Text or Dialogue?

[hymhym]

I feel voice acting is over rated. It is not a must have feature in any game. It saddens me that it is considered to be such by the game industry. I miss the olden times when there was no voice acting at all. I could project my own interpretation onto every character, and have them sound the way I thought they should. With some characters, that I really connected with, I found myself voicing their lines myself.

 

Having dialogue as text just means that the way you experience differs from the way you experience voiced dialogue. When reading dialogue in a game, you are using the same techniques that you use when reading a book. It is more subjective and personal experience. Having them voiced is like watching a movie. It is entertaining and gives you an experience you would not have created on your own.

 

Both approaches have their merits, and uses. Of course, they do also require bit different approach on the part of game design, and mixing them in the same bag will lead to... well mixed results. If a game has good voice acting I like it, if it has bad I dislike it. Same goes for text. I can't say I ultimately prefer either approach, but wish that not every game had voice acting just because that's the way it's done these days.

 

One thing I'm sure of though - I like silent protagonists. When the characters you play have their "own voice" it is jarring for me, because I am supposed to be that characters voice. But I'm a roleplayer and get pretty deep in character with the characters I play. I develop a certain personality for all the characters I play, and if the in game voice acting starts spouting stuff that goes against this perception of my character, I find it an immediate immersion breaker. I'm sure this is just my personal opinion and there are plenty of folk who feel otherwise. Just noting that there are some pros to having a silent main character.