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Unidentified deaf character

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Although this article is based on official information, the actual name of this subject was created for the wiki.

Unidentified deaf character
Gender

Male

Chronological and political information
Era(s)

Combine occupation

Faction

The Resistance

During the development of a followup to Half-Life 2: Episode Two, an unidentified deaf character was discussed as a possible character appearing in a future Half-Life game.

Overview[edit]

This character was introduced in a video involving Gabe Newell and two interpreters discussing deafness and video games with a small audience of hard of hearing people, with Valve games and a frame of Combine Soldiers concept art pictures in the background, uploaded August 6, 2009 by a former University of Washington student, Samuel Sandoval, deaf as well.

In the video, Newell suggests that before Alyx met Gordon, she had a crush on a hard of hearing Resistance member, so she programmed Dog with knowledge of sign language so she could practice and easily communicate with him. Then this person went away from Alyx to fight the Combine someplace else, and Alyx and Dog started signing with each other when they wanted to communicate without making noise or without other people knowing.

The implementation of such a character would haven been the starting point of implementing signing into Valve's games and give them the opportunity to build a related technology and give easier access to video games for hard of hearing players.

Valve's modeler/animator Bay Raitt also joins the discussion at the very end, although the video ends during the conversation. He apparently studied facial movements made by deaf focus testers; facial expression is already fully implemented in the Source engine and would help in the process of including deaf characters in video games.

External links[edit]