Romances in RPGs

[Musopticon?]

Squall was up there with the lamest main characters ever.

[Calax]

:Chants: Aeris, Aeris, Aeris, Aeris :end chanting:

 

Only problem was that you wern't able to phoenix down her. Also it's a little immature (what do you expect from disney?) but Kairi and Sora's little relationship was done very well, berate me if you want but it's what works.

[Walsingham]

Pat of the problem is that relationships in general are pretty lame in these games. Friendships are no better than the romances. They don't develop, and they don't follow the rule of reciprocity.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

*Hugs his FF VIII copy*

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Squall: "I don't care about you."

 

Rinoa: "But you must!"

 

Squall: "I don't care about you."

 

Rinoa: "But you must!"

 

Squall: "I don't care about you."

 

Rinoa: "But you must!"

 

Squall: "I don't care about you."

 

Rinoa: "But you must!"

 

Squall: "I don't care about you."

 

Rinoa: "But you must!"

 

Squall: "I don't care about you."

 

Rinoa: "But you must!"

 

Squall: "I don't care about you."

 

Rinoa: "But you must!"

 

Squall: "I don't care about you."

 

Rinoa: "But you must!"

 

Squall: "I don't care about you."

 

Rinoa: :: enters a coma ::

 

Squall: "ZOMG I LOVE U!!"

 

Rinoa: :: giggles and dances and kisses Squall ::

 

Squall: "I don't care about you."

 

Rinoa: "But you must!"

[alanschu]

Hahahah

[Walsingham]

I remember reading that social groups go through stages in a 'life cycle'. i wonder if relationships go through something similar. If they do then the devs could program in different behaviours for each stage in teh relationship, and the triggers for moving between each stage. then just let it run. The character would just trigger the changes as and when.

 

Another thought: relationships could have XP.

[metadigital]

I found what I think is an excellent example of how good voice acting can carry even simple graphics. Here.

 

http://www.big-boys.com/articles/fewgoodmen.html

 

Powerful words, powerfully spoken.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yep, now the facial expressions are shown to be lacking! (No-one would believe Jack Nicholson's face looks like it does, if it were created on a video game first.)

 

But it does make the point

[alanschu]

I really like the lip synching in Source!

[Guest Fishboot]

I found what I think is an excellent example of how good voice acting can carry even simple graphics. Here.

 

http://www.big-boys.com/articles/fewgoodmen.html

 

Powerful words, powerfully spoken.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Wow, that's a really great modder's exercise. Is any of that automated (synching, brow movement, etc.)?

 

That makes me think we're headed into an age of performance between VO and digital acting. As in, games will be actually *carried* by the performances.

[Walsingham]

Well, Fishboot, I'm not sure you can carry a game by performances. As someone already said (give me a break, okay, I'm not taking notes) it is a game after all, not a movie. However, I think we are moving closer to a point where entertainment will become more interactive. This is merely playing on the issue of the customer tailoring their own entertainment experience to maximise their enjoyment of it.

[alanschu]

I don't know...

 

Imagine playing KOTOR if every voice was the Microsoft Sam voice.

[Walsingham]

Actually I should say that giving the user power to customize the experience rather relies on them knowing what they want. <_<

[Drakron]

-snip-

 

No.

 

Squall is a loner (no wonder, considering his past) and when he meet Riona he acts as he usually does, Riona does push him to actual dance with her just to leave him.

 

Then when they meet again Squall finds out Riona have a thing for Seifer.

 

Squall takes a long time to admit his feelings for Riona, only when Riona goes into a coma is when that happens.

 

I say its done right because it shows a lot of the on going relation, when Riona and Squall get inside the starship she wants a hug (and Squall shows that is Laguna son by being cluess about), then there is the part were Squal prevents Riona from being sealed.

 

The FMV were very well done in showing feelings.

 

Compare it with FF X Tidus-Yuna romance that is a joke, its as bad as KotOR 2 romaces.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

What I wrote wasn't meant to depict how it went exactly, it was just poking at the thing. The main problem I have with the romance is that they both feel like extremes, ie, Rinoa always eager to please and just overall prancing around and chirping, and Squall who tells everyone to go talk to a wall and keeps mumbling to himself about why he should care about anything or anyone (he did this so many times I was actually surprised he started liking Rinoa).

[Drakron]

True but characters end up sterotyped since its hard to make then much grey, in Squall case we could read what he was thinking at times so it was not that big of a sterotype.

 

Riona ends up with trust issues, she was pushed aside by her father for the assasination mission and then she "sticks out" of the group since she is the only one not connected to the "Orphanage Gang" ... then she becames a sorceress.

 

I think the worst of then is Selphie, a lot due to not having meaningfull development (unlike the others), sure they tried on the Garden that was destroyed but that is blown away minutes with the whole Edea Orphanage disclosure.

[metadigital]

Well, Fishboot, I'm not sure you can carry a game by performances. As someone already said (give me a break, okay, I'm not taking notes) it is a game after all, not a movie. However, I think we are moving closer to a point where entertainment will become more interactive. This is merely playing on the issue of the customer tailoring their own entertainment experience to maximise their enjoyment of it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ah, but maybe films will more often be machinima than live actors ...

[Musopticon?]

I hope not. Revenge of the Sith gave me a horrifying image of what could be a reality in moviemaking starting from next decade or so. Especially those scenes with wookies. Live actors are irreplaceable.

At least in my books. When we reach photorealism and virtual reality becomes socketed to brain I might change my mind, but before that; replacing actors with computah-generated doods is not an option.

[Gabrielle]

I'm not a big fan of this computer generated crap in the movies. Replacing actors with computer simulations and computer generated landscapes and ships. I like the old Star Wars when they used models as ships. Call me old fashion.

[metadigital]

Jackson did a marvelous job splicing CGI characters into his films: that bit with the dragons picking up the horsies was kewl.

 

I agree, at least live actors add an extra level of abstraction between out-of-control egomaniacal scriptwriter/directors (") their terrible dialogue and the poor audience. "Are you an angel?"

[Drakron]

There are good and bad actors, games tend to end up with the worst because its viewed as a "inferior" media, you cannot really compare the adverage game voice actor with the adverage movie actor.

 

The Star Wars prequels are not a good example since all the actors in the movie are considered to be good but they had a incredible poor performance, I blame Lucas for it more that I blame then ... its a exception and not a rule.

[metadigital]

I think you just echoed exactly what I said ...

[Musopticon?]

I agree. It's an exception.

[Guest Fishboot]

There are good and bad actors, games tend to end up with the worst because its viewed as a "inferior" media, you cannot really compare the adverage game voice actor with the adverage movie actor.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I think calling them "worse" isn't really true. Voice actors and film actors are profoundly different - Voice actors in the Mel Blanc vein are really a breed apart from visual actors with a completely unique set of skills and talents, plus there is little celebrity pressure on the performances which completely changes the dynamics.

 

There are plenty of "good actors" who would be wet noodles in the context of a game voice over with their untextured, weak voices.

[SteveThaiBinh]

It's interesting that you see the same names crop up in game after game, and most of the actors are very versatile. I agree that there are some excellent voice actors out there who do almost nothing else - in the UK, a lot of them work on BBC radio. If the voice acting is bad on a game, I suppose it's because either the dialogue is so awful that no-one could do it well, the publisher was too stingy to pay for decent voice actors, or the director failed to do his/her job. I hate listening to voiceover when you can just hear the actor is reading from the page without any kind of performance, but that's as much the director's job as the actor's.

[Drakron]

I said on adverage, it happens because a few years ago we had text with a few voice overs but now almost every game that comes out must have voice acting since that is expected.

 

We all know the quality of TV movies tends to be lower that theater movies but such classification does not exist in games that much since bargin bin games then to very little (if any) voice acting.

 

And the truth is given the oportunity to do a animation voice over or a game voice I think most would do the animation voice over, the problem is NOT voice actors thenselves but how voice actors in games are not very good.