin of PC gamers. Quantic Dream has expressed that they are looking to release on multiple platforms in the future. After an investment from the Chinese internet company, NetEase, Quantic Games is partnering with Epic Games to release their last three game titles exclusively through the Epic Games Store later this year.