Editorial Voice acting in RPGs - yay or nay?

[sgc_meltdown]

You mean like S.T.A.L.K.E.R.?

terrible lipsyncing is grand tradition of atmospheric horror/exploration games

in any case I wasn't thinking npc interactions, I was thinking situational enemy and friendly chatter and responses to your actions, whether lipsyncing is in or not, the production cost is minimal compared to what it can for a game where you don't have the overhead view. Compare hearing one of the replica soldiers in FEAR shouting "FLASHLIGHT!" when they spot you that way as opposed to seeing the text pop up in a box overlayed somewhere in the corner
see also: all of descent freespace, or alien attacking civilian sounds in x-com's fog of war if you prefer

if the VA conveys vital cues like sound effects do, then it is not wasted

come to think of it the party member combat voices really did work well in the bg games

tragic isn't it, that 'full VA' has turned into a production resource hog with little boost to quality for AAA rpgs when it has been used to far greater effect and in lesser amounts with other games

 

[DraQ]

There is nothing in favor of voice acting but also nothing against it.

How about cost? Both in terms of them bucks not spent on stuff that matters and in terms of disk space not crammed with stuff that matters.

good point. but with recent prices for disk space i think that one at least is forgiveable.

You still have to cram that data on your DVD or whatever you use.

You mean like S.T.A.L.K.E.R.?

terrible lipsyncing is grand tradition of atmospheric horror/exploration games

It's also irrelevant to dialogue when it all occurs in a large text windows popping up in the middle of your screen.

in any case I wasn't thinking npc interactions, I was thinking situational enemy and friendly chatter and responses to your actions, whether lipsyncing is in or not, the production cost is minimal compared to what it can for a game where you don't have the overhead view. Compare hearing one of the replica soldiers in FEAR shouting "FLASHLIGHT!" when they spot you that way as opposed to seeing the text pop up in a box overlayed somewhere in the corner
see also: all of descent freespace, or alien attacking civilian sounds in x-com's fog of war if you prefer

if the VA conveys vital cues like sound effects do, then it is not wasted

come to think of it the party member combat voices really did work well in the bg games

Yeah, but VA audio barks are of minimal consequence when it comes to both funding and space taken, unlike voicing actual dialogue.

They are a wonderful example of partial VA and in no way imply fully voiced dialgue.

 

[Kane]

You still have to cram that data on your DVD or whatever you use.

not anymore with more and more titles being downloadable or even download only.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

also irrelevant to dialogue when it all occurs in a large text windows popping up in the middle of your screen.

and what I said was that the addition of first person lipsynching in an action heavy fps(CoD etc) tends strongly to full VA, not that lipsynching was mandatory or unavoidable, or even pertinent to a more thoughtful hybrid game like stalker that can get away with a mix of 'immersive' and utilitarian UI design choices

 

[kaizoku]

How much of that was VO and how much was expressions? Still, if you're going to do voice over, do it like bloodlines
1: don't hire superstars
2: have a sound director ffs
3: have the writers involved with the recording
4: don't voice the pc if it is a blank slate, it is even probably harmful

Could you expand on the last 3 points?

For example, I have no clue on what a sound director is supposed to do and what's the benefit of having one.
When you say have the writers involved. You mean giving pointers on the emotions the actors should be conveying? Won't it suffice for that to simply be present on the script.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Sound director is a person who guides the voice actors on each scene, so that they get the atmosphere, intonation and emotion correctly. So you won't have emotionless delivery from a emotional character or vice versa.

If writers and the voice actors get to know each other, it can lead to a better overall result, as the more the actor knows about the character and why the writer wrote them that way, the better a delivery can they make.

 

[SCO]

The voice director is a guy that takes the annotations of the the writers for the characters and checks to see if all actor output is consistent as it is being filmed. The writers being there so they can put their foot down if something is bad is better, but a dude like that, just double checking sound quality/intonation/comparing to other voices/other recordings of the same actor, guiding the actors by 'setting the stage', playing back other voices in the 'event' (so for instance a actor can 'interrupt' another line naturally) already is a major incline.

Just like a movie director, but for sound. Multiclass sound-engineer/artist