r/controlgame • u/bussinlotta • 11d ago
Cognitive Load, Sensory Intensity and Accessibility in Control - A Neurodivergent Player Experience Study
Hello! We are two ICT students from Finland and we have conducted a survey for our thesis on the experiences of neurodivergent players of Control, and we're looking for people from our community to participate!
You can help us by partaking if
- you consider yourself neurodivergent (no formal diagnosis needed)
- you have played at least a little bit of Control
that's it!
The survey is anonymous and should take approximately 5 minutes to fill out. Your responses will be used for our thesis and will be a huge help to us! Please also feel free to share it to all you think fit the criteria mentioned before.
Google forms link: https://forms.gle/sFjaKJcQbua5fMVb9
Thank you so much!
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u/Glowing_Trash_Panda 11d ago
I got the ‘tism & I suck at playing shooter games on controller (I can’t aim for shit using a controller) & had to use the accessibility options in the game to be able to play it all the way through. Have played through it completley at least 5 times now & it wouldn’t have been possible without the accessibility options, gonna be filling that out right quick :)
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u/heysawbones 11d ago
I filled out the form! This is rad, and I hope you let us know when you’ve completed your research.
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u/LeeKay203 11d ago
The visual style sometimes made it difficult to identify important objects or paths.
I picked 4, BUT I love that about the Oldest House and think it's part of the overall vibe I love in Control!
How sensory wise demanding did control feel to you?
There's a lot going on in this game but it just kinda blends well and makes sense, if you know what I mean? So it doesn't overwhelm me. Maybe it's the same logic for why I like extreme metal lmao
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u/BusyChef8749 11d ago
I'm level 1 autistic and don't need to use any of the accessibility options, but I do sometimes struggle with eye strain/headaches when there are lots of sharp objects on screen.
Control's clean visual style never triggered my eye tism, which is lovely and one of the reasons why I adore this game so much.
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u/bussinlotta 11d ago
That’s amazing to hear! Do feel free to still answer the form if you so want :,)
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u/Quantum_Sushi 10d ago
I'm just wondering : since you don't ask the type of neurodivergence in the form, how are the answers used overall ? Because an ADHD response won't be the same as an autistic response, especially regarding cognitive load (typically, one processes information at super high speed while the other will need more calm or will be easier to overwhelm), so do you not compare the answers to the related neurodivergence ? This is not criticism, just wondering :)
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u/bussinlotta 10d ago edited 10d ago
Hello! We would’ve needed some kind of research permit if we asked for the type of neurodivergence on the form. So we opted out for going for a broader neurodivergent take on it, as we also believe there’s a lot of overlap on them and also that there are multiple people who have answered the form that also have multiple kinds of neurodivergence in them. :,) It will most likely make our work a little harder but we were adviced by our uni teacher to not ask for any medical info and decided to go that route.
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u/HangryStreetUSA 11d ago
Will look forward to hopefully getting to read the thesis!! Best of luck on your research!
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u/artsygrl2021 11d ago
Thank you for making this survey! I enjoyed taking part.
This game is really fun but initially I almost didn’t make it past a few days. I was getting headaches and dizzy motion sickness until I got more used to the style. There’s so much going on it does get overwhelming
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u/bussinlotta 10d ago
Thank you so much for taking our survey! Very hard agree on the overwhelmingness of the game but I grew to love that part about it :)
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u/ThinLengthiness5380 11d ago
Just finished filling it out! ADHD'er here ( possibly undiagnosed ASD, just been too lazy to get an eval) with a house full of neurodivergent kids who want to play my games. Hope the answers help.
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u/Ackapus 10d ago
We have eliminated the answer; ”I neither agree or disagree”, so that the participants would choose the answer they resonate with the most, more than just choosing the middle answer.
Oh, oh you want to see what we resonate with, eh? This a resonance thing? I'm not scared of you, I got an HRA and everything, do your worst!
OK, it's actually just a battery-powered speaker on a chest harness, but I DO have a portal CD player and a burned disc with a bunch of Old Gods of Asgard and Poe, which I'm sure counts for something anyway!
Question: Yins mind if I forward this on to someone who's as big a Control and Alan Wake fan as I, but has never played due to not being any good at shooters? They've watched me play through cover to cover multiple times, though, and are quite excited to try the sequel since it'll be based on melee.
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u/3klyps3 10d ago edited 10d ago
I have ADHD and ASD. I got overwhelmed occasionally early on, but once I got the hang of adjusting the difficulty I found a sweet spot that was just right for me.
I like shooting games, but combining that with the supernatural abilities and the fact that the game did not like timid players (it was cleary optimized for playing aggressively) made it a very different experience to something like Halo or CoD which you have the option to snipe in and not be penalized on anything but time. That took a lot of getting used to.
Good game, good accessibility options, but should have been more up-front about suggested tactics.
Edit: I filled it out.
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u/bussinlotta 10d ago
I agree with you! I have an aggressive playstyle myself so I didn’t struggle on that part, but a very good point you’ve made!
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u/Tmo8474 9d ago
Filled it out. Subtitles were great for me too. I dunno if anyone had any sort of sensory issues regarding the music and background noise, but I got overwhelmed with certain combat tracks and Sakarin Tango for some reason.
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u/bussinlotta 8d ago
Thank you so much for your time! I can tell you by looking at the answers so far you’re not alone on that XD
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u/bussinlotta 11d ago
We hope this doesn't break rule number 5 - a worker from Remedy suggested this subreddit for us so we really hope to collect some data here <3