Champion voice lines and deaf players

jaxalacs13·Jul 11, 2017·129 votes·5,211 views

My little brother is deaf and doesn't really have a way to experience the champions' taglines like the rest of us do. I was trying to find a way where he (and others who don't hear) could enjoy the champions' wonderful and often hilarious voice lines.

I was thinking of something along the lines of an optional separate chatbox that showed what nearby champions were saying, or an option to have small text appear near the champion as they said a voice line.

I'm hoping this brings a probably overlooked (and small) issue to riot' attention so they might think about putting some energy towards making the game as enjoyable as possible for a certain demographic of their players.

Also, if this is in the wrong place or could go someplace better, tell me where to put it.

I read through some of the other posts regarding deaf players' interactions with the game and it seems like a lot of people are (were?) concerned with global ults with an audible warning but no visual one. I think this might fix that issue as well but I'm less worried about the "unfairness" of the game and more worried about missing content since if it were that unfair for deaf players there would be less of them playing.

Thanks for any feedback, ideas, and/or help.

119 Comments

BubblyRainbowsJul 11, 201732 votes

First off, to the OP, THANK YOU! I have been playing this game for a long time, and my little sister has been kind enough to translate most of the voiceovers for me, so I know a lot of the lines already, but without her help, I'd have no idea what any of the characters said. However, the bigger issue is that as a deaf person, there a couple issues I have with playing this game well.

1: I can't hear the pings, so unless I happen to be paying attention to the minimap when someone uses them or someone pings right on top of me in lane, they frequently go unnoticed.

2: As you said, certain abilities, I'm told, have an audible cue when they're used. Sion and Kled are the two big ones I can think of. My sister mentioned the sound they make, but the first warning I personally get of an incoming Sion or Kled on their ult is when they come flying out of the fog. Some little touch to provide a visual warning would be nice.

Edit: It doesn't have to be a big or persistent visual effect. Just... something. A question mark appearing over your character's head or something. Like "what was that?" Some little hint.

On the positive side, my sister tells me that spamming laugh taunts or other audible emotes to try tilting your lane opponent is something some players do. If it's ever been tried on me, I haven't noticed. :)

big boi edriJul 11, 20171 votes

In regards to the pings concern, I think a great solution would be to allow LoL to work w/ tactile mice (a mouse that can vibrate).

Have a "Deaf Mode" option maybe that works in conjunction with the mouse to send vibrations based on the ping used. This could also work with global ults, etc.

BubblyRainbowsJul 12, 20171 votes

That would be amazing. But even a very small fix, like an option to have the ping marker persist a little longer on the minimap... Not a huge duration, but maybe double the time, would be helpful. At least then I wouldn't glance at the minimap so often and see that someone pinged SOMETHING, but no idea exactly where or why.

DiqJul 12, 20171 votes

I am all for what you are saying and im not trying to be rude but do you know the percent of people that play LoL on a daily basis that are deaf? It is not very high If i had to guess. They want to do patches/updates that benefit the community as a WHOLE. If they had time for doing stuff like you said they would, trust me. It is just not an issue affecting the whole player base so they will not even know the issue you are having. You will just have to become better than the players that are hearing and try your best. :)

Sp33d Zer0Jul 12, 20171 votes

I feel like it could be a very small fix, like they had with color blind mode.

BubblyRainbowsJul 12, 20171 votes

I understand the criticism and I'm not offended. But as Sp33d Zero said, it could be a very small implementation similar to what happened with color blind mode. True, there are probably very few people who play this game who are deaf, but I imagine the percentage of colorblind people who play is also a small fraction of the total player base (admittedly, not as small a percentage as deaf players, I'm sure).

To be honest, I consider the problems I have with playing this game to be small. I'll never play high-level ranked play (since my inability to use discord or other chat programs for communication would put my team at a disadvantage), and I'm fine with that. But I play well enough not to drag my team down in normals with no changes to the game as it is. I just was pleasantly surprised to find someone else advocating small quality of life fixes for people who aren't hearing, and was happy to discuss possible fixes and improvements. I do agree that resources devoted to these issues would be for the betterment of play for a tiny fraction of the player base, and given a choice between implementation of deaf-friendly fixes and features that benefit everyone, of course the resources should go to the features that help everyone.

But, just a thought here, small things that would help deaf people could also benefit hearing people. For example: players who like to listen to music while they play. Or players who have to mute the game because they play at times when the volume might bother the people they live with. Or people who just don't want to listen to whatever noises the game makes (my sister frequently mutes games she plays in favor of music or just because the sounds irritate her, so I know other hearing people probably do as well). Those are just three off the top of my head.

Samura YukisunaJul 11, 201713 votes

You should show your brother to the wiki page of his favourite champions so he can read their quotes. It doesnt let him know the "essence" or voice of his champion, but it lets him see the kind of things they like to say so that he can get a better idea of their personality.

jaxalacs13Jul 11, 20176 votes

I didn't even think about the wiki page, thanks!

fuffychanJul 11, 20175 votes

[deleted]

Samura YukisunaJul 11, 201770 votes

{quoted}

Liberals never stop finding things to complain about.

Blind people cant play the game. Why dont they file a lawsuit for blind discrimination?

What is wrong with you? All they ask is for the possibility of their brother getting subtitles for voice lines, so that they can get to "hear" what their champion says, when they say it. That has nothing to do with politics, and OP does not in any way seem aggressive about it. It was a simple request. Being toxic about it is way out of line.

fuffychanJul 11, 20176 votes

[deleted]

RenownedWheat42Jul 11, 201751 votes

Completely irrelevant. Pull your head out ya lil gremlin, you.

r4ndomkillJul 11, 20176 votes

dont feed the trolls

ElikainJul 11, 20172 votes

...What the hell are you talking about?

fuffychanJul 11, 20173 votes

[deleted]

JoseraphJul 11, 201730 votes

"I want my deaf brother to be able to "hear" the characters he loves and admires"

"Wow I bet you want bathrooms for all 77 genders too liberal scum"

Seriously, fuck off

Dr PoroJul 11, 20174 votes

I agree his tone is out of proportion, but what you need to realize, though, is that those subtitles don't appear out of nowhere. Someone has to spend many hours creating them and put them there, then they need to remain maintained for years, in many different languages. It's not as easy as copy pasterino and all the deaf people are happy.

I'm not against this idea per se, but I don't think it's worth the opportunity cost. There are many more important things to add in the game that apply to a bigger public. It's not like half the Riot employees are sitting there waiting for something to pop up to work on. They are getting hopped from one task to the other.

It Hertz When IPJul 11, 20172 votes

Still nothing wrong with suggesting it. Hell, if Riot plays their cards right they can use the addition of this feature to say "hey, we care about deaf gamers!" and get some marketing use out of it.

Nearly every suggestion in this board would require work. Hell, there's a thread in Gameplay right now suggesting the creation of an entirely new "pet" cosmetic feature in-game that I figure would take as much work, if not more, than a subtitle system.

Dr PoroJul 11, 20171 votes

There are many useless suggestions on these boards. But some are so obviously bad, like the pet one, that you know it won't come out and others are more plausible to get through with the amount of political correctness and social jsutice warriors all around.

I'm not against helping out deaf people or color blind people, but this particular suggestion seems nearly useless to me. You're not going to have the time during a game to read all that nonesense that your champs spam and you can just read them up on the wikia outside of games.

JoseraphJul 13, 20171 votes

#Bringbackwolfspirit

warmcorntortillaJul 12, 20172 votes

.... You do realize that the actors probably worked from a script, right?

There is no reason to ever not have subtitles if the material is scripted. Adding text lines that you actually do copy+pasta from a script is about as basic as it gets for coding.

Please keep in mind Riot put a significant amount of resources in to animate Cassiopeia's tail more realistically. The 'opportunity cost'? There are some things that I think have innate value--offering deaf people an opportunity to interact with the game the same way hearing people do is something that has innate value, and the opportunity cost of copypasting lines from a script into subtitles that you can turn on and off with a checkmark in a box costs basically no resources, and it costs a lot fewer resources than lots, and lots, and lots of little things Riot does to make the game enjoyable.

You have no idea how many deaf people play this game, just like you have no idea how many people wanted wintery summoner's rift. Sometimes, you make stuff for other people to enjoy, even if it wouldn't be of any value to you.

Businesses are run by people, people who also are deaf, or have deaf friends and family members. The assumption that deaf people are the 'other' and shouldn't be accommodated for is, frankly, very near-sighted on your part. Disabled people ARE part of the gaming community, and their needs should be as much of a priority as able-bodied people's. I personally would rather have one deaf kid able to 'hear' the champions' voice lines than get a skin for my favorite champion, or a new rotating game mode added to the client. I'm not deaf. I don't know any deaf people. It's just something I think has intrinsic value.

TLDR; your values are not representative of other people's, or even Riot's, for that matter, and it never hurts to ask for accommodation. Try to think of things from other people's points of view. That is free.

Dr PoroJul 12, 20171 votes

I'm not saying 'fuck the deaf'. I think they should have a fair shot as the game. For example, an ability that has no visual cues but only a sound effect is rather unfair. But this suggestion is to add something with absolutely no gameplay impact into the game and it's really not just copy, paste (even though that's part of the process, yes). You need to find a right location on the screen to fit it in, that location would have to stay preserved for this function instead of being available for other future content. Another toggle button on the options menu making it slightly harder to find the things you're looking for. (One extra button isn't doing much, but if you start adding toggles for every tiny thing, then people will get lost in the option menu.) Again, the main issue is finding and reserving that spot on your screen and maintaining it throughout the years.

Also, the public of interest for this particular update is not the entire deaf population. It are only the deafs who also enjoy champion quotes ingame. I know more people who have muted champion quotes than not.

TheorcheroJul 12, 20171 votes

[{quoted}](name=Dr Poro,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=iGdEixrh,comment-id=000100010001,timestamp=2017-07-11T18:24:00.216+0000)

I agree his tone is out of proportion, but what you need to realize, though, is that those subtitles don't appear out of nowhere. Someone has to spend many hours creating them and put them there, then they need to remain maintained for years, in many different languages. It's not as easy as copy pasterino and all the deaf people are happy.

http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/League_of_Legends_Wiki

Has a complete list of literally every voice line in the game, new and old.

It would be easy to create a script that detects when certain assets are used or played, particularly if they assigned voices as variables and not just played locally, which is likely because of things like Sion ult and how effects are loaded and faded based off radial distance of camera.

It would take a while but it's menial, and I'm willing to bet that someone clever could create a script to semi automate the process. The biggest hurdle is finding a way to display it, because at the moment the chat box, damage boxes, and ability boxes/attachment (text that reads "Not ready yet", "out of mana", etc) are the only available places for text. Though there's probably a hidden box as well for things like evolutions that can be adapted and you should only experience clipping in certain circumstances, ones that are so specific as to be practically irrelevant.

Of course, that's all assuming several things, but as far as getting every line that's in the game, it's extremely simple.

CowseedJul 12, 20171 votes

I agree with you but why was the dudes comment deleted? Both sides of the coin are feeding into the fire here.

Sp33d Zer0Jul 12, 20171 votes

It's a strawman fallacy. Ignore it.

ChemicalBusterJul 13, 20171 votes

Hes a definite trump supporter. One of his posts said CNN is fake news. Trump voters really just like to hate

RektagonJul 11, 20175 votes

you are ignorant, a blind person can learn LOL's controls if they dedicate time to it
it's not a big ask, nothing to do with PC culture.

you make conservatives look bad.

EDIT: The assholes downvoting my comment: thank you. Thank you for being such wonderful people. I love you and respect you very much.

-rektagon

JoseraphJul 11, 20179 votes

Maybe there's some magnificent new tech I haven't heard of, but I don't think a blind person would be able to play anything more than LeeSin

RektagonJul 11, 20172 votes

This, guys, has 2 upvotes mind you.

StaliniumJul 11, 20172 votes

UUhhhhhhhhh fuck no. Much in the same way that blind people are not allowed to drive. Or become a sniper, be a cameraman, or be a digital graphic designer. This game is based on responses to visuals, and if you cannot see the game, you cannot play. How would you CS? (keep in mind it's not a formula- the other person can affect the wave). How would you know you're being ganked? How would you dodge skillshots? How would you LAND skillshots? Where would you right click to auto? Did you even think before posting this?
Agreed

this is more of a fluffychan issue, he's always been a shitposter that honestly I'm not sure why hasn't been banned

RektagonJul 11, 20172 votes

Don't conflate LoL with driving. Remember that a blind person need not necessarily be deaf, and they can use their heightened sense of hearing to aid them while they're in the rift. I'm not blind so I wouldn't know the details exactly. That said I can confidently tell you that this game is very different from a road vehicle and the analogy is weak in this respect.

Of course I thought before posting this. Don't be silly.

The downvotes are real here. I try to be supportive and get idiots using the 'dislike' button.

NiceTryViJul 11, 20172 votes

Ok, next time you play league, turn your monitor off and turn your sound up, and see how well you do, mkay?

RektagonJul 11, 20172 votes

I like how you try to undermine the integrity of my comment with ad hominem.

NiceTryViJul 12, 20171 votes

I am simply taking your own argument and telling you to apply it and see your results. If you take that as an attack, maybe your idea isn't the greatest?

RektagonJul 12, 20171 votes

[deleted]

NiceTryViJul 12, 20172 votes

Have you considered that maybe, just maybe, you're getting downvoted because you are the one not getting the scenario and conditions? Tell me how a blind person is going to know where a skillshot is coming from or where to aim them? This isn't like real life where we hear things in 360 surround, you hear it in stereo from a top-down view. Sure, you may hear a skillshot being fired, but you have no idea where from, where its aimed, or where to dodge. You have no idea where the minions or enemies are, just whether or not they are nearby. A blind person cannot play League.

RektagonJul 12, 20171 votes

Again you're completely ignoring my point. I don't remember at any one time saying that it would be easy, and that anyone truly blind can simply hop onto the game, mash buttons and win GG. A sighted person can do that because they can see what they are doing. A blind person is going to need time to practice. Thus, not every one of them is going to want to put in the effort (and they do not have to at all, it's their choice). That's why I made it very clear that if they are going to put in that effort, it will have to be a lot and over a period of time (another fact you conveniently ignored, perhaps because you'd rather derail the conversation with your vilifications rather than stay on topic). I don't want to be too unrealistic and say that "if you put your mind to it you can do AAAANYTHING", but I also don't want to rule out the possibility, now or in the future, of this happening. The downvotes are unjustified.

NiceTryViJul 13, 20171 votes

I am actually speechless. You actually think that a blind person can play this game? YOU NEED TO SEE TO PLAY LEAGUE. You have to be able to see yourself, and allies, and enemies, and creeps, and walls, and skillshots, the list goes on. You cannot possibly expect someone who is blind to be able to play league at all, it simply is not physically possible. There are no patterns you can memorize and follow in order to play the game, because the enemies influence it as well. A blind person can play a game like Pac-Man because there is a set map and everything moves at the exact same speed as that point in any game of Pac-Man, and the ghosts have a pattern they move in as well. In League, the minions could be as simple as moving half an inch to one side in this wave than from last and oyu wouldnt know where they are anymore. I say, with zero qualifications, that a blind person can not play League. They simply cannot do all the things a person needs to do in order to function in the game.

RektagonJul 13, 20171 votes

I'll reply with what I told your friend above:

"Of course it's easy to just dismiss things as impossible. I prefer not to underestimate a person's dedication. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, stopping someone from putting in the effort necessary to overcome their disability. But I'm pretty much done with this conversation as it's not helping the thread and all I'm getting is backlash."

NiceTryViJul 13, 20171 votes

No shit you're getting backlash, because IT IS IMPOSSIBLE. This isn't a matter of someone overcoming their disability, you simply cannot play league blind. No blind person would be able to play league. Period, end of story, the end. You need to do too many things that require sight for a blind person to be able to play, no matter how much they practice. And you keep trying to argue otherwise despite me and everyone else continually giving you evidence which you conveniently ignore because it goes against what you so desperately want to believe.

RektagonJul 14, 20171 votes

Instead of engaging in an honest, level-headed debate, you have attempted to manipulate the situation in the following forms:

attempting to use me to disprove my own argument (not accounting for situations and conditions as I mentioned)
accusing me of ignoring evidence (which I haven't; your "evidence" simply isn't what you make it out to be, probably because you have it fixed in your head that you're the 100% logical side and this 'Rektagon' guy is talking nonsense)
accusing me of partisan bias (when you're the one who completely rejected my proposition)
ignoring/misrepresenting my argument (attempting to imply that I stated a blind person can play league exactly like a sighted person can with little-no effort required)

Your entire "argument" is a collection of tactics used to undermine the integrity of mine while filling your own preconceived narrative that I have no idea what I'm saying. Perhaps you'd be better suited to reddit where you can bask in the glory of your upvote tenfold, and the downvote system is even more thoroughly abused to silence people (I mean look, you attempted to defend abuse of the system by accusing me of not 'getting the scenario and conditions'.)

This discussion is near-useless because you will repeatedly accuse me of being illogical and of "desperately" clinging to beliefs, completely (and ironically) unaware of the fact that this is exactly what you yourself are doing, to an even greater end.

NiceTryViJul 14, 20171 votes

Uh no, it has been a completely honest and factual argument from me.

attempting to use me to disprove my own argument (not accounting for situations and conditions as I mentioned)

You said that it is perfectly possible to play league blind. Therefore, you should be able to do that with no monitor, if it is indeed possible like you claim. That is perfectly reasonable.

accusing me of ignoring evidence (which I haven't; your "evidence" simply isn't what you make it out to be, probably because you have it fixed in your head that you're the 100% logical side and this 'Rektagon' guy is talking nonsense)

The evidence you are ignoring is the fact that you need to be able to see things on your screed to know where they are. Its pretty basic stuff for being able to play the game.

accusing me of partisan bias (when you're the one who completely rejected my proposition)

Never did that, but nice lie in the attempt to garner support.

ignoring/misrepresenting my argument (attempting to imply that I stated a blind person can play league exactly like a sighted person can with little-no effort required)

You said a blind person can play league. I said that if they could than you should be able to play it with no monitor. Remember, you already have the advantage over a blind person because you have seen the champions and their kits already and know what everything looks like and does. Therefore, if a sighted person cannot play league with no monitor, a blind person without that benefit of having seen this before will have no chance.

I am looking at it from an objective point of view. You are so blinded (ironically) by your love for over-equality you are delusional. The person above that stated there is a reason blind people cannot drive or be cameramen is 100% on point. You so desperately want blind people to have the same functionality as sighted people, but they don't. You want them to play League, but they can't. You made a stupid argument and got raked over for it, and now you are trying so hard to defend yourself when everyone here knows you are dead wrong. But since you probably wont even read this, as you have clearly ignored my earlier posts, I will make a TL;DR in bold for you to read a more easily.

THERE IS SIMPLY NO WAY A BLIND PERSON CAN PLAY LEAGUE IN ANY CAPACITY.

JoseraphJul 13, 20172 votes

Uh, no, it's literally impossible, and you're downright wrong. In the same way a blind person will never recognize someone by face alone, a blind person will never play LoL. Without sight, it is impossible to see minion/monster health bars, know where skill shots are headed, or know the precise location of enemies and allies. Certain champions can even walk right next to you with just about no audio cues. Unlike life, there are only two senses in League: Sight and Touch. When half of that is removed, how is it possible?

BacefJul 12, 20172 votes

I want to point out thats exactly what faker did, and he did fairly well, granted he IS faker, but i'm sure if a blind person wanted to, he could learn to play league.

WåffleJul 12, 20171 votes

It's not that "he IS Faker" but instead that Faker has played enough of the game to familiarize himself with the map and champions that he's SEEN so many times. Not only that but he's also SEEN every champion's abilities and what they do, how they do it, how much they deal, how long the range is etc. Try putting a truly blind person behind the screen and you'll see they will definitely struggle because they have absolutely nothing to reference anything to.

JoseraphJul 13, 20171 votes

When?

Teridax68Jul 11, 201718 votes

It is sad to see such a sweet, empathetic and harmless request as the OP's receive responses as egregious as this. Your behavior on this thread is completely out of line, and has served no purpose other than to derail a valuable conversation and antagonize other players for no apparent reason. Please don't do this again, fuffychan. :(

Blu3JayJul 11, 20171 votes

I think he was just memeing tho :p. But i could be wrong. When i read it: "this has nothing to do with anything LOL" but then again i guess you cant hear sarcasm in text (too soon?)

Sp33d Zer0Jul 12, 20171 votes

There are certain people who are known for certain styles of posts. This is Fuffychan's.

Blu3JayJul 12, 20171 votes

thanks for clarifying for me [slayer-jinx-catface]