Quality voice acting for major bosses/characters!

[Bozar]

If you voted *NO*, don't flame me yet. Sit your ass down and listen. This is important.

We have this cute, little thread on top where a poll is held and I'm quite frankly amazed that the number of people who are against voice acting is almost the same as the number of people who are for it. This is why polls is shit. In this instance, it is not specified just how much/in what way voice acting is implemented, and I believe many people don't quite understand what they are voting on here.

As I've mentioned before, WL2 does not need to have everyone and their mother voiced, but there should definitely be voice acting for major bosses, crucial NPC's etc. The Master and Frank Horrigan from Fallout Series, Sarevok and Jon Irenicus from Baldur's Gate Series etc. What made them partly as memorable and as great? Voice acting god damn it. I can't stress this enough. I understand the whole "imagining yourself how that character sounds like"-side of things. However, I believe that quality voice acting, the way it was done in FO, BG, PS:T, is deserving of high praise. Why oh why would you be against this? Do explain.

I am hoping we get a new poll regarding voice acting option, with a real explanation on how and in what way it is to be implemented in WL2, before yall who voted *NO* rage like hell.

[Balls Out 3]

Yeah, I think part of the problem with that poll is many people don't notice you can vote for multiple things, so they only go with one. As for the voice acting thing, perhaps this should get it's own poll. One option is full voice acting (good luck getting support for that), partial voice acting (only some lines from some characters are voiced), and none at all.

From what I've seen though, the general consensus is that full voice acting tends to put too many restrictions on the dialogue. Plus I hear it can get rather expensive.

[Bozar]

That's the whole point. Partial voice acting the way it was done in Fallout, Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale etc. I never seem to hear anyone ever complaining about that.

[Woolfe]

I would rather no voice acting. Simply because the cost is too high.

That is my one and only reason for not wanting voice acting. I want them to spend the budget on other stuff.

Now IF they had already committed to voice acting, then sure, I'd love for it to be quality.

[__Pent__]

Would the Master have been nearly as memorable without his voice(s)?
Voice acting can add a lot to a character, and shouldn't be completely ignored.

[Bozar]

I would rather no voice acting. Simply because the cost is too high.

That is my one and only reason for not wanting voice acting. I want them to spend the budget on other stuff.

Now IF they had already committed to voice acting, then sure, I'd love for it to be quality.

What other stuff? You do realize that it is only 18 months development time? What do you want? An even bigger, hollow world for the sake of bigger?

They are going to have at the very least 2.5M for this game. I was hoping some of that could go into better fleshing out some major characters/bosses in the game to make them truly memorable.

[Balls Out 3]

Personally, I'd like to see partial voice acting for special characters, but I'm not exactly sure what the cost would be. I'd need a better understanding of how much money would be involved first, then decide if it would be better spent elsewhere. It's a bit of a grey area. It really did add a hell of a lot of personality to NPCs in the old Black Isle games, that's for sure.

[abdiel420]

Here is the thing. If they can implement full voice acting for important NPCs and still have as deep a dialogue system as if there was no voice acting, I am all for it. If it is going to take a chunk of funding and limit dialogue, it is best left for other games.

[Clockwork Knight]

I don't mind voice acting in important points of the storyline or for introductory speeches for new characters, even though I don't understand why people see VA as MUST HAVE OMG. Game dialogue is often tolerable when written, but really cheesy when someone is reading it out aloud. Games are not movies, no matter how "cinematic" you try to make them.

[Noble]

I want to hear voices at least once for someone as crucial and important as the endgame boss, if it's possible to have other characters voiced a bit as well I will be happy; if not? Oh well, I can live with imagining the voices in my end and maybe make some mini-mod where I voice over them (huzzah, minor VA skills!) and just settle for that.

[Vryheid]

As I've mentioned before, WL2 does not need to have everyone and their mother voiced, but there should definitely be voice acting for major bosses, crucial NPC's etc. The Master and Frank Horrigan from Fallout Series, Sarevok and Jon Irenicus from Baldur's Gate Series etc. What made them partly as memorable and as great? Voice acting god damn it. I can't stress this enough. I understand the whole "imagining yourself how that character sounds like"-side of things. However, I believe that quality voice acting, the way it was done in FO, BG, PS:T, is deserving of high praise. Why oh why would you be against this? Do explain.

Christ, somebody gets it. Hearing those delightfully haunting voice actors made those characters just as memorable as those in modern RPGs even as the technical and gameplay aspects seemed archaic by comparison. Good voice acting is why Best Friend Tabitha is one of the most memorable villains in the Fallout series and why the utterly generic voice acting Colonel Augustus Autumn doomed him to be forgotten. It's why Kerghan is a frightening badass despite only explaining his motives at the very end of the game. It's why no amount of dramatic writing could save this embarassment from becoming comedic gold. It's why the cutscenes in MGS Peacewalker and Portable Ops had such an emotional impact despite mainly consisting of watercolor slides.

When it comes to drama, the written word is weak. That doesn't mean every trivial NPC needs a celebrity voice actor- but when it comes to important characters and plot critical moments, voice acting is just as important as good writing or art.

[krellen]

It's why no amount of dramatic writing could save this embarassment from becoming comedic gold.

While hilarious, this is probably the best argument against voice acting. With this game's budget, that's about what they could afford.

Also, if you think the written word is weak dramatically, you really need to read more.

[Gray]

I registered just to post in this thread.
I really want to see some voice acting like in PS:T or the Fallouts. They don't even need to voice every bit of dialogue by the important characters. Remember in Torment you had all these lengthy conversations with important NPCs that had no recorded voice whatsoever, and then all of a sudden you hear Ravel say "What can change the nature of a man?". It had such an impact. I would love to see the same in Wasteland 2.
Now I'm not sure how expensive voice acting really is. If having voice acting would impact the quality of the game as envisioned by the team, then I could live without it. I hope inXile adress the possibility of having some voice acting in the game in one of their future updates.

[Woolfe]

I would rather no voice acting. Simply because the cost is too high.

That is my one and only reason for not wanting voice acting. I want them to spend the budget on other stuff.

Now IF they had already committed to voice acting, then sure, I'd love for it to be quality.

What other stuff? You do realize that it is only 18 months development time? What do you want? An even bigger, hollow world for the sake of bigger?

They are going to have at the very least 2.5M for this game. I was hoping some of that could go into better fleshing out some major characters/bosses in the game to make them truly memorable.

Party Dialogue choice, combat system, larger world to explore, more quests, more weapon variations, balanced skill choice, different bad guys, moral ambiguity, playtesting, QA, better art, sound effects, music etc.

Lots of things they can spend money on before voice acting. Voice acting is expensive. You have to pay the voice actors, you have to make sure they are portraying the NPC correctly. This costs money and effort. It can also change dialogue choice, as people get bored listening to some deep soliloquy by the bad guy.
I am playing through Mass effect 2, I have the subtitles on, I read that quicker than they speak it. I am often sitting waiting for them to finish their spiel.

[Drool]

You can't skip ahead a line? I do that all the time in modern Bethesda games. I let them talk until I've finished reading and then force-advance the dialogue. Unless I really enjoy their voice, or want a specific pronunciation.

[Anarkopsykotik]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaJ9RI1xDDU
Voice acting can be awesome. So, if it's not too expansive, voicing final boss and two major character could be cool. But, well, I think we can all live without it...

[Prometheus]

I am hoping we get a new poll regarding voice acting option, with a real explanation on how and in what way it is to be implemented in WL2, before yall who voted *NO* rage like hell.

Seconded.

I think the Fallout series (1, 2, Tactics) handled voice acting well: dialogue with significant characters had voice acting, and the rest didn't. And that was fine.

And you know what? If you don't like it, turn it off in the options menu of Wasteland 2.

[GROUNDZERO]

The development team should do the voice acting themselves. Fargo should be the final boss.

OR

They should add an option that links mp3s to text files so that the fans could do the voice acting themselves. Maybe then we could have a poll in the forums and people could vote on the best ones and make them "official" Them they could do a patch that adds those voices to the final game. This game could innovate in that way also. Money is saved, people are involved...

Win-Win-Win.

[etix]

Fargo doesnt have good voice to act as anyone major but a town mayor, sorz;p

and yes, master without his voice wouldnt be the master, he was special case tho - more computer modified than actually recorded, its very simple nowadays to just make cheap, fast and awful voice recording and then modify it in such fashion, bet it can be done with... microphone [with enough patience]
as a side note... franks voice was badass:]

[Rune]

I would like to see voice-acting in the limited sense it is done in the LEGO games. Actors are used, but they don't actually speak any language, just generic human sounds understandable across most cultures.

(But without going completely slapstick, like in the LEGO games.)

In other words: voice-acting, yes, but without any texts or words being read out loud.

And you know what? If you don't like it, turn it off in the options menu of Wasteland 2.

It's not about choice at all! It's about voice-acting (less time to iterate) vs. more content. The way I suggested, it would not limit the iterations on content!

You can't skip ahead a line? I do that all the time in modern Bethesda games. I let them talk until I've finished reading and then force-advance the dialogue. Unless I really enjoy their voice, or want a specific pronunciation.

That's the truth!

Voice acting can be awesome.

IMO it has never been the case in cRPG's. Quite the opposite!