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Ubisoft's numbers say subtitles are really jolly popular

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
Fjordson

Fjordson

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,018
First thing I do for anything is turn on subtitles. Games, movies, TV shows, whatever. Always subtitles.

I don't always read them, but I find it helps for uncommon stuff like names of people and / or places. Just easier for my brain to keep track of characters when I see their name written out.
 
MilesQ

MilesQ

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,490
I use subs pretty much everywhere.

My wife hates it though, she says its distracting, but it's something I've always done.
 
The Gold Hawk

The Gold Hawk

Member
Jan 30, 2019
4,558
Yorkshire
I turn subtitles on for damn near everything. This whole mumble acting thing does my nut in.

For games, I find that the preset audio settings are really poor (VFX/Music too high or whatever) It's difficult to tell on a start-up menu what the game will sounds like.

Which is always fun with most Rockstar games just going straight to a long/important cutscene rather than having a damn menu screen. Every one of their bloody games I have to skip through cutscenes or struggle through the poor audio levels to start gameplay and enable subtitles just to restart the whole damn thing.

Which, for me, is WAY worse for breaking immersion than a 'cinematic' game starting with a menu screen.
 
Shawcroft

Shawcroft

Member
Oct 29, 2017
361
Always... usually.

As plenty of people have pointed out, it's easy to read ahead and ruin some moments... or just fall into the habit of skipping the second you've read the line, which is a bummer.

On the other hand when people speak unclearly, in an accent or the sound mix is garbage, sadly still a thing in many games, and I miss critical information, it's super annoying.

So for me it's picking the lesser evil. And in a XX hour adventure / RPG where you might not be able to easily revert to a recent save, subtitles is definitely the better answer.
 
Edgar

Edgar

User requested ban
Banned
Oct 29, 2017
7,180
Never on my first playtrough. Idk it just seems wrong first time, especially if it's a story based game and I wanna pay attention to characters and their faces rather than subs
 
headspawn

headspawn

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,627
Unless I've already played through a game or if I'm going for the hud-less/immersive experience; I'll almost always have subtitles on. It's not like I can't hear, but sometimes your focusing on something else and might miss a word or two, so it's always nice to have a fallback solution.
 
Cynn

Cynn

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,285
I always turn them off if it's my native language. I have no issue understanding what's said to me nor retaining the info without written confirmation.

It's also nice if I want to snap a screenshot. Having text on screen kinda sucks for that.
 
Freezasaurus

Freezasaurus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
57,054
I turn on subs all the time. You never know when there's going to be some random loud noise in the house or bad audio that you can't make out, so I like having it right there on-screen just in case.
 
sabrina

sabrina

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,174
newport beach, CA
Jiminy said:
:)

The creators didn't make a beautiful smorgasbord of visual delights for users to plaster text all over the bottom chunk of the screen

Just gross
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Click to shrink...
This is categorically wrong. Everyone working on the game knows to take UI into account, and have developed guidelines for doing so. That may not have been the case twenty, thirty years ago when screenspace and pixels were at a premium, but it most assuredly is now.

More to the point, I could just as readily say "the creators didn't make a beautiful conversation and dialog just for users to miss because they can't hear or discern audible language well enough."
 

QuigleyMcShine

Member
Jan 29, 2018
9,414
Depends on the game. Something like Assassin's Creed or Far Cry I'll have them on so I have the option to read ahead and skip the acting.

A cinematic game like The Last of Us, Uncharted, Dead Space, etc? No subtitles.
 
Hey Please

Hey Please

Avenger
Oct 31, 2017
22,824
Not America
Almost never. I have a compulsion about reading subs faster than the dialogue and so essentially it sort of acts as spoilers for english language.

The only exception I have made so far is for Dragon's Dogma because whilst side questing, I can zone out whilst listening to podcasts and engage in combat and other menial tasks.
 
SevenOfRhyme

SevenOfRhyme

Member
Oct 27, 2017
308
Chicago
Subtitles 4 life

I'll straight up stop playing a game if it doesn't have subtitles, which admittedly isn't very frequent nowadays but some AA games have done this.
 

Lemon

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
54
Not putting subtitles in your game is quite ableist and arrogant.
Fuck Alpha Protocol.
 
justiceiro

justiceiro

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
6,664
Missing a plotline because a truck decided to cross your street is painfull. Of course i will keep them on, i'm just deaf at this point.
 
Adnor

Adnor

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,961
Always on. I trust my ability to listen english, but as a non-native speaker still prefer to have them on.

I also have them on in movies and YouTube videos that have good, manual subtitles

Lemon said:
Not putting subtitles in your game is quite ableist and arrogant.
Fuck Alpha Protocol.
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But Alpha Protocol had subtitles, and pretty decent ones.
 
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