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

[Pedro The Hutt]

Come on over to Europe then if you like getting exploited by retailers and gaming companies, here a brand new PS3 game is ?70, or at the current exchange rate, or $99.25. =p

 

[mad825]

How about removing the pissing contest for best graphics? That would save some money somewhere.

 

[SharkyStar]

No.

Part of what I loved most about Dragon Age was the mindless banter between the characters.

 

[Blackpapa]

"I" am delusional?

first of all Im dececting some serious Bias against current gen games, aside form the few that I mention I also have tons of favorites that wouldn't be the same without voice acting

You are correct, though I never did hide that.

plane scape torment is a good game...but I found the amount of text tedious, yes for technical reasons text may work for a RPG like that..but then again I like RPG's that are imersive (reaosn why I got rid of subtitles in the fallout games)

If you found the amount of text tedious then obviously this isn't a game for you. I found the quality of the text amazing. It would have been easier on the eyes on paper but there was no other technical possibility to do this. An acceptable trade-off.

and no people dont skip cutscenes because they are bad in themeslfs (again not ALL people skip cutscnes) they skip cutscnes because they are the kind of people that that are like "I wanna kill things dammit!"

If the cutscenes are good and the player doesn't enjoy them then obviously he wouldn't enjoy a good movie either. Not that there's anything bad with that. I often play pure action games too - I actually replaced the cutscene files with zero-length blank bik files to skip the obnoxious EA/Dice animations in Battlefield 2142.

If someone is interested in action and execution only then there's multiplayer for that. The bots are invariably dumber than any human player, double so with today's difficulty level for games being very low. In fact the reason singleplayer exists in a game that has a corresponding multiplayer mode is the story. If players wish to skip large chunks of singleplayer content that isn't crap then he/she should jump to multiplayer straight away as it's much more interesting, challenging and rewarding.

oh and YOU may think alot of cutscenes are bad....but the magic word it SUBJECTIVE seriously learn what it means

and you are essentially saying "the way I enjoy thing is RIGHT you are WRONG" you may get off on text but I prefer VA all that way thats the way it is

You may feel that way but in reality I'm abstaining from making any judgment in terms of the inherent worth of game content. However in the points where you have your numbers wrong no amount of good will or discussion can make them right. You can't argue with numbers.

 

[CheckD3]

The problem I would say isn't that we need to remove voice acting, but cut down on it somewhat. I mean Metroid (before it went rouge and Other M was released) had few actual cutscenes, and the only voice acting was grunts from Samus when she was hit and occasional creature noises. Games were all polished, strong and some of the best times I've had were with the first Metroid game

I think that less emphasis needs to be put upon the voice acting and more on the gameplay, because bad voice acting is forgivable and only a mute button away. Bad gameplay results in a broken disc being digested out of pure anger

 

[veloper]

Yes, yes and yes.
And I play indie games.

 

[WolfLordAndy]

Very much depends on the game in question. TF2? The voice acting helps add alot of humour to an otherwise potentially serious multiplayer shooter.

Command and Conquor games? The cinematics are what make the game as awesome as it is!

 

[darthzew]

Hell no. Voice acting and overall sound are some of the most important aspects to me in a game. I keep track of voice actors and I'm a big fan of quite a few. It would kill me to see that go.

Traditional cinematics need to go, but the ones integrated into the main game are fine. Mass Effect 2 is a great example. The cinematics are pretty seamless.

 

[Mallefunction]

Voice acting I like...the problem is most VAs for games are shit. XD

Cut scenes should stay as well, but they should be short and sweet like in Bioshock or Half-Life.

 

[krazykidd]

I am not going to sacrifice quality just so a game developer can make more money. It is impossible to properly display emotions through text, trying to do so will reduce the quality of the game.


Also I dont really see the point in getting rid of one of the cheapest aspects of making a video game though.

Because Voice acting and Cinematics is 'quality '? what happend to , gameplay, graphic / level design , Story , FUN ?


EDIT: Oh yeah , music and atmosphere too .

 

[RA92]

Voice acting... depends.

Cinematics can go fuck themselves.

 

[Jakub324]

A) Maybe
B) No
C) No
Without these things, people will regress to thinking they're just "mindless violence". For the sake of all of us, I will oppose this with everything I've got!!!

 

[bob-2000]

No to all of these. Voice acting and story is very, very important for me.

Nobody ever said story would be removed. You don't need cinematics to tell a story with a game. Refer to Extra Credits' "Narrative Mechanics" episode.

I know, but I don't at all mind cinematics, and voice acting really increases immersion for me.

 

[mrhateful]

it depends on the game, for instance a game like baldurs gate(1/2) or nwn 1/2 had no need for voice acting likewise for dragon age: Origins and dragon age 2 for that matter, but a game like hl2, gta4, alpha protocol, ME(1/2), fallout 3 and witcher 2 just to name a few, would have been a much worse experience without voice acting the difference being you control in 1. or 3. person view instead of sky view.

 

[Dagda Mor]

I think a lot of games should cut down on it,but to remove it completely really doesn't do anyone any good.

 

[DanDeFool]

I'm sorry, but if you hate reading so much that you're willing to put up with ear-rapeage of that severity, you deserve what you get. And yes, that's pretty much the worst of the worst as far as bad dubbing goes, but I think it drives the point home that re-dubbing a foreign-language game might not necessarily be worth the investment.

After all, were ICO and Shadow of the Colossus such bad games, just because all the characters spoke in Greek? Or was that Japanese? Greekajanese? Whatever.

While I do agree that having the original language is an option there are still amazing dubs out there. With Chaos Wars the CEO used his friends and family as VAs for some reason. Yes it is horrible but for every Chaos Wars you get games made by Atlus which do a tremendously awesome job localization and dubbing their games.

Even the Japanese recognize the appeal of the English. No More Heroes has no Japanese track as the game was ONLY recorded in English at first. The Japanese release of that game only had subtitles.

You definitely have a point, and I would add that ALL games which were originally in Japanese should have a native language option when released in the English-speaking world.

BUT

Which would you rather buy? A fully re-dubbed game for $59.99 US, or a Japanese-language-only game for, say, $49.99 US?

Now, you might argue "That would never happen, DanDeFool! Publishers are far too greedy to give us a discount, even if they saved lots of money on localization by not having to hire lots of additional writers, voice actors, and modify the lipsynch." Well, friend, that... is a good FUCKING point. Stupid publishers.

 

[Princess Rose]

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?

Sure! Yes to all three.

I honestly wish more games would do this. Bad voice-acting can actually detract from immersion.

Really, though, I think it would depend on the game.

An game with an established character where the player is merely moving the character through a pre-established story? Give me voice acting and cinematics.

An game that encourages customization and multiple character types to play? Text is better, because it allows for more options and allows the player to make their own experience. Planescape Torment is a great example of this - a game like that couldn't be made with voice acting (it has some cinematics, but only sparsely).

Basically, if you're telling the story of James Sutherland or Commander Shepard, then voice acting is fine because the character is narrowly defined.

If you're telling the story **insert name here** then I'd rather skip the voice acting and have more freedom and more polish (or lower price).

 

[joshuaayt]

a) Sure

b,c)I'd be happy to lose cinematics anyway- I don't play videogames to watch a movie. I have no problem with losing voice acting, though I do enjoy it when it is there.