3 ms·

It's interesting, but I think games have taken a significant backstep over the past few years in terms of RPG's in many ways. The issue for me nowadays is that

It's interesting, but I think games have taken a significant backstep over the past few years in terms of RPG's in many ways. The issue for me nowadays is that AAA studios seem to demand certain things. One of which, is fully voiced dialogue. This sounds good, people talking lines to me is great right? But the problem is, each of those lines costs time and money, and adds rigidity around what can be changed as you need to get voice actors in and pay money, take time to record the lines, sequence the lips, etc. etc. Having a purely text based experience (see the character, but have the conversation be purely in text) allows for better variability, imagination on your behalf and way more dialogue because they aren't constrained by time and money as much. I can't remember who said it, but It puts me in mind of the concept that sometimes the most creative things happen when given the least tools to work with - if you give an artist all the tools to work with in the world, they can often find it harder to focus. Give constraints and creativity is given bounds and scope to work with. It's a bit counter-intuitive but I really think it can be true.

zimpenfish 8y ago
> fully voiced dialogue Yeah, I 99% hate this[1]. Doubly if it's from the person I'm supposed to be playing - let me have my own thoughts about what's going on! [1] There are some games which have excellent voiced dialogue as part of the world building, e.g. Albino Lullaby
- dkersten 8y ago
  I love fully voiced dialogue in some games, if it’s done well it can really help with telling a story, but in more freeform roleplaying games it definitely detracts from the fantasy that’s playing out in my imagination as it means I can’t imprint my own feelings of what characters are feeling. MUDs were definitely the pinnacle of that for me, especially when you played with people who took their fictitious roles seriously and added freeform scenarios that weren’t hard coded into the game, through a shared acknowledgement that what other players invented became a real part of the fiction even though it wasn’t recognised by the software simulation.
  - leetcrew 8y ago
    imo, the Witcher 3 is an example of very well done fully voiced dialogue. I almost never wanted to skip through it. I think it fits in this game because you are playing as an already fleshed out character, Geralt. like you said though, sometimes the player character is meant to be more of a blank slate that you fill in yourself. in KOTOR, the player character is essentially a blank slate, as you literally have no memory of who you are and an important part of the story is that you decide who you will be (villain or savior). in this game, the unvoiced player dialogue was the right design choice.
    - dkersten 8y ago
      I agree. Like you are saying, I find voices dialogue similar to preset player characters. If the game is telling a story about a specific character (and, super importantly, spends a great deal of effort on deep and meaningful character building), then having a voiced or preset player character can really make the experience great. Geralt is such a character, he has a lot of depth and a lot of history and it’s a great experience to get to explore that. If, on the other hand, the game has little or weak character building around the player character then please let me create my own character (let me choose gender, looks and name) and don’t have the character voiced at all — let me play the character I like to imagine they are instead.
- tpxl 8y ago
  There is a school of though that the character you're playing should not be voiced (or not even respond textually), precisely because the player cannot then imprint their own thoughts on the character, because the voice/actions/emotions/whatever don't match with that of the human player.
- westmeal 8y ago
  You can make it work, but it's crammed into absolutely everything now just because you CAN.

zimpenfish 8y ago

> fully voiced dialogue Yeah, I 99% hate this[1]. Doubly if it's from the person I'm supposed to be playing - let me have my own thoughts about what's going on! [1] There are some games which have excellent voiced dialogue as part of the world building, e.g. Albino Lullaby

dkersten 8y ago
I love fully voiced dialogue in some games, if it’s done well it can really help with telling a story, but in more freeform roleplaying games it definitely detracts from the fantasy that’s playing out in my imagination as it means I can’t imprint my own feelings of what characters are feeling. MUDs were definitely the pinnacle of that for me, especially when you played with people who took their fictitious roles seriously and added freeform scenarios that weren’t hard coded into the game, through a shared acknowledgement that what other players invented became a real part of the fiction even though it wasn’t recognised by the software simulation.
- leetcrew 8y ago
  imo, the Witcher 3 is an example of very well done fully voiced dialogue. I almost never wanted to skip through it. I think it fits in this game because you are playing as an already fleshed out character, Geralt. like you said though, sometimes the player character is meant to be more of a blank slate that you fill in yourself. in KOTOR, the player character is essentially a blank slate, as you literally have no memory of who you are and an important part of the story is that you decide who you will be (villain or savior). in this game, the unvoiced player dialogue was the right design choice.
  - dkersten 8y ago
    I agree. Like you are saying, I find voices dialogue similar to preset player characters. If the game is telling a story about a specific character (and, super importantly, spends a great deal of effort on deep and meaningful character building), then having a voiced or preset player character can really make the experience great. Geralt is such a character, he has a lot of depth and a lot of history and it’s a great experience to get to explore that. If, on the other hand, the game has little or weak character building around the player character then please let me create my own character (let me choose gender, looks and name) and don’t have the character voiced at all — let me play the character I like to imagine they are instead.
tpxl 8y ago
There is a school of though that the character you're playing should not be voiced (or not even respond textually), precisely because the player cannot then imprint their own thoughts on the character, because the voice/actions/emotions/whatever don't match with that of the human player.
westmeal 8y ago
You can make it work, but it's crammed into absolutely everything now just because you CAN.