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

Couchpotato

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Another short poll to see if our members prefer Voice Acting or Text in your RPGs? I know opinions on the topic will differ, but I prefer both if done right.

So vote on the poll and share your opinion below.
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I voted for both, but only if I can slip over it fast if by hitting a key on the keyboard if I want too.

Sometimes when it is getting late it is just easier to listen..
 
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I say text only for 3 reasons

1. Money spent on high profile actors are better spent on game content
2. I usually read faster than they talk, and therefore skip the rest of their lines.
3. It's really bad when not done properly. Example: Oblivion.

And one more thing: In games where there really is no voice acting except for a greeting, the greeting is quite often completely unrelated to the context of the encounter. Example: you're returning the 7 thingies the NPC asked for and he greets you by "why are you disturbing me".

pibbur who is not entirely sure he agrees with everything he said
 
If it's well done, voice acting can be a nice feature. But it also can limit dialog and choices. So I would choose text for that reason, at least in rpgs, I'd rather have more dialog and choices to pick from, than everything being voiced and limited because of it.

And I'm also old school, in that I like to read. (gasp)

I have noticed the youth often seem to hate to read these days, a great pity (for them).
 
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I have noticed the youth often seem to hate to read these days, a great pity (for them).

I was at Chapters Friday night with my 11 year old helping him pick out a new book. I was surprised how many young people were in there on period never mind on a Friday night.
 
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I was at Chapters Friday night with my 11 year old helping him pick out a new book. I was surprised how many young people were in there on period never mind on a Friday night.

That is good to hear. The youth I have observed look upon reading as a chore, they treat it like homework.

And I have watched video games being played on you tube, and very often, the young people will just skip through the dialog without even reading it.

Hopefully, this dislike of reading will change, and more youth will pick it up like in your experience at the book store.
 
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If there are not enough funds, I say don't cut out ideas and designs, cut out VO and keep it text only.
Other than that…
Option #3 from me.
 
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... But it also can limit dialog and choices. So I would choose text for that reason, at least in rpgs, I'd rather have more dialog and choices to pick from, than everything being voiced and limited because of it.
...

This. Now I've got one more reason for voting text only.

pibbur who can read and sometimes write without typos.
 
Actually the last option should read Voice and/or Text.

A full voice acted RPG does more easily put you in the world, but the smaller developers should concentrate on game and story first. When their credibility is such that they can get a big development funds, that's when they go for full voice.
 
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Both. I love good voice acting, but it gets frustrating if I can't skip it, as I tend to replay games a lot.
 
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I definitely prefer voiced dialogue - though I don't particularly care if my own character is voiced or not.

Subtitles/text is a must, though.

I find "real voices" much more immersive than reading when it comes to dialogue - especially if the game is otherwise going for immersion and world simulation.

If it's a more tactical "bird's eye view" type of game, the voice acting becomes less important to me, because I'm not really playing for total immersion in that case.

On a more general note, I tend to find pure text-driven games overly verbose and often see writers losing their way trying to make an impression. I find that writers who understand the value of focusing on realism and plausible exchanges are rare, and most of them want to demonstrate their ability to use a lot of words in a sentence. Which is fine, I guess, if you're playing to experience the prose itself and not simply a story with interesting characters.

This is probably also why I can have a hard time getting into books - more so than I had in the past. It seems to me that the story often gets kind of lost in the battle of words.
 
I like having both, for this reason:

If it's well done, voice acting can be a nice feature. But it also can limit dialog and choices.

Best example is BG2 :) I loved how first lines are usually voiced, but the rest of the lines are just texts. I don't think Irenicus would have been such memorable villain without excellent voice over.
 
I can't really vote.

I like have voice acting, but I don't mind text-only (when - like DA says - writers don't end up writing books and walls of text).

I also think that what Fallout did is a lost art. Picking and choosing a select few interesting characters and giving them voice-over, instead of full voiceover.

I still remember Harold, the mutant with the tree and the old woman protecting the sanctuary who keeps a very condescending attitude towards you.
And who can forget bone in nose man. :D

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Well, I think for key moments or key characters, voice is good, but for games with walls of text or such, fully voiced is not worth it from a budget perspective, I usually skip and read ahead instead because voice is slow.
 
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Well, I think for key moments or key characters, voice is good, but for games with walls of text or such, fully voiced is not worth it from a budget perspective, I usually skip and read ahead instead because voice is slow.

Yeah, but just having walls of text isn't too good either in my opinion.
It's ok when the situation calls for it, but if it's just there all the time then it's not good.
 
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I definitely prefer voiced dialogue - though I don't particularly care if my own character is voiced or not.

Subtitles/text is a must, though.

I find "real voices" much more immersive than reading when it comes to dialogue - especially if the game is otherwise going for immersion and world simulation.

If it's a more tactical "bird's eye view" type of game, the voice acting becomes less important to me, because I'm not really playing for total immersion in that case.

On a more general note, I tend to find pure text-driven games overly verbose and often see writers losing their way trying to make an impression. I find that writers who understand the value of focusing on realism and plausible exchanges are rare, and most of them want to demonstrate their ability to use a lot of words in a sentence. Which is fine, I guess, if you're playing to experience the prose itself and not simply a story with interesting characters.

This is probably also why I can have a hard time getting into books - more so than I had in the past. It seems to me that the story often gets kind of lost in the battle of words.

I was going to write something, but I noticed that I would be repeating DArtagnan. That's it. Except the part about books, those may be verbose, it depends on what you are reading. But walls of text in games, no way. Text only RPGs usually have ridiculously long dialogues. It's unrealistic. So, voice acting, of course (it doesn't have to be really good, just not lousy acting) but always with subtitles.
 
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I was always perfectly happy with the BG approach - text dialogs, but with bits of recorded VO at key moments to add character.

I would tend to favour text, in part because I like modding. Making quest mods is a much bigger pain if you have to sort out voice actors, and adding or changing scenes with existing characters becomes impossible to do well.

And, in terms of the original game development, you just know that huge chunks of time and budget are swallowed up by VO, that might have been better spent.
 
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