987 réponses à ce sujet

[Hello There]

The fanbase is pretty divided and i want to know the actual amount of people on the forums that prefer voiced or silent protagonists.

A common misconception is that voiced PC is a revolution over Silent PC, but this is blatently untrue. The truth is that they are just two different styles of play and neither are a revolution, since they both have pros and cons, strenths and weaknesses.

Silent - The pros of a silent PC is that it really puts you, the player, into the world of the game because it feels like you are being the PC. It really immerses you into the world. You are acting in the world, either acting how you would in real life, or you can roleplay a character you have made up in your head. Silent offers much roleplaying ability beyond the scope of a voice.

Also, people debate this, but Silent also offers much more options, as well as better diversified tone of options. In DA2 it is good, funny, bad, but in Origins, there may be four tones (snide, sarcastic, empathetic, accepting) in this part of the convo, and then 3 different tones in the next part of the convo ( angry, questioning, happy). And finally, it is far less costly to have a silent PC than a voiced.
The cons of this though is that the story has to less cinematic in regards to the PC, and it can't have a central character, because the PC is more like a blank slate than a character.

TL;DR - More personal and immersed connection, better roleplaying, more options, less resources. No central character, less cinematic.

Voiced - The pros of a voiced PC is that it allows the game to be much more cinematic, with the freedom of allowing the PC to have more situations eg. giving a speech. Also, the Voiced PC is easier to jump into and doesn't require so much effort, especially with the dialogue wheel. It also allows the PC to be an actual character in the game, with a name and everything.

However, Bioware only gives a halfway for this. Shepherd and Hawke constantly drift between being a fully developed character (ala Geralt), and being a completely blank slate (ala The Warden). The cannot be their own character because they are also the players character, which always leads to their responses being the same tone an emotionless, because they don't have their own personality, because they are not their own full character. This is a mistake on Bioware though, and not Voiced PC's, but i doubt Bioware will change this because it requires a fully defined character like Geralt from the Witcher. Also, there is the trope of tones being good/funny/bad.

TL;DR - More cinematic, easier to jump into, actual character. Disconnect because not full character (Geralt) and not Blank Slate (The Warden), tones consist of Good/Funny/Bad.


My opinion is that i would much rather a silent protagonist because i prefer that type of play, and if only because VP is now becoming prominent with DAO possibly being the last Silent PC game outside of Bethesda. I want to have my Silent PC games. We don't need bothe of Biowares' series to be voiced; lets keep them distinct.


TL;DR - Differences between voiced and silent. Just say which one you prefer, and give your opinion.

Just give your opinions and vote in the POLL.

Modifié par Hello There, 06 août 2011 - 08:37 .

[KLUME777]

Silent Protagonist all the way!

[Eterna]

I prefer a voiced protagonist.

Silent ones seems emotionless and they always have such creepy blank stares.

[A Crusty Knight Of Colour]

http://social.biowar...68645/8#7897219

http://social.biowar...68645/9#7920406

To be fair, neither of those posts exactly communicates my opinion, which is - either is okay depending on the protagonist and setup. Voicing on a preset character with a fixed personality is fine, but if there is meaningful character creation (i.e Origin stories), then a silent protagonist can allow for much more depth (even if it's not always utilised).

Modifié par mrcrusty, 06 août 2011 - 08:47 .

[Zanallen]

I vote for voiced. Of course, it doesn't matter because DA3 is going to have a voiced protagonist.

[Cyne]

I enjoyed the silent protagonist. It felt more like "My character" rather than some generic bioware character that I loosely controlled. The ambigious dialogue wheel did not help. However, since a voiced protagonist is practically already decided, I'd be very happy for the option to switch it off. 

[Eudaemonium]

I prefer a voiced protagonist. There are several reasons for this, but I'll outline a few of the main ones.

Firstly, context. Video games today tend to have a voice-acted cast. Silent protagonists worked in, say, Baldur's Gate, when only certain key dialogue was voiced, but in a game like Dragon Age or Mass Effect it just seemed too out of place. Thus, it becomes an issue of context. If a company created a largely text-based game ala BG or Planescape: Torment today, then obviously a silent protagonist would be the best choice. However, in the cinematic AAA games market of the current era, voiced protagonists are the way to go.

Secondly, role-playing. The silent protagonist gives someone more RP choices, but for me, this is actually a point against it - at least in the way it is handled. I played Origins through several times, RPing a plethora of different characters, but for me they always felt like characters in spite of rather than because of the game. Most of the character's personality was just in my head and wasn't remotely reflected in the experience of playing, save for the occasional dialogue option. I might as well have been writing fan-fiction or my own short stories.

Personally, I loved Hawke - Hawke for me actually managed to hit the sweet-spot middle ground between customisation and characterisation (Shepard for me always feels like their own character, regardless of what I do). Hawke felt like a character in the game, but also a character who was enough of a blank slate for me, the player, to not feel alienated most of the time by railroaded choices. Yes, Hawke having more active choices would have been nice, but that was a fault with the story rather than the style of protagonist. In the silent protagonists corner, I'd say PS: Torment had the best compromise: the Nameless One had a highly elaborate history and backstory, but how you played him shaped who he was in the current incarnation. This also highlights something else: for me, RPing is about personality choices and RPing a character in the world, not necessarily making or breaking kingdoms or deciding the 'big decisions' with omnipoent god-like power. Sometimes my City Elf Warden seemed to have a bit too much power for her station, y'know? Additionally, since when was Diplomatic 'good' and Direct/Aggressive 'bad'? Sometimes I swear half the fanbase played a different game to me...

Thirdly, and this connects to my second point: I never RP myself. Well, okay, that's a lie, I used to RP myself, but haven't in a long time. I've never thought of the Warden or Hawke or Shepard as 'me'. That isn't to say that I craft some extensive backstory about why their personality is like X or Y (which I often don't), but I RP them as people in the world in which they are in. Thus not being able to make X, Y or Z decision/choice/statement that *I* would do is not immersion breaking for me. Voiced protagonists helps me to cement the 'not me' vibe: I am experiencing (and to an extent crafting) the experiences of Garrett/Marian Hawke/Commander Shepard/Etc, who are individuals with a certain history, certain (albeit player-mutable) desires and a voice that is their own in a world that is not my own. I am not playing myself in a fantasy world. I do not read books to read about myself, or watch movies to see myself, thus I, similarly, do not play games to play myself. [I should probably state that I did do this when I first played Baldur's Gate, despite playing a female dual-wielding half-elf fighter/mage, which I most certainly was not]. There is no problem with playing yourself, its just not what I (prefer to) do, and thus I prefer voiced protagonists over silent ones.

Now, a lot of my perspectives probably have something to do with the fact I grew up on JRPGs, where character customisation is obviously limited, and thus customisation has always been very secondary to a good story in my mind. I didn't grow up with D&D or a number of CRPGs, I grew up with Terranigma, Illusion of Gaia, Phantasy Star IV, Landstalker, and later on Final Fantasy VII, VIII, IX, Vagrant Story. That said, a significant number of JRPG heroes of the nineties have less personality and presence than the Warden (Link comes to mind, also Chrono, and Max and Bowie in Shining Force I & II, respectively, Ryu in Breath of Fire, etc), and I think this illustrates the issue of the silent protagonist in its most extreme state - where the hero literally has no personality, since they are intened to be an avatar of the player. Obviously the silent protagonists of BG and DAO are centuries ahead of this model, giving the player the ability to craft the character instead of watching in mute surrender as the world changes before them.

TL;DR: Silent Protagonist has its place and merits but in today's game market Voiced is the way to go, also ramblings on RPing and my personal preferences.

[xkg]

Silent. No whell please, and leave cinematics to adventure and interactive movie games - where it belongs.

[alex90c]

Get us some decent voice actors and yes, voiced. If they literally have me cringing non-stop, then silent all the way. Unfortunately, DA2 was of the latter type.

[furryrage59]

Silent charcter wins by anhiliation for me because of wealth of options and multiple origins. Really puts me in teh characters place when i do the voicing whilst reading  in my head and have to think.

[KLUME777]

Eudaemonium wrote...
*snip*

Voiced protagonists helps me to cement the 'not me' vibe: I am experiencing (and to an extent crafting) the experiences of Garrett/Marian Hawke/Commander Shepard/Etc, who are individuals with a certain history, certain (albeit  player-mutable) desires and a voice that is their own in a world that is not my own. I am not playing myself in a fantasy world. I do not read  books to read about myself, or watch movies to see myself, thus I,  similarly, do not play games to play myself. [I should probably state  that I did do this when I first played Baldur's Gate, despite playing a  female dual-wielding half-elf fighter/mage, which I most certainly was  not]. There is no problem with playing yourself, its just not what I (prefer to) do, and thus I prefer voiced protagonists over silent ones.

*snip*

The thing i dislike most about voiced Protagonists is that it is like watching a movie or reading a book. When i play a Western RPG, i want to be able to roleplay the character as myself, I want to imagine that i am in that world, that i am the Warden etc.

If I wanted to view a story about another person, i would watch a movie, read a book, play every videogame that isn't an RPG, and then Play the modern RPG's that do have voices. The Silent protagonist is fastly becoming extinct en route for a more cinematic appproach, and that leaves no more RPG's outside of Bethesda to roleplay myself as.

Videogames are a unique media in that they are interactive, unlike movies and books, and that they have the ability to envision yourself into the games world. We are losing that, while trying to copy movies' cinematics.

Personally i find it selfish that gamers want Dragon Age to be voiced when you already have Mass Effect. I like cinematic games as well, like Mass Effect, Uncharted, God of War, but we need variety, and i don't want to lose the few games we have that are silent, because those are my favourite. Dragon Age started off silent, and then changed to voiced. There are many, many games that are cinematic in approach. Leave something for us folks that like silent, will you please!

Modifié par KLUME777, 06 août 2011 - 12:53 .

[J.C. Blade]

Eudaemonium wrote...

*snip*

Secondly, role-playing. The silent protagonist gives someone more RP choices, but for me, this is actually a point against it - at least in the way it is handled. I played Origins through several times, RPing a plethora of different characters, but for me they always felt like characters in spite of rather than because of the game. Most of the character's personality was just in my head and wasn't remotely reflected in the experience of playing, save for the occasional dialogue option. I might as well have been writing fan-fiction or my own short stories.

*snip*

You have to write even more of a fan-fiction in DA2 because the game has too many gaps.

What happens in the first year when Hawke is a smuggler/mercenary? The game doesn’t tell you. You don’t meet anyone from that time and apparently you’ve made no friends and contacts during your stay with them - the vendors do not count because they are there to do your crafting and make the player believe that “Hawke did great stuff”. You can write a 25+ chapters worth of story about Hawke’s escapades during that time alone and her adventures as a mercenary/smuggler which made her so great and drew Varric’s attention, but again, the game doesn’t give you a single scrap about what Hawke did that made her get to the top of the gang.

Similarly with the 3 year passage of time between chapters. Did Hawke meet with other nobles or made friends with some of them? It’s up to your imagination. Did mage Hawke perhaps try to get into some sort of business as an effort to cover the fact that she’s a mage? It’s up to the player. You can go on and on and on and invent hundreds of mini-side quests that “could have” happened in between the major plot points but to which you’ll never see responses in the actual game. In a way it is similar to how some people don’t like that silent protagonist with all of his “blankness”.

Virtually the entire game demands of you to write fan-fiction for your character but only so long it doesn’t conflict with the “major elements” it wants to tell. Leaving things up to player’s imagination is cool and awesome. Making player write 60% of the game in their head is not, especially when the rest of it is poorly stitched together itself.

Silent protagonist as far as I am concerned, is better. There at least, I have only my own character to think about and not plot and plan the rest of the game. But to each their own.

Modifié par J.C. Blade, 06 août 2011 - 12:31 .

[Bobad]

Voiced Protagonist.

However I'd like to see an overhaul of the dialogue system, I'm fine with the wheel but lets not have:
 
Top = Peaceful (or paragon)
Middle = Neutral or jokey/charming
Bottom = Antagonistic (or renegade)

I would prefer we try to work out for ourselves what beneift any given response is likely to have given on our understanding of situation and character interaction rather than a metagaming knowledge of what may be best.

Modifié par Bobad, 06 août 2011 - 12:49 .

[PinkShoes]

Voiced.

BUT,

i feel like we should be given the CHOICE to have silent or at least more voices, c'mon seriously. all my Hawke's sound like the same person

[In Exile]

Voice. Nothing makes a character a soulless puppet faster than bland & direct Bioware dialogue + no voice.

[In Exile]

J.C. Blade wrote...
Virtually the entire game demands of you to write fan-fiction for your character but only so long it doesn’t conflict with the “major elements” it wants to tell. Leaving things up to player’s imagination is cool and awesome. Making player write 60% of the game in their head is not, especially when the rest of it is poorly stitched together itself.

Silent protagonist as far as I am concerned, is better. There at least, I have only my own character to think about and not plot and plan the rest of the game. But to each their own.

Can you tell me about all your DA:O characters that didn't use treaties to recruit armies, hated Ferelden and left it, or expressed hatred for the Wardens?

What's that? These options weren't possible in DA:O?

[KnightofPhoenix]

Depends on the PC.

Either silent for PCs leaning towards first person. Or voiced for set characters. I would say no more PCs like Shepard and Hawke that stand in the middle, but I do not see Bioware dropping them.

[Huntress]

I like voiced, Fhawke was excellent and I hope the next FemalePC get her voice!

[J.C. Blade]

In Exile wrote...

Can you tell me about all your DA:O characters that didn't use treaties to recruit armies, hated Ferelden and left it, or expressed hatred for the Wardens?

What's that? These options weren't possible in DA:O?

Mass Effect doesn’t allow me to play a manipulative, scheming and utterly mad Shepard who hates Earth; instead I’m forced to lead this grunt soldier around who usually solves her problems with fists and expresses her love for her planet on a regular basis. And yes, that is my canon Shepard, the mad one.

I accept that the game has a story it wants to tell and will therefore limit me in what type of character I want to play. I do not accept that I have to do novel-length writing FOR the game and fill in 7 year worth of time gap with potential events none of which would ever make an impact on Hawke in the actual game because it all happened in my head.

Modifié par J.C. Blade, 06 août 2011 - 04:49 .

[Cutlass Jack]

I prefer a Voiced PC with paraphrases. I hate voice when it says exactly what you just clicked on. Since I already know the line being said, I feel like I'm waiting for the game to catch up. Gets dull fast. With Paraphrases I get the fun of seeing how choices play out.

That said, ME2 did a clearer job with paraphrasing than DA2 did. Thats due to an issue with how the system works. You pick a conversational direction, then it checks against your personality to decide the actual line. It doesn't change those paraphrases in advance based on your current personality. Which it should. Especially since the game did a poor job of explaining that there even was a personality system. I was extremely lucky in that regard since my wife was playing it at the same time and we saw it in action how things played out differently.

I disagree with the notion DA2 was a bad middle ground RPwise. I could shape my personality much like I could shape my features. Which makes it the only game I've ever played to do that. Shepard had two different paths he could converse on, but it didn't really shape his personality. It only affected his successes with persuading options. I loved that the personality I created in DA2 carried over to cutscenes and ambient dialogue as well. It made me feel more connected to the character overall.

It should go without saying that the above is my opinion and not a statement of undeniable fact. I'm well aware that not everyone felt as connected.

[Vit246]

The most important thing about a silent protagonist with full-text is that I will always know exactly everything that will be said in the dialogue choice I pick and I will never be "surprised". And silent protagonists usually have more complex and more dialogue choices. I can roleplay infinitely much better than a voiced. Voiced is just too limited in almost everything

Modifié par Vit246, 06 août 2011 - 06:37 .

[Ryzaki]

I prefer silent.

With voiced PC I almost always get put off playing a certain gender and there's a disconnect and I don't feel as invested and I tend to let things I'd let slide with a silent protagonist bother me much much more with a voiced PC.

[Erani]

Voiced!
Sarcastic Lady Hawke was just 

[phaonica]

Silent. For me, it contributes to immersion, AND the trade off of less dialog choices, no origins, and no race choice isn't worth it.

[DarkDragon777]

I like a silent protagonist.

That way you have more complex dialogue options. I feel like I'm not playing my character with a voiced protagonist, anyway. There's no connection between me an my PC.