Poll: Do you turn on the subtitles?

[hermes]

Yes. I understand English well enough, but I often play games in less than ideal ambiance. Many times the volume is not high enough, and I have problems parsing out the dialogue from the ambient sounds, weird accents and voice filters, specially when they are treated as background conversations.

Besides, I am used to the idea of subtitles being the only appropriate way to experience foreign media, so I don't really mind.

 

[Silverbeard]

For my part this depends on the game I'm playing. For a shooter I'd probably turn off subtitles because I've got enough to worry about on screen without also having to read tiny lines of text in the middle of everything. But for a strategy game I almost always turn them on because I can generally take my time while plotting my actions and I find it relaxing to read through a bit of text while it's being spoken.
Also it's kind of fun to spot typos and misspellings in the subtitles. Cathartic, in a way, and a lot more common than one might assume. XCOM 2, for example, is loaded with misspellings in its subtitles. For shame, Firaxis.

 

[IronFrog]

I tend to play in the wee hours with the volume down so I turn on subtitles as more of a "If you don't do it you're going to have no idea what's going on because you can't hear anything" thing. I also have a less than two year old daughter, so if I want to hear anything that I'm doing... well... too damn bad.

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

Yeah, I turn subs on in every game I play because I always act the dominant part.
I just find them rather handy. Like, in L4D/2, gives advance warnings of special infected/tanks, for example.
That, and I just can't help reading everything I can. Speaking of, time to go read a story.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Only if the dialogue or audio are abit iffy (this is for English speaking games).

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

Unless it's a foreign language game [footnote]I played through Assassin's Creed 2 in Italian, which was awesome. Metro 2033 in Russian didn't quite work out, as so much key exposition is dumped in walk'n'talks - that game was so gorgeously designed that it just soured the experience having to read text and not naturally just keep moving and looking around the world.[/footnote] it's completely immersion breakingly annoying to have any subs present, so no, absolutely not.

Also:

No.

I, and I assume basically everyone else, can read a lot faster than someone can deliver their lines. If I have subtitles on I'll just read ahead then be impatiently waiting for the voiceover to catch up. Which is just annoying.

Ditto'd. With the few games where subs can't be told to piss off (I think Kingdoms Of Amalur was one. okay, that game wasn't Shakespeare... but still) I find the story's marred by psychically knowing exactly what a character's reaction or decision is going to be, and so for me it massively subverts all dramatic impact.

I've not played beyond the tutorial section/s yet, but it seems you can't disable the floating in-field dialogue text in Divinity Original Sin, and even that bugs me.

 

[jklinders]

Yep.

I frequently have more distractions than I would like when gaming (wife has a near compulsion to tell me about every upsetting article she sees on the internet which is nearly all of them) and my hearing is occasionally a little screwy. So yeah on go the subtitles.

Also if i'm replaying the game then if it's not a scene i like a lot I'll spacebar through it.

 

[Evil Moo]

I tend not to. Partly because they are distracting and partly because it has less subtlety than audio.

An audio clip can be quiet enough not to hear clearly, but close enough for subtitles to pick up and display to me completely unambiguously as if I were standing right next to the sound source and I think that can lose the effectiveness of the sound's presentation.

Maybe there are some NPCs talking somewhere nearby. Without subtitles I might not really focus on their words and it would just add to the ambience. With subtitles I might have the dialogue thrust into my view and my attention is drawn whether I care to listen or not.

 

[DementedSheep]

Depends, is it game where I'm interested in the dialogue and is well acted enough for me to actually want hear the NPCs speak? then I'll keep them off/turn them off. Otherwise I'll be reading ahead and skipping. I like it when they have it set so one button press in dialogue turns subtitles on and and the second skips to the next line. That way I can have them off most of the time but speed through conversations that I can't be bothered listening to (reading is faster) or turn them on for NPCs with accents that give me trouble (unless that is the intent, like trolls in TW3).

 

[Qizx]

Yes.
I have great hearing but I am terrible at understanding people who have accents/slur words/don't enunciate well. It's always been a problem of mine in real life as well, I'm a young person who always has to ask people to repeat themselves.

 

[EscapeGoat_v1legacy]

Always, to the point where I get quite annoyed if there isn't at least an option for dialogue subtitles. I don't need subtitles, I'm just that used to them being there that I just turn them on by default. On top of that, I tend to play a lot of games these days muted and have something else on in my headphones rather than the game audio and I like to at least still have the subtitles on to be able to follow the game.

 

[Gamerpalooza]

Yes, wish the quality of English voice actors in gaming would be as good as Hollywood. Sadly its a profession that's dwindling not expanding from my perspective so I'd rather stay used to subtitles.

 

[Poetic Nova]

Always, where possible.

I listen to music on my laptop almost constantly and I am a bit hard of hearing on top of that.

 

[Larry Xiong]

i always do

 

[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

I always turn them on, and if the options allow it I turn them on for background conversations too.

Dialogue in most games is just too damn slow, so I like to quickly read the subtitles and skip to the next part of the conversation. I also sometimes have difficulty understanding dialogue in video games, so subtitles let me keep understanding what's going on.

 

[mrdude2010]

Yes, especially the first time through when I'm still invested in the story.

 

[Evonisia]

I put them on generally, at least for the sake of dialogue. Not really sure why, I think I'd just prefer knowing for sure what was said.

On some games, like say "Left 4 Dead 2" I'll put additional subtitles on so I can know for sure what's going on - in L4D2's case Special Infected spawns, howls etc.

 

[FPLOON]

Yes... especially in a language I do not understand... [yet...] Otherwise, I keep the subs on if it's already activated to begin with...

Other than that, if the audio's in a language I don't understand [yet], then I don't see why not...

 

[crimsonspear4D]

I turn them on regularly, sometimes I prefer to read as well as listen to dialogue from the characters, especially if they have accents or talk with some kinda warbly, growly voice.

With anime, I mute it instantly. I'd rather read an entire PAGE of text then listen to characters mumble or shout out their lines like a five year old with Tourettes, AND PLEASE, PLEASE, don't get me started on female anime characters (*shudder*). Like listening to a bunch cats being strangled and beaten.

 

[Auron225]

Always. I don't want to miss anything, and with certain characters having... eccentric voices, it can happen surprisingly often otherwise.