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 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:
resolution
vsync
subtitles
brightness
colorblind/accessibility 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.
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 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.
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.
Because it’s an honest portrayal of America at that time. It makes racists look bad and it shows that the N-word itself isn’t the source of the pain, it’s how the label is used.
Why other game devs don’t get that much recognition or screen time?
Probably because Geoff Keighle and Hideo Kojima are great friends. Game Awards announced 30 seconds limit for speeches, but those only apply to everyone else, not friends.
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