D.R.I.V.E. motion sickness and accessibility concerns

In Development Undermine(d) PTR Discussion
1

I decided to check out some video previews of the new D.R.I.V.E. system, and after only a minute or so of watching, I got extremely motion sick for hours afterwards. Because everything is so low to the ground and the vehicle is erratically moving and very quickly across the terrain, it triggers the motion sickness easily for me. With skyriding, there are way fewer objects moving closely past you at a rapid rate and the mounts have a higher vantage point typically, so it’s not as problematic. I have to avoid mounts that jerk back and forth while skyriding, as well, and I do not fly close to the ground for this reason. I understand not everyone gets motion sick by the same movements, but I imagine I will not be the only one.

Additionally, I play wow because I don’t enjoy most traditional console style games and mini games, particularly driving ones, and appreciate that past iterations of wow have been generally accessible to me.

Although I have not tested it myself as I like to limit my experience on PTR, if I get motion sick in game, I will also be motion sick watching someone do the activity on stream and vice versa. Additionally, I see the system will be improved to some degree as stated in a recent post, so testing it now may not be as useful if it will change. I would be willing to test future iterations, but it would need a major overhaul to not cause these issues.

If this system will be associated with any achievements, and will be required in the patch, I would be disappointed to be left out of the content.

I submitted the information to the blizzard accessibility team via email, as well, but wanted to post here in case anyone else has the same issues and would like to contribute to the post. I mainly wanted the issue on their radar as they are re-developing it, rather than afterwards.

Editing to add: I checked out a couple videos (one where the player was driving more rapidly, one more slowly, and on separate days, and both induced the motion sickness.)

4 Likes
2

I feel like the visual clutter that is Undermine would make motion sickness with DRIVE even worse.

There are no visual breaks. Even closed cities like Undercity and Ironforge have broad avenues. Undermine, though, has visual details everywhere - buildings covered with riveted plates, spotlights sweeping through the air, a “sky” made of more riveted plates… I enjoy the goblin aesthetic, but Undermine is migraine-inducing even when you’re standing still. When moving at speed, it’s 10x worse.

2 Likes
3

Hopefully, they can add a feature where you can toggle the D.R.I.V.E mechanics like they did with dynamic flying and static flying. You’d move at ground mount speed but at least you won’t get sick from the mechanics of DRIVE.

4 Likes
4

I’ll be honest with you, I have ADHD, and even I have to admit that D.R.I.V.E. is just too fast and lacks viable controls. Having a button tied to the car itself you have to push to make it stop is like having the brakes on the ceiling of a regular car and having to use both hand off the wheel to push it. At the speed we’re going, we hit a wall which is at every juncture long before hitting the button.

3 Likes
5

I hope so, too. I am still concerned about participating in the races, though, since I’m guessing you will need to travel at some speed to obtain gold in those. I found the list of race achievements on wowhead:

I would not sacrifice my health for an achievement if it came to that, but I enjoy doing the dragonriding races and also obtaining achievements in general. And the races will most likely be tied to some rep gain with world quests, or currency for completing them within the timer.

It also may be difficult to get to rares and such in time if everyone is able to move faster than you.

Does anyone know if this mechanic is required in the raid anywhere? That would also be terrible.

1 Like
6

Haven’t had a chance to use the feature yet but I’m hoping to get on in the next day or two to do so. If it looks as bad as it is (to me) on YouTube channels I’ll like just not even use it.

Just looks like a cheap knock off of Midnight Club.

2 Likes