Fully Voiced Characters

[Gairnulf]

I've seen people requesting this, and I thought I'd try to see what's the general opinion.

 

 

[Aotrs Commander]

Given the arguements they made for not doing it last time are exactly as valid, why would they do it different this time?

 

(Planescape Torment is still the greatest RPG of all time and that didn't need it, either.)

 

 

 

The only way I see it might be worth doing is if you did a special edition or expansion down the line to fill in the gaps AFTER release (and bug-fixes), when you knew you weren't going to need it anymore. But it's a lot of effort (and pennies) to do that.

[Sedrefilos]

I'm pro fully voiced except protagonist.

[Madscientist]

I would prefer more and better content. Voice actors are expensive. I would spend this money in polishing and balancing of the game. I am not against VO per se, but it is not my top priority.

[TheisEjsing]

That would be the 10 million dollar stretch goal. 

[Fenixp]

The moment Obsidian wants to waste insane amounts of money on fully voice acting the game is the moment I withdraw my pledge. So um... Yea, I'd prefer not, all things considered :-P

[Ganrich]

The moment Obsidian wants to waste insane amounts of money on fully voice acting the game is the moment I withdraw my pledge. So um... Yea, I'd prefer not, all things considered :-P

Pretty much the same. Why spend half (or more) of their budget on VO when they can focus on more gameplay options? I'll take the current stretch goal, more c&c, deeper companion interaction, etc over VO a million times over.

[Yonjuro]

That would be the 10 million dollar stretch goal. 

 

 

 Exactly. Voice acting is very expensive.

 

 I am in favor of just enough voice acting. It can establish a character, set a tone for an interaction etc. Adding more doesn't add much and most of it will get skipped on the second and subsequent play throughs since it takes longer to listen than to read. 

 

I think PoE did it well (maybe a bit too much VA, if anything).

[Undecaf]

Fully voiced characters?

 

Absolutely not, even if it was affordable.

[floredon]

No thanks, I didn't even like the narrator in Baldurs Gate, I would have just preferred to read the text. I don't mind the random vocalizations from companions (banter), or even if a significant character says the first line or 2 of their dialogue. But fully voice acted characters don't really fit this genre.

Edited January 27, 2017 by floredon

[SkySlam]

I like partial voiceover - like they did in PoE1 - just to give you the idea of the characters and then leave the rest to your own imagination.

 

They got it right in the first game, there's no reason to change that in my opinion.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

No.

[sp3cw4r]

I like partial voiceover - like they did in PoE1 - just to give you the idea of the characters and then leave the rest to your own imagination.

 

They got it right in the first game, there's no reason to change that in my opinion.

 

Agreed. Partial voiceover was the right call for the first game, all things considered, so nothing should change for the second installment.

 

I'd love full voiceover for everyone except protagonist, but it's just unrealistic budget wise and would also put limits on the amount of content writers are allowed.

[Amentep]

No real interest in fully-voiced characters for this type of game.

 

Actually while I don't mind fully voiced characters, I read faster than most VO actors speak at, so end up skipping most of the VO unless I really, really, really, really  like the game and want to slow down my experience.

[Aramintai]

I'm all for full voiceover in general, however only if devs don't need to worry about their funds. In PoE2's case I think money would be better spent on something more essential, like making more ingame content, polishing and balancing.

Edited January 27, 2017 by Aramintai

[the_dog_days]

What if I'm neither for or against? If they get enough funding and some good voice talent, then great, but I'm okay with reading too.

Edited January 27, 2017 by the_dog_days

[Eivenne]

Full voiceover qoule be great, but not in a game with tons of descriptions between dialogues. Even in PoE1 it bothered me that an actor read the whole text without giving me the time to read about the character's behaviour and other stuff. 

[Amentep]

What if I'm neither for or against? If they get enough funding and some good voice talent, then great, but I'm okay with reading too.

 

I don't you can be of a relaxed and reasonable opinion on the Internet.  You must be doing it wrong.

[Faerunner]

Voice actors are expensive and audio files take up more room than text files.

 

Part of the beauty of PoE (in my opinion) is the wide range of choices and response to any given situation, and wide variety of dialogue options in conversations. The mostly text-based nature of the game ensures this. If everything becomes voiced, the range of choices gets whittled down to whatever they can afford/squeeze into voice files.

 

I saw the Dragon Age franchise go from the largely choice-based and roleplay-rich DAO to the bland, binary "illusion of choice" cinema-based DAI. I don't want to see PoE go the same route.

Edited January 27, 2017 by Faerunner

[evilcat]

BTW anyone knows how much is game voiceover? Or how many words there are in PoE?

[the_dog_days]

 

What if I'm neither for or against? If they get enough funding and some good voice talent, then great, but I'm okay with reading too.

I don't you can be of a relaxed and reasonable opinion on the Internet. You must be doing it wrong.

Indeed. Now that I've seen the light I declare that my opinion is supreme and everyone else is wrong. Man, I love democracy.

[Yonjuro]

What if I'm neither for or against? 

 

 Then be against it. All the cool kids are doing it. 

 

 

 

If they get enough funding and some good voice talent, then great, but I'm okay with reading too.

 

 One way to look at it is that, however much funding they get, it will always be a question of what to spend it on. Is voice acting the best things to spend it on? Sometimes, but not all the time:

 

 In PoE1, there was some good use of voice acting to establish the companion characters. Right away, you knew Eder was the guy you can count on, Durance was a nutcase etc.

 

 Maerwald was a good use of voice acting money because it was an easy way to communicate that he had multiple personalities. It would have been awkward to do that with text. The other characters near Maerwald were seriously creepy: "Light it!" - a good use of voice acting to set the mood.

 

 The conversation with the dwarf woman in the tree ... well not so much. She was a lore dump character who appeared once. One or two voice acted lines for flavor would have been more than enough. If it cost extra to voice the whole conversation, that was money that could have been spent on something else.

[Ganrich]

I believe crit-path VO is fine. So, the Dwarf woman in the tree was fine. However, I like limited VO for everything else because adding more dialogue options is significantly cheaper if you're not paying somebody to voice every option. Use VO to set tone, develop character, some fun barks and banter, and drive the crit-path. That's all it is needed for in a game like this.

[Messier-31]

No full fvoice acting, but some more different voices would be nice. And less American accent.

[paladin181]

I wish Bethesda would take the route of less is more for voice acting. VA are expensive, sound files are big, and the benefit is minimal, except to the console gaming crowd who can't understand why they're not hitting an opponent, or why the person isn't saying all the words on the screen. God forbid you have to read a little.

 

I wouldn't like too much voice over as I like the way it plays out in my head much better, and the best CRPGs don't need a lot of voice over.