Do you Prefer Voice Acting or Text in RPGs?

Do you Prefer Voice Acting or Text in RPGs?

  • Voice Acting

    Votes: 5 7.9%
  • Text Only

    Votes: 12 19.0%
  • Both Voice & Text

    Votes: 46 73.0%

  • Total voters
    63
Some voice overs for immersion are cool. But lots of text for different dialog-options are cool, too. I hate to see only <=4 dialog options, because more would be too expensive to make with voice overs for most devs.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
19,813
Location
Germany
Related to this, I wish they would deliver text (and dialog) more consistently throughout the game. More often than not, after arriving at a new hub location I spend multiple gaming days reading and picking up quests. Then back to exploration and combat.

This is quite off putting to me. Anyone else has the same problem? I know I don't have to go everywhere in the hub at once, that's just my nature.

BTW, text is fine, voice is better. A combination of the two is the best balance budget wise.

I also like the replying in emotions (angry reply, soothing etc)
 
Joined
Jun 5, 2009
Messages
1,502
I put both because I think it doesn't matter which one, as long as it's done well. I love the text in Shadowrun, but I also like the voice acting in The Witcher. Heck I like the voice acting in Gothic, only because it's so awful that it's actually cool.
 
Joined
Feb 19, 2009
Messages
2,257
Location
Calgary, Alberta
I like the important stuff to be voiced, but the majority to be text, so that the writers can be more verbose and descriptive without impacting the budget.
 
Joined
Oct 29, 2009
Messages
314
Location
Happy Valley
I like the important stuff to be voiced, but the majority to be text, so that the writers can be more verbose and descriptive without impacting the budget.

Actually, I can agree with that.

Rats!! Now I have to review my opinions again!!!

pibbur who maybe too often experiences that other people make more sense than him, but who refuses to elaborate on what he means by "too often".
 
Voted both.

Voiced dialogue is not a necessity throughout every conversation but at the very least cut-scenes/movies should be voiced and every character in the game should at least have a "Greeting Phrase", even if it's only a quick "Hey there!".

In Shadowrun, the utter silence of every character really bugged me, considering that the game had lots of little sound-bits/effects thrown in and nice background music as well. Giving a bunch of characters a voiced dialogue starter like: "Hello!, Greetings!, Fuck off!, What'll it be?", would have gone a long way.
 
Joined
Feb 11, 2014
Messages
411
Location
Sweden
Voted both.
In Shadowrun, the utter silence of every character really bugged me, considering that the game had lots of little sound-bits/effects thrown in and nice background music as well. Giving a bunch of characters a voiced dialogue starter like: "Hello!, Greetings!, Fuck off!, What'll it be?", would have gone a long way.

Yeah, the Might and Magics were like that. I'm hoping once the franchise gets going they can put a little ittty bitty piece of some voice work in the game.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
1,762
Location
Los Angeles area
I used to not care on voice acting, but I have found that when done well, with good professional actors, it can make a huge difference. For instance, without David Warner, Jon Irenicus just wouldn't be the same IMO.
 
Joined
Jan 10, 2008
Messages
4,353
Location
Austin, TX
I voted for both, but I prefer the way it is done in BG1/BG2.

Voice over helps with giving character and personality to NPCs, but it simplify dialog interactions and choices because now the game is limited by the VO process. This is why I prefer the BG1/BG2 approach, voice a few lines to give some character and personality, but live the majority of it as text for more options.
 
Joined
Oct 13, 2007
Messages
7,313
I like the blend as well. Text for the most part but a sprinkling of VO is cool. Games like Skyrim with hundreds of npcs are uneven at best with all the VO. Sometimes it is brutal.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
8,821
I normally play with all sound turned OFF; it's a distraction!! Most of you should be able to work out my choice!! :)
 
Joined
Aug 31, 2006
Messages
12,806
Location
Australia
It's better without any voice acting. I think partial voice acting like Baldur's Gate is nearly as bad as voice acting itself because they both interrupt the flow of your mind's eye. In Neo Scavenger for instance which only has a few pictures and some text, almost nothing, you are immersed in a surreal world and a surreal atmosphere that is more vivid than in any RPG with voice acting. It's the same reason why pen and paper games are more involving, because you are given nothing but a narration and sometimes a few pictures that the game master shows you to build the world from.

Plus there is the fact that voice actors are for the most part, at least in the anglosphere, comedians of low caliber who will take on any job thrown at them. So they're not very good, compared to other countries who have seasoned, professional comedians who took part to multiple film and TV classics.
 
Joined
Nov 16, 2011
Messages
2,006
Location
Trois-Rivières, Québec
For games with an isometric view, I also prefer the mixed approach such as in BG and Fallout. A few well voiced characters can make a huge positive difference IMO as they can make certain NPCs really stand out and make them memorable. But the reliance on text for the majority will inevitably allow for more dialogue and game options.

However, for games with a 1st or 3rd person view, I prefer it to be fully voice acted. I find it too unimmersive if I am visually "so close" to an NPC but can't hear them.

But, as other have pointed out, it is important that voice acting is done well, otherwise it can potentially break a game.
 
Joined
Jun 22, 2011
Messages
613
Location
Madrid, Spain
Baldur's Gate, Morrowind - perfect examples of what I like. Voice acting in some spots (the greetings in Morrowind were priceless!!), text for the majority of the game. That would be my ideal solution.

Can't say I don't enjoy good voice acting, too, though. Gothic has great voiced characters, and of course Oblivion, Skyrim, and so many RPGs that use voice acting are great, too.

But, if I were to design an RPG, it would be similar to the first 2 examples I gave.
 
Add me to the 'both' pile. I would rather 'none' than lousy voicing ... but I do like some voiced text to establish the scene occasionally.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
14,932
I prefer voice acting and less dialogue overall.

Playing the souls games and lords of the fallen was actually refreshing. Just a few voiced npc's. It sure beat town after town of people saying the same thing.

I'm no doubt in the minority on this and to be honest I wouldn't want every game to have so little dialogue but sometimes when playing larger RPG's I get tired of clicking on everyone to see if they have anything important to say.
 
Text only, please. I like to listen to my own music when I play games, the only real exception to this that I've ever found was that Vampire game that actually had Lacuna Coil music in it. A game with decent music, imagine!
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2011
Messages
18,788
Location
Holly Hill, FL.
I prefer "Voice acting and Text" XD. I don't like when our character is muted.
 
Depends on game design, quality of writing, type of protagonist, facial and body language animations and quality of voice acting.
Witcher III is the best example in recent years, where all these complement one another really well…perhaps the best dialogue I've seen in any game, considering the size of it. Masquerade Bloodlines…every single npc dialogue was excellent and entertaining to go through…practically everyone was worth talking to.
With Obsidian and their skills dialogue mechanics, non voiced is the way to go…even a conversation with the mute chick was hundred times better than anything in Skyrim and exhausting every dialogue option was enough to drive you crazy.
Fallout IV's direction may turn out a disaster though, unless Beth turns the tables this time around.
 
Joined
Jun 5, 2015
Messages
3,898
Location
Croatia
Um...

What is wrong with you people?

We just had a discussion about this on roll20. The consensus was that people cannot do one thing at a time. They need to watch videos of cats while they play an rpg. If you are going to play an RPG, then play the RPG. Don't put it in the background for something to do when you get bored with your first choice of entertainment.

It is impossible to recognize the signal through all the noise. People only half-assed interested in RPGs are noise.
 
Joined
Jun 23, 2017
Messages
1
Back
Top Bottom