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Do you put on the subtitles?

  • always! I need to know what the hell they are saying

    Votes: 1,723 89.8%
  • never!! i was elected to game, not to read

    Votes: 124 6.5%
  • whatever... the defaults are there for a reason

    Votes: 72 3.8%

  • Total voters
    1,919

Firima

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,474
"... Despite Ubisoft's best efforts to plague their releases with tiny-ass flea letters" is how this thread title ends.
 

chrominance

Sky Van Gogh
Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,634
Personally I try to leave them off because I find I just end up reading the text instead of paying attention to the game/cutscene. But having the option for subtitles can be vital when the sound mixing for a dialogue scene is terrible.

This is one of the few places where I wish games would take their UX cues from JRPGs and VNs; many games have a button you can press to bring up a dialogue scrollback, so if you missed a line you can just go back and read it no problem.
 

Aurica

音楽オタク - Comics Council 2020
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
23,495
A mountain in the US
I sometimes use subtitles with English games. Usually, only if I need to turn the volume down or there are characters I can't understand well. I always play Japanese games with subtitles, because I'm not a native speaker. It helps a ton.
 

Scrub Jay

Member
Nov 28, 2017
356
Most games. In some like uncharted the font is off and it distracts but for most games they add alot.
 

tr1b0re

Member
Oct 17, 2018
1,329
Trinidad and Tobago
I only have normal TV speakers, and I don't really play at really loud volumes (rather everyone in the house didn't hear what I'm playing)
Plus there's something wrong with me lately, in that headphones give me a headache after a while, so yea, subtitles
 

RivalGT

Member
Dec 13, 2017
6,397
I only use them if I dont understand the language, but otherwise I always turn them off, I'm not bothered about having to use them when necessary though.
 

Erevador

Member
Oct 25, 2017
629
Crazy. I like the immersion of being able to move my eyes around the screen and not having to stare at the words at the bottom of the screen the whole time. I only use subtitles for games that aren't in English.

Surprised the poll is so lopsided in the other direction!
 

Katana_Strikes

Unshakable Resolve
Member
Oct 29, 2017
10,746
Depends if it ruins immersion and/or you can actually hear what's being said clearly. If it's story driven and lots of cut scenes I'll generally turn them off.
 

PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
Member
Oct 25, 2017
115,662
Always. I multitask while I'm playing games and I read faster than I listen, so it's easier for me to just read the entire subtitle and keep doing other things.
 

IBetUHav

Member
Oct 27, 2017
397
Off for me. I find them distracting as I concentrate more on them than the game/visuals when they are on, especially during cutscenes
 

Jaded Alyx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
35,374
Crazy. I like the immersion of being able to move my eyes around the screen and not having to stare at the words at the bottom of the screen the whole time. I only use subtitles for games that aren't in English.
This. First thing I do is turn them off. I find them horribly distracting. Games should definitely have them though but I don't use them, generally.
 

Jellycrackers

Member
Oct 25, 2017
582
Subtitles forever, especially now that I'm always playing or watching things while my toddler is asleep! Can't have the volume very loud anymore!🤣
 

Ifrit

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,119
Always on, without exception, should always be the default in any game, great for people that don't have English as their first language. Hopefully there's always the option to turn them off for people who don't like them.

Looking at the pool, I guess ERA has spoken
 

Calvin

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,582
I don't always read them, but having them on is mandatory for me - I am so distracted most of the time I need multiple options for listening and hearing things and unless I have my good headphones on, I always lose some background chatter.
 

ASaiyan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,228
I could not follow dialogue for shit without subtitles, lol. Always grateful to have them available.
 

Zemst

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,093
Might be the first time ive seen poll results swayed so much for 1 result on this site. Qucik edit..i don't get the gotta keep eyes at the bottom of the screen to read thing? Trying to wrap my head around how that works from a different perspective but subs are just "there" i don't really think about it, i can focus on both all at once.
 
Last edited:

BAD

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,565
USA
Subtitles are awful. Some games have them on by default and that probably heavily skews the results. I turn them off.
 

corasaur

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,988
I dont think i use them much in games. I've turned on subtitles for a couple individual movies where I've had trouble understanding people, but overall i hate them. Reading is so much faster than listening to people talk that I'm done parsing a subtitle a couple words in. It makes the rest of the line fall flat.

I guess I've probably used them in an rpg or two- to see what ambient chatter is happening in the background. I think I left them on in Mass Effect? I remember mashing through dialogue lines because i was done reading before Shepard was done talking, and then being annoyed at myself bc the lines sounded weird cut off in the middle.

Idk. I guess I'm more likely to use them in games than movies but they still make dialogue feel weird
 

Egrimal

Member
Oct 27, 2017
224
Aberdeen, Scotland
With kids running around the house when I get a chance to fire up a game I need subtitles to hear what's going on. Likewise, I can't have the surround sound blasting out for a late night session.

I've picked up a lot of missed conversations in games as a result of it though so it's a good thing in my view!
 

abellwillring

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,933
Austin, TX
I have never not turned on the captions in a game if only because I want to be able to skip the voice acting and still get the full story. Most of the time I can read faster than they can speak.

It's bizarre to me that they're not defaulted in every game where there is speaking.
 

Jangowuzhere

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
1,505
Most games and movies do not have good dialogue and sound audio mixing.

I hate watching a movie and not being able to understand what a person is saying. Subtitles are a must.
 

AcidCat

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,410
Bellingham WA
Weird that so many people keep them on! I wonder if a lot are just lazy and don't bother changing anything in the options. Turning off subtitles is one of the first things I do in any game.
 

someday

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,453
I use them everywhere I can. Games, TV shows, movies, whatever. I'd probably subtitle twitch streams if I could.
 

SFLUFAN

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,403
Alexandria, VA
Genuinely curious, do you all also turn on subtitles for movies, etc? I have friends that do this (who can hear just fine), and it's maddening. What's wrong with just listening to dialog? I absolutely hate reading ahead of the characters and I generally can't help myself.

Of course - why wouldn't I?

I absorb information far better seeing it than hearing it.
 

senj

Member
Nov 6, 2017
4,436
Don't really understand the "why turn it on for games when a lot of you don't turn it on for movies?!?!" confusion.

If I'm watching a movie and some asshole on a 120 decibel crotch rocket roars by outside and drowns it out I can , uh, rewind

I keep subtitles on in games because of one two many "Listen you are about to get ganked by murder dogs and it is absolutely critical that you VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM -o survive good luck" experiences. There's no rewinding or scroll back of dialogue in the vast vast majority of modern games.
 

Deleted member 12186

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,467
If you are in a loud gunfight and an NPC is trying talk to you at the same time, it helps being able to glance down a second to clarify what they were trying to say.

*gunshots and explosions*
NPC: *muddled voice*
You: what? what did he say?
*glances at subtitles*
NPC: "kill them all"
You: Oh...okay, was already doing that
 

deathsaber

Member
Nov 2, 2017
3,099
That's literally the first thing I look for in every new game I boot up.

Huge pet peeve- when certain games skip any sort of title or options screen to jump right into some opening cinematic- and the fucking subtitles aren't on!