All You Need To Know About Rumble & Seizures & "The Drama"
i see a lot of people questioning the rumble situation, and trying to discredit the idea that rumble is actually a health risk. while I do want to say that it took me two seconds to research this myself and find some proof, I also understand that a lot of people may have never heard of patterns causing epileptic attacks before, and it’s not fair to expect people to just know.
so I did the research for you! :D
this is going to be a long post. i’ll put the tldr right here at the beginning;
this post goes through all the current issues with the rumble situation and presents scientific proof that patterns like rumble are capable of causing seizures. links to the research articles cited are in the post. also, this post talks about how the situation has escalated as the whole rumble ordeal has highlighted a rift between players and staff, where players do not trust staff and staff does not seem willing to admit any responsibility.
okay! so let’s start off;
what is the actual problem with rumble? does it really cause health risks?
short answer: yes. long answer:
as many people have said, rumble can trigger trypophobia, an intense response to small clusters of holes packed together or what looks like small clusters of holes packed together. it’s not really fair to question this- triggers are weird, and individual, and one person with trypophobia might not be affected by rumble while others are. either way, we know that it definitely triggers some people.
that’s just one aspect of rumble’s health issues, though.
so, about the epilepsy-
epilepsy research is still ongoing and people are constantly discovering new things about the condition. that might be why a lot of people don’t know that still images and patterns can trigger an epileptic attack. this article, published in 2017 and featuring an interview with neuroscience researcher Dora Hermes, attempts to explain why. I highly recommend you go check it out yourself but I’ll highlight some of the most important details.
Basically, here Dr. Hermes is saying that some “noisy” patterns -aka patterns with high density and contrast- can affect the way our brain processes the image and handles that information. they aren’t quite sure why this causes seizures yet, but as it creates the same brain patterns that trigger seizures in patients, it can be safely assumed that, yes, it is possible for still images to cause seizures.
This is basically just saying that while seizures aren’t necessarily common with still images, they’re still a risk, and even people without epilepsy may feel uncomfortable or ill from these same high density/noise-filled images.
hey, remember when multiple people were saying rumble was making them feel kinda sick or giving them a minor headache? yeah. that’s related to this point. the fact that anyone was feeling discomfort from looking at the pattern at all proves that it does have the capability to trigger seizures.
if you still doubt, here are some more sources from scientific communities about how certain still patterns can trigger epilepsy.
why didn’t anyone bring up this issue with other markings (like brawl)?
as far as I’m aware, there were actually some complaints about brawl when it first came out. however, there was not as much support and it sort of faded away begrudgingly. rumble has been the tipping point, I think.
didn’t this whole thing come out of nowhere? originally, it was about trypophobia, when did seizures come into it?
not a lot of people know that still images and patterns can cause seizures. it didn’t come out of nowhere, it just wasn’t the initial problem players saw- until someone pointed it out. then it became one of the main talking points.
staff can’t really be blamed if someone has a seizure, can they?
honestly, I don’t know. I don’t know a lot about law. however, they can be blamed for not listening when people first brought this up, and also dismissing people’s (founded) concern about this as “hearsay.“
doesn’t this all seem a little overdramatic?
maybe. but players didn’t make it that way. staff did. by deliberately ignoring people, silencing people, and acting like worrying about a serious health issue is “drama.” if staff had just listened to the initial, reasonable threads, pleas, and complaints, none of this would have happened. which leads me to my next point-
isn’t this just about a marking?
not anymore. part of the reason this situation has escalated as much as it has is because the staff has had a history of handling these kinds of issues badly. the abusive title, the trauma conversation in chat the other day, etc.
their players are sick of it. we are sick of it.
mods should not remain anonymous. it causes tension and distrust and paranoia in the community. if one mod messes up super badly, players should be allowed to say “do not go to mod x, do not interact with them, they are incompetent.” its not hate, it is how the mod position works. saying you’ll discipline mods behind closed doors doesn’t do a lot to inspire faith in anyone.
mods consistently seem to care about their own reputation more than their players. why can’t people discuss mod actions? why are questions about mod decisions completely ignored? we literally support them, we should be allowed to ask. it’s ridiculous that there is this much smoke and mirrors around the whole thing.
by preventing people from talking about issues with the site on the site, they are preventing people from understanding the full situation. so many people didn’t know the issue with rumble had to do with health at all, because the poll the staff posted had no mention of it. lioden staff is not being honest or open with their players, and we have a right to be angry about it.
what can we do?
support the people speaking out. spread this information around. read those links, do your own research, learn about how and why rumble is harmful. modbox or message the admins your feelings about this situation. make sure people know what’s going on. if lioden staff won’t be honest with their players, we have to help each other ourselves.
thank you if you read this far. I hope this post helped you understand the situation and the concerns a little more. stay safe.
Thank you for the well cited information :)
