How do you guys bring yourself to read?

[constantine]

I don't mind any form of technical reading. I love short descriptive, efficient sentences that empower me to solve a problem.

 

But god damn it man, how the hell do you guys bring yourselves to read all the text in this game?

 

I could not finish Divinity Original Sin due to all that god damn reading. I tried drinking strong coffee, but it didn't help. Do you think I should consider some kind of legal methamphetamine for Pillars of Eternity?

 

I feel like I've been baited and switched.

 

The beginning of this game was excellent:

 

 

But once the lack of voice acting creeps in, it's just sooo hard to stay interested in the game.

Well, for starters you must like reading books. When the wall of text turns up, I almost forget I'm playing a video game and delve into the world of Pillars in a different, more imaginative way.

 

As for voice acting, there are many occasions where what I hear diminishes the experience, since I picture a different voice in my head based on the descriptive text. And I always read the text in-between character lines when those are voice acted, which makes it annoying.

 

In general, to appreciate all that text, you must enjoy using your imagination as a form of receiving the game experience.

[gkathellar]

I like how consistent the references for POE's made up words and terms are. There are clear Celtic, tribal and even druidic vibes in the 'native' Glanfathans, while the Republics' clothing, names, even Pallegina's little quips in her native language, etc. clearly run off Renaissance Italy. 

 

There is an issue with how loredumpy it is sometimes, which is a feature of  being the first game in a series.

 

Yeah, see, it's one thing for the foreigners to curse in foreign tongues. But when the game spells "duke" and "earl" as "duc" and "erl," even though the pronunciation and meaning are identical, I kind of feel like the writing is being a little self-indulgent.

 

Just a little.

 

(Now, if it were pronounced "duck," on the other hand, that'd be awesome.)

[Elgyn]

 

I like how consistent the references for POE's made up words and terms are. There are clear Celtic, tribal and even druidic vibes in the 'native' Glanfathans, while the Republics' clothing, names, even Pallegina's little quips in her native language, etc. clearly run off Renaissance Italy. 

 

There is an issue with how loredumpy it is sometimes, which is a feature of  being the first game in a series.

 

Yeah, see, it's one thing for the foreigners to curse in foreign tongues. But when the game spells "duke" and "earl" as "duc" and "erl," even though the pronunciation and meaning are identical, I kind of feel like the writing is being a little self-indulgent.

 

Just a little.

 

(Now, if it were pronounced "duck," on the other hand, that'd be awesome.)

 

I could be wrong, but I thought those were the old Norman and French spellings of the words we now say as 'Duke' and 'Earl'.

 

I get your point though. I just think that Pillars was trying to be consistent with it's language instead of just pulling off letters from real world titles like Bioware does quite a bit.

Edited April 16, 2015 by Elgyn

[gkathellar]

 

 

I like how consistent the references for POE's made up words and terms are. There are clear Celtic, tribal and even druidic vibes in the 'native' Glanfathans, while the Republics' clothing, names, even Pallegina's little quips in her native language, etc. clearly run off Renaissance Italy. 

 

There is an issue with how loredumpy it is sometimes, which is a feature of  being the first game in a series.

 

Yeah, see, it's one thing for the foreigners to curse in foreign tongues. But when the game spells "duke" and "earl" as "duc" and "erl," even though the pronunciation and meaning are identical, I kind of feel like the writing is being a little self-indulgent.

 

Just a little.

 

(Now, if it were pronounced "duck," on the other hand, that'd be awesome.)

 

I could be wrong, but I thought those were the old Norman and French spellings of the words we now say as 'Duke' and 'Earl'.

 

 

I'm sure they are, but using them remains obnoxiously self-indulgent.

[Tigranes]

 

I like how consistent the references for POE's made up words and terms are. There are clear Celtic, tribal and even druidic vibes in the 'native' Glanfathans, while the Republics' clothing, names, even Pallegina's little quips in her native language, etc. clearly run off Renaissance Italy. 

 

There is an issue with how loredumpy it is sometimes, which is a feature of  being the first game in a series.

 

Yeah, see, it's one thing for the foreigners to curse in foreign tongues. But when the game spells "duke" and "earl" as "duc" and "erl," even though the pronunciation and meaning are identical, I kind of feel like the writing is being a little self-indulgent.

 

Just a little.

 

(Now, if it were pronounced "duck," on the other hand, that'd be awesome.)

 

 

Duke was spelled 'duc' in actual history; duc is the Old French root for duke. 

 

Similarly, note how Caesar was transformed into variations like Kaiser, Tsar and even Kayseri for the Ottomans. 

 

Earl was also eorl in Old English, and in some cases, was interchangeable with jarl.

 

Such things have never been set in stone. It's not any more "accurate" for POE to use duc than duke, it's a fantasy setting. To me it's interesting that they will set up these variations to insert that extra bit of strangeness. 

 

I don't see how it's 'self-indulgent', really. It's better than all the "God-Emperor-King" or "Knight Captain" or "Space Commander" BS.

 

And of course, if all of those things were completely different, and all dukes in the game were Bloopiedooples and all the earls were Wichamagas, then everybody would complain there's too many new words.

[HoonDing]

I like how consistent the references for POE's made up words and terms are. There are clear Celtic, tribal and even druidic vibes in the 'native' Glanfathans, while the Republics' clothing, names, even Pallegina's little quips in her native language, etc. clearly run off Renaissance Italy. 

 

There is an issue with how loredumpy it is sometimes, which is a feature of  being the first game in a series.

The game feels as Celtic as the Glasgow Rangers.

[Rafkos]

Well, there are people in this world that can read 800words/sec, yes, per SECOND. It's a matter of practice and turning off a "lector's voice" inside your head

[Starthief]

I just have my butler read it to me, because moving my eyes back and forth takes too much energy.

[Maviarab]

Mods can you not just ban this idiot already please.

[Don-Esteban]

I don't mind any form of technical reading. I love short descriptive, efficient sentences that empower me to solve a problem.

 

But god damn it man, how the hell do you guys bring yourselves to read all the text in this game?

To have a minimum interest at the story of the game could help.

Not playing the game only for the loot and the fighting.

Interest for the Characters could help. What they say, what they mean, what there dialogs mean.

And interest for the world, the impulse, more to know about the things, how the gameworld is functioning, how it's history, Why they are, how they are.

Curiosity about alle aspects of the game, the charakters, the environment.

Time. not to rush through the game.

The developers made this game in two and a half year - there is no need for hurry, to play it.

 

Take the game as a kind of mental riddle. What can the dialogs, the thoughts, the characters say, teach you.

 

PoE is not only tactical fighting. It's a spiritual story about how we gods see. Are they fictious or real. What means it for the belief, if they are invented?

[b0rsuk]

Some people like to read.

[Wintersong]

Signs of decadence in some parts of the modern world...

[Marceror]

One of the things that bothers me about the voice acting is I lose the descriptive text and is often included, and which is usually more evocative than the audio itself. I actually often go back and read the voice acted lines just so I don't miss those additional descriptions.

 

One's imagination while reading can be so much more immersive than hearing voice actors read a script.

[NickAragua]

I'm one of those people that always turns on the captions in Mass Effect or whatever and then skips the blathering. When I read, I can read at my own pace (which is much faster than speaking pace).

 

As mentioned by some others, a few tips for making your time in Pillars of Eternity more enjoyable:

 

1 - Ignore the dumbass gold plated NPCs. They're completely pointless.

2 - Don't bother reading descriptions for named items.

3 - Skip reading the in-game books, unless you're really hurting for something to read.

 

Also, whenever somebody starts explaining to me what the Godhammer Bomb was, I pretty much just skip that entire conversation node. I already know what the Godhammer Bomb was. Next loser that tries to explain it to me gets a flaming axe to the forehead.

[Valsuelm]

I don't mind any form of technical reading. I love short descriptive, efficient sentences that empower me to solve a problem.

 

But god damn it man, how the hell do you guys bring yourselves to read all the text in this game?

 

I could not finish Divinity Original Sin due to all that god damn reading. I tried drinking strong coffee, but it didn't help. Do you think I should consider some kind of legal methamphetamine for Pillars of Eternity?

 

I feel like I've been baited and switched.

 

The beginning of this game was excellent:

 

 

But once the lack of voice acting creeps in, it's just sooo hard to stay interested in the game.

 

Turn your computer off. Put yourself cellphone down.

 

Walk away from both for at least 2 months.

 

Discover life without technology. Discover your imagination. Earn an attention span.

 

Then enjoy reading, and so many other things so much more.

 

[Stun]

I could not finish Divinity Original Sin due to all that god damn reading.

Wow. The generation gap is bigger than I originally imagined, I guess. D:OS wasn't a particularly text-heavy game. That is to say, Unlike PoE, when you're talking to someone (or something) in D:OS, the game simply does dialogue. It doesn't, for example, spend 3 or 4 lines of text describing what the person looks like, or halt the dialogue every other sentence to give you an overly verbose description of their facial expression changes.

 

PoE's a different beast. It occasionally DOES cross that line that separates gloriously wordy from unnecessary rambling. But NO, contrary to the whines of the casuals, the solution is NOT to friggin put more voice acting and cinematics in the game. The solution is maybe to...you know....get to the point quicker. And more efficiently.

 

And weren't you people warned that this game wouldn't be for you? I seem to remember... Oh yes, here it is. A direct warning from the developers: Don't play this game if you dislike reading.

Edited April 16, 2015 by Stun

[Bryy]

Are you just trolling us OP? Come on, I get that you're probably young and used to full VO, but reading can't really be this hard for you, can it?

 

Ever heard of a book? It's sort of like PoE is 40% that.

They also made the "Thanks for no gays" thread, so probably.

[Marceror]

 

Turn your computer off. Put yourself cellphone down.

 

Walk away from both for at least 2 months.

 

 

God, I like to read, but I'm wondering how I can realistically do this too. It sounds great.

 

Given my job, though, not likely to happen until I retire.

[Psychevore]

I couldn't finish Divinity: Original Sin either. But that's because I didn't really like the game (blasphemy, apparantly).

 

In PoE the voice acting is annoying. Sometimes the way they say it doesn't even really match the flavor text >.> And once I get into full reading mode, the voice acting is just too slow.

[Zelmor]

@OP

 

A quick question before I dedicate time for a full answer: Are you a MOBA or FPS player, by any chance? No offence meant.

[Mangonel]

I don't mind reading, but yea. Some of the text walls in this game are needlessly verbose.

[Psychevore]

@OP

 

A quick question before I dedicate time for a full answer: Are you a MOBA or FPS player, by any chance? No offence meant.

No. Full time troll.

 

I know him from BSN, where he continuesly made the same style topics with the same complaints over and over and over.

 

Just like he's doing here about the reading.

[Bryy]

@OP

 

A quick question before I dedicate time for a full answer: Are you a MOBA or FPS player, by any chance? No offence meant.

Oh God, let's please not go down the "I'm not calling you stupid, just that the types of games you play are made for stupid people" route.

[Landerian]

For a couple reasons, I'd really like there to be less voices.

 

Not only do the actors  chosen most often NOT sound like I envision, but all that voice work adds to the size of the game file(s). If we could get rid of speech, I could download and start playing much quicker!

[Elerond]

Game don't actually have that much text that you need read if you don't read books and backer NPCs. And quite lot of important lines are voice acted. But if you still find it too much I would recommend you to start reading hobby by for example reading young adult novels first (as they are usually written using simpler language and they are usually shorten than those that are classified as novels for adults) and when they become easy and fast read move in those adult novels and maybe read also some classic quite hard read books that they usually make you read in school. Eventually reading becomes easy even if you have dyslexia like me.

 

But if reading hurts your eyes then I would recommend that you check your monitor's settings or buy new monitor that offers better picture, also letting optician check your eye sight would not hurt.

 

If you find it difficulty to read because there are strange English words, then only option is to learn them, so that in future they aren't anymore strange

 

If you find references to game's lore being too imperfect or not explained well enough then I recommend reading the lore guide book that they produced as it helps at least somewhat in those segments that game fails to explain.

 

EDIT: If you find game's writing boring then best things that you can do is to learn to seek important points from the text or skip them, so that you can enjoy other part of the game, although with RPGs game usually lose most of it soul if you don't like its writing, as they usually are heavily designed around their writing.

Edited April 16, 2015 by Elerond