Interview Panam Chit Chat at GameHQ

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Cyberpunk 2077; Emily Woo Zeller

GameHQ has an interview with Cyberpunk 2077 voice actor Emily Woo Zeller. The discussion is much of what you'd expect. What's it like to be a voice actor, what's the character like, what do you think of the genre, and so on. There's even a video version:

With a game like Cyberpunk 2077 players have their choice of character customization, did the V (character) you’re potentially chatting with have any impact on how you were aiming to deliver lines?

Emily: Well, characterization as I understand, and I haven’t had a chance to play the game yet myself. As I understand that’s all aesthetic. Of course you have choices for how might respond to a situation. So when we were recording and when we were working out what scenes may happen Panam responds to each possible scenario. So in that sense, yes, but in terms of like what a player might make themselves look like, no. So only in terms of the actions that a character takes would that determine the path that you would take with Panam.​

This is one of the problems I have with voice acting in a CRPG. How much of the dialogue do they scale back because you have to pay someone to read those lines? How many times do you pick several different choices for what your character says only to get the same reply every time?

Spotted at Blue's

 

[Tyrr]

The real question: Who was the model for Panam's ass?

 

[Gastrick]

For voice acting, I don't see what is so hard about reading on it's own. If a game feels the need to be an audiobook as well to be more exciting maybe the writing wasn't that good in the first place.

 

[luj1]

For voice acting, I don't see what is so hard about reading on it's own. If a game feels the need to be an audiobook as well to be more exciting maybe the writing wasn't that good in the first place.

I read very fast and just can't be arsed to wait for NPCs to get words out of their mouths. Let me read at my own pace ffs. Personally I believe games becoming movies is one of the worst declines in gaming.

 

[Gastrick]

For voice acting, I don't see what is so hard about reading on it's own. If a game feels the need to be an audiobook as well to be more exciting maybe the writing wasn't that good in the first place.

I read very fast and just can't be arsed to wait for NPCs to get words out of their mouths. Let me read at my own pace ffs. Personally I believe games becoming movies is one of the worst declines in gaming.

Yeah, I agree. It's annoying to go from games that you can start playing right away and continue playing to boring cutscenes. For one reason or another they almost all have awful and un-entertaining stories as well, Mafia 2 is the only good one I can recall.

 

[Lady Error]

Limited voice acting can add charm to a game, if done properly.

For example, Mirke, the drunk female pirate in Deadfire, became my favorite character partly due to the superb voice acting.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I read very fast and just can't be arsed to wait for NPCs to get words out of their mouths. Let me read at my own pace ffs. Personally I believe games becoming movies is one of the worst declines in gaming.

I'm constantly skipping the voice parts because I read faster than they speak. I think everyone does. First thing I turn on when I get a game these days is subtitles so I can move through the conversation at my own pace.

 

[A horse of course]

Thanks Infinitron

 

[Kalin]

Nice video, always fun to hear from voice actors, although lol at the romance/erotica part at the end. Limited/partial voice acting is the light and the way, can still add more dialogue after recording and actors can focus on quality over quantity. Greatest quality voice acting to this day is Planetescape: Tournament.

 

[vonAchdorf]

This is one of the problems I have with voice acting in a CRPG. How much of the dialogue do they scale back because you have to pay someone to read those lines? How many times do you pick several different choices for what your character says only to get the same reply every time?

AI voice generation will fix this.

 

[MrBuzzKill]

For voice acting, I don't see what is so hard about reading on it's own. If a game feels the need to be an audiobook as well to be more exciting maybe the writing wasn't that good in the first place.

I read very fast and just can't be arsed to wait for NPCs to get words out of their mouths. Let me read at my own pace ffs. Personally I believe games becoming movies is one of the worst declines in gaming.

Yep, also read fast and unless the voice acting is actually good (usually it's not) I will never bother to listen to the dialogue. I think cutscenes and voiced dialogue in games have the right to exist, but with certain caveats.
BG2 had only the SELECT voiced lines which made me want to listen to them whenever they came up. Scarcity = value.
Or make me able to rudely interrupt the character mid-sentence so that he/she reacts to it.
Or, possibly the hardest route, hire actually talented voice actors.

 

[Fenix]

The real question: Who was the model for Panam's ass?

Meh, nothing I haven't seen before. If she had slit across/transversely, on the other hand...

I think everyone does.

Wrong, zoomers had big problems with reading, they of course CAn read, but they feel uncomfortable doing this, it takes efforts for them, they are half literate.

 

[Fenix]

Saint_Proverbius you should always consider the cultural gap between yourself and zoomers.
Today it's not actually a gap - it's an abyss.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Saint_Proverbius you should always consider the cultural gap between yourself and zoomers.
Today it's not actually a gap - it's an abyss.

I like to pretend they don't exist while blasting Bon Jovi on the radio.

 

[Konjad]

Limited voice acting can add charm to a game, if done properly.

For example, Mirke, the drunk female pirate in Deadfire, became my favorite character partly due to the superb voice acting.

I love limited voice acting that existed at the turn of the milenium. like in i.e. Baldur's Gate or Planescape Torment.

On one hand it doesn't prevent writers to write long texts (and fix/change/extend them at any point of development if needed), complex interactions, descriptive messages etc, as well as doesn't stop the player from reading quickly.
On the other, hearing the voice of a character works great on the imagination and bringing characters to life, so NPCs don't feel generic and even voice can bring a lot of character to them, and then even if you just read text you still imagine that voice in your head.

Text only feels like cheap way out of the above, but it is obviously necessary for small devs. I wouldn't really criticize full dubbing either though. Would Gothic or Deus Ex be better without it? Maybe, but I have a hard time envisioning it. Full dubbing can be just as fine, even if it isn't my preference overall.

The problem isn't full dubbing. The problem is writers and their managers ain't worth shit nowadays. I remember more of characters in Diablo 2 I played almost 20 years ago and that game had little text, than I remember from Cyberpunk where they talk all the time, that's how generic it was. There was no vision, creativity or anything to it, it was just "hey, let's make a game that is like cool movies, and have Keanu!" - that's basically CDPR's creativity's limit.

Yeah, I thought CDPR is a decent enough company, where they suck at gameplay but deliver decent storytard games as Twitchers, but it turned out they don't - it only worked because they had good source material and copy-paste+extend worked for them, whereas if they need to come up with something themselves it's just a turd.

 

[laclongquan]

More importantly, I am abit too goddamned picky about voices. There's just no guarantee your professional voice actors/actresses can hit the spot.

It's best just to leave them aside altogether. Less chance to fail, after all.

IT's like with your game writers' writings. You insist that they are of great quality, GOTY even. I say Hah~

 

[gurugeorge]

She did a very good job, it has to be said. The combination of her voice acting and the excellent, detailed animations make Panam one of the most alive-seeming characters in any videogame yet. At times, incredibly close to crossing the uncanny valley.

For all the game's faults, it definitely sets a higher bar for lifelike puppet shows (well, at least in the set pieces).