Gabe Newell talks with deaf people about sign language and implementation of it in the game. See for yourself:
Old news is old 
That would ruin the atmosphere of Half Life just as much as if Gordon would speak
So then Gordan speaks sign language. Will that ruin it for ya?
Maybe he communicates in obscene sign language 
:awesome:
I have that record :3
you shoulda used this, :retard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVpoQGBlxrY
We still don’t know how exactly it’s going to be implemented, so let’s not jump to conclusions
Gordon won’t use sign language, I believe Alyx’s boyfriend does.
alyx’s old dude was deaf. The sign language will most likely be to communicate between her and dog. valve has a thing for being a little opaque on characters. When it was stated that another character from black mesa would be met in ep2, all you heard was “OMG i hope/feel/bet/want that we get to see adrian shepard” but all we got was a new character that nobody had met before that was tied to black mesa with a little bit of reverse continuity involving a microwave caserole. So i would be willing to bet that the old boyfriend is already dead and the ASL will be a game play device and a way to court deaf gamers
I can’t Imagine why Alyx would just now start speaking to Dog in sign language, when she hadn’t before.
For some reason, I have an idea that it won’t be an old friend…or any human being at all. I have a feeling that it’ll be DOG that is signing to Alyx over a viewscreen because the audio transmission is out…or because DOG or Alyx can’t make any noise for some reason…
But, it could be a deaf friend of Alyx’s… Lot of possibilities.
I saw this a while back, and it sounds very interesting, but useless to most of their players.
Oh wow… There happens to be 1 critical problem with your theory…
valve has loose continuity between games. mostly because of customer input and that technological developments in video games change so fast. alyx going from an explosion to the g-mans pawn or magnussen and the casserole debacle are prime examples. marc laidlaw in an email reply described briefly the evolving nature of the games, from hl1 to all the episodes. sometimes something like the guards following you became an integral part of the story and change how the game is developed or played.
And that would be…?
Sign language uses hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to convey a particular person’s thoughts. Dog lacks not only the necessary number of fingers, but also critical facial features to convey many recognizable expressions.
https://gadgets.boingboing.net/dog-jumping.jpg
Guys, you have it all wrong:
Oh now I just feel dumb. Thanks for clearing that up
Okay, other way around then? 