100% agree on positioning. I think a big issue with that is also that most captions are generated now as far as I can tell, and sometime don't even get the words or spelling right. Positioning being added in a world where they won't even have a human check it seems unlikely 😑
I keep hearing things are mixed for the theater, but I went to the theater to see the odyssey the other day for the first time in a while, and it had the same problem! Sound mixing is trash these days...
I actually feel the opposite. I know the old ones you were talking about and those do suck, but on streaming apps the subtitles are often in the way of things in the show. Even worse, I've seen subtitles go over the top of baked in subtitles in the show, sometimes obscuring text with worse text. The most extreme example being a character speaking another language in the show, the show has baked in subtitles for it, and the streaming app subtitles cover it up and say "speaking Chinese"... Yes I've really seen that happen more than once. 🤦♂️
I have a pretty similar story except game design is my passion, and graphic design is the day job.
For a long time I wanted to make games professionally, and I've worked towards it for years, even releasing a game I made with a few friends in our spare time.
I've had some realizations lately though, that the closer making games becomes to a job, the less fulfilling it is for me. I'm starting to think I might prefer it as a passtime where I can make whatever interests me instead of trying to turn art into products.
Every job has shitty parts, which don't necessarily exist when it's a hobby. For games and for me personally, it's was all the marketing and strategy around trying to get eyeballs on your stuff. I hate that part and I'm not good at it. I learned that the hard way with my released game, which very few people played even though I'm quite proud of it. It's just really hard to get noticed as a small creator with no budget.
No real advice in here for you necessarily. I just see a lot of the same yearnings and frustrations in this that I've felt and it connected with me. Hopefully this is some food for thought at least.
I forget his name but the lead game designer for Path of Exile. I'm an indie game designer, and when I listen to interviews with that guy I feel like I'm listening to myself talk game design philosophy.
Weirdly, I don't like PoE, so not sure how to reconcile that part. 😅
Babe, it's extremely important you see this kitty immediately! ☺️