Poll: Voice Acting: Hinderance to gameplay?

[DaxStrife]

So I was playing through "Fallout 3" and a friend of mine was talking about how they just didn't give you as many choices as they did in the previous games, especially in the dialogue trees. Playing Devil's Advocate, I conjectured that if they gave you more dialogue choices they'd have to write more responses that would need more spoken dialogue, which would then take up more hard drive/disc space.

This got me thinking: do we really need so much voice acting in a game? Sometimes the voice acting is just bad or annoying and kicks you out of the game immersion. Sometimes you just don't listen to what's being said because you read the captions faster than they talk and skip over it anyway. On the other hand, if its done well it can help with the immersion and drag you into the characters and story more.

So,what's the general opinion on this?

 

[PumpItUp]

Voice acting is only bad in two cases.

When it's done badly (see the Zelda CD-i games, ugh)

And when there is so much it interferes with the gameplay (see Movie Gear Solid 4)

 

[peduncle]

I voted help, but it might actually be both. it depends how good it is, and what type of game it is. FPS games don't need voices. RPGs however, i do like voice in. it makes the characters a little more relate able and alive. however in both, if the voices suck, then it can REALLY take away from the game.

 

[TehSilentWolf]

I voted Spongecake because it seemed the most logical answer

 

[sanzo]

It depends on a few factors:

1) If the game's voice acting is bad, is there an option for subtitles?
2) If option 1 isn't viable, is an alternate language a possibility?

...I thought I had more before posting. I'll think of more later

 

[Fuzzykittensmith]

I think it's practically necessary in the recent games that are shooting for realism. I'm probably not the only one that would be a bit unnerved from being stared down by a nearly realistic representation of a person while text scrolls along the bottom of the screen.

I'm sure it fits in some games, and in others it just isn't necessary, if not a hindrance, but I find it difficult to generalize it to most genres and series. I think it really just depends.

 

[MikeTheElf]

I said yes and no. It depends on the type of game, how much it contributes to immersion, and if it's good voice acting. In RPGs, voice acting benefits immersion, so good voice acting boosts my enjoyment, though poor voice acting would irk me. An example of poor voice acting: even though I love The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, whoever attempted to voice Gandalf totally screwed it up, and I cringe whenever I hear it.

 

[Sewblon]

If it is good it can help, but if not, it is just annoying,(See Oblivion.)

 

[matrix3509]

I voted that its a hinderence and I'll tell you why. I would always opt to read text than listen to voice acting. Whenever I read text, my mind creates the inflection in their voices. I don't have their inflections forced down my throat. In my mind, the reactions and emotions of the characters sound incomparably more genuine. When I heard voice acting, I hear the actors, not the characters if you know what I mean.

However, I know that the time of textboxes has come and gone and they are likely to stay gone (except for flash and independent games of course). I am of the opinion that voice actors need to start doing a better job, and stop phoning it in. I don't really know how recent games like Fallout are because my comp can't handle it yet. I'll find out soon though.

 

[sanzo]

I voted that its a hinderence and I'll tell you why. I would always opt to read text than listen to voice acting. Whenever I read text, my mind creates the inflection in their voices. I don't have their inflections forced down my throat. In my mind, the reactions and emotions of the characters sound incomparably more genuine. When I heard voice acting, I hear the actors, not the characters if you know what I mean.

However, I know that the time of textboxes has come and gone and they are likely to stay gone (except for flash and independent games of course). I am of the opinion that voice actors need to start doing a better job, and stop phoning it in. I don't really know how recent games like Fallout are because my comp can't handle it yet. I'll find out soon though.

Fallout 3 has some generally good Voice work, but after awhile, you'll start to hear the same voice actor for different characters. It's a lot better than Oblivion, but still

Then again the game comes with, as far as I can remember, full on text, so you can just turn the voices down and read all you like

 

[Hiroshi Mishima]

It really does boil down to the quality (but I can overlook bad voice acting most of the time), and the gameplay. I mean, I don't expect a game like an RPG to have every last little line of dialogue spoken no matter how much, even though there are RPGs out there like that.

On the other hand, I'm really sick of games coming out by people like Nintendo that could easilly have voice acting, have had decent voice acting in the past, and then suddenly have NO voice acting or worse voice acting. Mario Galaxy was an example of this. Mario Sunshine had voice acting, which while not the best was WAY better than the stupid "Animalese" or whatever you call that garble they speak in Animal Crossing and Mario Galaxy. I missed the voice acting in Galaxy and felt that it was a step backwards. Likewise, the Zelda games are so close to having voice acting already, that it's been a constant surprise to find it hasn't gotten any real voice acting in it by now. Gannondorf's laughing and taunting, Link's various vocalizations, Zelda's vocalizations, and other people's.

In this day and age, I'm surprise more people don't embrace voice acting. We've got scads of great voice actors out there (like Lisa Ortiz, Jennifer Hale, Frank Oz, and Frank Welker) who not only do many anime and moves, but video games as well. Hell, Samus was vocalized by Jennifer Hale in the Prime games, yet never had one line of dialogue, despite her having a beautiful voice and a reputation for speaking her lines well. I bothers me, too, when I see people complaining about voice acting killing a game. As long as the game has more than just plain ol' text, I'm happy. I'm a Diabetic, and my eyes aren't as sharp as they used to be. I'm happy for an alternative to simply reading my way through a game. Although I do leave subtitles on, I like not needing to rely on them so much.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I'll echo what's been said already. Voice acting can get in the way of gameplay when poorly executed (see games that frequently interrupt the game for expositon that requires no player input), and when the acting itself is poorly executed (poor translations, low rent actors, poor writing etc).

 

[Yog Sothoth]

when the voice acting is good then yeah, i'm all for it... but when it's bad... do i really need to explain...?

 

[peachy_keen]

Of course, it always depends, but voice acting sometimes makes the game a lot of fun, not to mention hilarious.

 

[Larenxis]

I pretty much only played Fallout 3 to listen to Liam Neeson speak. And enjoying talking to people is how I found out (repeatedly) that the Tunnel Snakes RULE! So I think the voice acting in that one was a big selling point for me at least. And there are a lot of games that I can't even fathom without the voice acting they had, see Heavenly Sword, Portal, etc. They really relied on the voice acting to make them memorable, and a lot more fun.

 

[BubbleGumSnareDrum]

Yes and no, because well-acted voice work can add a lot of depth to a game. The problem is that many games attempt voice acting and maybe half of them do it adequately, a quarter of them do it extremely well, and the remaining quarter is absolutely terrible.

So in some cases of very poor dialogue/voice acting, it can hinder the game or make the experience feel cheap or convoluted. It depends on a lot of things.

 

[The Iron Ninja]

I voted that its a spongecake and I'll tell you why. I would always opt to eat spongecake rather than listen to voice acting. Whenever I eat spongecake, my cake addled mind creates the inflection in their voices. I don't have their inflections forced down my throat, spongecake is already down there, blocking it's route. In my mind, the reactions and emotions of the characters sound incomparably more genuine. When I hear voice acting, I eat the actors, not the characters if you know what I mean. Wink wink nudge nudge.

[sup]matrix3509? Never heard of him. I certainly didn't just copy his post and change words like "text" into "spongecake". And quite frankly I'm offended that you would suggest such things. [/sup]

 

[PirateKing]

If Dead Rising had voice acting all the time, then that might be one of my favorite games ever.

 

[Silver]

Of course it's a limitation. With voice acting for everything you will never get as deep, and varied a game as without. The same is true for everything else. The more detailed models you have, the fewer you get, the more detailed scenes, the fewer you have, the more advanced animations, the less content in the game.

Everything takes up resources, and time, and since you don't have unlimited amounts of those, you have to choose what's important. Is voice acting or amount of dialogue (including choice) most important? Is it better to have one incredibly detailed city, or would you prefer several smaller ones? Should you use high-poly models, that look great, when you can only have 10 in a scene, or do you want to show that this town is crowded, by lowering the detail?

It's always a balance when designing a game, and sadly, since most customers are stupid (true for every medium) and don't really know what they want, they usually ignore this, and focus on one detail. They might consider graphics really important, or voice acting, and when they get incredible detail, they complain that they can only have five people on screen at once.

 

[Daymo]

Done well, it makes the game a lot better, done poorly, it makes the game a worse. Voice acting I think is more likely to hinder a game though, so if a game dosen't jhave it, I won't really care.