I've pondered weak and weary over the whole Silent PC vs VO and how it reflects on dialogue choices, player options, DA1 and DA2 and what we have heard from the Devs may possibly come in the future. I'll start by reiterating that I'm very excited about DA2 with all of its changes and would recommend everyone to order it as it promises to be a great title. Here is another reason though why good sales of DA2 will benefit us DA:O fanatics who feel DA:O with all of its player choices was an unmatched concept. Bellow, I've collected quotes about the topic of the VO debate, from which we can discern what we should and should not expect and not expect from future titles regarding "Origins Style".
1) DA:O Official FAQ:
3.18. Is all the dialogue in the game voice-acted? Every non-player character is fully recorded. The player character's dialogue options are not recorded, but each combination of race and gender includes six possible voices for the player's battle-cries. Imposing a dialog voice on the player character would have significantly limited the possible number of player options.
Why? Money and time would not allow for the same quality and quantity of options and dialogue
Torias wrote...
Because RPG's typically don't have voice acting for the PC. Mass Effect was (one of?) the first ones to do it. Mass Effect 2 is doing it, but Dragon Age did not. The reason has to do with money and time. It requires money and time to do voice for the PC. In Mass Effect, you could be male or female, and there was a moderate amount of dialogue from the PC. In Dragon Age, you can be human, elf or dwarf, male or female. (That's up to 6 different "voices"). there is also a lot more dialogue from the PC in Dragon Age than mass effect. so Bioware had a choice between:1) Less PC options and less PC Dialogue2) Don't record voice acting for the PC. They went with option 2. MOST rpgs go with option 2, Mass Effect is different and special (and awesome!), but it isn't the standard.
Chris Priestly wrote...
There are a lot of dialog lines for the PC.Multiply these lines by Male/Female PC and Human, Dwarf and Elf.
That makes for a LOT of dialog lines that would need recording. As such, the team choise to leave the PC unvoiced.
For Dragon Age 2, you will be able to have a fully voiced PC.
David Gaider wrote...
There was a point where we toyed with having a voiced protaganist in Origins, actually. We went as far as to test it out, but in the end decided against it. Once the cinematics were further along, I think we regretted it mainly because it didn't have the effect we intended, something that was reinforced when we showed the game to the public.Addai67 wrote...So, dare I ask, why did you make Origins that way?
Did it still work in DAO? I think it did. I don't mind a silent protaganist, myself, but it certainly does stick out amidst all the cinematic dialogue. In this case between our own feelings on the subject and some of the criticism we felt it was worth changing direction.
Could Mike have said all of that? He may in fact have said more on the topic, or maybe he didn't intend to go on an entire lawyer-like diatribe to try and justify something to people who were bound to disagree with the idea anyhow. Even so, he was not wrong and I wouldn't try to read more into his words than what he said.
We're most likely not retreating back to silent PC in future titles because fans don't like it and it was a blemish that had to be contended with in an otherwise great DA:O game. Multiple PCs in future titles possible if investment proves worthy.
And yet despite the fact that (as per Torias' quote) ME had less PC dialogue than a single PC from Origins because of VO, DA2 is making a great improvement and Hawke should not have fewer lines/dialogue options than the Warden. Another mention of Origins in the future as a possibility.David Gaider wrote...
Unlike what you seem to be assuming, profitibility is not the only consideration. A big part of it is what works for this project. When we look at what is an acceptable expense and what isn't, it's in comparison to how that expense makes for a return in the project we're working on. If we do a project in the future where we feel the expense of having multiple player races (along with the voiced PC) gives us enough bang for our buck, we'll do it. It's also possible we could abandon the voiced PC altogether, though like you I consider that unlikely.RussianSpy27 wrote...
So no, we were not told that there would definitely not be future revisiting of the silent PC with all of then-alleged story benefits (and hence, per Mr. Woo's posts, I will not try to be a seer), but the comments seem to make such revisiting unlikely, as the concept is frowned upon. Can a frowned-upon concept change tomorrow into a smiled-upon concept? Everything is possible, but just seems unlikely from what we've just been told.
Still, stranger things have happened, and a lot of it will depend on how we implement our changes as well as how they're ultimately received. "People didn't like the silent protaganist" in DAO could become "people didn't like the voiced protaganist" in DA2, who knows? Perhaps the game won't sell, in which case we'll have to go back to the drawing board. We don't have a crystal ball regarding that any more than anyone here on the forums does.
In the end we take feedback (the constructive kind) and go with our gut-- because we're the ones making the game, and it's our money on the line. Someone can demonize the fact that there are business decisions to be made, and imply that we're soulless automatons who value it above all else (which people have done) but that doesn't change the fact that we also have creative interest in our creation. One simply cannot exist without the other, and that's the simple truth.
David Gaider wrote...
Well, just FYI it's 5,000 lines x2 (for two genders). The way writing measures total linecount and the way VO measures total linecount are actually different. Even so, that's still a lot. If you were wondering whether PC VO would mean you'd have less responses and options, well there's your answer.Piecake wrote...So Hawke has 10,000 dialogue lines out of the total 30,000ish? Does that seem like an absurdly high percentage of total dialogue to anyone else?
No, it doesn't mean that. The questions a bit vague to pinpoint to any particular part of the "style" but we could definitely do origins again in the future. I'd suspect we're more talking about voiced protaganist here and the overall visual style. Hard to say.MEUTRIERE wrote...I'm curious about the style of Dragon Age 2 sticking around for future games. Does that mean no more origin-esque storylines with a variety of characters to pick from? Like, we'll be playing one set character for each game from now on? Or maybe I'm understanding the translation wrong?
Conclusion:
1. Legitimate financial concerns prevented DA:O to have a voiced Warden (hence the FAQ's "significantly limit" line - because of resources, not that it's impossible for VO to theoretically imitate, if afforded)...
2. ME, first of its kind, had fewer dialogue options than the Warden
3. Hence, A compromise was made for more player/dialogue options
4. DA2 is improving in this regard and Hawke will not have fewer options
5. Future Origins with silent PC very unlikely.
6. Same quality for 12 actors in a potential Origins would cost much more, but has not been ruled out as possible.
7. Hence, BioWare needs to accumulate as much $ as possible to invest in a 12 voiced PC future title.
8. Therefore, let's mass order DA2
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