Today marks the launch of the Game Content Triggers Database, a project of Can I Play That founder Coty Craven. This database provides easy to navigate information about games and mental health related triggers players may encounter in them. Aiming to helping players avoid triggers, it may also be useful for developers and researchers. A small team of volunteers and mental health experts works to provide accurate and complete data for each game in the database.
Triggers and accessibility
The trouble with triggers is that they are often unexpected. A person with arachnophobia may only encounter spiders in a very specific part of a game. Or someone with thalassophobia (fear of deep bodies of water) may suddenly find themselves in a jarring underwater segment. Similarly, there are many things that could trigger a person’s PTSD. The Game Content Triggers Database is set up to help players avoid those triggers.
By searching for a game or specific triggers players can find if a game is safe for them to play. When a game contains a trigger, players can also see they can avoid it, or toggle it off with an option. Where additional context is available, it is spoiler free. Any potential spoilers are hidden until clicked.
If you haven’t had negative experiences due to triggers in games, it might be difficult to relate these to accessibility. And like any form of disability that affects gaming, it varies a lot from person to person. For some people, it might be a temporary scare or feeling of discomfort, for others it might become a topic for their next therapy session. Clearly a matter of mental health and by extension cognitive accessibility. As this complements the purpose of Can I Play That, games in our own codex will also feature links to the Game Content Triggers Database when available.
