I was facetiously suggesting that by relying on the text alone and ignoring the voice you would miss any meaning imparted by the tone, as what you described as your behaviour with the Codex matches my behaviour with the voiced dialogue - I always read ahead and skip the voice.
Ah, I get it. There's a difference between a textbook and conversation, the former not naturally being written as speech. Tone helps in understanding speech, but codexes aren't speech.
absolutely. In DA2 all the rare weapons and armature that should have been rare items feel incredibly shallow without knowing their "story". I still find myself in Origns choosing a weapon instead of another just because I like what they "are". My City Elf killed the Archdemon with Fang (her mother's weapon) and Duncan's sword. just for their simbolism. and Alistair had Duncan's shield and Cailan's sword.
Is idiotic, but I really love the story behind the items. It remind me of LOTR.
Ya I never once cared about any of the items I got in DA2 because they didn't have descriptions. And they added so many new junk items that the descriptions on them could of been hilarious
Item descriptions existed in DA2. There was a whole section of the Codex on them.
Item descriptions existed in DA2. There was a whole section of the Codex on them.
the codex isn't very immediate...and I usually don't check it at every step. And I don't remember the names or don't make the right connection. a few words to remind the item I'm selling isn't the usual crap left by the usual bandit, would be nice.
A voiced codex could be nice if it could play while you're doing other things. Particularly with the open world design, where there's likely to be more travel time. Admittedly it doesn't make so much sense in a pre-modern setting, but I could just assume Quizzy is reading to themselves.
Maybe you could achieve similarly utility by allowing the codex to pop up in a small window during gameplay, though I'm not sure that'd work in console interfaces. And it'd still require more attention than audio,
Also it'd be better if it's done entertainingly in-character, rather than just having some Encyclopedia Guy droning on. Have Genitivi's entries read by Genitivi etc.
Images would be nice, but primarily I want more text; more lore.
The codex should use gratuitous amounts of concept art. Thematically it makes more sense for Dragon Age if the "Codex" is supposed to simulate a world compendium, since high-resolution 3D renders and/or Photography wouldn't be technologies they had. Maybe I'm overthinking it though.
As for Voice Over, it all depends on who does it. Mass Effect's VO codex guy did a phenomenal job in my opinion. So much so that even with my reading ability I enjoyed just sitting and listening to it. We call that the Morgan Freeman effect.
Same with me. I could be done reading the Codex by the time the voice finishes the first paragraph, but I just sit there and listen while reading along at the voice's pace.
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