Closed captions clarification

[Waschbär 3]

While currently playing Prey I noticed that somebody marked Closed Captions for this game as true. And while it does offer subtitles for all dialogues, it only partially offers them for sound effects. For example, the sound of some of the robotic devices gets described if you are near them, but things like shooting, breaking glass, explosions or alien noises do not.

 

The editing guide mentions "Text accompanied with all audio in-game." so in this case it should probable be false then, right?

 

However, I've checked a couple of pages which makes me unsure about the setting in general. Dragon Age Origins has it enabled and while it is heavily text based, things like sounds (or combat chatter IIRC) has no subtitles. Same goes with other classical RPGs.

 

Now looking at some Bluray movies with SDH subtitles, not every noise necessarily gets described - at least not in dramatic/action scenes.

 

So I think we need some better clarification as to when CC should be true, false or N/A. Especially with the different genres in mind (e.g. adventure games). I know this is generally a rare feature but it seems even the Steam store often lists it for games which only feature normal subtitles.

[Blackbird 54]

Problem is I guess is that most people have no idea what CC actually means so they set it to true just to be sure :D

Feel free to mark it false if the page is incorrect.

[Guest]

Could the Closed Caption thing just be removed? It's barely used for anything and most text could just fit in the subtitles field. It's not like TV Closed Captions where they are automated, Half Life 2 calls them closed captions but they are still subtitles in the end, just with a bunch of extra stuff.

 

I really don't see the point, it's confusing and it's just extra clutter. Could always use the note field for anything more specific.

[Waschbär 3]

 

Feel free to mark it false if the page is incorrect.

 

It is not necessarily false since it does offer more than standard dialogue subtitles. It's just that it doesn't feature everything like HL2.

But I don't think that is necessary since, like I said, movies also don't describe every gunshot and every explosion.

 

Could the Closed Caption thing just be removed? It's barely used for anything and most text could just fit in the subtitles field. It's not like TV Closed Captions where they are automated, Half Life 2 calls them closed captions but they are still subtitles in the end, just with a bunch of extra stuff.

 

I really don't see the point, it's confusing and it's just extra clutter. Could always use the note field for anything more specific.

 

There are 196 games set to true (https://pcgamingwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Special:SearchByProperty/Closed-20captions/true&limit=500&offset=0&property=Closed+captions&value=true) However from the games I remember in this list, most of them are just subtitles actually. There are also a lot of isometric games which are heavily text based (or Civilization), which, just like I said in the first post, are hard to define.

 

I'm still a bit conflicted of removing it entirely however.

[Cruzher 0]

If a game provide limited close captioning, should it be noted during edits? As long as the game has closed captionning, though not all audio is written to subtitle, notes should give an information related to CC, for example "Only partial Closed Captioning provided", maybe?

[Blackbird 54]

If the true is not enough then just mention what the level of CC the game has in notes