VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Deirdre]

Voice acting in RPGs may be more trouble than it's worth.

An interesting read from Joystiq.

(Thanks to Mike Wong for putting it on my Radar.)
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[Bruce]

It sounds like the almighty dollar will be the determining factor here. If well voiced games sell better, there'll be more of them despite the whinging.


B
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VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

[ccpetersen]

I think there are some good points in that story, but the comments are also an interesting read. None of the games I play right now have voicing in them, but in the past I've played a few where the voices went from "meh" to "stellar". The creative pipeline must be very difficult; I'm so used to a more linear production in the work that I do, so don't know much about gaming production. I've voiced a game -- and I have to admit that the producer didn't take the timing into account very well and players WERE left waiting for lines to be delivered, but also for scenes to finish so we could move on. I marked that up to developer shortcomings, though.
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[Monk]

I've animated some cut scenes from games, Batman: Dark Tomorrow and Age of Empires III, and you have to approach them just as you would a movie, once the vocal track or even the scratch track is done, it drives the animation and character.

Voice talent is even filmed to capture some of the nuance of the performance for the animator to replicate.

I agree with Bruce, it depends on the level quality of production and what you expect out of a franchise. Batman's voice is essential, the Sargent in Metal Gear solid? Maybe..

It's a money game, make them fast and cheap, get them on the shelves, hope for a hit, and make a sequel or two. I've seen animation jobs go overseas to get hacked together and called close enough. 20k buys a team of animators in Pakistan, fixes done overnight via ftp.

Audiobooks are in danger of going the same route if people don't care about quality acting.
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Company, villainous company, hath been the spoil of me...

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[Deirdre]

I think it's interesting that the "most hated" scene cited in the article is from the game I loved the best in terms of overall voice acting: Final Fantasy X. it had a stellar cast. After that game, though— they made some odd decisions with voice actors and some WAY peculiar direction choices.
The most recent FF games had fine acting again, so who knows what is driving the artistic preferences?

Great voice acting may not ever be the most outstanding selling point of a game, but bad voice acting can sink one.
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[Yonie]

One issue with scenes like the "most hated" in the article is that gamers are not tuned in to subtexts in the same way as a part of the movie-going audience is. They are also not even nearly as self-conscious as they make themselves out to be. People also seem to always prefer the gruff, baritone actors, compared to the younger-sounding ones. Could this be because it is too reminiscent of themselves? There are few things as self-denying as nerds.

Part of the problem is localization. The actors are doing ADR that have to match what the Japanese seiyū did. It's very evident in some scenes from Final Fantasy X, where lines are extremely rushed.

One comment mentioned that the acting is far slower than him reading the lines, so he skips through them with just a few syllables mentioned. What is he playing the game for then? To beat it? To become the very best and catch 'em all™? It certainly isn't to take part in a story.

I thoroughly enjoyed parts of the VA in Final Fantasy XII. The choice to go for English/Mid-Atlantic had me more immersed. I can't explain why.

Bad voice acting can, however, ruin a game for me. Baten Kaitos comes to mind where everything was so appalling that I had to turn it off. Poor direction can also mess things up, as in World of Warcraft.