Why Voice Acting Sucks

[Overweight Manatee]

Shamus Young is an OK guy. The Escapist doesn't deserve him.

 

[Murk]

I agree with Fat Dragon on bloodlines - probably the only game I listened to EVERY line of dialog for (at least on my first playthrough), but the v/o work in that game was leaps and bounds above any other.

Otherwise I skip through sooooo much shit and lament the damage it does to many a game in terms of dialog output and description. Can you imagine if PS:T was fully voiced?

 

[Fat Dragon]

i think one of the reasons Bloodlines has great vo is because Brian writes great dialogue that flows well. Obviously the actors can do a much better job when what they have to act is interesting, fun, and sounds natural.

Compare to the banal-shit-boring dialogue from Fallout 3 or the idiotic tries-too-fucking-hard Dragon Age. I've no doubt the vos were bored and aggravated out of their fucking minds with that awful shit.

 

[racofer]

But... but Bloodlines has no million dollar Hollywood actors!!!

 

[Gerrard]

Just because he donned the mantle of Captain Obvious doesn't make him "an OK guy".

Can you imagine if PS:T was fully voiced?

When I think about it, it would be kinda weird if you included narration of descriptions.

 

[Brother None]

Just because he donned the mantle of Captain Obvious doesn't make him "an OK guy".

No, he's an OK guy because a lot of the stuff on his Twenty Sided blog is pretty good. I don't agree with all of it but he's a good game critic.

 

[Vibalist]

Just because he donned the mantle of Captain Obvious doesn't make him "an OK guy".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqrhqFckHQ8

 

[korenzel]

To be honest, Shamus Young was much more interesting before he got hooked on everything Bioware and MMOs. There are interesting bits to read when he talks about game design or reviews something, but that became quite rare. Now he mostly rants about DRMs and does LPs. His archives contain a number of good articles though.

 

[SCO]

The Last Express is not a rpg- why have the avatars without even a LP?

 

[Murk]

But... but Bloodlines has no million dollar Hollywood actors!!!

Joe Dimagio > Patrick Stewart and Phil Lamarr is awesome. I was really hoping to hear at least 1 other Futurama-cast voice in Bloodlines but alas...

Now if a game had Morgan Freeman narrating... my oh my, that'd be something (cue that xkcd comic about reading all spam in the voice of morgan freeman).

 

[Gragt]

If there is a Wise Negro stereotype in a game, I'm sure he'll be able to play it.

 

[StrangeCase]

I saw a badly voice-acted game the other day. Nasty creatures. I try to steer clear of them.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Watch anyone play these fully-voiced RPG's, and you'll see they click right through the voice acting.

No kidding. Perhaps, if the characters and what they were saying were actually, you know, interesting (like, whoa!, I know), their VO and whocaresabout-celebrity hype budgets wouldn've have been going to waste... as much.
It does puzzle me: there is plenty of good writers in the world - not to mention creative, imaginative people - why can't gamedevs with multimillion-dollar budgets ever get a hold of one? Are they afraid they'd get leprosy and come to dwell in their parents' basement as a side-effect? What?

As Jesus said:

Give me a dialogue screen with a nice portrait at most and give me some nice thought provoking dialogue. Perhaps even let the gameplay be put on hold, let me enjoy the writing and the choices in dialogue without time limits or continuous loops of some animation.

 

[Konjad]

I think Voice Acting added MUCH to Bloodlines, Gothic I and II(in Polish version, English sucked and idk about German) and The Witcher (again in Polish version while not in English, though this time English voice acting wasn't as bad as in Gothic). These are the only games I can think of that gain from full voice acting. I can't remember any other good cRPG that had been derailed by voice acting either. Oblivion or ME were bad in everything and that is all cRPGs with voice acting, I guess.

So I kinda disagree with article. Although it doesn't matter to me if a game has full voice acting, partial or none I think games can gain from it.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

It is funny, but when I used to rage against the machine about full voice acting, 3D (another thing that took away content, such as party members, world size, etc), etc, people used to think I was mad.

As others have said here, voice acting can be good, but it is also usually limiting and expensive, so tends to cut out other possibilities.

 

[Hory]

Here's an idea, what if instead of full voice acting, characters actually just acted the first few words of the sentence, or at least the general meaning of the phrase. Here's an example adapted to the Fallout demo (what's in angle brackets is spoken):

- I made a mistake joining the Crypts. <I want to be on your side.>
- <I came with a message from Phrax.>
- <I will, thanks.>
- <Then we should wear the coat of a betrayer?> One who would deliver their own? No dog is as low as you.
- <And no, you shall not wear the mantle of a Fool.> You will wear the mantle of a traitor, and my garrot will be it's mate.
- I feel as if your coat may turn again, but <your words sway me>.
- <You shall be as if a Fool[...]>, but listen well and mark these words of mine: if you betray us as you would your former mates, then you shall die - with a grimace, not a laugh.
- <Phrax is not brave enough[?]> to speak this message with his own voice? He is no man, of that I know. And he sends this boy to say his words. Well, then, say them and be done.
- <Die.>
- <He said to leave town[...]> and you won't be killed.
- <He said have a nice day.>
- <Hahaha!> I like a man with a sense of humor. You can live.
Sorry, just joking.
- <I don't think you fully understand[...]> the ramifications of what you just said. I hope you learn them before your bones dry in the desert sun. Unfortunately, I don't think you have very long.
- What have we here? We heard that someone new was in town. This must be you, everyone else looks oh so familiar. Please allow me to introduce myself. [I am Baka, Queen of the Fools.]
- <Why do you call yourselves the Fools?>
- I hear that the Crypts and you are having some <difficulties[?]>.
- <You look like a fool to me.>
- <After the War, only the Foolish remain.> If I was brave enough, I would have taken my own life years ago. Instead, I pander to whatever gods of chance are left.
- <Gods of fortune, gods of fate.> I care not as long as I get the last laugh. We can't join death so we laugh at it.
- Understandable. I sort of agree with it. <Can I join?>
- We could use another hand. <Let me think about this.> (She puts her hand to her chin, and parades around the room dramatically.)

 

[Clockwork Knight]

^Too weird and confusing, and creates pacing problems (I'll be reading the start when he's summing up the whole thing in a voiced sentence). Saying the first sentence verbatim in an important dialogue (first meeting, before boss, etc) is much better.

 

[Lothers]

Apparently they never played Thief, but they certainly played Oblivion.

 

[DraQ]

Apparently they never played Thief

You must mean Thiaf.

 

[Lothers]

Apparently they never played Thief

You must mean Thiaf.

Yes, and Garretu-san.

 

[Achilles]

Finally some incline.

 

[PorkaMorka]

This is so obvious, and full voice acting for a story with a lot of dialog is so expensive and limiting that I simply can't imagine how it ever became popular let alone an industry standard.

Was it just retarded suits copying each other or do professional game developers really think I'm sitting there listening to unimportant dialog with a shopkeeper which i could read nearly instantly and move on.

Someone ask a developer and report back, chop chop.

 

[ChristofferC]

Voice acting does not add to the immersion for me.
1. The voice acting usually sucks.
2. Without voice acting I can imagine what their voices sound like, which results in greater immersion.

Detailed graphics also does not add to the immersion for me. With simpler graphics I can imagine what things look like.

 

[Lothers]

Voice acting does not add to the immersion for me.
1. The voice acting usually sucks.
2. Without voice acting I can imagine what their voices sound like, which results in greater immersion.

Detailed graphics also does not add to the immersion for me. With simpler graphics I can imagine what things look like.

You are so last-gen. But you are right.

 

[Erebus]

Voices at key points by good voice actors is the only way to go. PST did this awesomely well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gppi07PSmq4

{*Shut* yer bone-box, ye hear me ? Shut y-}

{Answer me this and you will know silence, child.}
{Does the one you follow *matter* to you ?}

"He matters more to me than life."

"Then die."

Tony Jay had such a great voice...

 

[SCO]

I think that in this century text to speech will be perfected, to the point of being able to simulate emotive speech.

Obvious application is obvious.