Poll: Do you turn on the subtitles?

[FakeSympathy]

Almost all games now days has a feature to turn on the subtitles. The question is, do people take advantage of this feature?

 

[Saelune]

More and more often I find myself doing it. For one, I like having something else on in the background to listen to. Also I read fast and am impatient.

 

[Timothy Yardvale]

Yes, I've always been obsessive about getting every detail, and I feel that without them you can miss things, names, etc. I think this is a good poll!

 

[Zhukov]

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.

It'll also cause me to miss the voice acting, although I guess that's only a downside if said voice acting is any good.

I'll occasionally turn them on for a bit if a particular voice is hard to understand for some reason.

 

[Saelune]

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.

I'll occasionally turn them on for a bit if a particular voice is hard to understand for some reason.

I find most games let you speed through dialogue though, unless its a cutscene.

 

[FakeSympathy]

I don't think it's that clear cut, I have them off during the day, but if I have the volume down cause it's late at night or whatever, I'll turn them on to aid in understanding dialogue during cutscenes and so-on.

 

[Asita]

Usually. Maybe it's my sound, maybe it's me focusing too much on ambient music or noise, maybe the sound team didn't balance everything properly, or maybe it's just that I try too hard to get the dialogue down. At any rate, I like having the subtitles there so I can be certain about what the characters are saying.

 

[Phasmal]

Haha, you could do with a "Yes, because I need them" option.

I'm kinda hard of hearing. I use subtitles for most things; TV, Games, Films. My hearing isn't bad (I'm told my amount of hearing would be normal if I were an old person) but what with the different volumes of various things it's just easier. I always hate turning up the volume to hear whispered dialogue and then BOOM a huge explosion on the TV makes me jump out of my skin.

Also, I've mentioned this before, but I wish that games would universally decide where the subtitle option should go. Half the time it's in video, half the time it's in audio. I vote for audio, it's the first place I look.
Oh, and it really gets on my nerves when you're booting up a game for the first time and there's some cutscene BEFORE you can get to the subtitle option.

 

[go-10]

nope... I can't read most subtitles (slightly colorblind) so I don't really bother with them.
They would have to be white letters on a blue background or I can't read them otherwise, so why bother ya know

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Everyone always says Batman growls and mumbles his lines and you have to turn on subtitles to understand him, but i always understand him perfectly. He's speaking English in a deep voice, its not that hard. Its like listening to Darth Vader. Deep, but English.

 

[WindKnight]

Yes. A lot of games have things going on that can garble or drown out speech, and sometimes pronunciation makes it unclear whats being said.

 

[veloper]

I often like to skip the voice acting with a click and just speed read the lines. Gets me back in the game faster.

 

[ZeD [taken 0]]

Well, been reading subtitles in movies most of my life, so I'm kinda used to it.
Plus, I'll never miss words because a game's sound design messed up.

 

[1981]

Yes, always. With movies and TV shows too. I listen to the audio, even if it's in a language I don't know, but often I can't make out what they're saying.

 

[ZeD [taken 0]]

Well, been reading subtitles in movies most of my life, so I'm kinda used to it.
Plus, I'll never miss words because a game's sound design messed up.

Even as a primarily English speaker, I sometimes have to go back and turn on the subtitles temporarily to understand something that was said. I don't get why cutscenes are never rewindable.

'Cause efforts, mang.

And it gets worse when they have an accent.

 

[Mcgeezaks]

Yes. I don't want to miss anything, like, in case I can't hear what the character talking just said.

 

[Fhqwhgod]

Yes, because English is not my first language.