Majority of gamers play with subtitles turned on
Subtitles in video games: yes or no? Do players use them?
For instance, Assassin’s Creed Origins had subtitles turned off by default and 60% of players turned them on.
Since I started playing (and watching stuff) with subtitles, I realised just how much I’ve missed from poor sound mixing.
Poor sound mixing is exactly why I watch most things with subs by default now. I got sick of constantly having to turn the volume up to hear dialogue and then quickly back down to avoid massive explosions etc.
And I feel this is an escalating problem. Sound mixing is generally horrible in both games and movies/TV. Unless you blow out your speakers during the higher peaks, you've got no chance of hearing dialogue.
Does anyone have any clue to why this is such a well-spread phenomenon? Why is it like this? I mean, I get it (kinda) at a cinema, but I think it's way overplayed there as well.
This is why I think dynamic range compression should be a standard feature for TVs, phones, stereos, PCs and other consumer devices that output audio. Something to even out quiet dialogue and loud explosions would be a godsend for movie watchers everywhere.
I know Windows has a compressor of sorts built in, the audio equalization feature, and I wish there were a good equivalent for this on Linux.
Truth be told, with my auditory processing issues, I'd probably still be using subtitles in tandem with compression/equalization if it were an option. BUT, it'd still be nice to have for watching things late at night without waking other people up.
I just encountered that when playing Fallout 76 for the first time. When I first started up the game everything was so loud so I turned it down to what I thought would be a good level. But when I played a holotape in a terminal it was so quiet AND even when I had subtitles turned on for some reason they didn't appear :/
Now think about all the visual stuff you're missing while reading subtitles.
Doesn't apply to everyone.
Where it does apply, you got an excuse for a second viewing.
Plus if we're talking about games, you generally should have some awareness of your surroundings even when watching subtitles. If you didn't, just paying attention to your UI while playing would be difficult.
I don’t have to actually read them slowly, its like an extra thing giving me information. Like seeing words and hearing them in one go. It’s not distracting in the slightest
That's the answer in my book. I mainly use it for that very same purpose. Additionally, new games with their own game worlds and confusing made up words that sound different between characters.
I know this is about video games but for movies it's often the case that they were mixed for a surround sound system and then just combined for the stereo out that most people end up using.
For Video games subtitles are ok. But with movies, I have them. They are too diszracting for me so I read subtitles all the time instead of watching the movie. If I wanted to read a book, I would read a book...
I have them on as some accents are just really hard to understand for me. Also, when I eat while watching a movie I miss half the stuff^^
I turn them on because if I don't I ADHD blank out and miss things. It helps engage multiple senses which helps my focus.
Same here. I don't use them for TV but you can't rewind a few seconds to catch what you missed in a game so I leave them on.
I always have subtitles turned on for games. Audio processing isn't my strong suit at the best of times, let alone when fantasy accents and weird vocabulary end up involved. I usually end up using them for TV shows and movies as well, at least when watching by myself. I just wish real life came with them, haha.
I turn them on cause I don't speak English natively and sometimes the characters just speak unclearly
I turn them on because I don't live alone. My family can and will barge in without consideration or pause. So subtitles or headset is mandatory.
I usually turn subtitles on on everything I watch/play, whether it's in my native language or english. It just feels helpful and clearer
I always turn on subtitles because I'm born deaf.
Seems like a good reason
I always turn them on because otherwise I’ll miss key pieces of information and just get confused.
Accessibility helps everyone
I'm more curious about those who don't use them. Do you guys miss dialog? If so, do you just continue on anyways?
Do you guys miss dialog?
How would they know? lol
I watch everything with subtites. I wish real life had subtitles too.
Definitely needed, can't tell you how many times you miss dialogue in combat, beacuse it's noisy out of game, or your just not paying attention.
I tend to turn subtitles off because if helps me get more immersed in the story.
I try to, then someone says some shit that I couldn't understand and I get pissed off and angrily turn them on. I've been making a point (in games and in TV/movies) to try to keep my eyes on the top half of the screen while people talk, only glancing down at the words if someone says something I didn't catch.
It's a hard habit to break.
I always enable subtitles. Most games still only have English voiceovers or terrible dubs and since I'm not a native English speaker, it's easier for me to follow the story with subtitles enabled.
I hate how they're almost always off by default and you usually can't turn them on until after the opening scene. I have them on whenever possible for both games and watching TV.
IMO every game on first launch should solicit these options:
Most times going into settings are to change one of those options, so why not quickly let the player set them all at once on the get-go? There's a 99% chance at least one of those options will need to change for the player/machine needs.
volume
This has definitely gotten better in recent years. You can almost date games by whether they have subtitles by default or if they provide some prompted settings for that sort of thing on first boot of the game.
I find that if subtitles are on, I'm distracted reading them and not focusing enough on the game.
For this reason I'm often turning them off. I can read very quickly, but I'm easily distracted by the tiniest things.
I can't imagine gaming without them, and I wished all devs went the extra mile to include subtitle scaling/ sizing.
For videos I try to turn subtitles off if possible, I find that they do distract me from watching other details on screen. However a lot of times I find myself switching subtitles back on because the dialogue is hard to make out over the background sounds and effects.
Sometimes after watching, say, a TV episode of some show I go online and check the discussion, when I would come across a question somebody asked and I would wonder "Why would they ask that? It was so clearly stated in the show" and then I realized I had subtitles on and was able to read it clearly, whereas another watcher could have missed / misheard those dialogue if he/she didn't turn on subtitles.
I have them turned on since I am not a native english speaker and want to understand everything correctly.
I used to practice my foreign languages by having the dub vs sub be different languages, worked well enough imo.
I prefer subs even when playing video games and watching movies/TV in my native language. However, I think part of why gamers prefer it is movies are at least scripted to the point where it's unlikely that a loud noise will go off in the middle of an actor's line. In a video game, there could be dynamic sound effects at any time right in the middle of a line.
I always use them whether playing a game or watching a film; definitely if I'm watching a documentary.
I tend to watch everything I can with subtitles these days, watching old stuff again it's amazing just how much I was missing, either through sound design issues or just zoning out momentarily. The only issue is when the subtitles get ahead of the dialogue and you end up with a bit of a spoiler, albeit only by a few seconds.
I've also discovered some absolute gems of sounds/music being subtitled, one of my favourite ever being from the TV show Taskmaster, the sound effect of [he strums balalaika tunelessly], which added so much more than just hearing him strum tunelessly did.
The only issue is when the subtitles get ahead of the dialogue and you end up with a bit of a spoiler, albeit only by a few seconds.
This is the only real criticism of subtitles that I'll agree with, since you'll sometimes have a joke juimed because you'll read ahead of the dialog, but I'll take that any day over missing bits of story or jokes and either repeatedly rolling back to try to hear/understand something (and ruining the experience) or just not enjoying what I'm watching.
Can't say I'm surprised. My partner both do this for movies and games, because we either can't hear the dialogue or freak out our dogs with the sound effects
Apparently I'm in the minority here.
Subtitles drive me insane, and I always turn them off. My eyes always get drawn to the subtitles so I miss what's happening onscreen. I also read faster than the dialog is spoken, but my brain gets interrupted by the spoken dialog while it's processing what I just read, so I get the same information twice but struggle to retain the actual meaning. I have no idea how anyone can tolerate subtitles unless they actually need them.