Poll: RPGs and skipping voice overs... who else does it? who doesn't?

[FieryTrainwreck]

I was having a little trouble reconciling my DA2 play time with the figures I'd seen online. A lot of people are claiming 40+ hours for a single run. I finished in roughly 30 hours having completed every (non-bugged) quest I could get my hands on. To my mind, that's a pretty sizable disconnect, hardly explained by the predictable exaggerations of fanboys or "journalists".

Then I remembered something: I never, ever listen to dialogue if I can help it. I turn on the subtitles, ignore the voice acting, and speed-read my way through the story.

Why? I'll shoulder some of the blame; I'm very impatient when it comes to storytelling. If I can "get to the next bit" in less than half the time, I will. That's my prerogative and my "curse", so to speak.

But that's really a small part of it. The real reason I skip the voice overs is this: I think the vast majority of video game dialogue is trite, overwritten, and insufferable. If you've played one of these games, you already know what people are going to say, and how they're going to say it, before they open their virtual mouths. Overlong, uninspired, bad writing is the heart of the issue. There's no ear for brevity or tone, no "getting to the fucking point" or "wow, I wasn't expecting that". Just the same flowery, extended, needless exposition. It's become so tiresome, and it's a genuine shame; a lot of the storylines in these games are better than their tellings.

Anyways, I was curious to see how others felt about this. Do you skip the voice-overs when you play these games? (Bioware and Bethesda games come instantly to mind, but feel free to include others.) If so, why? Does anyone roll sans-subtitles? Do you think that improves the experience? Are there instances of modern games forsaking voice overs and showing few, if any, ill effects? (Demon's Souls springs to mind.)

Most fascinating to me: is it strange that companies like Bioware are now spending tens of millions of dollars on voice acting when I basically never bother to listen to it? Is all that expenditure worthwhile when they're clearly cutting corners elsewhere (graphic assets, dungeon/quest design, etc.)? They made this huge deal about a voiced protagonist for DA2, and it made almost zero difference to my experience.

 

[katsumoto03]

I can't stand RPGs with no voice acting. I find them to almost be unplayable. I'd even prefer bad voice acting over none at all.

EDIT: And I also play with subtitles, for whatever reason.

 

[JeanLuc761]

Unless I've heard the conversation ten times over, I will never EVER skip through the voice over, in any game. I force myself to disable subtitles to better immerse myself in the world and it's made games like Mass Effect much more fascinating. Given Bioware has the general tendency to hire phenomenal voice actors, I feel like I'm cheating myself if I skip through it and just read.

 

[gigastar]

I only listen to the story on the first playthrough. After that i know it, so i can get right into picking the meat of the gameplay to see if my purchase was justified.

As hard as it may be for some to swallow, Devil May Cry 3 is still among the best gameplay ive had in a long time.

 

[Vern5]

Yeah, I normally just speed through the voice acting if I can help it. There are very few times when I'll sit through the whole thing. Fallout 3 and NV had the benefit of having relatively short lines of dialogue. And then you have the Bioware games that should rightfully be movies.

You know what I really enjoyed? The Morrowind speech boxes. When you walked up to an NPC, they would give a fully voiced reaction to you so I would already have a sense of their vocal qualities when I was reading the text. Hell, the text was never too long either. I feel like today's developers are banking on the idea that humanity's collective levels of imagination have finally evaporated so they can amaze us with sounds.

Honestly, voice work isn't that spectacular anymore. You know what would be spectacular? If the game could psychically project the "gist" of whatever I needed to know directly into my brain. Then I would be amazed. Completely terrified, but amazed.

 

[DustyDrB]

I don't skip on the first time through. I usually don't in later plays either (except in Oblivion and New Vegas).

And I hate when subtitles are enabled. There's nothing wrong with my hearing. Those words on the screen look stupid if they don't need to be there.

 

[acklumos]

I listen to the dialogue on the first play through, but after that I skim through the subtitles.

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

I can read much faster, so it is a no brainer that I want to skip someone's backstory before I can go kick ass.

 

[PureIrony]

Not usually, but I recently broke that streak while playing Persona 4.

After about half an hour of cut-scenes, I said fuck it and spammed x until the end. There's "part visual novel" and then theres wasting my goddamned time.

 

[Nimcha]

Most fascinating to me: is it strange that companies like Bioware are now spending tens of millions of dollars on voice acting when I basically never bother to listen to it? Is all that expenditure worthwhile when they're clearly cutting corners elsewhere (graphic assets, dungeon/quest design, etc.)? They made this huge deal about a voiced protagonist for DA2, and it made almost zero difference to my experience.

I, for one, think the voiced protagonist is one of the best changes they made to DA2, so no it's not completely wasted.

I usually play with the subtitles off, I just really enjoy cutscenes as they are meant to be seen.

 

[ace_of_something]

Unless I've been thru the game like 3 times I don't skip voice overs ever. I always have subtitles on partially because you never know what you're going to miss until you've missed it and because i have some serious hearing damage from a gun going off by my ear years ago. (every now and then it sounds like the world is underwater)

 

[kasperbbs]

I listen to the voice acting on my first playthrough, and on the 2nd/3rd/4th.. it depends on my mood, sometimes i`ll just read the subtitles really fast and sometimes i`ll just skip the whole thing.

 

[tokae]

I listen to voice-overs, I read subtitles and watch cut-scenes.. In most games atleast.
I tend to veer clear of games with too much cinematic though.. I want to play games with good stories to tell, I don't want to watch a movie or be a part of one.
I like good stories, I like gaming. Simple as cake! (Which I can indeed tell you, is not, I repeat, NOT a lie!)

 

[smearyllama]

I've gotten used to subtitles, because, since my PC and consoles are in the same room as the family TV, my mom usually walks in and starts watching TV right when I want to play games.

I only skip dialogue when I have to have the sound off, or I've been there before.

 

[TheHappySquid]

Depends on the game. Some games the voiceover is unnecessary, others it makes the game.

 

[icyneesan]

Usually the first few times I won't skip any cutscenes at all and will just bask in the glow of a game I am enjoying. Although if ive played a dull part like a jillion times then its understandable that I skip a few lines.

 

[Zhukov]

Nah. I always listen to the voiceovers. Especially in Bioware games.

I used to play with subtitles on. I didn't skip dialogue, but I would often get a bit impatient waiting for the actor to say something I had already read ten seconds ago.

These days I turn subtitles off. It improves the experience for me. That way I can just sit back and enjoy the delivery. Sometimes the way a line is said is just as important as the actual words.

 

[Astalano]

I usually skip most dialogue after the first playthrough, because gameplay is the groundwork, the backbone of the game and the only reason I would play a second time.

 

[viranimus]

Yeah I cant see even using subtitles any more. On the occasion i have to repeat a scene I will just skip it all together.

But it seems illogical to me to skip the cutscenes and just read the text. Its like instead of watching a film, reading the screenplay. If your going to do that why even watch it at all.

As for bioware games, the strength of the games is in the story, and that does boil down to its on screen representation. The strength of bioware certainly is NOT in the combat system they have been working with since neverwinter nights. Its infuratingly repetitive gameplay coupled with a tired and tedious interface mechanic. So for me at least I would do just about anything to avoid rushing right back into that mess.