Ehh. This article accidentally comes so close to making the "it would be easy to put this in" argument but carefully averts it by adding little tidbits in the article like: "An exhausting,...
Ehh. This article accidentally comes so close to making the "it would be easy to put this in" argument but carefully averts it by adding little tidbits in the article like: "An exhausting, time-consuming job nobody would want to do".
If we put that aside, the key issue I have with this piece is that it's saying that games should improve their subtitles by presenting screenshots of games that use dialogue systems as design, which looks cool but obviously shouldn't be true for every game! (Why don't we see movies with visual dialogue?)
It obviously goes without saying that games need subtitles, and should make quality-of-life improvements for accessibility, but the full jump from "subtitles" to "stylized dialogue system" is huge. If we take a step back and address that video game subtitles need accessibility improvements—and not just an overall design or aesthetic decision—there are several more minor things that could be addressed which would avert having a "dialogue UI team", like:
Typeface, color, background, placement, and opacity settings for simple text subtitles. (Most games don't get anywhere near this level.)
Grouping dialogue with characters: If a character is on the left side of the screen, cluster their words closer to them, away from a character that didn't say that thing. (I don't know if there's a technical term for this—I'd love to learn it.)
The ability to review or rewind cutscenes/dialogue you may have missed.
Now I'll say, those improvements I propose "aren't that hard"—not anywhere near as hard as the stratospheric increase in scope of what the author uses as examples.
Of interest may be how one Russian director uses subtitles for the international versions of his films. It's not game subtitles, but one may learn how to deal with those by learning from other...
Of interest may be how one Russian director uses subtitles for the international versions of his films. It's not game subtitles, but one may learn how to deal with those by learning from other media.
The ability to review or rewind cutscenes/dialogue you may have missed.
You're very much onto something with this. You can rewind films you watch on a PC: why can't you rewind cinematics in a game that runs on it, as well?
Slumdog Millionaire actually has a really great subtitle/translation approach that keeps the translation on the screen and up with the cadence of the actual speech. I would love to see this...
Slumdog Millionaire actually has a really great subtitle/translation approach that keeps the translation on the screen and up with the cadence of the actual speech. I would love to see this applied to video games. I don’t think it would be “easy” exactly, but I don’t see it as being significantly harder than any of the nit picky detail work they do to put the final coat of polish on any AAA game.
Ehh. This article accidentally comes so close to making the "it would be easy to put this in" argument but carefully averts it by adding little tidbits in the article like: "An exhausting, time-consuming job nobody would want to do".
If we put that aside, the key issue I have with this piece is that it's saying that games should improve their subtitles by presenting screenshots of games that use dialogue systems as design, which looks cool but obviously shouldn't be true for every game! (Why don't we see movies with visual dialogue?)
It obviously goes without saying that games need subtitles, and should make quality-of-life improvements for accessibility, but the full jump from "subtitles" to "stylized dialogue system" is huge. If we take a step back and address that video game subtitles need accessibility improvements—and not just an overall design or aesthetic decision—there are several more minor things that could be addressed which would avert having a "dialogue UI team", like:
Now I'll say, those improvements I propose "aren't that hard"—not anywhere near as hard as the stratospheric increase in scope of what the author uses as examples.
Of interest may be how one Russian director uses subtitles for the international versions of his films. It's not game subtitles, but one may learn how to deal with those by learning from other media.
You're very much onto something with this. You can rewind films you watch on a PC: why can't you rewind cinematics in a game that runs on it, as well?
Slumdog Millionaire actually has a really great subtitle/translation approach that keeps the translation on the screen and up with the cadence of the actual speech. I would love to see this applied to video games. I don’t think it would be “easy” exactly, but I don’t see it as being significantly harder than any of the nit picky detail work they do to put the final coat of polish on any AAA game.
I'd be satisfied if game subtitles were larger, or if I could manually adjust their size.