Poll: fallout 4's analysis/ problem with a voiced protagonist

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CrustyOatmeal

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Jul 4, 2010
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this is the way i see it:

you cant have a voiced protagonist without A) having no option in what your saying (your basically following a character and not choosing what he/she does, except when outside of dialogue/ story) or B) you have to do what they are currently doing (the mass effect system whereby they abbreviate the dialogue choices). the reason why you cant have a voiced protagonist AND full text is that if you had a voiced protagonist and you had access to everything they could say then you would basically read the text and then have the character say it and that would annoy players, having to read something and then have it read back to them essentially. so if they go the voiced protagonist route, which i am not in agreement of, then you can only really do what it is that bethesda is doing

my 2nd point, and probably my main gripe of the system, is that by implementing voiced protagonists you cannot have story based mods unless you utilize previous dialogue. with these short summaries being the only option, a modder that create a series of quests or some other scenario where the character must verbally interact with other NPC's will only be allowed to input preexisting dialogue from the protagonist OR have their dialogue options be as short as the summary based dialogue system limits the characters for each input. this dialogue system severely, if not completely, cripples any mods that have verbal player interactions

i believe the best solution for Bethesda would be to have a dual dialogue system where one can either choose the mass effect style OR the traditional fallout 3/ new vegas system with walls of text. i cant see any harm in implementing such an option and i imagine the greatest difficulty with its implementation will be typing out all of the text required for the traditional method (although, i imagine digital scripts exists somewhere and its simply a matter of copy/ paste). i think this option would also be beneficial for the "soft-core" audience/ shooter crowd by providing a less stringent and text heavy game for those that simply want to a faster pace and not read so heavily but it also allows the hardcore RPG lovers to go all out in their role playing experience.

IMHO, the dialogue system is going to be the crux of the majority of complaints if it is implemented as it was presented at E3 and i hope bethesda listsns to its fans and realizes the drawbacks of voiced protagonists, and how that works against the desires of their traditional audence, and works on finding a way to appease the role players

but what are your thought on the dialogue system? what are your problems/ compliments for it? do you see any other way bethesda can fix it or is it fine as is? do you see any way the modding community can circumvent this without remaking the old dialogue system and making it a prerequisite for mods with dialogue?
 

Shiftygiant

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Apr 12, 2011
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If Bethesda think it's fine, then it's probably not to bad. We have very little in the way of knowledge outside the E3 Demo, so until more appears, there's not much to judge. And Bethesda aren't just going to shift from no dialogue text based to dialogue without reason.
 

Gethsemani_v1legacy

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Oct 1, 2009
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Personally I thought both the voice actors for the protagonist seemed pretty good, they both nailed that saccharine 50's-feel in their delivery without getting too hammy, it bodes well. But then I am not bothered with a voiced protagonist and can clearly see the benefits of having one, in that it allows for more reactive and engaging conversations and actually infuses the PC with some actual presence in the game world instead of the PC just being a body that kind of floats around and never really engages with anyone.

In the end, I am indifferent to whatever the protagonist is mute or voiced. Both have their strengths and weaknesses and both give the game a different slant. Mute PCs are great for sandbox games where going off the beaten path is more important than the story, while voiced PCs are much better for delivering a focused story and giving the PC a proper place in that story.
 

Clive Howlitzer

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Jan 27, 2011
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The terrible writing of Bethesda dooms it either way, so it is kind of a moot point no matter which system they use.
 

Kingjackl

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Nov 18, 2009
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Voiced protagonists are the way RPGs are going, and games like the Witcher and Mass Effect have shown us that you can do it without sacrificing too much depth. I personally find voiced protagonists more immersive in a dialogue-heavy game, so it's no skin off my nose. Besides, it's going to be a 100-hour Bethesda game - we'll get used to it.
 

Denamic

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Aug 19, 2009
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Another case of "judge that thing we haven't experienced yet." Do people not remember how horrible Fallout 3 was going to be? The Oblivion with guns thing? Yeah, let's wait until we get something concrete until we start discussing 'problems' we haven't even experienced yet.
 

Something Amyss

Aswyng and Amyss
Dec 3, 2008
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I'm mostly againsst voiceovers in games, because it has sorely restricted them. But I judge games as they come, and I will do that with Fallout 4.

Also, mods? That's one of the big points here? You can't have voiced mods? That seems like scraping the bottom of the barrel.
 

KenAri

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Jan 13, 2013
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Doesn't seem too different from when people were mad over Bioware moving from silent to voiced. But when people were shown two different versions of the same conversation- one voiced and one silent- the voiced version was almost unanimously preferred.

It'll be fine as long as the voice actors aren't garbage and that there's a skip button.
 

DrownedAmmet

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Apr 13, 2015
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I guess I'm a phony Fallout fan because I loved Fallout 3 and New Vegas, but never played the older ones because I'm not a fan of turn based games.

I don't see why they can't find a middle ground, keep most of the options open while keeping a voiced protagonist. All of the replies were voiced, anyway, so I don't think it would be too much work to voice 2 sets of the prompts
 

Zhukov

The Laughing Arsehole
Dec 29, 2009
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Marxie said:
Fine, Bethesda can invest into it and reap profits, but Fallout is not theirs.
Uh, yeah, it really, really is.

It belongs to them just as much as your toothbrush belongs to you.