What if I told you that YOU could be the voice-actor for your character? The idea came to me while watching Toegoff's awesome Let's Play of Dragon Age on youtube. What I really liked about that LP was how everytime Toegoff clicked on a dialogue option he would read it out loud in-character, the way he imagined his elf would say it! When the npc and he went back-and-forth in that way, Toegoff the Berserking elf did not seem mute at all!
"But wait!" you might say, "talking out loud to ourselves and then clicking on the dialogue option would make us look, and feel, like complete dorks! Toegoff could only do that because he had an audience! It would also ruin the cinematic feel switching perspectives and panning by your companions *during* Mike Hawke's epic speech to Kirkwall!"
A valid concern. But wait... we have the technology!
You know how when calling customer service for phone companies you almost never get a real person on the oher end? And the compuer voice just asks you "If you're calling about tech support, press 1. To ask about your subscription, press 2. Para ayuda en Espanol, etc."
Lately companies like AT&T have tried to make this process less impersonal with a rather neat gimmick: the computer voice will say "please enter or say your customer code" at which point you read out your number, and the computer almost always accurately understands!
Of course this means you will have to buy a mike headset or a webcam, but who doesn't use skype these days?
So far I've only seen this technology used for numbers and short phrases like "Please repeat that".
If that is the limitation of the technology, then perhaps the text of the dialogue you begin reading will highlight each word it registers you saying as you say it, similar to a Sing-a-long video (remember those? I learned English watching Disney Sing-a-long movies
)Take this line for instance:
"Enough is ENOUGH! I have HAD IT with these DUSTER-SODDING SHRIEKS on the MONARCH'S FERELDAN TERRAIN!"
As you read the line from the dialogue wheel, the words you've read turn blood-red, because in Dragon age everything turns bloody.
When you get to "ENOUGH!" the camera will suddenly switch to an obese dwarf who turns to look at you in shock!
Then a close up of Mike's face, which unfocuses and pans across your party member's reactions as you continue to read the line. Upon registering you say "Terrain", the game goes back to Mike, who pulls out his sword/staff/bow and charges dramatically!
There could also be the "wait, nevermind" feature, which allows you to switch what dialogue choice you were going to make halfway. The game could register certain stock phrases like "No, I've changed my mind" or "wait, nevermind", which will un-highlight what you've said so far and you can start over. This can be used not just as a back-tracking tool, but a role-playing tool! It can really help you demonstrate how uncertain your Hawke is: how hard this decision is for him! (Maybe you can get a slightly less dissaproval for starting to agree with Morrigan before changing your mind and disagreeing!)
I admit that much more thought has to be put into this idea before it can be realistically implemented, but if done right it would solve one of the big problems people have with DA2!
EDIT:
Just to clarify, we won't be able to just say whatever and expect the game to understand. With this system we would have to read out the dialogue option word-for-word.
But since everyone seems to like the length and the amount of dialogue options for DA1, if we just have the same in DA2 but you can read it aloud instead of clicking on the text, I think everyone will be satisfied!
Modifié par Kritanakom, 18 juillet 2010 - 01:19 .
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