Champion voice lines and deaf players

jaxalacs13·7/11/2017, 5:39:15 AM·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

BubblyRainbows7/11/2017, 10:55:21 AM32 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. :)

Samura Yukisuna7/11/2017, 6:13:30 AM13 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.

fuffychan7/11/2017, 6:01:04 AM5 votes

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