10 réponses à ce sujet

[Taika-Kim]

I don't like spoken dialog.

I think it understimates my imagination.

The only way I like being read text aloud is by a cute hippie girl on my lap, but  my game didn't come with one

Especially in the codex with the somewhat longer texts, the monotone voice-over is super annoying. I don't read in a linear unispeed way. I like to sometime stop, remember some things past, make my own observations etc. The jarring voice acting steps in the way of this. I actually turn the volume down from my speakers every time I read the codex, so that I have the feeling of being able to proceed at my own pace.

I like the spoken cutscenes, in those there is a better sense of drama.

But in the interactive dialogs, I am quite strongly (in general) against spoken ones. I anyway read many times faster than the spoken dialog proceeds, so it hurts my brain every time when a spoken sentence is cut in middle when I skip it with the space bar.
But also this creates a problem, because this way it's really easy accidentally to choose a new dialog option, because the game starts taking input quite fast in the last dialog piece before a new selection.
Turning the voice volume down doesn't help exactly because of this same reason: I end up choosing new dialog options accidentally all the time.

I also made a comment about this in the Aalto University Game Audio conference some years back, and there were people that agreed with me.

Have the game companies actually researched, do people even want spoken dialogs in all circumstances?

I think even Biowares quite well written dialog is miles away from the quality of drama seen in movies for example, because of obvious timing problems, etc.

And also, to be frank, there is a lot of dialog text in Mass Effect 1 (I just stared with the trilogy) that is not really on the literary levels I expect from my books from example. So especially with the more cliched and routine dialogs I end up just glancing the texts and skipping a LOT. But sadly the dialog mechanic does not really support this.

OK, maybe I'm too sensitive about sound as a musician and sound designer myself, but maybe we can have some discussion?

[Carol L S]

I like the spoken dialog, and especially the voiced PC. Gives everything more personality.

[Element Engine]

Silent dialogue allows you to use your imagination, which is cool, but I prefer the spoken dialogue. It makes the game feel more alive.

[PsiFive]

Should be a toggle in the game settings. Then everyone's happy.

[ElectronicPostingInterface]

Isn't there an individual slider in sound for dialog? Just put it to zero with subtitles enabled.

[PsiFive]

PKchu wrote...

Isn't there an individual slider in sound for dialog? Just put it to zero with subtitles enabled.

Surely that'd affect in game dialogue as well. You could always slide it back after finishing codex entries but it seems like a lot of work compared to hitting the mute button on the keyboard or TV remote or a toggle that you could set once and then forget about.

[ElectronicPostingInterface]

If I'm reading the OP correctly it seems like they don't enjoy the dialog in multiple aspects of the game, which I was responding to.

If you dislike the codex voice over only, I guess you would need a "toggle" option in the corner of the Codex screen.

Also: voice acting and execution gets better in ME2/3, I think. There's clunky bits in ME1. Still, I feel like it would hurt the series a great deal to remove the spoken dialog.

Modifié par PKchu, 20 décembre 2012 - 06:46 .

[Faust1979]

spoken dialog is best I like that it makes the game feel more cinematic and fun. I remember as a kid playing old RPGs and wishing for full voice in video games. It gives the game world more character

[marcnzt]

Yeah, you're alone in that. Everybody likes the dialog and BioWare has invested a lot into it, some of the actors doing the voice over in the Mass Effect are known, like Seth Green who voices Joker.

Hey people, the problem for him isn't that he needs to turn down the spoken dialog volume,.. He said he have DONE THAT ALREADY...
His problem is that the dialog mechanics obliges him to either listen or watch the characters moving their lips with no sound at all, which is what you people are suggesting as the solution, but the problem is that skips the dialogs and ends up making dialog choices by accident, very often.

Well, like I said, BioWare has invested in the voice acting for the game, and got guys like Seth Green and Yvonne Strahovski to play their characters, and in my opinion, they have done very very well.

So I have an alternative solution for your specific case:
Buy a book instead.
If you choose the right ones, it'll have the "literary level" compatible to what you're looking for, it'll be a representation with words and so it won't "understimate your imagination" by blatantly showing in 3-D what is happening, so you can imagine everything instead.

Intellectualloids...

Modifié par marcnzt, 21 décembre 2012 - 03:17 .

[PsiFive]

PKchu wrote...

If I'm reading the OP correctly it seems like they don't enjoy the dialog in multiple aspects of the game, which I was responding to.

If you dislike the codex voice over only, I guess you would need a "toggle" option in the corner of the Codex screen.

Also: voice acting and execution gets better in ME2/3, I think. There's clunky bits in ME1. Still, I feel like it would hurt the series a great deal to remove the spoken dialog.

Re reading you could be right. I thought it was only the codex because there isn't anywhere else in the game where text on screen is read aloud, but I suppose the OP could be referring to reading the subtitles and wanting to imagine what the voices sound like. It never occurred to me that it might be what was meant by text being read aloud as I think it might really be the other way round: on screen subs of voice acting. I'd guess more people choose to listen to the VA without subs than read without the VA, but I think your suggestion of turning down the dialogue slider all the way would be the best way of removing all dialogue for those that want that.

[ViciousCargo]

marcnzt wrote...

Yeah, you're alone in that. Everybody likes the dialog and BioWare has invested a lot into it, some of the actors doing the voice over in the Mass Effect are known, like Seth Green who voices Joker.

Hey people, the problem for him isn't that he needs to turn down the spoken dialog volume,.. He said he have DONE THAT ALREADY...
His problem is that the dialog mechanics obliges him to either listen or watch the characters moving their lips with no sound at all, which is what you people are suggesting as the solution, but the problem is that skips the dialogs and ends up making dialog choices by accident, very often.

Well, like I said, BioWare has invested in the voice acting for the game, and got guys like Seth Green and Yvonne Strahovski to play their characters, and in my opinion, they have done very very well.

So I have an alternative solution for your specific case:
Buy a book instead.
If you choose the right ones, it'll have the "literary level" compatible to what you're looking for, it'll be a representation with words and so it won't "understimate your imagination" by blatantly showing in 3-D what is happening, so you can imagine everything instead.

Intellectualloids...

Gotta agree.  Some of the best lines in the game are memorable not because of what is said but how it is said.  That's the power of voice over the written word.

Modifié par ViciousCargo, 21 décembre 2012 - 10:07 .