Removing Voice Acting and Cinematics to reduce the costs of video games.

[Tim Mazzola]

Also, what? When did I say anything even implying a line of thinking related to cutting out voices from movies to increase the quality of production? That's just putting words in my mouth, and since when did this discussion have anything to do with movies? We're talking about games here, which aren't (and should not be) similar to movies unless we want to restrict the medium completely and allow it to stagnate under the shadow of other media. What I'm getting from your post is "movies are inherently better than video games." That's basically what you're saying. You're saying in order for a story to be presented properly, it has to be done exactly the way movies do it. Games are capable of more than that.

I never said your post had anything to do with movies. I said your line of thought would be like wanting to cut voices from movies to increase production quality. I never mentioned video games being superior to movies, I never even implied it. It's not something I believe and I would argue against anyone who thought so.

Movies are the closest to video games as an art form. Both are auditory/visual. The comparison doesn't really work with Music, as music is purely auditory, and it doesn't compare to paintings as it's pure visual. Movies learned, a long time ago, that voices help tell better stories, that doesn't mean that films during the silent age are worse than the talkies, it simply means that voices better helped directors tell their stories.

Also, more bullshit statements from your post.

"Story telling in games are what's going to push the genre forward and help make games be considered a more serious art form."- Storytelling has been done in every other medium. Storytelling is the least innovative and artistic thing about video games. That's like saying Beethoven's symphonies suck because there are no lyrics and thus there is no "storytelling." Also, this has nothing to do with voice acting, since video games can tell stories in other ways, as mentioned above. Even another comparison to music, instrumental pieces can tell stories simply through the music that stories in lyrics could not hope to convey. Games are like music in that regard. The mechanics of the game alone can be enough, and that is what will make games a great new innovative art form.

I hate to break it to you but storytelling is ubiquitous in art and is one of the things that qualifies something as art. Everything that can be considered art is a storytelling medium. From music, to movies, to video games all can tell a story. Music is a poor comparison to video games, as you do not need lyrics to tell a story or have an emotional impact.

On your first point, no, my line of thinking doesn't imply that at all. Sorry. Movies are a narrative medium and, for the most part, require voice work, but adding voices where they are not needed in video games has the same effect adding voices had on Felix the Cat. Video games are not movies and are not similar to movies. They are not an art form for the same reason movies are. My comparison to music was simply to convey the fact that you shouldn't compare art forms to each other at all, as they are all totally distinct. Also, how can I be saying "cut voices from movies" when I'm not even saying "cut voices from video games"? I'm saying "video games can do without voice acting and still be as good as games without it". Nothing else.

Also, visual art is an art that does not need storytelling. Hell, I consider systems design, level design... ALL art forms that do not require storytelling. Super Mario Bros. was not art for its storytelling, it was art for its level design, system design and brilliant innovation of choice in the platforming genre and depth in play.

I'm sorry about my attitude, I just get EXTREMELY full of rage when people assume that things have to always be done the same way. And I'm sorry, but "video games need voices like movies do" says to me "video games are worse than movies." Even if you didn't mean to imply it, that's what is being relayed to me through your words.

Also, I still have no idea what you're getting at with the "Taking voice over out of a Triple A game would be like removing music from it, would you remove music from any game?" bit... ya, they're both auditory, but are used for completely different things. It's like comparing apples and oranges. They're both fruit. There ya go.

I guess my overall point is "A game with no story is still art." People still poured blood, sweat and tears into the game to convey their creative vision to the world even if there is no story. Can voice acting add to the experience? Of course! Mass Effect has been brought up here a lot, and that game used voice acting brilliantly to make the game world more immersive. I am not saying "REMOVE VOICE ACTING FROM GAMES!" I'm saying that in order the evolve, we have to think past what has been done, and not impose restrictions such as "all games must have voice acting" on ourselves.

 

[Zanderinfal]

For example, without voice acting, how do you know where to go? What if you're in the middle of a mission and it just assumes that you can figure out the direction to go by yourself, and you get lost? That'd kinda suck.

It depends on the game I guess.

Half life did it fucking well without cutscenes and little voice acting which seems amazing to me due to this era seeming to love being shouted at by a bunch of twats calling them a bunch of dicks every time you so much as take a step forward. What's worse is the fact that it's all repetitive and will burn out your sympathy for any characters in the game.

Thanks so much Gears of War, we CAN'T FINGER YOU OFF ENOUGH!

Half life made it good by making the game change what the characters say at non scripted points. While still having a fuck ton of voice acting the dramatic voice acting is rather rare, unless you or another team mate dies.

Class dismissed!

 

[Professor Idle]

Morrowind. Best game I ever played. Voice acting is minimal, and cinimatics? There is not even enough to count on my left hand.

So my answers is yes across the board.

Just the point I was going to make. Oblivion didn't cut it for me because I just couldn't get into it with the damned voice acting.

 

[ksn0va]

Even Amnesia The Dark Descent had VO So:
NO NNO NNNO NOOOOOOOO!

 

[TheKramers]

It really depends on the game. Like Halo without Voice Acting wouldn't be so bad cuz I don't care about the story, only the multiplayer, but imagine Fable without voice acting. It would be an atrosity.

1)Depends

2)Depends

3)Depends

 

[The Lugz]

A) Yes.

B) Yes.

C) Definitely yes.


Well, actually, thinking back, it really depends on the game.

For example, without voice acting, how do you know where to go? What if you're in the middle of a mission and it just assumes that you can figure out the direction to go by yourself, and you get lost? That'd kinda suck.

It depends on the game I guess.

^ this!

there are certain ( rare ) circumstances where cinematics help but overall they just make the game look bad by comparison and reduce immersion while they are at it

the rest of the time? the hell with them i want to play the game not watch an anime
or i'd have rented a film, we have to stop making games films, imo. they're a completely different medium

 

[Kadoodle]

Here's a little cost-cutting measure that would actually make games better: when localizing foreign titles, DO NOT DUB!

I second this. Additionally, I'd like to play a non-dubbed foreign game in the same way that I'd watch a foreign movie. I actually played through AC: Brotherhood with the spoken audio set to Italian, with English subtitles.

 

[zehydra]

"a) Would you Play a current gen AAA game with no Voice acting and no cinematics?

b)Would you be willing to sacrifice Voice acting and cinematics for a lower video game release price?

c)Would you Willing to sacrifice Voice acting and cinematics for a more polished game?"

a) Yes, definitely. I did all my childhood.
b) No, price is not really an issue for me.
c) depends on what kind of game. If the game doesn't rely on either for good gameplay, then sure.

Although if the game relies on voice acting and cinematics in order to be good, then I'd have to wonder if there wasn't already something terribly wrong with the game to begin with.

 

[scar_47]

No to all three VA and cinematics can lend a great deal to a game and can be a very good means of conveying the story their tools for the developers to use you wouldn't eliminate words longer than 5 letters to get cheaper books or stick to one camera for cheaper movies why? Because although they wouldn't some what lower production costs they severely limit the creator and a lot of works wouldn't exist if this limits had been imposed. With spoken dialogue you can convey much more than the written word tone and speech patter can change the meaning of a line and push things in a direction text could convey nearl as elegantly, cinematics allow for things impossible in the game engine to occur and quickly show whats going on where you'd need pages of text for the same level of detail. As for polish every game should be as polished as possible upon release to do otherwise is shoddy work and cutting thing from games already occurs so polish can begin and the release date met. In the end it doesn't make much difference as others have said games aren't priced based upon the amount of work put into them their 60 dollars wether it be a AAA title or shovel ware, the price point is kept low and made up by sales numbers this allows consumers to purchase more titles while making good sellers profitable.

 

[The Hero Killer]

a) No. Sitting there reading text is a tedious thing of the past, and I like my games to have cutscenes.

b) No. It wont matter how cheap it is if its not worth playing.

c) No. No. Voice acting and cinematic make for a less polished game anyways in my opinion. What else is there to improve? gameplay? graphics?

 

[Drizzitdude]

Blieve it or not video games are an art form. they meant to portray experiences to the players and get the player into the game or at elast care about whats happening. Cinematics and voice acting are things that help the narrative, making it deeper, richer, and help portray the story in ways thats simply playing it would not. So I guess it really depends on the game itself. If it is supposed to have a heavy focus on the story then no. Hell no.

think of game like the devil may cry series, would these games be anywhere NEAR as amazing wiht absolutely no cinematics or voice acting? Not at all. While gameplay to a game ies extreamly important the story, narrative, and overall experience can't suffer and expect the gameplay alone to support it. Nowadays it is true that alot of things DO end up getting cut from a game due to a budget, but cutting MORE out of it to make room for the other thing isn't going to help the situation.

So as for me, no.

 

[johnnnny guitar]

Yeah if there was no voice acting that would make games cheaper(sarcasm)
Do you really think games would be cheaper for us if no voice acting was used.
Cheaper for developers maybe but not the consumer

 

[Flunk]

Yes, yes, yes. I would rather have a game with no voice at all than one with earsplittingly horrible voice acting.

The voice acting in Infinite Undiscovery for example would totally ruin the game... if it wasn't already so bad. The voice acting in Star Ocean the Last Hope nearly made me give up the game (also has too many long and boring cinematics). If they can't do decent voice acting I would much rather have none at all.

 

[starwarsgeek]

So my question has 3 parts:

a) Would you Play a current gen AAA game with no Voice acting and no cinematics?

b)Would you be willing to sacrifice Voice acting and cinematics for a lower video game release price?

c)Would you Willing to sacrifice Voice acting and cinematics for a more polished game?

Depends on the game. I tried the Wild Arms remake, and it was really odd. They animated lip syncing, but they were not voiced. That was really distracting. However, I would not turn away from a game simply because it didn't have voice acting, and I'd love to see the industry cut back on cinematics. While I'm not one to claim that cutscenes have no place in gaming, I do believe in-game models and animations are good enough to replace traditional cinematics these days. But again, I wouldn't turn away from a game that was gameplay from start to finish. Mario and Zelda get by with limited voice acting and in-game model cutscenes, so I actually buy games that do this already.

A) Yes
B) Yes
C) YES!

 

[archvile93]

I would play a game without voice acting or cinamatics. Some games I've played had such bare minimum of plots I wondered why they bothered with it at all.

 

[ModReap]

Yes to all your questions, developers need to focus more on the world itself and not the cut-scenes.

 

[thenamelessloser]

I definitely think prerendered cutscenes should be taken completely out of new games, the regular graphics in games nowadays are good enough that the prerendered cutscenes are unnecessary. Also, taking control out of the player hand's for any significant amount of time I think is a big immersion breaker. Note, this doesn't mean skimp on story, just make it so it is in engine and limit the time the player has no control.

Voice acting though is a bit different. I think most of the games should have no voice acting but a few conversations should have voice acting such as how it was done in fallout 2, Arcanum, and Planescape: Torment. Also, as the four former games show how good writing makes it so voice acting isn't that much needed.

But when I watch/play most things I have subtitles on so I may simply be weird. =) It would be awesome to have some huge budgeted flick with no dubbing just having characters talk in silence and then some words appear in the really old movies. =D

Also, I think at times I prefer having a dialogue box appear all at once what a character says, it is easier to click through after reading without missing anything. This is because even though I think I read slowly I read faster than what the characters say and it is easier to click through plain text without missing anything then spoken real time conversations. One thing though, text needs to be BIGGER in a lot of games and I don't just mean for standard television I mean it should be an option in general...

Neverwinternights 2 I think was one of the last bigger name titles I think to have a lot of its conversations in text but the text was tiny and made it a pain in the ass to read at times I think.