Validation of Game Advantage Disadvantage Control Considering Color Vision Characteristics: A Basic Study on Among Us with Different Color Settings

Validation of Game Advantage Disadvantage Control Considering Color Vision Characteristics: A Basic Study on “Among Us” with Different Color Settings Tohya Aokia, Yuka Fujiwaraa, Satoshi Nakamuraa, a Meiji University, 4-21-1 Nakano, Nakano-ku, Tokyo 164-8525, Japan

Background • Many people enjoy playing online internet games, but some people have trouble with their handicaps • Handicaps put people at a disadvantage in aspects other than game skills The victory and the loss of the game would be affected by the non-technical aspects

Background • There are many types of handicaps In this study, we will focus on color vision diversity

Color Vision Diversity Normal color vision P-type color vision R Pi Pu LB R Pi Pu LB B G Y Or B G Y Or D-type color vision T-type color vision R Pi Pu LB R Pi Pu LB B G Y Or B G Y Or

Color Vision Diversity Japanese male with color vision diversity

Color Vision Diversity Japanese male with color vision diversity 1 in 20 Japanese male 1 in 500 Japanese female

Color Vision Diversity Green and Yellow Yellow only Difficult to make decisions by the colors

Color Vision Diversity • Players with color vision diversity have difficulties making decisions by the color • Reaction speed would be later than normal vision players • Shorter time to move from decision to action, the more advantageous it becomes • Game companies take measures to address this problem by color vision support

Color Vision Support Normal color vision mode P-type color vision mode

Goal of our Study

Main Purpose Eliminate color handicaps for color vision diverse players with various characteristics when playing games

Our Past Study [ICEC 2021] without filter

Our Past Study [ICEC 2021] Advantageous for normal vision Color pairs target Advantageous for D-type vision Actual colors With D-type filter basic target basic Color pairs target Disadvantageous for D-type vision Actual colors With D-type filter basic target basic Disadvantageous for normal vision

Real-time Color Conversion System P-type color vision D-type color vision The color they see differs by their type

Real-time Color Conversion System To eliminate color handicaps we need to gather all the types of color vision diversity It is difficult to gather many color vision diversity people Present the colors that the D-type color vision diversity people see to the normal color vision people

Real-time Color Conversion System Color conversion procedure for filters used in the experiment

Real-time Color Conversion System Without filter (Normal color vision) With filter (D-type color vision)

Purpose of our Study In past studies, we investigated the colors that could be identified easily BUT It is unknown if advantage/disadvantage control is possible in the actual game Verify using Among Us

Purpose of our Study Investigate the possibility of controlling game advantages and disadvantages based on color vision characteristics using actual games

Among Us Why Among Us? Without filter (Normal color vision) With filter (D-type color vision)

Among Us Why Among Us? the color scheme can be set according to the findings of past research

Among Us VS

Among Us The victory conditions for the crews The victory conditions for the impostors Complete all onboard tasks Kill the crews until their number becomes the same as the number of the impostors OR OR Eliminate all of the impostors Obstruct the crew's escape

Among Us Discussion phase Work phase Colors are important to judge the players

Experiment Summary • Experiment using Among Us(Total 4 games) • 10 male experiment participants - Plays online games regularly - 4 in 10 participants were the with filter group • Color of the players were random • Player’s name fixed to 4 Hiragana characters

Hypothesis • Hypothesis1: Overall, characters of easily identifiable colors will be more conversational in the discussion phase than characters of less identifiable colors • Hypothesis2: Overall, characters of easily identifiable colors, for example white, will have less variation in color representation in the discussion phase than the characters of less identifiable colors • Hypothesis3: In the task focusing on the colors, tasks with less discriminative colors will take longer to complete than tasks with more discriminative colors

Hypothesis Task focusing on colors

Result Average time and mistakes of the wire connection task The without filter group finished the task faster

Result Average time and mistakes of the wire connection task Only the with filter group made a mistake

Result Percentage of the number of color names spoken to the total number of conversations

Result Percentage of the number of color names spoken to the total number of conversations The with filter group spoked less than the without filter group

Result Only the with filter group made a mistake during the wire connection task Without filter (Normal color vision) With filter (D-type color vision)

Result Can identify each colors easily Red and Yellow, Pink and Blue are identical Without filter (Normal color vision) With filter (D-type color vision)

Result Can identify each colors easily Red and Yellow, Pink and Blue are identical When there are colors difficult to identify, it will be a disadvantageous situation Without filter (Normal color vision) With filter (D-type color vision)

Result

Result Orange(with filter) was killed with filter without filter without filter without filter

Result 5 people were around the corpse a discussion of who was there White, pink, and maroon were there with filter I don’t think pink was there Some colors were identified easier with the filter without filter

Discussion Colors that were difficult to distinguish from one to another with filter group without filter group

Discussion • Hypothesis1: Overall, characters of easily identifiable colors will be more conversational in the discussion phase than characters of less identifiable colors →was partially supported • Hypothesis2: Overall, characters of easily identifiable colors, for example white, will have less variation in color representation in the discussion phase than the characters of less identifiable colors →was partially supported • Hypothesis3: In the task focusing on the colors, tasks with less discriminative colors will take longer to complete than tasks with more discriminative colors →was supported

Contribution • Purple and Blue were difficult to identify in both conditions →can reduce visibility for both groups • White was easily identified in both conditions, no matter which colors it was paired with →a color that can be used reliably for color vision support Can be used as a guideline in design of color vision support

Prospects • Experiment was insufficient to test the hypothesis →There was a color bias in the impostor’s color • The number of experiments was small →next time we plan on making a long-term experiment • It was impossible to verify statistically →plan on using a game that allows comparison between players in terms of scores next time

Other Games ©2018 SEGA Puyo Pop

Other Games ©2022 VALORANT

Conclusion Purpose: Investigation of a color that can be used as an indicator to control advantages and disadvantages due to color vision Experiment: Play Among Us while mixing the two groups using and not using color transformation filters Results: It is possible to control advantages and disadvantages depending on the color scheme