How much $$$ would you like to see spent on voice acting in the sequel?

[Concordance]

Attention whore...

 

Anyway ,I think that the reason that this forum distribution is so skewed to the no VA side is that most posters are hardcore fans of the old IE games.

 

I still think that it will help in bringing some new blood into this genre.

Counterpoint: The only IE game I've played was Planescape: Torment. I have not played any of the Neverwinter games, either.

 

PioE's reach extends well beyond nostalgic IE fans!

Edited May 3, 2015 by Concordance

[Anaeme]

All dialog should be voiced

[ProjectBG2Respawn]

Good idea this topic.

 

We need more replies now

[BruceVC]

No one should be able to ask for any additional feature or enhancement until we know Romance is in the next PoE

 

We need to prioritize things guys 

[Matt516]

No one should be able to ask for any additional feature or enhancement until we know Romance is in the next PoE

 

We need to prioritize things guys 

 

Kill it! Kill it with fire! *hisses*

[barakav]

No one should be able to ask for any additional feature or enhancement until we know Romance is in the next PoE

 

We need to prioritize things guys 

As long as we have the option to romance a goat as well I agree ,as Obsidian has to be politically correct and to represent everyone in their games. Including Afghan terrorists. You probably don't want to offend them...

 

(BTW I don't give a f*** about the political message in this video and just find it funny)

 

 

Attention whore...

 

Anyway ,I think that the reason that this forum distribution is so skewed to the no VA side is that most posters are hardcore fans of the old IE games.

 

I still think that it will help in bringing some new blood into this genre.

Counterpoint: The only IE game I've played was Planescape: Torment. I have not played any of the Neverwinter games, either.

 

PioE's reach extends well beyond nostalgic IE fans!

 

Look ,some reviewers felt that way ,and the lack of voice acting also made this game less sexy for many streamers (And you can't blame them ,its' hard to read loudly for hours y'know)...

 

And there are guys like me who sometimes return home dead tired but still want to play this game and it is really hard for me to read so much when I am tired . If I wasn't a veteran CRPG fan I would have probably settled for something light like FARCRY and wait untill the next holiday before losing a few days from my life to this game.

Edited May 3, 2015 by barakav

[cctobias]

 

 

 

 

Obsidian wanted $20 million from Atari to make Baldur's Gate 3. People often forget that, yes, Obsidian got nearly $4m and raised $6m, but that's nothing for a tech project.

A BG3 that was likely a AAA, fully voiced, 3D game for PC and Console.

 

Yeah, but if that's what they thought they needed to make the game, I don't really see the issue here.

 

The issue is that people who make thing professionally sometimes get, unavoidably, discconected from what people think by the echo chamber of the general games industry at large.

 

Its simply an assumed thing sometimes that because everyone is doing VA that its always the next thing to put resources towards.  But in reality as this poll shows, and I am pretty certain a very large sample size would only swing it 10% or so, a assumption that more VA would be good if we only had the money is probably less well founded than may be generally thought.  

 

Reviewers rave about VA, other games spend tons of money on it, its a naturally forming self-reinforced misconception.  Most people playing RPGs or Indie of various stipes simply don't care that much or only care in very specific instances.  Reviewers can rave all they like about it, but the audience in general only raves about very particular VA performances in very particular sequences and they are smart enough to know this(on some level often not entirely consciously formed). 

 

We're talking about the guys that brought us Pillars. I'd be with you if it was Atari going "hey, here's $20 million", but it wasn't. 

 

 

Its not about what they think about VA.  Its about what they think we think about VA.

 

The prevailing industry meme is that VA will bring in more rubes, oops, I mean broaden your appeal.  Obsidian is not immune to prevailing opinion.  No one is.  They may even think its complete BS but simply feel its the "safer" choice business-wise since there is not really anything solid to hang their hat on.

[Matt516]

 

 

 

 

 

Obsidian wanted $20 million from Atari to make Baldur's Gate 3. People often forget that, yes, Obsidian got nearly $4m and raised $6m, but that's nothing for a tech project.

A BG3 that was likely a AAA, fully voiced, 3D game for PC and Console.

 

Yeah, but if that's what they thought they needed to make the game, I don't really see the issue here.

 

The issue is that people who make thing professionally sometimes get, unavoidably, discconected from what people think by the echo chamber of the general games industry at large.

 

Its simply an assumed thing sometimes that because everyone is doing VA that its always the next thing to put resources towards.  But in reality as this poll shows, and I am pretty certain a very large sample size would only swing it 10% or so, a assumption that more VA would be good if we only had the money is probably less well founded than may be generally thought.  

 

Reviewers rave about VA, other games spend tons of money on it, its a naturally forming self-reinforced misconception.  Most people playing RPGs or Indie of various stipes simply don't care that much or only care in very specific instances.  Reviewers can rave all they like about it, but the audience in general only raves about very particular VA performances in very particular sequences and they are smart enough to know this(on some level often not entirely consciously formed). 

 

We're talking about the guys that brought us Pillars. I'd be with you if it was Atari going "hey, here's $20 million", but it wasn't. 

 

 

Its not about what they think about VA.  Its about what they think we think about VA.

 

The prevailing industry meme is that VA will bring in more rubes, oops, I mean broaden your appeal.  Obsidian is not immune to prevailing opinion.  No one is.  They may even think its complete BS but simply feel its the "safer" choice business-wise since there is not really anything solid to hang their hat on.

 

 

That's really what I'm getting at with this poll. I don't expect Obsidian to look at the poll results and be like "ok, that's what we'll do now!". That would be hilariously idiotic. They're gonna make design decisions based on their own preference structure, which is probably some balance of artistic choices, business concerns, and practical considerations. As well they should.

 

But if our opinion (that of the forum-goers, I mean) does factor into those decisions, I figured it could be helpful to make sure they've got a good idea of what that is.

[Junker]

Didn't read thread. A few points:

 

Voice acting should be an all or nothing feature. I dislike the randomness of VA in this game; a sentence here a sentence there. Overall I feel the quality is good but the way it's implemented is distracting at best.

 

I would love a narrator for this game that voices the "emotes" of the characters, settings, descriptive text, etc. Basically everything that isn't speech.

 

Voice acting needs to be FASTER. Some of the dialogue in this game is too damn slow and I'm done reading before the first couple words have a chance to spill out of my speakers. How about a new take on VA - stuff that sounds good with a FAST delivery.

 

The figures quoted in this and similar threads are ridiculous. If Obsidian was paying SAG rates for a low budget RPG with lots of text of course they are going to run out of money fast. Whomever was/is the project manager that decided that was a good use of funds needs to be fired ASAP. There is absolutely zero reason that DECENT, ACCEPTABLE, PROFESSIONALY SOUNDING voice acting could not have been delivered through the efforts of a single sound engineer spearheading it all. This person should have been able to audition, hire (for much less that is being discussed. 4 million, seriously WTF?), and record a collection of hungry amateur voices over the course of a year. Pay him a damn salary and if he couldn't deliver quality voice acting for the entire game for under $300,000 (including his pay) I would start asking questions. This is an indy game that had no business hiring professional voice actors.

[kaiki]

No one should be able to ask for any additional feature or enhancement until we know Romance is in the next PoE

 

We need to prioritize things guys 

 YES! Need romances so much >.<

[SeekDWay]

 

No one should be able to ask for any additional feature or enhancement until we know Romance is in the next PoE

 

We need to prioritize things guys 

 YES! Need romances so much >.<

 

Romance already exists in PoE. In fact it is the first game I've played that supports polygamy. Take Eder for example, sometimes he is engaged to more than 3 of different characters! Josh Sawyer took a page out of Bioware's book of bromance and added some Obsidian spice to it. Romances in PoE are short, unrestricted and have great replay value. Biodrones need not look any further.

 

Till Death Do Us Part

 

On topic I would like some more banter and ambient conversations voiced, anything that adds to the atmosphere, but not fully voiced.

Edited May 3, 2015 by SeekDWay

[Yonjuro]

 I am mostly going to echo what a few other people have said.

 

 Some encounters are fully voiced and I ended up skipping most of it because it is too slow. Also, the voice interferes with the descriptions since the lines and descriptions are interleaved.

 

 On the other hand, the world would be more alive with a few more voices in minor interactions.

 

 So, I would very much be in favor of saving some money on voice acting and spending the smaller budget a bit better.

 

 This is something that BG 1&2 and PS:T did very well - setting the mood and developing character concepts with minimal voice acting.  

[cctobias]

Didn't read thread. A few points:

 

Voice acting should be an all or nothing feature. I dislike the randomness of VA in this game; a sentence here a sentence there. Overall I feel the quality is good but the way it's implemented is distracting at best.

 

I would love a narrator for this game that voices the "emotes" of the characters, settings, descriptive text, etc. Basically everything that isn't speech.

 

Voice acting needs to be FASTER. Some of the dialogue in this game is too damn slow and I'm done reading before the first couple words have a chance to spill out of my speakers. How about a new take on VA - stuff that sounds good with a FAST delivery.

 

The figures quoted in this and similar threads are ridiculous. If Obsidian was paying SAG rates for a low budget RPG with lots of text of course they are going to run out of money fast. Whomever was/is the project manager that decided that was a good use of funds needs to be fired ASAP. There is absolutely zero reason that DECENT, ACCEPTABLE, PROFESSIONALY SOUNDING voice acting could not have been delivered through the efforts of a single sound engineer spearheading it all. This person should have been able to audition, hire (for much less that is being discussed. 4 million, seriously WTF?), and record a collection of hungry amateur voices over the course of a year. Pay him a damn salary and if he couldn't deliver quality voice acting for the entire game for under $300,000 (including his pay) I would start asking questions. This is an indy game that had no business hiring professional voice actors.

 

I am fine with a conversation being introduced via the first sentence or two being VA.  I think narration actually work a lot better than many things for an isometric game with a main protagonist.  I think cut scene like things actually often need VA.

 

As a hard rule I would say that once I have started reading don't intterupt me with VA, by that point its too late.

 

I think the storyboard/picture books are also good candidates for VA as are the various quips and back and forth while the game itself goes on.

 

 

People saying to hire amateurs.  I don't think you are being realistic.  Are there great amateurs out there?  Of course there is always some future star out there.  Mark Hamil didn't start out being the quintessential Joker VA, he was stuck in a George Lucas franchise that convinced most people he was a terrible actor yet he is a magnificent VA (and does more than just the Joker).  Finding a diamond in the ruff at bargain basement prices is not realistic.  Heck even finding someone you think is a good fit is hard  There are a lot of people who make quite a bit of money whose sole purpose is to find people who are the right fit for a creative project.

 

Professionals make money because they are known.  People who want successful project don't want to a) gamble on some chance these people are good enough when they have no idea what their strengths and weaknesses are or b) spend an inordinate amount of their budget on the search itself.

 

I dunno what they spent on VA money-wise and I know various such as Interesting NPCs for Skyrim has some decent voice acting by volunteers.  I am not saying its impossible.  But there really isn't any formal or known way to RELIABLY get a nice cast of VA from volunteers/amateurs.  Maybe there will be in the future due to things like mod communities pulling something together but there is not one now and a studio has to deliver in a decent timeframe with a reliable idea of how they will procure their resources for various reasons. 

[Sensuki]

YES! Need romances so much >.<

single most important feature in a rpg, also make sure to be inclusive and make everyone bisexual

Edited May 4, 2015 by Sensuki

[Yellow Rabbit]

Its not about what they think about VA.  Its about what they think we think about VA.

I think you over-simplifying things a little by not taking into consideration different kinds of games there are. Obsidian's previous titles were all pretty much AAA games with cinematic-like design for which full VO is crucial (otherwise "cinematic" point would be lost). I take it devs are aware that they're making game of a different kind now, and they should be totally aware if from these boards alone that VO in PoE right now is more of a hindrance than anything else.

[Bryy]

The figures quoted in this and similar threads are ridiculous. If Obsidian was paying SAG rates for a low budget RPG with lots of text of course they are going to run out of money fast. Whomever was/is the project manager that decided that was a good use of funds needs to be fired ASAP. 

But they didn't run out of money. In fact, they used it all.

 

The person that should be fired is the guy or girl on DFA that decided to hire Elijah Wood and Jack Black.

[ruzen]

I would rather throw money for more animations idle/cinematic than voice ovvers

but again

didnt we allready give money at first place?

intrésting

[Nakia]

currently the choices

"I would like some VO, but a little less than PoE has, with the savings going to enhance other aspects of the game. "and

"I think the amount of VO in PoE is just about right, and worth the money."

are tied at 45 votes giving a total of 90 votes out of 122 for the those who want some VO but in moderation.

 

I think it does add to the game but is not a priority item.  I enjoy the banter between party members and the limited voicing of some important characters help to give life to those characters.

[Sedrefilos]

Full VO or no VO at all. If they want to go for full VO, better do it if they have the money for it, not cutting from elsewhere.

 

Edit: also, portraits for all npcs that initiate dialogue, even bartenders and merchants.

Didn't vote.

Edited May 4, 2015 by Sedrefilos

[Varana]

 

No one should be able to ask for any additional feature or enhancement until we know Romance is in the next PoE

 

We need to prioritize things guys 

 YES! Need romances so much >.<

 

 

Voiced romances.

Or better yet, partially voiced romances.

You know, the not-dialogue parts.

[Starwars]

I can volunteer for those. I have a very good handclap that might be suitable for some of the more intimate parts.

[Grinch]

I voted none. Unless the voice acting is very good, I believe it's a waste of resources. Right now I think the VA in PoE is pretty bad. It would have been much better if they would have stayed with all text. One other thing I didn't like was the bits of profanity in the game. It just seems out of place. This is a fantasy setting not the boys locker room.

[Grinch]

 

No one should be able to ask for any additional feature or enhancement until we know Romance is in the next PoE

 

We need to prioritize things guys 

 YES! Need romances so much >.<

 

No we don't. Romances really don't add anything. For those of you who play pen and paper RPGs, how many of your characters did you ever roleplay having sex? These games are supposed to be about an adventure. Not the sexual escapades  of Joe the Dwarf. It's the one thing I don't like about Bioware's newer games. They all have romance options. I think the time and effort spent could be used in other areas. It's almost as if the romance options were intentionally added just for all the adolescent, horny teenagers who play. Romance isn't needed unless it adds to the story or adventure.

[VahnXIII]

I think the amount of voice acting is about right. To be honest, it could use a little less. I would like to hear more voice acting with random NPC's. I understand a lot of the townsfolk are just filler and ambiance pieces, but it would be nice for them to have a little more writing and a spoken line or two. It helps build the atmosphere. 

[bonarbill]

It's nice that your main companions have a lot of voice acting, but I definitely want to hear VA on minor NPCs were appropriate.   I'm sure nobody can forget Tiana nagging voice when she was looking for rumar in the copper coronet.  Just having their introducting line voice is good enough.