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Why is it still not possible to turn off the narrator?


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Everything doesnt needs to be an option now.

 

Mona lisa doesnt need a blonde redhead brunette option to fit taste. The author designed her hair like that because of the artists vision in making something great and high quality. Why cant games be the same. People can hate eders voice too and imo just hate it then. It fits his style and country folk background. Just let the creators make something they think is great amd fits together.

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Everything doesnt needs to be an option now.

 

Mona lisa doesnt need a blonde redhead brunette option to fit taste. The author designed her hair like that because of the artists vision in making something great and high quality. Why cant games be the same. People can hate eders voice too and imo just hate it then. It fits his style and country folk background. Just let the creators make something they think is great amd fits together.

This isn't like choosing Mona Lisa's hair color. It's like choosing what frame to put the Mona Lisa in. The narrator is not pivotal to the experience of this game, and removing them wouldn't change any part of the story that matters.

"As the murderhobo mantra goes: 'If you can't kill it, steal it.'" - Prince of Lies

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Everything doesnt needs to be an option now.

 

Mona lisa doesnt need a blonde redhead brunette option to fit taste. The author designed her hair like that because of the artists vision in making something great and high quality. Why cant games be the same. People can hate eders voice too and imo just hate it then. It fits his style and country folk background. Just let the creators make something they think is great amd fits together.

This isn't like choosing Mona Lisa's hair color. It's like choosing what frame to put the Mona Lisa in. The narrator is not pivotal to the experience of this game, and removing them wouldn't change any part of the story that matters.
Thought goes into it. Its the difference between a serious, low voice reading a scary story and a clown like high pitch happy voice reading the same story. I highly doubt she was picked out of a hat.

 

Plus i doubt mona lisa is displayed in a frame decorated with glitter, ribbons and macaroni chains. Even the frame matters dude. I also doubt theyd remove the frame cause it aint pivotal.

Edited by asnjas
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The Mona Lisa analogy is incredibly forced, starting from the small fact that it's a commissioned artwork (i.e. the commissioner made specifications) where outsider feedback is not relevant whereas Deadfire is a game people actually buy to play at home and where customer feedback is specifically valued.

Edited by xzar_monty
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This is not about what kind of frame is better. It's about whether a frame is necessary at all.

 

Voiced narration is not a must in video games. If you enjoy it that's a good thing, but nothing wrong if people want to read the text at their own paces.

 

For me it feels like I'm watching a film where a bunch of people talk and a voice constantly chimes in with sentences like "Tom says", "Mary replied angrily". I can see it for myself man.

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This is not about what kind of frame is better. It's about whether a frame is necessary at all.

 

Voiced narration is not a must in video games. If you enjoy it that's a good thing, but nothing wrong if people want to read the text at their own paces.

 

For me it feels like I'm watching a film where a bunch of people talk and a voice constantly chimes in with sentences like "Tom says", "Mary replied angrily". I can see it for myself man.

More importantly, "Mary replied angrily" shouldn't even be part of the written dialog in the first place, it should come across in the voice actor's performance. The game narrates far more than it needs to. Even with a modest budget that kind of detail is unnecessary and could have been cut completely.

"As the murderhobo mantra goes: 'If you can't kill it, steal it.'" - Prince of Lies

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i just can't believe you'd spend any part of your life arguing about this, expecting it, demanding it

 

narration is bad ok we get it man big deal, move on, play another game do something else. you seem like you're logging 100s of hours in something you grudgingly tolerate and thats no way to live

 

the thing is with this game is that its not first person and its not animated so you actually do have to describe how characters react sometimes, there's really no way around that, maybe you should go write a story mod for an infinity-like instead of being mad online so you can find out for yourself :) i personally would like east and west come together and have big portraits that change expression if necessary above the dialog box but thats not implemented in deadfire

 

yes she's like a breathless geek gf, like a dorky, barely contained excited dm and you don't like it at all, i don't either. i like ydwin who is the same actress so its just an aesthetic choice we don't like man its gonna happen to you sometimes try to appreciate it for what it is i guarantee you'll have a better time

 

 

anyone who feels entitled to this option needs to stop playing the game and go outside for a few years


That's a long time to stay outside.

 

 

drastic cases take drastic measures

Edited by Cartoons Plural
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They are right tho. It's weird when they narrate what a char is doing...when the char is standing right in front of us, not doing it lol.

 

Obs has shown great writing talent in places like the DLCs, but so much of vanilla is the rookie mistake of telling not showing. It's too much "this is how things are!" instead of showing the player how they are and letting the player come to their own conclusions.

Edited by Verde
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Only thing forced are these counter arguements tbqh.

 

Video games can be changed after the fact while paintings cannot is completely irrelevant.

 

Whether v narration is necessary. Its about as necessary as all voiced acting. Eders lines dont need to be voiced either. However, Eders lines are voiced and they are voiced not because of necessity but because the devs are trying to create a specific character for us to experience. Might as well say the princess bride doesnt need a narrator whem you can just watch the movie to see what happens. They put the narrator to create an experience not out of necessity.

 

Mary replied angrily needs to be put into the game. How elss will you know how mary replied epsecially when the character is not doing it as you said. The narrator is not the actor lol. The narrqtors job is to describe everything for you.

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Only thing forced are these counter arguements tbqh.

 

Video games can be changed after the fact while paintings cannot is completely irrelevant.

 

Whether v narration is necessary. Its about as necessary as all voiced acting. Eders lines dont need to be voiced either. However, Eders lines are voiced and they are voiced not because of necessity but because the devs are trying to create a specific character for us to experience. Might as well say the princess bride doesnt need a narrator whem you can just watch the movie to see what happens. They put the narrator to create an experience not out of necessity.

 

Mary replied angrily needs to be put into the game. How elss will you know how mary replied epsecially when the character is not doing it as you said. The narrator is not the actor lol. The narrqtors job is to describe everything for you.

I get that. But to use your example the narrator in Princess Bride doesn't go "he said worriedly" every few lines. It's the actors job to convey that. Their performances do that very well already in Deadfire.

 

I'm not saying the narrator doesn't have any purpose. There was one in PoE1 and it did fine. The problem is Obsidian are trying to find the wrong solution to their writing problems. Instead of cutting back on unnecessary walls of prose and book style notes they doubled down on them and had them voice acted. We didn't need to have "he said" in a game where we just heard him say it. We don't need descriptions of things we can plainly see on the screen already.

 

Narration in video games and movies are used sparingly for a reason. It's a visual medium. You show, not just tell. For some reason Obsidian thinks they're just making books with prettier pictures.

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"As the murderhobo mantra goes: 'If you can't kill it, steal it.'" - Prince of Lies

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Only thing forced are these counter arguements tbqh.

 

Video games can be changed after the fact while paintings cannot is completely irrelevant.

 

Whether v narration is necessary. Its about as necessary as all voiced acting. Eders lines dont need to be voiced either. However, Eders lines are voiced and they are voiced not because of necessity but because the devs are trying to create a specific character for us to experience. Might as well say the princess bride doesnt need a narrator whem you can just watch the movie to see what happens. They put the narrator to create an experience not out of necessity.

 

Mary replied angrily needs to be put into the game. How elss will you know how mary replied epsecially when the character is not doing it as you said. The narrator is not the actor lol. The narrqtors job is to describe everything for you.

The comparison is irrelevant.

 

Back onto your pt...a narrator should describe things that a reader or viewer can't obviously see or infer for themselves. Like a backstory. Or an off the screen act. Or even what someone is thinking. Narrating a character's actions standing in front of you is redundant, and even more confusing when he/she isn't even doing what the narrator says.

 

It goes back to show don't tell, writing 101.

Edited by Verde
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Now that was well put, protopersona. Every once in a while you do indeed get the idea that Obsidian are somewhat unsure about the mechanics of the medium they're using. Deadfire is a very ambitious game that deserves respect and applause -- I do like it a lot -- but it does contain a few lapses.

 

[incidentally, and on a different topic, here's another example of a minor but stunning lapse: it impossible to show Beza's pages to people without giving them away at the same time. That's just not how the world works or how people act.]

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I'd like to add that narration voice and character voice have different functions.

 

Narration voice makes you realize the story happens elsewhere: someone is reading the story to you. Character voice makes you feel like you are part of the story, the speaker talks directly to you or at least in front of you.

 

Which is why narration voice in visual medium often appears at the beginning and the end, not throughout the story, especially not in scenes with tense actions.Folks in Obsidian sure know this well,cause in poe1 they did great.

 

I understand voiced narration help some people go through wall of texts. But I do think 1.the form of narration can still improve 2.there's no harm in asking for an option.

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Mary replied angrily needs to be put into the game. How elss will you know how mary replied epsecially when the character is not doing it as you said. The narrator is not the actor lol. The narrqtors job is to describe everything for you.

 

 

No, not really. LOL

/shrug

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