The DG Weblog

PEGI say no to subtitles label

crimsonpig — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 16:33:07 +0000

After my last post I decided to give PEGI an email to see if they would consider creating a label to indicate the presence of subtitles in a game. Unfortunately it’s not something that they want to do.

“… although we can really see that it would be of great value to know whether or not a game has subtitles, we do not think this would be a task for PEGI. Adding a new descriptor to indicate whether or not a game has subtitles, could possibly be confusing to parents and other caretakers and this is in conflict with the main purpose of PEGI: to inform them about possible harmful content. So unfortunately, we will not be introducing a new descriptor for this.”

It’s a disappointing if not altogether surprising response. I can’t see how it would be confusing to let parents know if a game is subtitled however. I’m pretty sure parents of deaf or hard of hearing children would appreciate it at the very least.

Telling a game by its cover

crimsonpig — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:23:21 +0000

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

Halo Reach

crimsonpig — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 15:00:04 +0000

Halo Reach is almost with us and I’ve been playing my review code of the game. I can’t talk about the game in detail at this point but below I’ve put a couple of paragraphs from my review which talks exclusively about how suitable the game is for deaf gamers. I hope you find this information useful.

So we have the last Halo game developed by Bungie and the real question is whether they have finally created a game that’s deaf gamer friendly. The answer, unfortunately, is that they have not! The game is no better for deaf gamers than Halo 3. The game does provide subtitles but these are for the cut scenes only. The cut scene dialogue displays the speaker’s name next to the speech so you’ll be aware of who is saying what. The in-game dialogue is not subtitled and deaf gamers will yet again miss out on a lot of dialogue as a result. The team members of Noble Team converse frequently with your character and each other and deaf gamers will not be aware of any of this dialogue.

Most objectives are shown in text and can be recalled if you press the start button to access the in-game menu. There are a few times however, when an objective will be given during a communication and for deaf gamers it will not be immediately obvious what needs to be done because the text objectives will not have been updated. You’re notified in text when challenges have been completed, checkpoints have been reached and when your shields are running low (warning you to find cover until your shields have recharged). Tutorial messages are shown in text. Your radar will also alert you to enemies (shown as red dots) that are within your vicinity. Red arrowhead icons indicate the general direction from which an off-screen enemy is firing upon you. However, there are no grenade icons to alert you when an explosive has been thrown in your direction from an unsighted enemy and this can add to the frustration factor. The HUD also displays how much ammo and grenades you have in addition to alerting you to new objectives you have received. Essentially then playing Halo Reach is far from being impossible for deaf gamers but once again it’s a much poorer experience than what hearing gamers will be able to appreciate and that’s not satisfactory.

Well that’s all I can talk about for now. Expect the Deaf Gamers’ review of Halo Reach sometime next week.