Wow, so much backlash about a thing I said on Game Grumps. Also a lot of misunderstanding about it.

I said I hate subtitles and dubbing at the same time. That is, ENGLISH dialogue with ENGLISH subtitles.

I, as well as most people on earth, read at a different pace than actors speak. It’s typically always faster, which means I know what this actor is going to say before they even say it. I press A to hear the next line of dialogue, cutting off the dubbed line abruptly. I don’t wait around to hear the actor finish something I know they’re going to say. Why would I? If I wanted to enjoy a nuanced performance, I’d turn the subtitles off, so I’m surprised and interested in every word, and not listening out of formality.

I am not attacking subtitles. Subtitles are great for having the sound off. Subtitles are great for non-native English speakers. But having BOTH subtitles AND spoken word at the same time being the default is weird to me. I don’t understand why they would do that. I seriously believe people are defending it because it’s the norm, like, they’re used to it. Does no one have a problem with this? Does no one else get annoyed by this staggered pacing? Even when films are subtitled they display small chunks to keep the pacing right, but a game like Fallout has these giant text walls you can read super quick.

When I play games with heavy dialogue, I turn the subtitles off and enjoy the acting. Most games that are really “go here and do this” have backlogs and journals that you can look up if you REALLY needed to READ the dialogue so I don’t understand the argument that it helps you understand things better. It helps me understand things worse because I have this offsync babble being bombarded on me. Like I seriously have to tune one or the other out in order to really focus. I don’t understand the desire for this, and I don’t understand why devs make it the default.