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[Zacfoldor]

Nope. Not for me.

I don't play games for stories and cut scenes. I play games for gameplay. I've never disliked a game because the VA wasn't Hollywood level. Far from it. I couldn't care less about the VA work. All I care about is the gameplay because I'm playing a video game.

If I want an engaging story then I'll pick up a novel or watch a film.

What about the characters.

Surely you have enjoyed a game because of the characters?

Have you, ever?

Enjoyed a game mainly because of its characters I mean? Or do the characters personalities not matter to you?

Like maybe Baldur's Gate 3, did you not like Shadowheart? Did you not like Geralt? Solid Snake not a thing for you? Leon not important to the game?

Because if you have ever liked any character ever then.....

Well I'm not shilling and I'm not trying to sell this game but Dispatch does have really good characters and is hot now online. It will cure your frozen heart and show you the way of the narrative banger. If you hate the idea of that then BG3 and Clair Obscur Expedition 33 also have very good characters that are great due to VA.

I actually get told this all the time by my PC gaming friends who either only play wow or only play CoD/Battlefield and I get your opinion totally but I think you might be forgetting how much fun a good story with good characters can be. If you have enjoyed these things in movies, books, comics, you can enjoy them thru gaming too. It isn't as bad as you make it out to be. RDR2 they say has an excellent narrative delivered very well.

 

[JCK75]

Nobody is going to conventions lining up to pay for autographs and photos with developers, so just maybe it all works out fine the way it is.

 

[ReBurn]

I value it when video game characters don't talk much at all.

 

[pepeno]

To me it is simple.

Either you have voice actors and you need to make 4 choices and all of them are yes (funny), yes (sarcastic), yes (angry), i will get back to you. Or no voice actors and you have 20 different options to pick from.

I choose the other, fuck voice actors.

Voice actors should stick to walking simulators or sony dad simulators. That's their niche.

 

[geary]

The developers don't value voice actors as they should is that there's a handful of them who are transformative for the game. For example, the VA of Geralt.

 

[bbeach123]

Its the writer/dev in the end . No one gave a shit about the voice actor/actress in veilguard or obsidian's game.

 

[BattleScar]

All I can say is that the people who genuinely want people who put effort into being voice actors (or create any kind of art) to be run out of business by AI are either psychopaths or just fucking stupid.
There's just no other option really.

 

[LectureMaster]

Its the writer/dev in the end . No one gave a shit about the voice actor/actress in veilguard or obsidian's game.

Yeah, beloved characters should be equally credited, if not more, to the writers who create them.

 

[Esppiral]

I can tell by the lack of dub to anything other than English

 

[Clear]

Well yeah, because based on contributions voice actors are vastly overcompensated for the labour.

Perform for a couple of afternoons and expect residuals, yet you can work "below the line" as a coder, artist, designer, anything for literally years on a project and get nothing beyond maybe continued employment.

Sorry but complaining that you got a sore voice from shouting or screaming a lot doesn't seem like such a bad deal versus exhaustion and wrecked family relationships from months of crunch.

So, no. Most devs don't give a shit and rightfully so.

 

[ByWatterson]

Speaking to GamesRadar at the Golden Joystick Awards, the performer said that she feels like game creators do not see voice actors as part of the team.

Because they're not.

 

[IDKFA]

What about the characters.

Surely you have enjoyed a game because of the characters?

Have you, ever?

Never

Enjoyed a game mainly because of its characters I mean? Or do the characters personalities not matter to you?

They don't matter. Gameplay matters. The characters and "story" are just there to move the gameplay along.

Like maybe Baldur's Gate 3, did you not like Shadowheart? Did you not like Geralt? Solid Snake not a thing for you? Leon not important to the game?

No.

Because if you have ever liked any character ever then.....

Well I'm not shilling and I'm not trying to sell this game but Dispatch does have really good characters and is hot now online. It will cure your frozen heart and show you the way of the narrative banger. If you hate the idea of that then BG3 and Clair Obscur Expedition 33 also have very good characters that are great due to VA.

I don't hate that these games have voice actors. Far from it. I just don't care. I'll skip all cut scenes if possible. If a game doesn't let me skip a cut scene then I turn my back on it.

I actually get told this all the time by my PC gaming friends who either only play wow or only play CoD/Battlefield and I get your opinion totally

I should add that I don't play WoW and only sometimes dip my toe into BF. I mostly play singe player games.

but I think you might be forgetting how much fun a good story with good characters can be.

Not at all. When I want good characters and a story, I'll pick up a novel or watch a film. Far, far superior if all you want is a good story.

If you have enjoyed these things in movies, books, comics, you can enjoy them thru gaming too. It isn't as bad as you make it out to be. RDR2 they say has an excellent narrative delivered very well.

It is for me. This is a personal taste.

When I watch a film or read a book, I am immersed in just the story. In a video game, the story is paused with large chunks of gameplay, which then breaks the narrative structure. You don't get that with films or novels.

And yes, I skip cut scenes in games like GTA, RDR, basically anything.

When I play games, I do it for gameplay only. Again, this is just personal taste. Nothing against anyone who enjoy the stories in games and loves the VA work etc.

 

[midasmulligan]

i never think about voice acting unless it's bad

 

[Windom Earle]

where we're not actually part of the team

That is because you're not. The entitlement is off the charts.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

I get that their voice is literally their livelihood, but I sure wish this profession would learn to shut up sometimes.

 

[Poppinfresh]

In all seriousness, does this woman not understand the concept of freelance employment? She's a temporary employee.

No one takes her seriously, primarily because she reads lines written by others for a living, but also because she's a temporary employee who is probably involved with the project for a few days near the end of development.

If she really wanted more input and to be "valued" by developers more, she could drop the freelance gigs and find a development studio that would hire her full-time (good luck with that), but I can almost 100% guarantee you she wouldn't make nearly as much money as she is doing freelance work.

Also, she needs to shut up (hard for a voice actor, I'm sure) and realize that just like everyone else, her "value" is represented by how much she is paid for her work.

 

[Sentenza]

To me it is simple.

Either you have voice actors and you need to make 4 choices and all of them are yes (funny), yes (sarcastic), yes (angry), i will get back to you. Or no voice actors and you have 20 different options to pick from.

Nonsense.
We aren't in 2004 anymore.

 

[pepeno]

Nonsense.
We aren't in 2004 anymore.

yeah, and BG3 cut almost whole act3 because budget overrun and infinite amount of possibilities that needs to be voiced.

Just for comparison. BG2 had nearly 200h of content, Fallout 2 or Torment would be be made with voice actors because there is simply too much to voice. That's why rpgs these days feel retarded and small.

 

[Poppinfresh]

Just for comparison. BG2 had nearly 200h of content, Fallout 2 or Torment would be be made with voice actors because there is simply too much to voice. That's why rpgs these days feel retarded and small.

BG2, Fallout 2, and Torment were all masterpieces without voice acting.

Games don't need voice acting to be great.

 

[calico]

There has for sure been a trade-off between choices and voices* in RPG design. This is one area where AI voice could potentially help make things viable which currently are not.

I agree games don't need voice to be great, but not having voice seems like a big handicap when it comes to broad market appeal these days.

*There are also related matters like an expectation of animated cutscenes, lip sync etc. which is all work which gets multiplied with number of choices nowadays. I feel like if AI is ever good enough to address the voice problem well, it will probably be there or thereabouts on the related issues too.

 

[Horatius]

she is actively delusional, the only voice actors and or performances i've ever given a shit about in the entire history of the industry are david hayter as solid snake and james mccaffery as max payne

everyone and everything else has been completely replaceable. literally a 2/120381092348 batting average

 

[Ziglax]

BG2, Fallout 2, and Torment were all masterpieces without voice acting.

Games don't need voice acting to be great.

These games only voiced the first lines to set the mood and establish the characters, sometimes full paragraphs when it was in a critical plot path.
I think it worked well enough. The older I get, the more I appreciate works that let you fill in the gaps with your own imagination. Be it pixel art, environmental storytelling, and yes, partial voice acting.

 

[deriks]

I guess it is because consumers goes to the actors and the fanbase and whatever. Not every company cares for this base, only if people are playing or not

and oh, Kojima lovers are putting their heads so above the ground in this subject

 

[Sentenza]

yeah, and BG3 cut almost whole act3 because budget overrun and infinite amount of possibilities that needs to be voiced.

Just for comparison. BG2 had nearly 200h of content, Fallout 2 or Torment would be be made with voice actors because there is simply too much to voice. That's why rpgs these days feel retarded and small.

1- That never happened.
2- Larian famously has a "no compromises" policy about voicing their games no matter the amount of text.
3- Both DOS 1 and 2 were voiced from the first to the last word AFTER the games were completed. So arguing for ocmpromises there would be delusional. BG3 went above and beyond voicing even a landslade of temporary text and dialogue that never made to the final game.
4- BG2 was a massive game for a lot of reasons, but it had NOWHERE NEAR the word count of BG3 or even DOS 2.
5- Some developers could actually benefit A LOT by having to peep down the word count of some of their dialogues. Both the early Owlcat titles (Pathfinder KM and WOTR) and the first Pillars of Eternity from Obsidian were often criticized for being verbose WAY past the point where it made them more interesting.
6- "It isn't 2004 anymore" precisely because the average budget incidence of going "full voiced" for a game of this type is nowhere near as impactful and risky as it was back then *in proportion*. At the time voicing an entire game meant almost dubling its budget. Now it means accounting for a 10-15% increase if you spare no expenses.
Hell, it could even be argued that the feature basically repays itself with the net increase in sales and user adoption that it usually brings.

 

[Sticks]

Long live AI

 

[Donald mac Ronald]

she is actively delusional, the only voice actors and or performances i've ever given a shit about in the entire history of the industry are david hayter as solid snake and james mccaffery as max payne

everyone and everything else has been completely replaceable. literally a 2/120381092348 batting average

Biggest name in the industry is Troy Barker. I can't stand the guy but people like him.

Literally nobody is buying a single game because he's voicing the main character.

 

[Zacfoldor]

Biggest name in the industry is Troy Barker. I can't stand the guy but people like him.

Literally nobody is buying a single game because he's voicing the main character.

Funny you bring up Troy.

How much do you think he brought to Indiana Jones.

Would Indiana Jones have been as good with AI VA?

 

[Donald mac Ronald]

Funny you bring up Troy.

How much do you think he brought to Indiana Jones.

Would Indiana Jones have been as good with AI VA?

Haven't played it. But the game looks like it has terrible gameplay.
Regardless of how good a job Troy did, nobody was buying that game because he was in it.

 

[mayham2199]

I'm in a minority.

Video games are a terrible medium for narrative story telling, so personally I couldn't give a shit about voice actors in video games. Might as well just have the devs read the lines, or random Joe Bloggs off the street. It makes no odds to me.

I didn't even start heavily playing games until they started doing heavy narrative stories. Before that I would read books a lot. Now I don't even read books anymore and just play games for my stories.

It's actually why I'm not a fan of Nintendo and their games because it's nothing but gameplay.

 

[Fake]

Bayonneta 3 vibes.

 

[Pagusas]

"versus the players, who very much see us as the forefront,"

Never once have I thought of a voice over as part of the development team or "foefront" of any game. Even when CDR tried to force Keanu Reeves down our throats, it was still just a contracted celebrity, no one thought "Keanu is part of CDR"

 

[STARSBarry]

I mean yeah absolutely, but also you can really tell that some voice actors are just better than others.

Its hard in games because you dont get people playing the exact same character very often, a good example is Shepard in mass effect, but both of those are phenominal so its hard to judge.

However I find Darktide to be the best game ever for this. 3 males 3 females for every class who mostly share lines with 3 sets of 2 being outright identical and you can just tell that even with the exact same lines, some actors are just better than others.



It's just like any part of the artform, it's a joint effort, but if I was part of an area that now is actively looking to replace you with AI, yeah I would feel fucked over too.