- CS:GO flashbangs can be damaging to one’s eyes if exposed to the bright light too often
- A fan suggests a few ways this danger to eyesight can be mitigated
- The fan hopes Valve would implement something similar to the game
А CS:GO player suggests a few ways how the game’s flashbang can be improved to make it less damaging to one’s eyesight.
The Utility and Problems with CS:GO Flashbangs
CS:GO’s flashbangs have been a core component of gameplay and tactics that have been used since the days when the game was just a Half-Life mod. Because of their usefulness in blinding the enemy they have been used ever since. And while their utilization can be somewhat hard to master, many professional players know the annoyance to be put in their way.
However, putting aside the potential of being killed in-game when flashbanged, the item may have some adverse effects in real life when it comes to the receiving player’s eyesight. The thing is that when on the receiving end of a flashbang, the player’s entire screen turns bright white. This can be mildly annoying at best, however, when players are repeatedly being exposed to this bright light, it may start harming their eyesight. Naturally, professional players, who spend many hours ever yday training, can be exposed a lot to those unwanted effects.
Because of this, a CS:GO fan recently shared a few ideas on Reddit on how to make the item go easier on players’ eyes.
What’s the Player’s Proposed Solution?
“Stndg” explained they have also been using the flashbang a lot over the years but they think that prolonged exposure to the very bright light can have adverse effects on one’s eyesight. “I like white flash too [to be honest], but it's a really annoying and uncomfortable feeling if you play in a dark room.”
The player explained that the bright flash could be annoying when playing in a dark room. They say that they would like to see Valve find a way to dial back the brightness, to put less strain on a player’s eyes.
One of Stndg’s ideas is to simply make the screen go dark instead of bright white. It’s not realistic, but then again CS:GO is not the most realistic game in the first place. Another idea is to simply blur the screen. “I mean, you can blur the image even more to the degree that it becomes more or less uniform,” writes Stndg.
If Valve makes some changes like this, CS:GO would follow in the steps of some other popular games, like Cyberpunk 2077, which have changed some flashing light effects in an attempt to limit their effect on epilepsy sufferers. A potential change will also diminish any adverse eyesight effects the flashbang may have.
Small changes like this can prove beneficial for both casual and professional players. The potential flashbang changes are in a way similar to the explosion volume changes mod a CS:GO pro created a few months ago. That mod works in a way to prevent hearing damage from repeated in-game explosions.
