Should your character have a voice? (possible spoiler)

[hexperiment]

Mass effect, Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3, Dragon Age 2, Star Wars The Old Republic.... It's definitely trending in the big name RPG series, with the exception of TES. Dragon Age origins received a ton of negative reviews in regards to not having a main character voice, although it was one of the only negatives about the game.

Except all those games were made by one company, Bioware. It's hard to see it as a trend if one company just like making RPG with defined character. I like ME because it was a good third-person shooter action game but not as an RPG. It's barely an RPG in my opinion. The world may be engaging and the characters are well-designed but there is no role-play value. It's all scripted and you get to choose which scripted dialogue to go with. We could discuss about this in another thread though.

 

[Tusck]

IMO Bioware is the best RPG maker out there, so what they are doing is setting the trend. Customers will start to require this type of addition to the game. It will be interesting to see if Skyrim gets any negative feedback about not having it.

 

[Demut]

Nonsense. Which other major studios followed suit? The ones that I can think of which recently published RPGs didn’t do this.

 

[Tusck]

We'll see. I think it's the natural progression of gaming, just before real VR, and then brain implants!

 

[hexperiment]

I think the next step would be using your own voice for character dialogue. It would be cool if you can say anything and the NPC could respond properly, like one of those chatbot. :]

 

[Tusck]

I would love that. You'll never have heard of an Argonian with a filthier vocabulary.

 

[Bobbyleez]

Personally... I HATE trends in video games, it's what made every FPS into a Call Of Duty nowadays, every developer trying to go for that trend turns out to be just another "so so game". While the others who go on their own way whacks people in the face with the "irregularity" in the game.

I'm happy I'm not going to have a voice in Skyrim, or else it would totally kill the immersion. And as I saw higher in the posts, sometime they give your character a funny voice. Any one of you played Red Dead Redemption? Remember Jacks voice? I swear I was going to dropkick Rockstar in the FACE after that one...

 

[Tusck]

It's has been awhile since I played RDR and now that I think about it, that is damn good example of why this may be a bad idea. I was thinking about this the other night and I guess I came to this conclusion:

1. For more refined or modern settings, like Mass Effect, I think a voice works well.
2. For a grittier or visceral setting, like Skyrim, it may actually take away from the game.

That's just my opinion.

 

[Bobbyleez]

I agree on that point. Mass Effect worked extremely well with a voice in my opinion, but I just can't see it happening in an Elder Scrolls game.

Hell, might have even fit with Fallout for me, though I never took Fallout as seriously as TES.

 

[Jeruhmi]

It's has been awhile since I played RDR and now that I think about it, that is damn good example of why this may be a bad idea. I was thinking about this the other night and I guess I came to this conclusion:

1. For more refined or modern settings, like Mass Effect, I think a voice works well.
2. For a grittier or visceral setting, like Skyrim, it may actually take away from the game.

That's just my opinion.

I guess you're right. Skyrim feels like a game where you shouldn't have a voice.

 

[Renegader]

Great points. In short, it is essential to have a voice in games where you are a predefined character such as in Mass Effect. In games like Skyrim or Dragon Age, you have a large variety of characters to choose from. They would have to hire at least 20 other voice actors. This will probably make the developers focus less on the actual content which would ultimately detriment the game.

There are heaps of other reasons including immersion. If you like full immersion then you should picture your character saying what you chose in your voice. Do you know how in Dragon Age 2 you select a statement such as "Let's help" and the character says "Help this bastard out right now"! This is a terrible example but if this is the same case with Skyrim it will totally ruin the immersion - what if you wanted your character's personality to be benevolent and altruistic, although he says the aforementioned?

 

[Tusck]

Do you know how in Dragon Age 2 you select a statement such as "Let's help" and the character says "Help this bastard out right now"! This is a terrible example but if this is the same case with Skyrim it will totally ruin the immersion - what if you wanted your character's personality to be benevolent and altruistic, although he says the aforementioned?

Yep that's exactly what I was mentioning before, when you think you are going to say one thing, be he said something completely different. Also, since I'm playing an Argonian, you'd have to have a lizard voice, which would get really annoying really fast if I had to listen to all that hissing all the time.

 

[Chowder138]

I think my character having a voice would really ruin it for me. The cool thing about the way it is now is that you hear what your character is saying in your head, not in the game. If my character had a voice I'd lose immersion incredibly quickly.

Plus, imagine the months it would take to fully voice the entire think D:

 

[Chowder138]

i have an inpirial so i think it shoud have tat ligonaire voice from rome total war thats what i want to have.

 

[Ghost5122]

I have an Imperial so I should have the voice of that Legionaire from Rome Total War when your troops are wining or roughting

 

[ryguy90]

The reason it would not work in Skyrim is that there are too many kinds of characters you can create and it would be to expensive and to complicated to find enough voice actors to fill all the playable characters. Remember this is the same game were there are only like a half dozen actors playing nearly all the character. However, on a personal and emotional level I really wish my character could have a voice.

 

[Saint Vicious]

Everybody has good points. Me, i'm on the fence. It would have to be very good acting. Options of different voices, and the option to have a voice or not. So it would work for everybody, and wouldn't it be cool to have Ulfrics voice? But the points above would take to much time, and cost to much. And use up allot of space.

So honestly for this game. The best option was to go without it regardless. You can't please everybody. And the ones who do want voices, I don't think not having the option kept them from buying the game and enjoying it?When we get to a time of technology where they can cover all the above points. It will be fine.

 

[Carlos3lance]

It actually doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would - it doesn't diminish the fun in any way - but, having the character voiced, particularly pitched on race, would really add to the immersion..

 

[Crooksin]

I was thinking about this the other day. It's hard to say with a game like Skyrim, if they did it it would have be a damn good voice actor and they have to do it right. It kind of annoys me that there is no voice but at the same time I don't know how I would feel if there was one. I think they should keep it as is, as not to stray away from the previous Elder Scrolls. It is directly centered around the player so to withhold the voice is more immersible.

Also, the reason why Mass Effect worked with a voice actor is because the game isn't centered around the player, per say, it revolves around Commander Sheppard so of course they would need a voice for him or else he just looks like a mute.

 

[Chowder138]

The reason it would not work in Skyrim is that there are too many kinds of characters you can create and it would be to expensive and to complicated to find enough voice actors to fill all the playable characters. Remember this is the same game were there are only like a half dozen actors playing nearly all the character. However, on a personal and emotional level I really wish my character could have a voice.

Skyrim:Voice Actors - UESPWiki

Skyrim has over 70 voice actors.