-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
Twitch removes 'Blind Playthrough' tag after disability criticism
- Thread starter Homura
- Start date
If those damned minorities stopped complaining then all the criticism of progressive causes would just go away!
Eh, seems a bit stupid to me. Ableist? Blind is a common word that doesn't just refer to a visually impaired person. Blinded by anger, blind to a problem, etc. So them coming to this conclusion seems really stupid. I guess someone thought this would be some easy, good PR. Swing and a miss.
Blind would be without perception. Meaning no knowledge, guides and more.
I always use guides, videos and more. So my first play through isn't technically a blind one as per say.
Removal of this is kind of dumb. People look for others for the destiny raids to do blind play throughs all the time because they want to solve it without help
Using blind to mean ignorant I think is getting to the heart of what some people are criticizing. Whether you agree or not I think at least that makes sense?
Lacking perception is being ignorant. Using blind to mean ignorant is not and should not be a problem.
No, it does not make sense.
I'm finding really amusing that blind people in the replies of that tweet are annoyed because the term, apparently, didn't bother them and twitch did it for PR while not including stuff that would really benefit them.
Are there any blind people on ERA to support these claims? Are you really bothered by the usage of the blind term?
Are there any blind people on ERA to support these claims? Are you really bothered by the usage of the blind term?
If there hasn't been a wide outcry for this change among visually impaired people then it's probably more damaging than helpful. Twitch gets to feel good and pleased with themselves despite not doing anything worthwhile, all while "proving a point" to ignorant people about how "PC" and "sensitive" everyone is that will just put more wrenches into efforts to make good changes in this area.
Twitch really is dumb as hell for what people are (rightfully) calling out as a performative change.
What about the people who are blind that are genuinely effected by this?
I think the common consensus seems to be in their favour, not just 'they took our words'
I doubt anyone would have any issue with this at all, if there weren't people who are blind that are feeling marginalised due to not being consulted , when they would have said there was no issue, but possible given the platform to actually raise their legitimate concerns.
it's incredibly funny that twitch has no power/inclination to fix any of its actual problems so it does something that little to no one was actually asking for as a very obvious smokescreen
I could certainly imagine being blind and personally not liking it, though I guess if I'm blind I wouldn't be seeing the tag anyway but yeah I get it. I use the term blind playthrough a lot just when talking about games so maybe I should think about coming up with a different term. I don't think first playthrough necessarily works because that still leaves the open the possibility of me having seen some of the game before.
It makes sense, but that doesn't make it correct. Blind does not mean ignorant, and isn't being used in that way when saying 'blind playthrough'. If someone thought it did I would say education is what's needed in that instance rather than reaction.
Why just this change. Why not do something more tangibly beneficial, like more video accessibility options for disabled streamers and watchers. On the surface this seems very shallow.
My thoughts exactly
My thoughts exactly
A lot of streamers from Sodapoppin to xqc have used "autistic" as a way to describe a lot of things (most all negative).
I am confused by your question. Do you doubt this usage exists on Twitch?
You're right Twitch is doing the absolute minimum low-effort thing possible and the reaction should be "Twitch should do more than this!"
Unfortunately the reaction is a bunch of shitposts about the dictionary and I want to say it's a disappointing look for this community, but I'm not at all surprised given the general standards of behavior this site exercises on beat with twitter/reddit/4chan.
This is stupid. The dictionary definition of blind is not just visually impaired, but also "lacking perception, awareness, or discernment."
And this meaning is used EVERYWHERE, from fiction to science. It's a useful, widely adopted, and neutral part of the lexicon.
Context makes this extremely obvious. It's kind of insulting to blind people to imagine their impairment leaves them unable to discern context as well.
And this meaning is used EVERYWHERE, from fiction to science. It's a useful, widely adopted, and neutral part of the lexicon.
Context makes this extremely obvious. It's kind of insulting to blind people to imagine their impairment leaves them unable to discern context as well.
And of the things they could do to be more inclusive to visually impaired people, this was the most basic and easy and low effort one. They deleted a tag.
They aren't doing jack shit to fix the actual look of the website to make it easier for visually impaired people to see it or anything with TTS.
Yeah, let's ban speedrunning because I can't run for shit.
Great job Twitch, that DMCA problem will surely fix itself, and this is far more important right now!
Unspoiled would probably be a good one. I can see where they are coming from, and it's just words so I'm all for a change that might make people feel slightly better.
I'm very unsurprised at this forum having zero empathy or knowledge of how this could be construed as ableist and instead resorting to poor slippery slope arguments and whataboutism.
I've always used the first playthrough tag, it does nothing to affect me. But it isn't a change meant for me anyway.
It also isn't a change worth stewing over or getting mad about.
I've always used the first playthrough tag, it does nothing to affect me. But it isn't a change meant for me anyway.
It also isn't a change worth stewing over or getting mad about.
Is it reasonable to be hurt by a descriptive word used universally, in countless fields and in dozens of benign colloquialisms?
Ban the word twitch too, because epilepsy is real and nothing to laugh about. Ban the word run because some people are differently abled.
This isn't a slippery slope argument. Words have multiple defitions. It's how language works. And "blind" is not an insult to the visually impaired. It's a neutral description of their visual sense.
Last edited:
I'm blind in one eye, I can't really speak from a fully blind prospective, but I have never considered "blind playthrough" to actually mean blind as in visually impaired, or to mock blind people. There's so many uses for blind as a word, it's whatever though, first playthrough works too. It is what it is.
Like someone else said, "love is blind", "blind date", etc. are commonly used, and not in a mocking way. Just like blind playthrough. I'm remembering a Blind spell in Final Fantasy, there's also a Cripple ability in Dragon Age.
That said, I would love to have a bonus on VR equipment to let me disable one side or the 3d effect to get performance boosts in games.
Like someone else said, "love is blind", "blind date", etc. are commonly used, and not in a mocking way. Just like blind playthrough. I'm remembering a Blind spell in Final Fantasy, there's also a Cripple ability in Dragon Age.
That said, I would love to have a bonus on VR equipment to let me disable one side or the 3d effect to get performance boosts in games.
It doesn't bother me, so if it makes people more comfortable to label them "first time playthrough" then sure why not.
That being said, to me a blind playthrough would be playing it having not seen any gameplay of the title before whereas a first time playthrough doesn't really imply the player hasn't seen trailers, gameplay, other peoples streams, etc.
That being said, to me a blind playthrough would be playing it having not seen any gameplay of the title before whereas a first time playthrough doesn't really imply the player hasn't seen trailers, gameplay, other peoples streams, etc.
First playthrough doesn't mean the same as blind playthrough though. They're not equal and far from the same meaning, that's why 'blind playthrough' exists to begin with.
It kinda is, because they're using the word as a derogatory term and sort of saying it can only be derogatory and have no other meaning, hence why they changed it.
There are so many other things they could've added to support visual impairment and instead they did this and this is seems more offensive tbh.
Looks like the only people who wanted this change are PR people and actual people with impairments doesn't mind the word blind because its a description which can be to both persons and objects and is not derogatory in and of itself and would rather they implement things to assist them in using/interact with the site better. So yeah, I have no empathy with this change because it's not being used to describe a person in a mean, hurtful or derogatory way. And that is also dictionary knowledge for you.
Was the change a response to critiques from visually impaired people?
I asked my father if that phrase bothers him, or if phrases like "going in blind" offend him and he told me no (he actually used much more colorful language than that). That doesn't mean other people who are blind didn't complain. "Blind" in these use cases is ableist in the same way that referring to games that are "old" is ageist. They're not. Words have multiple meanings and connotations. Instead of this performative change, I'd love to see Twitch actually tackle the hate speech that's so prevalent in their chats.
First playthrough doesn't mean the same thing as blind playthrough though. My first time playing a game can come after months or years of watching other people play it.
This is such a shitty attempt at Lip service without actually helping actual blind people and seeing people here praise is is hilarious
But it's also not always accurate. A first playthrough could be blind or not blind. So what do we use to replace blind?
Ignorant playthrough?
Don't know anything playthrough?
Haven't watched any gameplay playthrough?
Or just whatever the person wants?
To be fair though, they can be different things and obviously there are degrees to "visually impaired".
Are you going to play in a trolly way, or are you just playing without knowing what system it's for? I kid, I kid.
i'll be covering my eyes during the joel part and telling myself he just went out for cigarettes
Twitch Removes 'Blind Playthrough' Tag After Disability Criticism
Since 2018, Twitch has had a tag system that allows streamers to categorize their broadcasts according to their content’s contents and give viewers an at-a-glance idea of what they’re about. Tags also tie into Twitch’s still-rudimentary (but increasingly prominent) recommendation system. Until...kotaku.com
I feel like Spohn is hardly neutral here considering he just got a million from Twitch.
