572 réponses à ce sujet

[sunnydxmen]

[Lee T]

Both have ups and downs. The silent protagonist provide more writing freedom nad let those who use their inner voixe exprss themselve but it often comes with no animations and players who don't like much to roleplay find it boring. Voiced protagonist gives more expression for the character with a huge cost in writing freedom because it is way more costly. On the other the more scripted dialogue allow for more animations and it gives the writer the ability to surprise us with the character (at the cost of some player feeling robbee of control).

I like both but I do regret the small things, like having the npcs actually using your chosen name rather than using an economically sound yet generic nickname.

[Lux]

Not voicing the protagonist would seem odd now. I prefer the Iively interaction that comes from it.

[Giggles_Manically]

I will have to vote for the voiced protagonist myself.

 

Besides its way to late to change anything now.

Maybe you could have asked that years ago.

[R0vena]

I like both but I do regret the small things, like having the npcs actually using your chosen name rather than using an economically sound yet generic nickname.

oh, yes... i remember many years ago when I first played Baldur's Gate and somebody addressed my hero by the name the very first time I was all "oooohhhh!!!! How cool is that!!"

 

I don't mind voiced protagonist, but I still wish at least my LI would not address to my heroes as "Shepard" or "Hawke".(

[Lady Luminous]

oh, yes... i remember many years ago when I first played Baldur's Gate and somebody addressed my hero by the name the very first time I was all "oooohhhh!!!! How cool is that!!"

 

I don't mind voiced protagonist, but I still wish at least my LI would not address to my heroes as "Shepard" or "Hawke".(

 

To me it was very disconcerting when my Felicity called herself Hawke, because in my mind she wasn't the kind of girl to go by her last name. She was Felicity. So it was jarring and came close to breaking immersion.

[Semyaza82]

I can understand the appeal of a non voiced PC, in my head each of my wardens sounded totally different to each other. That said it really does sort of kill any cinematic, and like a lot of other people seem to have said it leaves a little 'dead' felling. Really love the fact that we get 2 different voices to choose between 

[Keroko]

I used to swear by voiceless protagonists. You could read exactly what your character was saying rather than just a minor gist of things and you could imagine your own voices over them. For me, this made them the better option by far.

 

Now though? Four bioware games in I'm no longer sure... Really, when I played Origins after Mass Effect, it took me a while to get used to not hearing my character any more. And memorable scenes such as "I DIED AT CHATEAU HAINE!" would never have been as grand with a voiceless protagonist, and I wouldn't sacrifice "I am Commander Shepard, and this is my favourite store on the Citadel" for the world.

[Lumix19]

I have to admit I enjoy knowing what my PC is about to say but then when they actually say it the conversation just feels really awkward. "Ha, ha, ha Warden you're hilarious" and I'm thinking 'Umm, I didn't actually say anything...maniac'.

[Semyaza82]

I used to swear by voiceless protagonists. You could read exactly what your character was saying rather than just a minor gist of things and you could imagine your own voices over them. For me, this made them the better option by far.

 

Now though? Four bioware games in I'm no longer sure... Really, when I played Origins after Mass Effect, it took me a while to get used to not hearing my character any more. And memorable scenes such as "I DIED AT CHATEAU HAINE!" would never have been as grand with a voiceless protagonist, and I wouldn't sacrifice "I am Commander Shepard, and this is my favourite store on the Citadel" for the world.

Found the exact same thing myself when i replayed DA:O after DA2

[Sylvius the Mad]

I can understand the appeal of a non voiced PC, in my head each of my wardens sounded totally different to each other. That said it really does sort of kill any cinematic, and like a lot of other people seem to have said it leaves a little 'dead' felling. Really love the fact that we get 2 different voices to choose between

If a silent protagonist kills cinematics, the correct fix is not to voice the character, but to remove the cinematics.

The cost of the voice (both in terms of development resources and player control) are just too high.

[Sylvius the Mad]

Found the exact same thing myself when i replayed DA:O after DA2

I find the opposite. I can always immediately get into character with the silent PCs, and I have yet to find a voiced protagonist that isn't horribly broken in terms of my ability to control his personality.

I continue to play DAO. I will never again install DA2 or the ME games (I didn't even try ME3).

[Semyaza82]

If a silent protagonist kills cinematics, the correct fix is not to voice the character, but to remove the cinematics.

The cost of the voice (both in terms of development resources and player control) are just too high.

Personally I wouldn't like this at all. While i loved DA:O dramatic scenes like the Landsmeets felt really flat to me due to the lack of voice. 

[Sylvius the Mad]

Personally I wouldn't like this at all. While i loved DA:O dramatic scenes like the Landsmeets felt really flat to me due to the lack of voice.

Which is why those scenes shouldn't be there.

[Semyaza82]

I find the opposite. I can always immediately get into character with the silent PCs, and I have yet to find a voiced protagonist that isn't horribly broken in terms of my ability to control his personality.

I continue to play DAO. I will never again install DA2 or the ME games (I didn't even try ME3).

Got to agree with you on the control of the personality - there is an inherent limit with a voiced protagonist. It's really just a case of whether for you the pros outweigh the cons. Most of the time i come down on the side of voiced - though there are the odd moments of DA2 where i longed for my silent Warden.

[Semyaza82]

Which is why those scenes shouldn't be there.

On this one got to disagree The idea of telling an epic story without having any dramatic scenes for something in a visual medium seems crazy to me.

[Sylvius the Mad]

On this one got to disagree The idea of telling an epic story without having any dramatic scenes for something in a visual medium seems crazy to me.

I don't think the game's primary objective should be to tell a story. It should be providing us a backdrop against which we can create our own.

BioWare's silent protagonist games were often very good at this.

[Semyaza82]

I don't think the game's primary objective should be to tell a story. It should be providing us a backdrop against which we can create our own.

BioWare's silent protagonist games were often very good at this.

   Well, personally, in creating my own story I very much want there to be dramatic scenes - and I didn't mean to suggest with 'telling a story' the player was passive recipient. Totally agree that games like Baldur's Gate and Never Winter were great at giving us a story we could control - I just don't think you automatically lose that with a voiced protagonist.

   Ultimately I know that for some people having a voiced protagonist is just never going to be something they like or want. I suppose they could have some kind of mute option for the Inquisitor - you'd just get their lines subtitled. 

[Oldenglishcdr]

Perhaps an option could be given for a voiced or silent character during character creation, otherwise I'm of the opinion that if the main character is silent all should be silent and vice a versa.

[Sylvius the Mad]

Well, personally, in creating my own story I very much want there to be dramatic scenes - and I didn't mean to suggest with 'telling a story' the player was passive recipient. Totally agree that games like Baldur's Gate and Never Winter were great at giving us a story we could control - I just don't think you automatically lose that with a voiced protagonist.
Ultimately I know that for some people having a voiced protagonist is just never going to be something they like or want. I suppose they could have some kind of mute option for the Inquisitor - you'd just get their lines subtitled.

If more of the lines are delivered with a neutral tone, and BioWare gets better ar writing the paraphrases, I might be able tolerate the voice.

But I'm also very glad for the resurgence of silent protagonist games like Wasteland 2.

[Medhia_Nox]

And that's what's best for everyone - games with and without to satisfy both crowds.

 

There are a LOT of things they could do to mitigate the annoyance that is "Warden" "Hawke" "Inquisitor".

 

Servants can call you "Sir/Ma'am" - lovers can call you a pet name, "Hon", or not even use a name at all (implied "You" is fine) - while enemies can be be any number of expletives.  Instead of:  "I'll get you Hawke."  It would be better if it were: "I'll get you you bastard!"  

 

And with sound tech now how hard would it really be to have a list of a hundred names to choose from that were voiced.  Not ideal.. but something that could be interesting.  For those that don't want to do it - have the game just default to "Last Name" like it does now. 

[Fast Jimmy]

If more of the lines are delivered with a neutral tone, and BioWare gets better ar writing the paraphrases, I might be able tolerate the voice.

But I'm also very glad for the resurgence of silent protagonist games like Wasteland 2.

I've been meaning to ask you, Sylvius... do you subscribe to Ron Edwards GNS Theory in RPG description? If so, I think this vein of conversation really lends itself to conflicts between Narrativists and Simulationists... although I'd say voice acting hurts both, it does by limiting options (Narrativists objection) while also pushing the character to possibly be at odds to the player's generated character mindset (Simulationists objection).

Then again, this may just come down to people being neither N or S... or even really G. Just interested in a story, which goes outside Edwards attempts to describe role playing as an activity.

[Fast Jimmy]

And that's what's best for everyone - games with and without to satisfy both crowds.

There are a LOT of things they could do to mitigate the annoyance that is "Warden" "Hawke" "Inquisitor".

Servants can call you "Sir/Ma'am" - lovers can call you a pet name, "Hon", or not even use a name at all (implied "You" is fine) - while enemies can be be any number of expletives. Instead of: "I'll get you Hawke." It would be better if it were: "I'll get you you bastard!"

And with sound tech now how hard would it really be to have a list of a hundred names to choose from that were voiced. Not ideal.. but something that could be interesting. For those that don't want to do it - have the game just default to "Last Name" like it does now.

For the last part, this is a lot harder than you'd think. Recording 100 different james sounds easy, except when you go to insert it into the game. It would sound pretty robotic if a character was whispering a line that suddenly has a name spoken at normal volume slipped in, just like it would be if a character was yelling and had the same thing happen.

It isn't a matter of technology, but rather that any line that used the name might have to be recorded or heavily modified to make it work... in which case it would just be easier to default to a last name/title/what-have-you.

[Fast Jimmy]

I will have to vote for the voiced protagonist myself.

Besides its way to late to change anything now.
Maybe you could have asked that years ago.

Trust me, we did. Many, many, MANY times. Since maybe around 2009.

Didn't seen too successful.

[Sylvius the Mad]

Trust me, we did. Many, many, MANY times. Since maybe around 2009.

Didn't seen too successful.

We're still asking. Maybe one day we'll see a character we can properly control again.