Character Names

[Ormick]

As a programmer, I feel almost compelled to provide my input on the subject of voice synthesis. If anyone more experienced finds any misinformation, please correct me as I don't have any direct experience working with speech synthesis software. I am providing an engineers outside perspective on the topic.

Speech synthesis can take up fair amounts of memory, as the system needs to know which sound to play for each syllable of the word. The sounds could either be generated on the fly, or stored in wav files then loaded when needed, such as is the case with a scripted in-game sequence or a cut-scene. In the former case, the speed at which the sound is generated depends on the speed of the hardware, and is pretty impractical in and of itself for realtime applications such as games, whereas in the latter, if the voice synthesis is purely for a situation such as saying a characters name, then yeah, it could work. But put it into the context of an RPG, where the amount of system resources used is already high, both storage and runtime resources, the added sound clips could push the team well beyond their storage budget. This is especially true if you store a sound bank for more than one character. In the case of console titles, developers are on very restrictive resource budgets. This is why you typically see speech synthesis used primarily on PC applications (macs are PC's, get over it) and in sound studios such as LMMS or Fruity Loops Studio.

I like the robot idea though... I may have to use that >=D

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

One obvious trick is to get them to call you by your codename, which you pick from a choice of about 20 like "Ace", "Bulldog" etc.

Although, again, it's not for intimate situations.

 

[boholikeu]

Am I the only one that thinks it's ridiculously funny and a little depressing that Square Enix apparently thinks the only thing holding them back in the Western market is the muscle mass of their protagonist?

I'm beginning to think that Jun Takeuchi is right: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/100722-Capcom-Producer-Japanese-Industry-Has-No-Hope-in-Hell

Name a popular western action game where the main character isn't just a bodybuilder who has lost his gym that doesn't take all it's gameplay influence from japanese games and I may reconsider that westerners just want either muscles or floating hands with weaponry (because every character who isn't muscles has no personality) .

I don't remember Niko Bellic being particularly buff. He seemed to have a pretty normal build to me, and GTA4 is pretty much the poster child of Western "macho" games.

Anyway, I'm not saying that Western games *don't* have muscle-bound heroes, I'm just saying it's pretty funny that some Japanese developers apparently thought that was the *only* thing holding them back in the Western market.

 

[sievr]

Here's a zany idea, the Japanese: let me choose my own character if you're going to make two of them anyway. Granted, in this case, I wouldn't be excited for either choice. I don't particularly want to be a snowy-haired fairy OR a meth-addicted bodybuilder. But it's a little insulting to have Japanese people deciding that the juiced up bodybuilder is the natural pick for America.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

I remember playing Wind Waker and naming my lil' Link wannabe "sexyboy" it gave me a good chuckle when i walked into Grandma's house at the start of the game and she said "I've been waiting for you Sexyboy"

 

[boholikeu]

Here's a zany idea, the Japanese: let me choose my own character if you're going to make two of them anyway. Granted, in this case, I wouldn't be excited for either choice. I don't particularly want to be a snowy-haired fairy OR a meth-addicted bodybuilder. But it's a little insulting to have Japanese people deciding that the juiced up bodybuilder is the natural pick for America.

Exactly. You already spent the development money on both models anyway.

Plus, here's a hint Japan: Western RPG players love choices.

 

[Grigori361]

I'm not a great fan of the Black and white games, but as I recall when someone dies in it you hear the whisper "death" as they die, around midnight, this actually changes to your name.. which freaked the shit out of me the first time, I thought I was dreaming or something.

 

[baboon 101]

I like how Mass Effect handled it. You pick a first name, but everyone just calls you "Shepard" or "Commander."

And Qqq%kblk is obviously pronounced "Quack Black"

 

[The Cheshire Cat]

To be fair to Mass Effect NPCs, when do you ever actually tell them your first name? I think most of them just assume "Commander" IS your first name.

 

[Tolerant Fanboy]

I'm reminded of Baten Kaitos, a great RPG for the Gamecube. You didn't name the protagonist, you named yourself, since you served as a "Guardian Spirit." On occasion, the characters would face the screen and, in a wonderfully fourth wall-breaking moment, ask for your opinion or advice, the game offering two or more responses. It even had mechanical consequences: The characters' trust in you would determine the frequency and power of potent Spirit Attacks.

Unfortunately, the voice acting (which had other issues as well,) fell on its face when the time came for a character to say your name. Instead of using a voice synthesizer, the dialogue would just have an uncomfortable pause, as though it were one of those videos parents buy their 6-year olds with blanks for their picture, name, and favorite food.

I apologize for the unnecessary gushing over a pet game.

 

[The Cake Is Annoying]

Spelling and pronounciation has always been a sticking point. This topic goes back quite a bit, as this old BBC video shows:

<youtube=hNoS2BU6bbQ>

 

[Halceon]

Pah, empty babble. We don't care about this! Tell us how Awesome Space Game: The Game is coming along!

 

[PolloDiablo]

EA's NCAA series does this. I don't know if they have a really good synthesizer or they just had the announcers sit in a booth for hours recording every name possible, but they'll say the names of any new players you create.

 

[Veldt Falsetto]

Codemasters Racing games have been just recording a bunch of names and letting you pick from a list, So my adoring racing fans have been calling me by my first name since GRID

Thats a nice idea and better than most but the list of names does tend to be a little Eurocentric. I happen to be named Rez so it never worked for me.

Name a popular western action game where the main character isn't just a bodybuilder who has lost his gym that doesn't take all it's gameplay influence from japanese games and I may reconsider that westerners just want either muscles or floating hands with weaponry (because every character who isn't muscles has no personality) .

2 Words... Commander Shepherd.

My prefered choice is a relatable charecter, at that point it doesn't matter what his/her name is. Sqeenix seem to think that letting you choose your name gives them more Role play points. It's odd as that is normally the only choice you get to make all game, the rest is linear and predetermined.

No...he may not be as muscular as people from gears of war but he's still in the same vein though I have to admit at least Mass Effect gives you a personality to work around giving Shepard some character but he's still pretty much a grizzly muscular generic man of western games

 

[Veldt Falsetto]

Am I the only one that thinks it's ridiculously funny and a little depressing that Square Enix apparently thinks the only thing holding them back in the Western market is the muscle mass of their protagonist?

I'm beginning to think that Jun Takeuchi is right: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/100722-Capcom-Producer-Japanese-Industry-Has-No-Hope-in-Hell

Name a popular western action game where the main character isn't just a bodybuilder who has lost his gym that doesn't take all it's gameplay influence from japanese games and I may reconsider that westerners just want either muscles or floating hands with weaponry (because every character who isn't muscles has no personality) .

I don't remember Niko Bellic being particularly buff. He seemed to have a pretty normal build to me, and GTA4 is pretty much the poster child of Western "macho" games.

Anyway, I'm not saying that Western games *don't* have muscle-bound heroes, I'm just saying it's pretty funny that some Japanese developers apparently thought that was the *only* thing holding them back in the Western market.

Meh Niko's kinda muscular but he's also a thug, Rockstar did put some soul into him but you had to do the boring 'hang out with people' thing to get to it

What would you say is then? The most common complaint in Square Enix games are about the characters, if you were subtly looking through forums as a Square Enix exec the most obvious change would be make our men manly.

 

[Veldt Falsetto]

Name a popular western action game where the main character isn't just a bodybuilder who has lost his gym that doesn't take all it's gameplay influence from japanese games and I may reconsider that westerners just want either muscles or floating hands with weaponry (because every character who isn't muscles has no personality) .

The cast of Team Fortress 2, except for the heavy, also Left 4 Dead 1 and 2. It's really good to see Valve giving character to their characters, instead of silent protagonists like Gordon and the girl in Portal.

Aside from Left 4 Dead (I can't really talk about it, not played it) All these are just floating hands with weapons. Does anyone in TF2 talk or have a backstory? Gordon has backstory but that's it, Chelle may as well be anyone else (though she is a girl so I guess that's something new)

 

[sshplur]

The character actually said Twattycake? That's awesome.

 

[Eviljesse]

I named the dog in FFVIII "fag" so everytime Rinoa's special ability would trigger, it would say "Fag Rush!" I had no idea the name of the dog would show up anywhere so needless to say the first time that happened I got a good laugh for a min.

 

[boholikeu]

Meh Niko's kinda muscular but he's also a thug, Rockstar did put some soul into him but you had to do the boring 'hang out with people' thing to get to it

What would you say is then? The most common complaint in Square Enix games are about the characters, if you were subtly looking through forums as a Square Enix exec the most obvious change would be make our men manly.

That's part of the reason why it's so funny. Like you said, it's like some half-witted exec looked at a couple of forum posts and thought "Of course! All we need to do is change the protagonist for the Western version! I'm brilliant!".

Meanwhile, anyone that's done more than a cursory browsing of the whole issue knows it's a bit deeper than that. People complain about the lack of choice and the over-reliance on cut-scenes. They complain about the JRPG genre feeling like it hasn't changed since FF7. Yes, they also complain about characters, but the complaints aren't limited to effeminate men. There are a lot of complaints about whiny protagonists, and irritatingly peppy supporting characters as well.

Now, I don't think Square Enix should listen to all these complaints. Developing your game based on irate forum posters is never a good idea. However, it doesn't take a genius to see that the manliness of their protagonists is not the only thing holding them back here. Personally, I think that rather than trying to make their games more "Western", they should just try to make them less "Akihabara Otaku". Heck I wouldn't even be surprised if that helped their sales in Japan too, as well as in Western countries.