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I want to discuss something that has been brought to my attention recently. I have two friends who are hearing impaired. One has been impaired since the age of seven; the other since the age of 12. We usually hang out, drink beer and play video games. We've been doing this since the NES came out (all except for the beer).
Back then the sounds were cheesy and annoying, so it didn't matter that my friends couldn't hear the game. Everything they needed to know about what's going on in the game was there to be seen on the screen. Recently though, I have started to notice my friends having more difficulties with today's games-games that use sounds as well as sights are proving difficult for them. Resident Evil is a perfect example. Many times in Resident Evil, you are unable to see an enemy lurking some where in a room. Usually though, you are able to hear them. Well imagine if you couldn't hear them. Imagine if you couldn't hear a hunter bearing down on you or a zombie scuffling his feet around the corner. Trust me, I've played the game with no sound, and it is a lot more difficult to play this way. Now what I want to know is why don't they make games with closed captioning? You would think that with all the technical innovation that goes into programming and designing hardware and software that someone would have thought to include closed captioning for the damn game! I know the chances of closed captioning on a video game are slim to none, but by not including this simple tool, companies are alienating and excluding a large and loyal populous of the gaming world.
