5 réponses à ce sujet

[Gecon]

I just recently felt the urge to play some computer roleplaying game again, so I started playing Oblivion.

As everyone knows, this game comes with complete voiceover.

Well what I found out is that not only can I read faster than people speak, but also I try reading even faster just to get rid of that annoying talking person who feeds me silly crap I dont care about at all.

Well, we all know Irenicus from Baldurs Gate 2 who is maybe the best voice actor ever, or at least in the eternal top 10 of them. But that game didnt had complete voiceover, nor did I ever miss it.

So whats the point really ? Why does everyone and their grandma think voiceover is such a big thing ? Personally, I would still be completely happy with the solution in BG and BG2 - just give us a nice introduction sentence that sets the mood, then read the actual text.

[John Epler]

Addai67 wrote...

leonia42 wrote...

But I get the sentiment of your post. To each their own. That's the wonderful thing about players, no two are the same. We're all a little like snowflakes.. wait.. no, that's not quite the analogy I was after.

The problem is that Bioware seems to have decided that some snowflakes are flakier than others.

I'm certainly not discounting the idea that non-VO'd characters have merit. In some games, certainly. I can think of at least a few titles where I either greatly enjoyed the lack of VO, or I felt that the VO was unnecessary to my enjoyment and ended up skipping a lot of it.

For DA2, however, we've decided that VO fits what we want to do with the title. I'm not saying you should never disagree with us (because what fun would a forum be where everyone agreed all the time?) but in this case, we will have to agree to disagree. Which isn't to say you should stop sharing your opinion - far from it! I do enjoy reading what everyone has to say, and I know I'm not alone.

[John Epler]

Brockololly wrote...

JohnEpler wrote...

Addai67 wrote...
The problem is that Bioware seems to have decided that some snowflakes are flakier than others.

I'm certainly not discounting the idea that non-VO'd characters have merit. In some games, certainly. I can think of at least a few titles where I either greatly enjoyed the lack of VO, or I felt that the VO was unnecessary to my enjoyment and ended up skipping a lot of it.

For DA2, however, we've decided that VO fits what we want to do with the title. I'm not saying you should never disagree with us (because what fun would a forum be where everyone agreed all the time?) but in this case, we will have to agree to disagree. Which isn't to say you should stop sharing your opinion - far from it! I do enjoy reading what everyone has to say, and I know I'm not alone.

I get what you're saying but from the outside looking in at BioWare it sure seems that you're trying to make full VO with the dialogue wheel and pushing the whole "cinematic" angle into each of your games now. And thats fine, but for myself its a bit disappointing as one of the reasons I enjoyed Origins so much was that it played differently than ME and presented itself differently than ME. I don't think DA2 will be some ME clone, but when TOR and now DA2 adopt ME's "cinematic" angle with voiced PC and everything, you'll have to pardon my skepticism that I think you guys will ever go back to the silent PC. And its that loss of diversity in how the game is presented that disappoints me most.

And that's certainly a fair concern. Homogeneity in game design is not, for most people in the industry, a desireable goal. Though I think that, aside from the introduction of the dialogue wheel, DA2 and the ME series are still rather distinct in presentation. At least on the Cinematic Design side, I feel as though we treat both series differently. It's hard to describe without spoiling something that will get me a stern talkin' to, but in a more general sense - the writing teams are still very distinct. Both series have their own flavour in both dialogue and cinematically.

I think what it comes down to, honestly, is the idea of being immersed in the story versus the idea of being immersed in the PC. The former will be far more accepting of a voiced protagonist, as the thing they're the most interested in is not their own PC, but rather the characters and story as a whole. The latter attaches a lot more importance to their own character - it serves as a representation of 'themselves' within the world that the game creates. They tend to be more leery of a voiced PC - after all, it's not their voice, and that can cause some dissonance.

Of course, I could be completely off-base  But I don't think that using a voiced protagonist in DA2 is a sign that we're going to turn all our games into the same sort of thing. I still feel that ME2 and DA2 (to use the most recent examples) are fundamentally different - and I've spent about a year and a half with both franchises at this point. So I feel like I can make that judgment  I'm rambling at this point, though.

[John Epler]

To address your points, Brockololly:



On the Miranda camera angle: Different cinematic design teams have different styles. I'm not about to comment on the angle in question, but the person who did the work on Miranda is not working on DA2. It's entirely possible someone else might adopt a similar style, but if you're expecting that sort of camera work to be imported wholesale - I doubt it. Everyone has their own peculiarities, and if you spent a week with each cinematic designer, you'd probably be able to pick out their work in the game with a fair amount of accuracy



As to your second point - I don't feel as though our customization options are lacking. To me, the real importance is whether or not other characters react to what we do or say, not the voice we use to say it. Of course, this is one of those points where I feel we'll agree to disagree. Unless you don't agree with that. But I feel we gain more than we lose by using the voiced protagonist. That's my opinion, of course - and I don't expect everyone to agree!



As to your third point - well, Bethesda has different design goals and philosophies than we do. I enjoy their games, and I know a few people who work there who enjoy our games Silent protagonist works well for them!



As to your fourth point - I can't say one way or another if we'll have silent protagonists ever again. That's the kind of decision made at a level far, far above my pay grade I'm here to make conversations look interesting and dynamic.

[John Epler]

Merced256 wrote...

BDF drowns everything out, just sayin'.

I actually felt that the discussion was fairly productive on both sides. Both the pro and anti-VO'd protagonist had some solid points that I enjoyed reading.

If you feel that your opinion is being purposefully drowned out, let a moderator know, either through report post or a PM. Not through a one-line post that doesn't add anything to the discussion.

Modifié par JohnEpler, 14 octobre 2010 - 10:07 .

[John Epler]

Hey, look, a discussion about the definition of both role-playing and role-playing games.



Guess what we aren't going to have! Three guesses, and the first two don't count.



We've reached almost Sisyphean levels with this debate, I swear.