The Sound of (Gaming) Silence
Kombo.com has published a great feature about gaming’s complete disregard for players with disabilities, particularly hearing. The article’s author, Jonathan Law, is hard of hearing and he observes how few games bother with subtitles:
“Titles like Uncharted, Gears of War, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy XII and countless others all offer the option for the end user to turn the subtitles on or off as per their desire. Some games like Half-Life 2 take this a step further and actually include closed-captioning for the dialogue and the sound effects. But it sometimes feels that for every game that does include subtitles, there’s a Resident Evil 4 or a Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter that does not include subtitles to go along with their voice acting. It’s frustrating to realize that despite the fact that developers have come so far in their ability to express their stories and experiences, they often forget that not everyone will be able to enjoy them because of something so minor being overlooked.”
I actually wrote a feature for 1UP some time ago about inaccessible games. I contacted Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo and asked each company if it had plans to make gaming a comfortable experience for everyone. None of the companies were forthcoming with answers, which was pretty sporting of them.
It’s understandable that companies aren’t going to go as far as Nintendo did when they developed a special NES for a wheelchair-bound quadriplegic boy. But the consistent availability of subtitles isn’t asking for the moon. There’s no DVD on the shelf, no movie theatre in North America that doesn’t offer the option of subtitles to deaf and hard of hearing patrons. Why is getting the same from game companies a total crapshoot? Even gamers with normal hearing can benefit from subtitles. I hate not being able to follow a story at my own pace. Listening to voice actors drone on can be infuriating, regardless of whether or not said actors have a molecule of talent (survey says: Not usually).
What’s even more distressing is the latest fad among game studios, which is to include subtitles that poor-ass gamers with standard def televisions have no hope in hell of reading. Text the size of a pinhead isn’t a good idea in any sense. My ears might be fine, but my eyes sure ain’t.
Any thoughts on the topic?
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POSTED IN: 1UP, Feature, Ranty McRantpants
3 opinions for The Sound of (Gaming) Silence
Kia Purity
May 4, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Yeah, I know what you mean about the subtitles.
There’s some games (like Xenosaga 2 and 3) that have subtitles that are painfully hard to read on a standard def tv; moreso for XS2 considering that the backgrounds are mostly bright colors. The subtitles wind up blending in with the background. (The font selection for their subtitles did not help considering that it was a pretty thin font; the original font they had for XS1 was perfect! The change simply sucked.)
All it means is that deaf gamers are going to end up being selective about which games that they want to play. I’ve noticed that my gaming collection is extremely small compared to other people’s but that’s an unfortunate side effect of having to choose a game for subtitles.
Nadia
May 5, 2008 at 12:17 am
It’s a shame, isn’t it? Even the blind can watch TV through descriptive video. Imagine a TV station refusing to offer closed captioning, or a building refusing to assemble a requested ramp for wheelchair-bound tenants.
Paranoia Toaster
May 5, 2008 at 7:43 am
I love subtitles in games. Especially when they do stuff really clever and fascinating with it like Ico did. That little touch added SO MUCH to the game and its world. It was just a tiny drop of genius that made huge ripples.
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