Volunteer voice actors?

[Bartimaeus]

Yes...but don't make it Obsidian's job to sort out the best talent. Instead, make it the community's, who decide who is worthy of Obsidian's notice, who can then (presumably) quickly pick out the few of a handful or two (at best) that they could use. Unfortunately, this would require making an actual system of some sort on Obsidian's end...which is probably already beyond P:E's budget. Therefore...probably no from me.

Edited December 16, 2013 by Bartimaeus

[Karkarov]

 

 

I sure hope they didn't pay the "Nyuggghahaha I kicked him in the head until he was dead Nyuggggahahahaha" guy.  If they did they really need to get their money back.

 

 

I suggest doing some research on voice actors on BG1/2 and voice actors in games in general.

 

Allow me to rephrase.

 

I don't care who did some the lines in Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2.  Some of them were so bad you probably could have gotten a random guy off the street to do them and they would sounded about the same is what I am getting at.  As a person who has actual connections to broadcast radio I am fully well aware how professional voice work operates.

[Cubiq]

I don't think you do. If you get a random person with no experience to act in front of people they will tense up and you can easily hear it in the voice that it's forced. And the npc mods that were added by amatures are the proof of that. There was "absolutely" none of that in the original BG1 or BG2 series.

But you can clearly notice the forced accents in the BG:EE characters that Beamdog added, because those really were awful. Although there was less of it in BG2:EE

There is not a single Review of the original game where they mention bad voice acting, you are the only one who think it was.

 

Annoying characters does not equal bad voice acting. Especially if they were intended to be annoying.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Why are you guys so hung up on Baldur's Gate? The Icewind Dale games and especially Torment (i.e. the games designed by people who went on to form Obsidian) had much better voice acting. And Obsidian has a track record of handling voice acting well.

Edited December 16, 2013 by Quetzalcoatl

[Karkarov]

There is not a single Review of the original game where they mention bad voice acting, you are the only one who think it was.

That's because there wasn't much of it. 

 

Also you would be surprised to know how many people you hear and see in movies for example are just on the set extras who are there one day and gone the next.  The entire chant from the prison in Dark Knight Rises for example was actually just some dude holding a microphone up in the middle of a football stadium asking the crowd to yell words they put up on the score board.  I also have a good friend who worked on the TV cooking show Good Eats.  Did you know almost everyone who appeared on that show was just friends of the host?  Heck my buddy is (hilariously) a sound technician and he actually appeared in small parts on the show himself on multiple occasions with plenty of speaking lines.  One of the primary "expert guests" was also actually the hosts Chiropractor and had no background in cooking much less acting or voice work.

 

I think you people seriously over estimate the skill it takes to yell "What in the heck!" into a microphone.  I am not saying major npc's should be getting voiced by backers.  I am saying maybe they could record "orc in combat sound set 4" off volunteers.  Or "random people talking which will get overlayed by other people talking and or birds chirping/city noise" to play once every 10 minutes when you are in the docks area of Defiance Bay.

[Osvir]

Yes...but don't make it Obsidian's job to sort out the best talent. Instead, make it the community's, who decide who is worthy of Obsidian's notice, who can then (presumably) quickly pick out the few of a handful or two (at best) that they could use. Unfortunately, this would require making an actual system of some sort on Obsidian's end...which is probably already beyond P:E's budget. Therefore...probably no from me.

This... this is actually really good. But we'd still need some sample script or whatnot to follow, like a template or audition script. A Community Audition Script that everyone can play around with, then the Community decides who sounds good and who doesn't.

 

And anyone going into it will have to take the risk themselves of getting bashed hard in the face by the cruelty of "Internet".

 

Good idea Bartimaeus.

[Monte Carlo]

No.

[rjshae]

I would like to see some mods with decent VO work for the non-party conversations. Perhaps even some animated and fully rendered first-person videos, if somebody is feeling particularly adventurous. But the developers have enough on their plate with the current work-load.

[Osvir]

No.

This isn't entirely directed at you Monte Carlo. I'm wondering "Why?", what's up with the negative attitude regarding this? Is it envy? Is it insecurity? Is it because others can and you can not?

 

Because I am getting this feeling it's rooted somewhere around there (and not at all in the perceived "amateurs!"-comments), that this is something that only some could do and not everyone. "It's unfair, I also want to have a finger in this" but can't, won't or is too insecure for it. Am I wrong?

 

Ask this question instead: Why wouldn't Obsidian benefit from this?

 

A) Script, send out to community, give the community a deadline to decide "If you haven't found anyone by 2 weeks, then we'll carry on with the original plan" (And they could time it well enough that it wouldn't interrupt any schedules)

B) Let the community decide (and Obsidian holding their original plan on the side in case the community would fail miserably)

C) Community decides "This sounds really good!" -> Give to Obsidian (And I mean, if this community would like it, then I bet it'd be up to par)

D) It could be a fun community event altogether too. It doesn't have to be "American Idol" hah, but maybe more like a Kareoke party amongst friends.

 

How much time would Obsidian have to spend on it? Not much, sending out the "Audition Script" pretty much, which could be an actual text in the game. As for money, how much would they have to spend on it? 0. 0 moneys, volunteer 100%. No one should expect to get paid anything (except a name in the credits, and I believe that's where this all boils down too, again, the whole "That is unfair!"-dealio).

 

Did I hit the mark?

 

EDIT: Did I mention the marketing exposure?

 

Did I also mention that Obsidian could, theoretically, ask gaming channels on YouTube to, for fun, audition themselves and in turn promote Eternity in doing so?

 

If Obsidian would do some sort of "Community Audition" like this, it's possible that it could get more exposure in gaming media as well, not that it is exactly "starving" in getting exposed right now but if you see a gaming news story with some sort of headline saying: "Contribute with your voice! Get a chance to be in the credits!" doesn't that news headline tingle an interest (in the general populace) more than "Here's the Eternity Voice Cast"? you know you better run run run run ruuun on sentence revolution

Edited December 16, 2013 by Osvir

[Cubiq]

That's because there wasn't much of it. 

 

Also you would be surprised to know how many people you hear and see in movies for example are just on the set extras who are there one day and gone the next.  The entire chant from the prison in Dark Knight Rises for example was actually just some dude holding a microphone up in the middle of a football stadium asking the crowd to yell words they put up on the score board.  I also have a good friend who worked on the TV cooking show Good Eats.  Did you know almost everyone who appeared on that show was just friends of the host?  Heck my buddy is (hilariously) a sound technician and he actually appeared in small parts on the show himself on multiple occasions with plenty of speaking lines.  One of the primary "expert guests" was also actually the hosts Chiropractor and had no background in cooking much less acting or voice work.

 

I think you people seriously over estimate the skill it takes to yell "What in the heck!" into a microphone.  I am not saying major npc's should be getting voiced by backers.  I am saying maybe they could record "orc in combat sound set 4" off volunteers.  Or "random people talking which will get overlayed by other people talking and or birds chirping/city noise" to play once every 10 minutes when you are in the docks area of Defiance Bay.

 

I have no idea what Good Eats is so i can't comment on that, but there's a huge difference of getting a group to shout things on a stadium than getting one guy in a closed room and watch him through a glass window and judge his every word.

 

And what you describe as background noise will mostly likely already be in the game. They can record the background noise as long as they like, since like you say it's not hard to record, and they don't need extra people for that, they can just go outside. The reason it's on short loop in BG2 1/2 is because of drive space. They could obviously record for hours if they wanted to, there's nothing really stopping them other than audio compression.

 

As for orc impressions that's exactly what i'm talking about, yes it's easy to say "What the heck" in to a microphone with your own voice, but do it in a voice of an actual orc? I doubt it.

First of all the accent needs to be consistent across the game, so getting everyone organized for things like that already costs money. WoW orcs have the Yoda accent while in Lord of the Ring they had hissing sounds, if i remember correctly (probably not, but you get the point).

 

Second of all it's really easy to spot a forced impressions (because that's where acting actually comes in) and if they do it badly enough, it becomes so transparent, you can sometimes even judge how his original voice would sound like. So i think that saying things like, everyone can do, it is really stretching it.

 

Thirdly, i really don't think there will be a lack of such sounds like grunting and death screams or just random select noises.

 

I'm sure you can send your portfolio to Obsidian if you really want to add your voice (it's not really uncommon to do things like that), but to say that they should promise to put random amateurs in to the game just because they can? I'm completely against it.

[Karkarov]

I'm sure you can send your portfolio to Obsidian if you really want to add your voice (it's not really uncommon to do things like that), but to say that they should promise to put random amateurs in to the game just because they can? I'm completely against it.

Hahaha... no.  When did I suggest anything of the sort?  Problems with these forums everyone reads all these "things" in to every word you say but never actually seems to read the words.  Truthfully I voted "good idea but shouldn't be a priority".  I am only vocal about it because I keep hearing these close minded opinions that are just wholly negative, sometimes insulting of the OP, and for the most part patently false.  VA is not hard unless you are actually trying to get someone to do a full on role.  No one in their right mind is going to suggest "Major NPC X" should be voiced by some random guy. 

 

Also while you are correct that they could always just get these type of voice work any number of ways why would letting backers do it be such a bad thing?  Half of this community seems to think they have the right to dictate basically every element of the game and the other half seems like the feel the community should have no say at all.  Why can't their be a middle ground or some simple fun event that lets a few backers be involved in the game itself in a very minor way without having to drop half a grand?

[Cubiq]

 Hahaha... no.  When did I suggest anything of the sort?

Sigh*... i wasn't talking about you specifically.

 

 

I am only vocal about it because I keep hearing these close minded opinions that are just wholly negative, sometimes insulting of the OP, and for the most part patently false.

Just because some people insult OP doesn't really make your argument any stronger. "Negative" isn't universally a bad thing.

Feel free to point out the false parts.

 

Why can't their be a middle ground or some simple fun event that lets a few backers be involved in the game itself in a very minor way without having to drop half a grand?

Because this is just a good way of backing the developers in to a corner. If they did the event, they are pretty much forced to make a choice from some of the "contestants" even if they find no one who would actually fit the right character, or they already have a professional to do that better.

Why are they forced?

Because people will then cry on the forum how obsidian promised them that backers would have voices in the game, and get more bad rep.  And for what? Because people just can't be bothered to send their portfolio through email? If they really are good then they have nothing to worry about, amaright?

 

And even if it's the public that votes, instead of developers, i didn't really back the project on the idea that people who aren't developers will get a "direct" choice on what is and what isn't in the game (yes even voices). I backed it because i trust Obsidian knows what it's doing based on filtered feedback. The backer rewards for npc design were warned ahead of time and i accepted that as i paid. This is just random event and i simply don't trust the public.

And likewise, if the game turns out bad, it will all be on Obsidian's head.

 

 

And i think you underestimate the complexity of such an event. Not only do they need to organize the whole thing and even make preparations, they need to get true information off of these random people through the internet and get their copyright permissions or risk getting sued. They would be an extremely easy target especially since they won't actually pay anyone, so they have nothing in their defense. Doing these type of things through the internet is never a good idea.

So it's not really "free stuff" versus "half a grand"

Edited December 16, 2013 by Cubiq

[Bos_hybrid]

No.

 

Too much work for Obsidian for too little reward.

[Falkon Swiftblade]

I must admit the party banter in the BG games was one of my favorite things, along with Irenicus. I would like to have a fair amount of choices of battle cry's and personality's though, and if it's volunteer based they could at the least make it easy for us to mod in some different personality's or banter for flavor. Or allow for an optional VO for the script once finalized. But at the same time, there's a few you-tubers out there who do playthrough's now and do their own voices which are fun to watch too.

[PrimeJunta]

This isn't entirely directed at you Monte Carlo. I'm wondering "Why?", what's up with the negative attitude regarding this? Is it envy? Is it insecurity? Is it because others can and you can not?

Or could it be :gasp: that we have actual, substantive objections? Shocking idea, I know. If you read this thread carefully, you might even find some!

[Karkarov]

Feel free to point out the false parts.

.....

 

I apologize but I seem to need to repeat myself again.  No one wants backers voicing an actual character.  I am going to say that one more time just to be sure I was specifically clear.  No one wants backers voicing an actual character.  Now are you going to imply this has anything to do with voicing an actual character, or that I am insinuating this has anything to do with characters again?  No?  Okay.

 

That said, legal.  E-signatures are 100% legally binding.  A simple document stating by entering the contest you forfeit all creative and legal rights for any entry to Obsidian pretty much covers that.  If you want to go full monty they can even simply throw this detail out there and then when winners are decided mail them a document they have to sign and mail back.  Winner doesn't doesn't sign or mail it back, they just don't get used. You make it sound like they don't already have this contract ready to go for some backers who get memorials, name an item, design an inn, whatever.  Those things are part of creative law too.

 

Contest.  Pretty straight forward to run this actually.  You have say... 5 lines that contestants can read but they can only submit a recording for one of the lines.  You have to record yourself saying that one line and email the file to a contest specific email in a file format they specify, hell they can even require a specific file name based on the line for easy sorting.  Anyone doesn't comply?  Entry automatically deleted.  Obsidian then listens to qualifying entries and chooses say their favorite 10 among the various lines.  Favorites go in a poll as part of an update, no names just the recordings, community listens and votes. The most popular version of each line gets used in some way in game.  Some way being random background chatter in a city, or something similarly low impact that many players probably won't even notice.

 

Why go through that?  Well it is just a bit of fun and encourages community involvement.  That said most of this community seems wholly opposed to anything resembling fun.  Which is why I voted "nice idea but not priority".  The only hard part for Obsidian would be taking the time to listen to the contest entries anything past that is something they would have had to do with any voice recording.  Which is to say light editing like adding some echo, lowering the volume, maybe putting another sound bite with it like knives being sharpened etc.

 

Bear in mind I don't expect any of this to actually happen.  However the overwhelming attitude that it could never work or is overwhelmingly hard to do and soooooo time consuming just isn't really accurate.  Additionally if this game gets panned and fails I can assure you it won't be because of the voice acting, even if a few backers sneak in.

 

 

Or could it be :gasp: that we have actual, substantive objections? Shocking idea, I know. If you read this thread carefully, you might even find some!

Well the only two substantive objections I have seen Junta boil down to "The community is a bunch of no talent hacks based on BG mods" and "It would be too much work."  Past that I am not really seeing anything and one of those reasons it patently false, I am sure there are some very talented people in the community more than capable of delivering a short line into a mic effectively.

Edited December 17, 2013 by Karkarov

[Keyrock]

 

 

 

The intentions behind this might be good, but the outcome would almost certainly be awful.  First off, viewing or listening to audition clips, deciding who would voice what part, sending out scripts to people, then screening sound clips and picking out takes, that all takes time and effort.  Time and effort that could be spent polishing levels and animations and such.  And for what?  What are the chances Obsidian finds even one diamond in the rough?  5%?  10%?  Maybe 15%?  Voice acting is significantly more difficult than some people think, good voice acting that is.  The chances that Obsidian finds a quality voice acting, even if it's just for narration, is pretty low.  My stance on acting/voice acting has always been "only do it if you can do it well".  There are some exceptions to the rule, games like Tex Murphy, but those games are intentionally campy and they embrace the cheesiness of the acting.  The cheesiness is part of what makes Tex Murphy games what they are.  Pillars of Eternity is not a silly or campy game and cheesy voice acting would take away from the game.  Stick with text.  

Edited December 17, 2013 by Keyrock

[Zitchiock]

 

Take the fraction of the community that is good at voice acting. Now, remove all the ones that don't have an appropriate audio setup. Congratulations, you have a group so small that it is not worth the headache it would cause Obsidian.

This. A thousand times this.

 

Agreed with this, many times over. 

[PrimeJunta]

Well the only two substantive objections I have seen Junta boil down to "The community is a bunch of no talent hacks based on BG mods" and "It would be too much work."  Past that I am not really seeing anything and one of those reasons it patently false, I am sure there are some very talented people in the community more than capable of delivering a short line into a mic effectively.

I'm actually only seeing "it would be too much work."

 

It would. There have been pretty good explanations of why it would be too much work. I'm not seeing the "pro" camp address these objections much. Seems they prefer to ascribe all kinds of unrelated motives to the "con" camp instead. I know, less work that way.

[StrangeCat]

Keep the game professional!

[Irx]

They should have made it a pledge reward, would be hilarious to have an orlan companion with a heavy Russian accent... or not.

Anyway, I'd love the game to have at least a BG/PST amount of voice acting, but this volunteer thing is probably not worth the hassle.

Edited December 18, 2013 by Irx

[Lephys]

The only thing I'm not getting is how the process wouldn't be the same for professional voice actors. There seems to be this idea that they just pick the one they want and forego listening to a bunch of samples of character lines to figure out whose voice they like for that character, THEN getting someone in on the project and presenting them with their workload and standardizing their setup.

 

Some people keep saying "No, because then the voices would be crappy!" But, no one suggested just randomly implementing community-submitted sound files into the game.

 

That being said, yes, I'm going to join PrimeJunta in agreeing with the "it'd be too much work" thing. Why? Because if they already don't plan to have all the stuff voice-acted, then it's going to be extra work no matter what -- professional or volunteer.

 

The problem isn't "Omg, no one who isn't a 'professional voice actor' can possibly have a good voice and be competent enough to record lines on nice equipment." The problem is, implementing more voice acting would be implementing more voice acting. If they were still searching for voice-actors for the stuff that's planned to be voice-acted (I really have no idea where they are on this, development-wise), then I'd say "Sure, why not... let people send in samples." If you listen to a sample, it's going to be immediately apparent that it's super crappy and you can't properly judge the voice. In which case, you skip it and move on to the next one. Also, set standards up front. "Only sound files of such-and-such quality and format." Boom. If someone just has a stick mic and Windows Sound Recorder, and tries to send in a sample they made in 5 seconds, then it doesn't even waste anyone's time for review. Why? It doesn't even meet the criteria.

 

Finding suitable volunteers isn't a preposterous idea. It's just not going to allow more of PoE to be voice-acted, really, because money ins't their sole constraint with that.

[Volourn]

Oh hells to the nos. Professional voice actors or none at all. Obsidian is a professional company and I certainly did not pay $250 to hear Mkreku pretend he is a dwarf or an elf. Nor did anyone pay to listen to me do voice overs.

Edited December 19, 2013 by Volourn

[Lephys]

If non-professional voice actors never voice-acted, then no one would ever level up to the rank of "professional voice actor."

 

Just sayin'... u_u

 

Imagine if sports worked like that. "I KNOW he can run the 40 in 1 second, but he's not already a PRO, So we don't want him!"

[Tamerlane]

Generally speaking, amateur athletes do not play for professional teams. In this analogy, Obsidian would be the professional team.