Fan help with voice recording? (crowdsourcing)

[CaptainPatch]

Hmm. Website. Wasteland 2 domain. Voice acting webpage. Concept art panel. Sketchy description of what is depicted: Pain, joy, anger, surprise, whatever. Call 800-________. At the tone, say the following line, taking into account the required tonal inflection. All voice samples will be uncredited and unpaid. Not responsible for disqualification due to poor communication link quality. Submission of voice sample does not constitute any kind of contract or obligation. Waiver of Liability and other appropriate legalese.

Each panel has a separate phone number. 10 available phone lines, ten voice sample finalists per day. Across a production span of 350+ days. There could be several thousand fans that get _their_ voices placed into the game. (Of course, you would have to thoroughly play the game to find out if yours made the cut.)

[jonnyO2]

OK, OK, I think I've seen the light on this one thanks to Tanglebones and Mordul who've made some really good points.

But I'm still with the folks who've suggested submitting a grunt or a yell or a non-plot-leaking "Sorry Man, I can't help you" would be fun.

...I guess I'll have to stop imagining being a voice actor for Wasteland and go back to my programming dayjob...

[Valka]

Maybe Stephen Hawking and Roger Ebert would volunteer. I'll bet they're fans!

[cah]

Sure, the developers could spend their time filtering and vetting hours and hours of awful recordings in the hope that they find the one or two people who are both competent actors and competent with their home studios... but I rather suspect that the hours spent filtering and vetting the dross would eat up whatever was saved by using the amateur talent. Or, they could go with sound professionals, and actual actors who cost money precisely because they've been filtered and vetted out from the unwashed masses.

That's easy, just let the unwashed masses rate and filter the raw recordings. Then consider only the handful of the best ranked ones.

[Geras]

Hi!

If voice acting is expencice, why not let the fans help out? Im probably not the only middle aged fan with a home recording studio. In fact, its possible to do great recordings with the iphone mic, if you sit inside a clothing closet, or under a duvet in bed.

Car interior is good as well.

[lapinbeau]

I'd gladly sign a contract allowing them to use my voice.

But you have to remember, they want good quality sound. This probably means having an expensive mic, or going to a local recording studio.

[80Maxwell08]

Before you say it shouldn't have voice acting so it won't limit anything please hear me out. Considering how the game got it's funding why not crowdsource some voiceacting as well? My idea is this. When the script is finalized allow people to try out for voicing minor characters (I say this so none of the voice actors will run the gambit of hitting spoilers before the game is released). You have them agree that they are volunteering to do this so they won't get anything (or give them something small for it like a code for Bard's Tale on iOS or android whenever you get that version out) if they are chosen to have their voice in the game. Then you go through all the auditions and you choose who fits best for the role.

Now for my reasoning behind this. I do like voice acting in games but I don't think every single person needs a professional voice actor. I was playing Planescape Torment a while ago (I can't now still waiting for my main computer) and one of the small things I liked in my short time on it was the random people yelling things at you in the town. That Especially not random people walking down the street. However it would be a nice touch for them to have a voice at all. I was playing Planescape Torment a while ago (I can't now still waiting for my main computer) and one of the small things I liked in my short time on it was the random people yelling things at you in the town. IT was a nice touch for the random people to have a bit of voicing even if it was just a minor touch. I heard that for a good amount of voice acting in Deus Ex they just had the employees do it. That's perfectly acceptable but we can help too.

Well that is just my personal suggestion on how I think the game could be better. Feel free to agree, disagree, not care or give your suggestions on how to include voice acting better. Well that's my first post here so hopefully it was a good one. Sorry if this sounds like I'm trying to start anything here.

EDIT: Ok this wasn't too well thought out but I can't get rid of it now so I just got rid of the 3rd paragraph with most of the extreme stuff that isn't viable at all.

[Turkeysocks]

I like this idea. There are numerous people out there who would do it for free just so they can get it on their resumes.

[80Maxwell08]

I like this idea. There are numerous people out there who would do it for free just so they can get it on their resumes.

Thanks I've actually been panicking like crazy that it was a bad idea to post this considering most people's feelings on heavy voice acting from what I've read. Nice to see the first response liked it.

[Sxerks]

A couple people have mentioned this in the crowdsourcing thead, 1, 2.

This is an interesting idea, though it might be cumbersome to do.
1st they would need voice samples to determine what kind of characters your voice would fit in to.
Then if you're chosen, you would have to read off a bunch of dialog(with the proper motivation in how you are saying it) usually there is someone directing you. Which brings up the question of where would this happen? Renting studios around the world and bringing people there is not feasible. And more than likely most people's home recording environment is too noisy and equipment is not professional enough.

Many people have done this, including myself, for Thief fan missions over the years with varying quality. So, it is possible, but just how much of a burden would it be on the sound people vs just doing text.

And Thief and Thief2 also used employees for many of the audio parts and silhouettes in cutscenes.

[Ronin73]

The time frame for the release of the game is October 2013. I honestly don't want to see development time put in to a feature like this even if the voice acting is free.

I have no problem reading text and don't necessarily agree that voice acting makes a game better.

[80Maxwell08]

A couple people have mentioned this in the crowdsourcing thead, 1, 2.

This is an interesting idea, though it might be cumbersome to do.
1st they would need voice samples to determine what kind of characters your voice would fit in to.
Then if you're chosen, you would have to read off a bunch of dialog(with the proper motivation in how you are saying it) usually there is someone directing you. Which brings up the question of where would this happen? Renting studios around the world and bringing people there is not feasible. And more than likely most people's home recording environment is too noisy and equipment is not professional enough.

Many people have done this, including myself, for Thief fan missions over the years with varying quality. So, it is possible, but just how much of a burden would it be on the sound people vs just doing text.

And Thief and Thief2 also used employees for many of the audio parts and silhouettes in cutscenes.

Fair enough points. Also I tried searching to see if anyone posted anything like this already so sorry for not seeing those. I actually didn't even think about how much of a hassle it would be for most people to record anything so I see how that would be a problem. I would like to say something along the lines of "it doesn't need to be perfect" but then I think of the main characters having good recording then jumping to much lower recording when talking to side npcs and it doesn't paint an optomistic picture (though it does paint a mildly humorous one). So point taken on how this isn't anywhere near as viable as I thought/hoped. Thanks for the criticism.

EDIT: Since others have brought the idea up should I get rid of this post then?

[Sxerks]

merged it with an old one, and renamed slightly.

[CaptainPatch]

The time frame for the release of the game is October 2013. I honestly don't want to see development time put in to a feature like this even if the voice acting is free.

There's no particular reason that this MUST slow down the project. There are literally hundreds/thousands of people volunteering to do pretty much anything to help the project. Aside from setting up a sample submission process, vetting the samples could be done by 1,2,10, a score of volunteers that have been advised about "What we're looking for." Further, there still would be no need to go with full voice acting. Rather, the sound clips would serve more as expanded sound effects: grunts, screams, exclamations, background conversation, etc. It makes for a richer game and several hundred people get the pleasure of knowing that the game has a "piece of them" built into something they care about. Negligible cost for substantial reward.

[Zombra]

Cute idea, but honestly I'd just as soon have a game without so much voice acting. Either way.

[Zeful]

Hmm. Website. Wasteland 2 domain. Voice acting webpage. Concept art panel. Sketchy description of what is depicted: Pain, joy, anger, surprise, whatever. Call 800-________. At the tone, say the following line, taking into account the required tonal inflection. All voice samples will be uncredited and unpaid. Not responsible for disqualification due to poor communication link quality. Submission of voice sample does not constitute any kind of contract or obligation. Waiver of Liability and other appropriate legalese.

Each panel has a separate phone number. 10 available phone lines, ten voice sample finalists per day. Across a production span of 350+ days. There could be several thousand fans that get _their_ voices placed into the game. (Of course, you would have to thoroughly play the game to find out if yours made the cut.)

That would result in terrible audio quality. So no.

[CaptainPatch]

Hmm. Website. Wasteland 2 domain. Voice acting webpage. Concept art panel. Sketchy description of what is depicted: Pain, joy, anger, surprise, whatever. Call 800-________. At the tone, say the following line, taking into account the required tonal inflection. All voice samples will be uncredited and unpaid. Not responsible for disqualification due to poor communication link quality. Submission of voice sample does not constitute any kind of contract or obligation. Waiver of Liability and other appropriate legalese.

Each panel has a separate phone number. 10 available phone lines, ten voice sample finalists per day. Across a production span of 350+ days. There could be several thousand fans that get _their_ voices placed into the game. (Of course, you would have to thoroughly play the game to find out if yours made the cut.)

That would result in terrible audio quality. So no.

How much quality is required for a grunt? A scream? A shout?

[kira]

If we're going to have fan voice acting I'd like a button in the options screen to turn off fan made content.

[Risingsun]

Oh, I hope this doesn't happen. It sounds like a fun idea from a fan perspective, but like Brian Fargo and Chris Avellone said in a few videos and interviews, this is going to be more of a text heavy literary game, and thats perfectly fine.
I'd rather they focus on lots of content, scenarios, and great interactions then worrying about the hundreds of audio submissions and trying to find the few that match their vision of the game.

Besides, they already have very talented audio people on staff and I'd like to see what their vision for the game is.

[Woolfe]

Hmm. Website. Wasteland 2 domain. Voice acting webpage. Concept art panel. Sketchy description of what is depicted: Pain, joy, anger, surprise, whatever. Call 800-________. At the tone, say the following line, taking into account the required tonal inflection. All voice samples will be uncredited and unpaid. Not responsible for disqualification due to poor communication link quality. Submission of voice sample does not constitute any kind of contract or obligation. Waiver of Liability and other appropriate legalese.

Each panel has a separate phone number. 10 available phone lines, ten voice sample finalists per day. Across a production span of 350+ days. There could be several thousand fans that get _their_ voices placed into the game. (Of course, you would have to thoroughly play the game to find out if yours made the cut.)

That would result in terrible audio quality. So no.

How much quality is required for a grunt? A scream? A shout?

Just change the phone idea to a microphone on a pc and record.

Seriously the files woudl be small. Upload them somewhere and you are golden.

Recording through a phone... And they call me an old fogey