987 réponses à ce sujet

[sagefic]

I may be in the minority here, but I prefer voiced.

to me, voiced means you have a specific person to play (shepard, hawke) rather than a role (the warden, the spirit monk). the exception would be kotor with the person of revan. no real surprise, my fave BW games are kotor, me/me2, and yes, da2.

i don't mind being given some constraints on the PC's character in the game (here's your family, your name is hawke/shepard, you're a human, etc.) so long as i can play as a man or a woman and can change appearance somewhat. and in the end, i find it much more immersive.

i find voiced PC play as the main character of the game more. the story seems more tailored to them. they're clearly the heroes. this is both in the way the game is written to fit that one person, and in subtle things like hearing a friend call you by your name for the first time, and not a title, or in hearing your character speak a line the way you think it should be said.

the fact that you're constantly seeing your PCs face, speaking dialog, makes them more than a mute doll or someone you never see. in da:o, i felt like my warden was just a lens to view the world of thedas from. they were a vantage point, not a character. da2, for all its faults, placed hawke right in the action.

i think the PC as person, not placeholder, can be done without the voicing (again kotor did it excellently), but the voicing adds a tremendous richness to the game for me. i vastly prefer hearing the story play out without huge dialog pauses on my end. yes, i can imagine my character speaking, but hearing a real human voice adds that human element back in. it's hard for me to see the PC as being as much of a person or player in the world if they don't speak for themselves. the big part of what makes garrus or alistair or morrigan a driving force in the game is their amazing voices. to strip that from the PC strips some of their narrative power, imo.

edit: also, the voice actors they've gotten to play the PCs thus far just simply rock. i want moar of that.

Modifié par sagequeen, 04 septembre 2011 - 01:43 .

[jbrand2002uk]

[quote]KLUME777 wrote...
And Furthermore, Bioware is not a niche market. 4.5 million sales is far more than most shooters get. That is a very sucessful market share, and far from niche, although it is niche in that it is more stable (unless you ****** off the market by pulling a DA2).

[/quote]
[/quote]

well actually most shooters Like COD have made 16 million plus sales which Dwarf's the sales of rpg's if you'll excuse the unintended pun 

[jbrand2002uk]

but on the subject topic i prefere Voiced everytime

[furryrage59]

[quote]jbrand2002uk wrote...

[quote]KLUME777 wrote...
And Furthermore, Bioware is not a niche market. 4.5 million sales is far more than most shooters get. That is a very sucessful market share, and far from niche, although it is niche in that it is more stable (unless you ****** off the market by pulling a DA2).

[/quote]
[/quote]

well actually most shooters Like COD have made 16 million plus sales which Dwarf's the sales of rpg's if you'll excuse the unintended pun 

[/quote]

Um, no, most shooters do not. COD and halo get those kind of numbers.

[jbrand2002uk]

well i stand slightly corrected

[KLUME777]

[quote]jbrand2002uk wrote...

[quote]KLUME777 wrote...
And Furthermore, Bioware is not a niche market. 4.5 million sales is far more than most shooters get. That is a very sucessful market share, and far from niche, although it is niche in that it is more stable (unless you ****** off the market by pulling a DA2).

[/quote]
[/quote]

well actually most shooters Like COD have made 16 million plus sales which Dwarf's the sales of rpg's if you'll excuse the unintended pun 

[/quote]

Most shooters don't sell like CoD. CoD is so big and famous, because its the odd one out. Only Halo, Battlefield and maybe Gears of War is any comparable. Most Shooters (Bulletstorm, New Medal of Honour, Borderlands, Killzone, Resistence, etc.) sell in the 1 - 4 million range. DAO sold a lot.

[Hello There]

sagequeen wrote...


edit: also, the voice actors they've gotten to play the PCs thus far just simply rock. i want moar of that.

This is your opinion. To me, and to others, the voice acting isn't to our characters personality, and therefore it just sounds terrible. I think Shepherd is too rough, deep and not feminine enuogh. I also think Hawke is too high pitched and weak, and not to my tastes.

This is the fact of voice, that many will not like the specific voice. Whereas that is impossible for silent, as you simply make up the desired voice in your head, which makes it 100% perfect. If you like Hawkes voice so much, why don't you use it for the Warden's voice?

[jbrand2002uk]

Voiced everytime mainly because if all the other characters are voiced then not voicing you character just digs at me as lazy game design but mainly because with the more witty lines unless your a top rate comedian who plays RPG's between stand up gigs then the comic timing of those witty lines just sounds wrong in you head like your thought of the strategic pause in a particular line of banter being too short or too long and that just shatters the illusion of playing the role you have spent hours days weeks and months crafting which means you've just shot yourself in the foot effectively

[LordKinoda]

If you like Hawkes voice so much, why don't you use it for the Warden's voice?

Gladly. But it's not possible, because that specific actor would have to record all of the lines. Personally, I'd love to just record the lines myself and use my voice in the game. That wouldn't be the hardest part for me, it would be implementing it in the game. Somebody would have to make it so the Warden's face shows when he is speaking, these camera angles and lip-syncing details would be the real heavy lifting.

I posted a topic about it in the mod request section awhile back. HERE it is if you feel so inclined to see what I mean. It's not like adding a voice to the Warden couldn't be done. It could definitely be done, somebody just has to be wiling to put in the time to create the dialog details.

This is your opinion

Why do guys immediately take somebody's statement so literally as if it was stated as an ultimate fact ? Of course it's his opinion, just as that is yours. This is an opinion thread. So unless somebody otherwise says so directly, assume what they are stating is their opinion. Nothing more, nothing less.

Modifié par LordKinoda, 06 septembre 2011 - 10:40 .

[Redcoat]

I prefer silent by a wide margin, unless the game is offering me a protagonist that is clearly defined by the writers and not by me, the player (e.g. a typical JRPG).

A character's voice is an enormous part of their character. Would characters like Captain Picard, Darth Vader, or Hannibal Lecter be as recognisable without their distinctive voices? (Hell, when I hear Patrick Stewart speak, I don't hear Patrick Stewart, I hear Captain Picard!) How a character speaks, the words he uses, the acceent in which he speaks, the inflection he uses, the pitch he speaks in...these all say something about that character. To give my character a voice, then, is to take a huge element of customisation away from me. I tried creating a Hawke that was the polar opposite to my first one, and the impression I got was not that this was a new character, but a Hawke that just sounded angrier.

A voiced protagonist also goes hand-in-hand with a paraphrase system, since players usually dislike having the full line written out and then hearing it. But since a paraphrase system effectively hides what my character will say from me, I cannot honestly say I have control over that character, since he might say something that contradicts the personality I've established. There were several times in ME or DA2 where Shepard or Hawke blurted out something that was something I'd never have him say if I had the option (Shepard blurting out racist lines comes to mind). DA2 makes it impossible for me to create a character that is truly my own; instead, all I can do is begin with most vague ideas as to Hawke's character, then let the game fill in the details. That makes the game feel less like a game and more like an interactive movie, with me in the director's chair trying to direct an actor who keeps forgetting his lines and improvising.

[Hello There]

LordKinoda wrote...

If you like Hawkes voice so much, why don't you use it for the Warden's voice?

Gladly. But it's not possible, because that specific actor would have to record all of the lines. Personally, I'd love to just record the lines myself and use my voice in the game. That wouldn't be the hardest part for me, it would be implementing it in the game. Somebody would have to make it so the Warden's face shows when he is speaking, these camera angles and lip-syncing details would be the real heavy lifting.

I posted a topic about it in the mod request section awhile back. HERE it is if you feel so inclined to see what I mean. It's not like adding a voice to the Warden couldn't be done. It could definitely be done, somebody just has to be wiling to put in the time to create the dialog details.

Umm... I meant have Hawkes voice say the line in your head while you read the line. Much like how you imagine a characters voice when you read a novel.

[Nationalcity1]

I also prefer voiced. Having every single person talk to you in the first one but you being a mute was kinda weird.
I had these expressions on my face in origins half the time like I needed to head to the restroom badly....

[KenLyns]

Voiced all the way. Silent was acceptable back in the Oblivion days, not in 2011. The presentation matters as much as the content. Why bother spending all the time customizing your character's appearance if you can't see him/her talk?  

Modifié par KenLyns, 10 septembre 2011 - 12:11 .

[Addai]

KenLyns wrote...

Voiced all the way. Silent was acceptable back in the Oblivion days, not in 2011. The presentation matters as much as the content. Why bother spending all the time customizing your character's appearance if you can't see him/her talk?  

Because it is a matter of preference, not technology.

[TMZuk]

KenLyns wrote...

Voiced all the way. Silent was acceptable back in the Oblivion days, not in 2011. The presentation matters as much as the content. Why bother spending all the time customizing your character's appearance if you can't see him/her talk?  

Hate to break it to you, but Fallout: New Vegas, released 2010, had a silent protagonist. And guess what? It sold quite a bit more than DA2 or even DA:O. More than five million copies, and counting.

And guess what? TES 5 - Skyrim, to be relased 11/11 2011 will feature a silent protagonist as well. You want to make a wager wether it's going to outsell DA2 or not?

[LordKinoda]

Umm... I meant have Hawkes voice say the line in your head while you read the line. Much like how you imagine a characters voice when you read a novel.

Why bother ? I like the voice fine enough, but I might as well voice the character myself if I must.

Hate to break it to you, but Fallout: New Vegas, released 2010, had a silent protagonist. And guess what? It sold quite a bit more than DA2 or even DA:O. More than five million copies, and counting.

And guess what? TES 5 - Skyrim, to be relased 11/11 2011 will feature a silent protagonist as well. You want to make a wager wether it's going to outsell DA2 or not?

Hate to break it to you, but whether the character was voiced or not was hardly the biggest and/or only deciding factor as to why those games did/will do so well. Nor was the PC being voiced in DA2 the single contributing factor to it's performance. I think it's one of DA2's saving graces actually, but that's me.

[Oopsieoops]

KenLyns wrote...

Voiced all the way. Silent was acceptable back in the Oblivion days, not in 2011. The presentation matters as much as the content. Why bother spending all the time customizing your character's appearance if you can't see him/her talk?  

I'd say why bother spending all the time customizing your character's appearance if you can't control how he/she talks?
And that's specially jarring if you make an apearance which has nothing to do with voice.

[LordKinoda]

And that's specially jarring if you make an apearance which has nothing to do with voice.

I don't know, I found both Meer and Boulton to have fairly neutral voices that can be applied to a lot of appearances.

[Cosmochyck]

Voiced. I really do prefer it.

[Collider]

I prefer a voiced protagonist.

[Jessabi]

Voiced, 100%!

Giving the protagonist a voice breathed life into him/her for me, instead of them just standing there like a gormless mute with the exact same expression on their face. Instead of having to try and imagine how they would act or sound, DA2 allowed me to actually see and hear it.

Modifié par JessieBee185, 11 septembre 2011 - 02:29 .

[N7 Spectre525]

I prefer silent. It doesn't bother me in the slightest to have to read my responses. Plus my voice is better anyway.

[Lord Nikon 001]

Silent. I like to read.

[JamieCOTC]

I’m probably in some bizarre little minority here, but I NEVER play as myself in an RPG. Having an old school D&D background, creating the main character is half the fun of the game. So, voiced or silent, both can be as real to me as the other. All that said, I prefer voiced if only by a very slight margin.

With the silent protagonist, I don’t need a voice. In my mind, I can provide him (or her) w/ a voice as well as inflections to a certain degree. It took a little more effort, but through appearance, dialogue choices and interactions w/ other party members, I was able to mold each Warden into their own character. And of course, as many, many others have mentioned, the silent protagonist offers more depth to the dialogue choices as well as dialogue “anywhere, anytime.” And while the laundry list is problematic, I much preferred it over the dreadful “scavenger hunt” system of Awakening. DA2’s dialogue system is slightly better, but still lacks the depth of its predecessor. And that, INHO, is more the problem w/ DA than the silent vs. voiced. It is the dialogue system itself. Mr. Gaider himself has mentioned that neither Awakening nor DA2’s dialogue system were ideal, but it that it was unlikely they would return to anything resembling the laundry list.

As I said, I prefer the voiced protagonist by a slight margin. To my mind, half the work is done for me. Not only do Shepard and Hawke have a voice, but they have body language and facial expressions. And I find it interesting that the OP should consider Shepard and Hawke a mistake. To my mind, they are the best of both worlds. Neither full character, nor blank slate, Hawke and Shepard they can be many things to many people. To me the voices simply add extra tools to mold the character. LadyHawke is a riot, MaleHawke is a perfect example of the Paladin hero, broShep is a renegade to be feared and femShep … well, I could go on and on about her. And they all give just enough to work with and, if you want, go the extra mile and make them into their own characters. That said the voiced protagonist does come w/ some pitfalls. As mentioned before, dialogue choices are reduced for the voiced protagonist, and the DA team has yet to come up w/ a viable replacement for dialogue “anywhere, anytime” and I doubt they ever will. Then there is the infamous dialogue wheel where *sigh* = “Die, scum!” or something like that. But beyond that are other kinks in the system. For one, w/ a voiced protagonist, I actually have to LIKE the voice. While he’s a very talented voice actor, I’m not a big fan of Mark Meer’s Shepard, but at least he’s better than Geralt, who has all the character of a wet dishrag. Then there is the inevitable, “my character would never say that!” While both silent and voiced protagonists will always say something (or not say something) that is “out of character,” the voiced character seems to have more of an issue w/ this pitfall. And don’t even get me started on how femShep talks to Jacob in ME2.

So, yeah, I like the voiced protagonists slightly better, if only because it gives me one more tool in process of character creation. In my mind, neither is inherently better than the other and whether they are a character or an avatar is entirely up to me.

[Zoikster]

I feel the opposite. The voice sucked the life out of my rp experiences for many reasons. That and the limits it applies to starting origins and what not, voice is not worth it. At least not in the DA world. I also think the "voiced protagonist is the new way forward" argument is just wrong. It's about preference, there is nothing inherently progressive about adding the voiced protagonist, especially when it limits what people loved about the original game so much. BTW, it looks like with 1000 votes the silent voice is edging out ever so slightly, 51% to 49%

Modifié par Zoikster, 11 septembre 2011 - 06:00 .