Buying a game for the PC or any of the consoles shouldn’t be a lottery. Here in England, and I’m pretty sure it’s the same in most places, once you’ve purchased a game and taken it out of its wrapper you’re stuck with it. One of the main problems for deaf people who purchase games is that there is no indication of whether the game is subtitled simply by looking at the packaging. Yes, in a lot of cases you can download demos in order find out if the game you’re interested in is subtitled. Not everyone has access to broadband Internet however, which you usually need for most demos given the size of them for the major consoles and PC. However, shouldn’t a game’s packaging make it clear if the game is subtitled?
Here in Europe we have the Pan European Game Information (PEGI) system which, through the use of an excellent range of labels tells you at a glance the recommended age for a game and also whether or not the game contains elements of bad language, discrimination, drugs, fear, gambling, sex, and violence. It also signifies whether online gameplay is available for that particular game. The PEGI system really is excellent for the most part. However, why isn’t there a symbol to indicate the presence of subtitles or closed captions? Surely this wouldn’t be a difficult thing to do and its value to not only the deaf community but many others would be immeasurable. Of course it would also be great if download services such as Steam and GamersGate mentioned if the games sold by them are subtitled too. It’s such a small thing to ask and it’s long overdue.
For what it’s worth, I recently made the suggestion to Microsoft that they should indicate on the game packaging whether or not the game is subtitled. It will be interesting to see if it’s something that they choose to do in the future.
PEGI – http://www.pegi.info
Steam – http://store.steampowered.com/
GamersGate – http://www.gamersgate.com
Microsoft – http://www.microsoft.com
