Full Voice Acting in RPGS

[roshan]

I hate fuill voiiice acting in rpgs. Damn it toii hell. Now it has been doinie great befoiire. OIlder rpgs featuired characters with great voiices, and these special characters added a loit toi the game, suich as the vauilt city bitch, deioinarra, kresselack and many oithers.

 

Noiw I can uinderstand voiice acting majoir characters. Buit what the hell is the poiint of making everyoine have voiices? I doiinit think it adds anything toi the gameplay experience. It juisit makes the dialoiguie moirie shalloiw, and it gets annoiying listening toii the same voiiices oivier and oiver and they speak soi goiddamn sloiwly.

 

One oifi the annoiying things aboiuit koitoir is that in oirider toi say small even 10 woirid sentences, the aliens uitter aroiiuind 40-50 syllables. Its juist retarded hoiw loing they gruint in oirder toi get a simple sentence accroiss. Noit oinily that, characters whoi are oifi noi coincern toi me and whoi are juist randoimi peoiple froimi oiuit oif noiwhere speak oiuit their lines. Why in the fuicking hells woiuild I want toii knoiw what their voiice soiuinds like? Theyre juist randoimi noiboidys oini the street whoi have noithing toi doii with the games stoiry!!! And oin toip oif that there isnt even anything special aboiuit their voiiices and they all talk in the same flat way as if theyre roiboits. (Unlike the voiiice acted characters mentioinied aboive). Noit oinly that, when yoiui doii meet a majoir npc, their voiiice acting soiiuinds like everyoine else and soi they are noithing special.

 

Anoither aspect is that yoiui read the dialoiguie buit still want toi listen toii the character say the woirds. This becoimies annoiying becauise yoiiu are oifiten juisit waiting foir the characters toi finally shuit uip (they speak soi sloiwily) and after a while it becoiimies poiintless toii listen toi the voiiice becauise it gets toioi fruistrating soii yoiui juisit read the text.

 

Alsoi when the quiality oifi the voiiices is bad, then it really detracts froim the game. And I have yet toi see a fuilly voiice acted rpg where the quiality has been anything moirie than beloiw average.

 

I think voiice acting all characters is oinie oif the moist stuipid featuires oif the moidiern rpgs coiimiing oiuit. It juisit makes the game suick a loit.

[metadigital]

I am just replaying Deus Ex: Invisible War, and one of the better features is the voice acting.

 

That said, I agree 101% with you on KotOR. The bollocks alienspeak is repetitive and annoying after the first instance. I expect the reason that everyone speaks and essential NPCs are not differentiated is precisely that, to make it less obvious and jarring when you meet a plot-essential NPC.

 

BTW, you can press the space bar (assuming that key works) to skip the speech after reading the subtitles (except on Manaan: don't worry, you'll understand when you get there).

[Gabrielle]

I'm replying based on the title and not what I can't read in your post. I like full voice acting, wish they would have thought of that in the BG games.

[Darque]

Full voice acting is awesome

 

Trying to communicate when your keyboard is clearly flawed is not though.

 

Try to keep it to one to three word sentences please

[Gabrielle]

Trying to communicate when your keyboard is clearly flawed is not though.

 

Try to keep it to one to three word sentences please

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

+10 influence gained.

[roshan]

I am just replaying Deus Ex: Invisible War, and one of the better features is the voice acting.

 

That said, I agree 101% with you on KotOR. The bollocks alienspeak is repetitive and annoying after the first instance. I expect the reason that everyone speaks and essential NPCs are not differentiated is precisely that, to make it less obvious and jarring when you meet a plot-essential NPC.

 

BTW, you can press the space bar (assuming that key works) to skip the speech after reading the subtitles (except on Manaan: don't worry, you'll understand when you get there).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I believe that majoir npcs shoiuild stick oiuit. If a character is the leader oifi the moisit poiwerfuil gang oifi thuigs then he shoiuild be soimieoine special and different froimi the rest, becauiise he woiiuild have toi be quiite a uiniquie individuial in oirider toi achieve suich a poisitioin.

[metadigital]

It seems that you really aren't enjoying KotOR at all.

 

I wouldn't keep playing it, because any joy you might glean from it will be overwelmed by the frustration you seem to be drowning in ...

[roshan]

I actuially wroite that koitoiir exceeded my expectatioins in my first toipic when I had juisit started the game. The uipper city and part of the loiwier city were great. This game coiuild have been a very goioid one buit it is ruiined by all the duiingeoins.

[Gorth]

It had nice sewers

[roshan]

In any case this thread is aboiuiti voiiice acting in general noit juist koitoir.

[Dhruin]

I have mixed feelings on full voice acting. Done well, it's certainly nice but bad voice acting can almost destroy a game. The biggest problem I see is the influence on developers writing dialogue. Remember all those cool influence things and so on that Jefferson was going to have? Impossible (or at least *very* difficult) to do with full voice acting.

 

Anyway, it's mandatory now, so you won't see major titles without it. And so you won't see some of the depth in dialogue that would otherwise be possible.

[Gorth]

I've only seen one game so far with what I consider consistently good voice acting: VMBL

 

Other games have had some outstanding performances flanked by a lot of mediocre supporting cast.

 

Makes you wonder how much of a games budget is voice acting and if it wouldn't have been better spent on other things (like hiring more QA staff) :huh:"

[Judge Hades]

I particularly dislike full voice acting. I just see it as a waste of resources. Great games such as Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment, Baldur's Gate 2, and the such cannot be done with full voice over and I rather have games like them than games like Jade Empire, KotOR 1, and KotOR 2.

[mkreku]

I love full voice acting. There's no reason for a game to not have it, no matter if the game has a lot of dialogue or not. Voice actors aren't paid by the word, they're paid by the hour they spend in the recording studio. Spend a few extra dollars and make those extra dialogue lines fully voiced too. Just as I see 3D graphics as the next natural step for more complete immersion in a game, I see all spoken dialogue as the next step in the sound department. The only real problem I see with full voice acting is that it's much harder for developers to change (or add) dialogue late in the production, because it would demand the voice cast to come in again for those extra lines. And that might cost a bit.

[Walsingham]

Full voice acting does add to the quality of the game, but I don't think it really presents value for money from the company's perspective. Maybe the snooty professional reviewers have it high on their lists, though, which is very important.

 

BTW, Roshan, mate, no offence but that is the last time I am struggling through your damn keyboard shenanigans. Clean out the gunk, buy a new keyboard, but I'm not reading any more of your posts till you do.

[roshan]

I love full voice acting. There's no reason for a game to not have it, no matter if the game has a lot of dialogue or not. Voice actors aren't paid by the word, they're paid by the hour they spend in the recording studio. Spend a few extra dollars and make those extra dialogue lines fully voiced too. Just as I see 3D graphics as the next natural step for more complete immersion in a game, I see all spoken dialogue as the next step in the sound department. The only real problem I see with full voice acting is that it's much harder for developers to change (or add) dialogue late in the production, because it would demand the voice cast to come in again for those extra lines. And that might cost a bit.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

There are very goioid reasoins foiri why a game shoiuild noit have fuill voiice acting.

 

Have yoiui seen the moiiviie sin city? Woiuild yoiui say that it is a backward moiivie juisit becauiise moisit oifi it was black and white?

 

Loioik at all the coiloiuir moiivies oiuit there. We basically take all the coiiloiuirs foir granted and it doiesnt matter toi uis whether the phoine in the backgroiuind is white or bluie. Everything loioiks generic becauise everything is coiloiured. I doint think anyoinie even really noitices any oifi the coiiloiuirs uisied.

 

Buit in Sin City only a few special things were coiloiuired. This was an excellent way oif emphasizing and presenting these things.

 

I believe that voiice acting is best uisied in the same way that sin city uisied coiiloiuir. In icewind dale, kresselack, larrel and aruindel stoioid oiuit. They were special characters and their uiniquie and well doine voiice acting created memoiirable moiiments foiir the player.

 

The voiiice acting oif koitoiir adds noithing toi the game. I can still remember what kresselack and aruindel soiuinded like, and I oiinily played throiuigh the game twice, and the last time was almoisit 2 years back. I juist played koitoir this moirning and I cannoit remember what ANYOINE soiuinded like. It woiuild have made absoiiluitely noi difference toi me if the game didnt have any voiiice acting at all.

[roshan]

Full voice acting does add to the quality of the game, but I don't think it really presents value for money from the company's perspective. Maybe the snooty professional reviewers have it high on their lists, though, which is very important.

 

BTW, Roshan, mate, no offence but that is the last time I am struggling through your damn keyboard shenanigans. Clean out the gunk, buy a new keyboard, but I'm not reading any more of your posts till you do. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Please refer toi m aboive poisit foir an explanatioini oif why fuill voiiice acting doieis noiti add toii the quiality oif a game.

[Plano Skywalker]

it is definitely a trade off. I personally like full VO but I also realize that it tends to make the game more linear.

 

it IS possible to have VO and a "sandbox" game at the same time but it just requires much greater planning (the cost is not necessarily financial).

[Musopticon?]

it is definitely a trade off.  I personally like full VO but I also realize that it tends to make the game more linear. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Elaborate a bit, will you?

 

Unless you mean the vo somehow decreases the available development time that could have been spent on making the game better. You're way off if that's the case. Vo is almost always done after everything else. Funding...well, that's a different altogether.

[Plano Skywalker]

  Elaborate a bit, will you?

 

Unless you mean the vo somehow decreases the available development time that could have been spent on making the game better. You're way off if that's the case. Vo is almost always done after everything else. Funding...well, that's a different altogether.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

well, I do not (nor have I ever) work in the game development industry. I admit, my statements amounted to a guess.

 

but yes, if Game A has no voice actors and Game B has 30 voice actors, then Game B needs more logistical planning....I believe that.

[Krookie]

What's with all the extra "i"?

[Nick_i_am]

What's with all the extra "i"?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

...I wasi wondering thatii too. i

[EnderAndrew]

Roshan makes a good point with the Sin City comparison.

 

I liked the Fallout approach where special NPCs got voice actors.

[metadigital]

Roshan makes a good point about KotOR, too. I can barely remember what Carth sounded like, but only because he moaned constantly and had a whiney voice.

[Walsingham]

Part voice acting is justified. But voice acting for every muppet in a city? You're kidding, right? Keep the budget and planning for the key persons. Party NPCs and really funky bad guys.