156 réponses à ce sujet

[Excella Gionne]

Oh god, the amount of dialogues that need to be repeated if they added an entire selection of names that will be said by the NPCs. I can already picture how tiring the VAs would be. To make it fair for everyone, only surnames must be used along with titles given to the character(like "Commander" or "Inquisitor").

[RZIBARA]

They would have to record lines for every first name in existence for that to happen

 

Now they could force a name on us but that would get so many complaints 

 

Fallout 4 is doing it. top 1000 names will be fully used in the game. Why can't ME do it?

[Dr. Rush]

I genuinely believe people don't even know what roleplaying is.

 

Like, they don't even know the definition of the word. 

[Computron2000]

No. In the military you get referenced by your family name all the time.

Add to the fact that the game is world wide, unless you also support names like Akane, Taecyeon, Dawei, Ibrahim, Busaba, Faisal, Adisa and many more, having a fixed in game name only isolates the player from immersion in the game.

[mickey111]

They would have to record lines for every first name in existence for that to happen

 

Now they could force a name on us but that would get so many complaints 

 

doesn't matter.

 

I'm sure most of us here are okay with "shepard" and don't share that family name.

[daveliam]

I never had a problem with the "Shepard' thing outside of the romance content.  In the area where I grew up, it was super common for friends to refer to each other solely by their last names.  I moved from that area about 15 years ago, so I'm not sure if it's still common, but it was at the time.  Most of my friends (male and female) just called me by my last name.  And, given that Shep was military, it didn't bother me at all.

 

The place where it was weird was during romance scenes.  My Shep romanced Kaidan, also a high ranking military officer and SPECTRE.  He called Kaidan by his first name, but Kaidan referred to him by his last name.  Just seemed off.  There are some people who go by their last name, but it just didn't feel believable.

 

I'm not sure how I feel about the 'set name' thing.  I'd probably be fine with it, but it just seems like it's taking a little bit of the soul of RPing out of it.  So now, not only can I not change the species of my character, but I can't change his/her name?  I don't love that idea.  If they do go that route, I hope that they compensate by giving us more background customization options so that I don't feel like I'm playing a very predetermined character.  That destroys replayability for me. 

 

I'd be fine with the Fallout 4 approach, I think.  I'm also concerned about the 'cut/paste' name issue.  I have a feeling that it might be a little cheesy.  I'm willing to suspend disbelief for now though.

[CDR Aedan Cousland]

As a good middle ground, I think they should just go with a nickname. Nicknames are familiar and often endearing or affectionate. It'll make up for how "strictly professional" our close friends and significant others always are when referring to us.

[Former_Fiend]

Oh god, the amount of dialogues that need to be repeated if they added an entire selection of names that will be said by the NPCs. I can already picture how tiring the VAs would be. To make it fair for everyone, only surnames must be used along with titles given to the character(like "Commander" or "Inquisitor").

 

I'm just so tired of this, though. We've had two decades of fully voiced games and a decade and a half of games where your character isn't referred to by name but by title, and by last name. This is the rut we've fallen into. This is "how things are done". It's complacent.

 

I get the practicality of it, but there's a certain laziness to it, as well. I want to see developers attempt new things and go forth and put that extra effort and try to innovate and take risks and try new things. 

 

Which is why, regardless of whether or not it turns out to be well implemented(and I have some confidence in them), I applaud Bethesda for going that extra mile on this one. And I would love to see Bioware rise to the challenge instead of walking the safer route.

[Thetford]

To be fair, at present, all that is known is that Codsworth the robot butler addresses you by name, and he is a robot so they can handwave the tone of voice thing. There is no confirmation if any of the other companions (or any NPC at all) will call you by name.

 

I don't mind the last name thing. Perhaps for romances, each LI could have a unique nickname for the protagonist, for example, a male human LI addresses the female protagonist as "Pumpkin", while the alien romances use words from their own languages.

[Sylvius the Mad]

Fallout 4 is doing it. top 1000 names will be fully used in the game. Why can't ME do it?

The simplest answer is that it's probably not in their budget.

But the bigger question is how you populate that list of 1000 names. I'd suggest using ME3 data (that's probably a good indication of what sorts of names the players choose). And how do you handle that with localization - does each country's VO have a different list of 1000 names? Or do non-English versions just not get this feature?

This isn't as simple a choice as you make it seem.

[daveliam]

........for example, a male human LI addresses the female protagonist as "Pumpkin",..........

Anyone else get a Flavor of Love flashback there for a moment? No? Just me then? Never mind.......

Not a bad suggestion though. Like Bull calling the Inquisitor 'Kadan'.

[Patchwork]

I have some doubts about Fallout 4's approach, good for them if they manage to pull it off and it sounds great in theory but in practice I think it's going to fall short of what they and players want it to be.  

 

ME is heavily influenced by the military so surnames and ranks work okay.    

[CrutchCricket]

I support the full name idea.

 

Bioware went to ridiculous extremes to avoid it last time (can't even pull the variable for letters/emails and the plaque at the end? Please.)

 

Add a middle name field if people really want to type in CarolsSpicyweiner or something.

[MisterJB]

I.P. Freely?
Mary and Gary Sue?

Mike Hawke.

[Gorwath-F]

No.  I want to name my own character.

 

Because it will never get used after character creation? Tag a post-it on your monitor if you care. The rest of us want believable dialog

[NRieh]

 
My Shep romanced Kaidan, also a high ranking military officer and SPECTRE.  He called Kaidan by his first name, but Kaidan referred to him by his last name.  Just seemed off.

Well..old habits die hard, I guess.   But it's better than 'sweetheart', 'darling' or 'love of my life'...(ew).
 

 
I get the practicality of it, but there's a certain laziness to it, as well. I want to see developers attempt new things and go forth and put that extra effort and try to innovate and take risks and try new things.

 First, they do not want to fix something that is not broken. It works, and plenty of players have zero issues with immersion.
 
Second, currently there is no proper cost\quality solution. They are not doing this not because of their laziness, but because the possible solutions are either cheap and crappy (like 'insert name here') or expensive (extensive VA recording, which would only please SOME players, those who do not pick the 'proper' names from the list are still out of the loop). Vocaloid tech could be the right direction, but it's very unlikely that a fully synthesized voice can ever compete with a human VA, not at the moment at least, and I don't think it ever will.
 
And the last (but not least) you forget about the localizations. 'Gender-sensitive' languages have too many issues 'as is'. Adding multiple names to their list is a bad idea.

[CrutchCricket]

This is a moot point because it's outside the bounds of what they've already said the PC would be but another way to compromise would be if the PC was a spy.

 

His cover name would be set and used. His true name would be what you make it. It still wouldn't matter because it'd never get used (requiring that his cover never be blown, even in romance situations) but both camps would get what they want.

 

Maybe for the next game, if there is one.

[Former_Fiend]

To be fair, at present, all that is known is that Codsworth the robot butler addresses you by name, and he is a robot so they can handwave the tone of voice thing. There is no confirmation if any of the other companions (or any NPC at all) will call you by name.

 

I don't mind the last name thing. Perhaps for romances, each LI could have a unique nickname for the protagonist, for example, a male human LI addresses the female protagonist as "Pumpkin", while the alien romances use words from their own languages.

 

It is true that so far they've only claimed Codsworth will use those names. And if that's the bare minimum they're doing, that's still leaps and bounds ahead of most everyone else in the rpg field.

 

So in that case, let's see if we can't make it more feasible for bioware and cut the list down to 100 as another poster said, and have the name only get used by the PC themselves, the squad(leaked number being 7), and a couple important NPC's at most.

 

So that's a tenth of the names, but the use spread out between ten characters, which I'd say is a fair trade off.

 

Just throwing ideas out there.

[Former_Fiend]

Well..old habits die hard, I guess.    But it's better than 'sweetheart', 'darling' or 'love of my life'...(ew).
 

 

 First, they do not want to fix something that is not broken. It works, and plenty of players have zero issues with immersion.
 
Second, currently there is no proper cost\quality solution. They are not doing this not because of their laziness, but because the possible solutions are either cheap and crappy (like 'insert name here') or expensive (extensive VA recording, which would only please SOME players, those who do not pick the 'proper' names from the list are still out of the loop). Vocaloid tech could be the right direction, but it's very unlikely that a fully synthesized voice can ever compete with a human VA, not at the moment at least, and I don't think it ever will.
 
And the last (but not least) you forget about the localizations. 'Gender-sensitive' languages have too many issues 'as is'. Adding multiple names to their list is a bad idea.

 

 

I'm not sure that it does work anymore. I'm ready for someone to prove it to me that we're in the Next Generation of gaming by trying to break a mold instead of relying on a crutch that we've been using for 15 years. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work, but that doesn't mean that trying it isn't a worthy pursuit.

 

I'd rather see them try something ambitious and fail than see them coast by.

[Phate Phoenix]

The one thing about a list of names for MEA is that, if it doesn't work, we're stuck with it for however long the, ah, series goes. It's not like they can have one game where everyone calls you by your first name and the next one everyone just doesn't. Or, well, they could, I guess. "Gosh, we all had a meeting and decided that calling you by your first name was just so awkward."

 

But anyway, I'm fine with ME's current system, probably because I grew up on a military base and my father, brother, and myself have all been been commonly called by our last name. I'm used to it. That said, I wouldn't mind if they implemented a list (she says after criticizing it). Mostly because I don't foresee it being a widespread thing. Having just a few people refer to my character by their first name in a few scenes (major plot scenes, romance scenes) is all it would take.

 

I'd rather not have a set first name, however.

[Former_Fiend]

the kind of people who complain about immersion over such little things probably hasn't even held a real gun, so what could they possibly know about immersion in a game about shooting aliens.

 

Three points. 

 

1. My complaint isn't so much about immersion as it is about complacency in game design and a desire for advancement.

 

2. We shoot just as many humans and robots as we do aliens, probably more.

 

3. I own a Ruger Blackhawk single action .44 magnum revolver that I take to the range about twice a month, and I have no idea how this relates to the subject at hand.

[Beren Von Ostwick]

Hell no, I want to pick my first names for my protagonist.   I see some folks mentioned Fallout 4, but I can assure you that at least some of my Sheps' names did not fall in that 1000 names the recorded.  It would be an impossible endeaver to ensure all possible names get recorded, so don't even bother trying.

 

Jebediah Shepard, for example.  Kinda guessing that one would have been missed.

[AresKeith]

Fallout 4 is doing it. top 1000 names will be fully used in the game. Why can't ME do it?

It depends on their word budget

[NRieh]

 

I'm not sure that it does work anymore. I'm ready for someone to prove it to me that we're in the Next Generation of gaming by trying to break a mold instead of relying on a crutch that we've been using for 15 years.

There won't be any 'Next Generation' voice acting any soon. It's simple as that. Even respecting the class\weapons\armour during the engine cut-scenes is not always possible (hence - Avenger, burnt reaper-shot armour in ME3, murder knives and killing swords in DA, no biotics for Kaidan Alenko etc). Customization takes its tall. Fallout 4 is either going to fail or use this feature something like twice per 150 hours of the game. Those who pick the 'wrong' name are out of luck either way.

 

It's not using a crutch, it's more like having no desire to jump down from the tower with nothing but a plastic bag at hand. 

[UKStory135]

I just know how my wife feels about not being able to find her name on the Coke bottles, I don't think people should have to experience that in Mass Effect.