26 réponses à ce sujet

[GhoXen]

social.bioware.com/6344/polls/65/

A simple yet common question. Discuss.

[FalloutBoy]

Bad voice acting can completely ruin an otherwise good project. Good voice acting is nice, but very rare among amateur hobbyists. I'd go without just to be safe. Everyone thinks they can do good voices, but almost everyone is wrong.

[PsychoBlonde]

I think you might be better with *narration* than with voice acting, and you could probably write the custom content in such a way as to suit a third-person narrator instead of first-person speech.

[foxwood1084]

a lighter campaign wouldn't really suffer that much from bad VO but anything that takes it's self seriously would be greatly diminished by crappy VO. Granted if you know your actors that would help immensely in the writing.

[sieverk]

I agree that bad voice acting is worse than none at all. I remember playing a few (two?) voiced NWN mods, and being thrown out of the story more often than not because of poor voice acting, even though the story/dialogue itself was quite good. But when done well, it can really elevate a module or game. I remember reloading my saved game in ME right after finishing the I Remember Me quest, just so I could play again. I was that impressed/moved by the voice acting.



I'm hoping that the social site will make it easier to organize/find good voice actors.

[JeffMo]

Voice acting is one of those underrated and unappreciated facets of gaming that usually either goes unmentioned or unnoticed. I find that quality voice acting with a true understanding of character motivations serves as a direct catalyst for getting the player involved in the story and also making deeper connections between the player and the characters within a game.



For any project, from the daunting mega-module world to the tiny, one area mini-mod, voice acting provides that underlying sense of realism and plausibility to a fantasy environment that often requires more than just flashy bells and whistles to get the player involved.

[grumpymooselion]

I don't find any need for any voice in the content I've downloaded for other games. While I can see that some people may want it quite badly, at the end of the day, Voice Acting can be a very limiting thing (it can result in less dialogue, for example due to monetary and time constraints), even for a large company - let alone a group of modders. It's not impossible by any range, but just because something's possible doesn't mean quality is there, nor that it's necessary.

Well written text-based dialogue means a whole lot before Voice Acting, and the wrong voice acting can spoil good writing irreparably.   Even very good voice acting is second to good writing, because you don't get the good voice acting without the good writing at a base - my opinion is that you should plan for the possibility of voice acting, but get everything else down concrete, and very polished, so that if and when you decide to deal with voice . . . you do so with the full concentration and time it will require for you to find people that are "good" and then the additional time and concentration  it will take to get every line down exactly as it needs to be.

Modifié par Janan Pacha, 15 octobre 2009 - 04:26 .

[JeffMo]

I totally agree Janan. If it is realistic to implement voice acting based on excellent writing, funds, time, etc., then it should be done only if found to increase a player's involvement in the story. Bad voice acting has quite literally made me uninstall a handful of games over the years because it was just that bad that it poisoned the rest of the game.

[Scarmiglion]

I really prefer PCs to not have VA at all, including in professional titles. I guess I like that little bit of imagination in my head.



The only spot I can really think I would want VA is when you have points in the game where there is a lot going on. If you have some kind of plot scene going on in the middle of a hectic combat, the VA (at least if done well) would make it a lot more immersive. That, and during combat I'm usually too busy to read.

[Syrellaris]

ive pretty much decided to do my modules without voice acting. I simply dont have enough friends to have them borrow me there voice!

[CID-78]

skip the VO it's more likely to go wrong then right. spend all that time on your dialogues instead. VO will only limit your modules content. for people that enjoy making VO. let them contact the authors of modules and make a second release containing their voices. that way we have a smaller unvoiced original module and a alternative larger VO module.

[Chillwill]

It's not a must have, but in games where everything is vo'd it does feel like something is missing when you all of sudden dont get it. I do agree with the notion that bad voice acting worse the no voice though.



But really there are groups of people that are very professional and will do work for good modules for free. You just have to look a bit.



Ask for samples before you give someone a job so you dont get stuck feeling you have to include crappy work just not to offend.



Heard some really awsome people that do work for free as long as they have faith in the project.



Some work solo other are part of modding voice over groups. Just using friends and stuff is rarely a good idea, you wotn people that have or are studing drama and the like.

[Taltherion]

I'd rather have no voice acting, than poor voice acting. And I think it's very difficult for an amateur project to realize good voice acting ... so I'd say rather not. Put the effort and resources into other areas of the mod.

[DeaconX]

As someone who hopes to supply some of the modules with quality voice acting, I'm quite for it

[Taltherion]

DeaconX wrote...

As someone who hopes to supply some of the modules with quality voice acting, I'm quite for it

I listened to your Rogue examples - very nice.

[DeaconX]

Taltherion wrote...

DeaconX wrote...

As someone who hopes to supply some of the modules with quality voice acting, I'm quite for it

I listened to your Rogue examples - very nice.

Thank you kindly!

Modifié par DeaconX, 16 octobre 2009 - 02:20 .

[soteria]

As others have said, only if it's quality. I don't usually miss it when it's gone, because I read very quickly and often don't have time to listen to it. Bad VO and poorly scripted dialogue are my two biggest turn-offs in a module. I remember playing one once where the creator had made dialogue options for characters with intelligence under 9 (you know, the childish speak). The problem was he didn't set it up correctly so everyone saw those options--it was so jarring to me I couldn't even finish.

[vyvexthorne]

I would much rather read than listen to bad voice acting... That being said.. if you have the right set up, sound equipment and time..."time" being the most important.. there shouldn't be any reason to have bad voice acting. I think the main reason voice acting can turn out bad is if they rush through and just take lines as is without trying different takes.. It comes out sounding monotone and emotionless. Of course there are people who just sound like that... Like Kevin Costner or Keanu Reeves. Their voices just don't seem to portray much emotion.

[DeaconX]

vyvexthorne wrote...

I would much rather read than listen to bad voice acting... That being said.. if you have the right set up, sound equipment and time..."time" being the most important.. there shouldn't be any reason to have bad voice acting. I think the main reason voice acting can turn out bad is if they rush through and just take lines as is without trying different takes.. It comes out sounding monotone and emotionless. Of course there are people who just sound like that... Like Kevin Costner or Keanu Reeves. Their voices just don't seem to portray much emotion.

I've done a bit of voice acting now and I've gotta say, I agree with taking your time.  You can do a lot of takes, and still be unhappy with the results and you just have to work at it until you are.  Until you nail the lines.  But once you do, and you can listen to it as a final product it's very rewarding.

[Niko Daemon]

FalloutBoy wrote...

Bad voice acting can completely ruin an otherwise good project. Good voice acting is nice, but very rare among amateur hobbyists. I'd go without just to be safe. Everyone thinks they can do good voices, but almost everyone is wrong.

My sentiments exactly...

[Quaxo]

I'm going without for the project I'm working on. There's just far too much dialog and way too many characters to provide voices for.



BioWare had a cast of some 140+ voice actors for the OC, so without a resource like that and the time and ability to edit and refine that much dialog, I wouldn't count on any user-made module having a comparable voice-over quality.

[FollowTheGourd]

I won't name the game since it would probably give away the mod, but there was one that billed itself as having "professional quality" voice acting (IIRC) and was even in the spotlight often enough...

But when I tried it out, just the little things quickly disillusioned me of that... like odd breaks where the sentence or train of thought didn't make much sense, intonations or stresses that didn't quite seem right, which all made it sound a bit like they were just rehearsing their lines for the first time.

I don't mean to sound harsh and I'm not a VO-snob, but it's just one of those things that people are less forgiving about - even when you very much want to be. We're probably just too used to hearing professional voice actors and other actors in general that we're so much more critical.

(Just realized how old this thread was before it was necro'd... anyhoo)

Modifié par FollowTheGourd, 11 novembre 2009 - 06:21 .

[Suron]

crappy VO's can ruin an otherwise great mod...and great VO's can redeem a rather crappy one to an extent.



however as someone said..everyone thinks they can do good VO's and even advertise as such...when probably 99% of them are wrong...I've also tried mods that advertised good VO's and they were terrible.



So yah, focus on your dialogue/text first and add voice only if you can find poeple that are good, not ones that think they are...

[Valtauran]

For me, its a requirement, if there is no Voice Overs, then i don't play it...pure and simple.