Voiceover / npc

[andreersej]

Hello People Off Nexus

 

Today At My School My Teacher Said That A Vocie in A Game Was An Npc And Me And Most Off Our Class Was Denying It But Since He Read It On A Website Made For Teaching Us What The 3 Basic Things In A Game Is He Didn't Budge Even Tho We Tryed Explaining It To Him For Quite A While So Now I Am Asking Online

 

What Do You Say About It ?

Is A Voiceover A Npc ?

 

I Am Going To Show This To My Teacher So Please Come With Your Menings About It

Because The Class Thinks A Voiceover Is A Voiceover Not A Npc

[TheMastersSon]

NPC stands for Non-Playable Character. A voiceover satisfies both requirements, it's non-playable and is a character.

 

You should listen to your teacher.

 

Also ask him to cover capitalization in his next lesson. :)

[metaphorset]

NPCs can have voices, but they aren't required to have voices. In any case, NPCs, PCs or narrative characters aren't voice-overs, they often tend to have voice-overs. Big difference.

 

A voice-over is simple a voice given to a character by a voice actor. If you don't see the character on screen but only hear his voice (prologue section in Fallout games, e.g. "War never changes"), then you have a narrative character who is played by a voice actor.

 

If you see a character on screen and he talks but you are not able to play it, then it's an NPC (Non-Player Character) whose voice-over is spoken by a voice actor.

 

If you see a character on screen and you are able to control his actions as well as his dialogue (in a limited way), than it's a PC (Player Character) , whose voice is spoken by a voice actor.

 

Voice-overs even don't need to be understandable language. Even Pikatchu's voice is a voice-over.

[Freddy420]

That doesn't make anysense. Maybe the teacher meant NPC as something else and not as Non Playable Character.

(OR)

Maybe he meant it in a different way-> A voiceover is a Non Playable character because you can't play the voices of a character when 'YOU' want them (NPC) to say something. And it's not just about when you want that character to say something but also you can't control what you want that character to say because a voiceover is already recorded by the game developers.That's why a voiceover is Non Playable for you or other people who play the games. So possibly he could have considered a voiceover as a character, I mean not as a human character but it is something that gives the 3D character models a personality/character. HEHE!! :D

Edited December 16, 2016 by Freddy420

[TheMastersSon]

In response to metaphorset, the distinction between a voiceover-only ("narrative") character and one shown onscreen is arbitrary. Both are characters and both are non-playable, and whether a character is seen but not heard, heard but not seen, or both seen and heard doesn't matter.

[Vagrant0]

Generally speaking:

 

An NPC is something which exists within the game world as a visible element or which has some measure of agency within the game environment but which is beyond the player's direct control. The purpose of this is usually to have some other elements working within the game world other than the player to help or hinder the players actions.

 

A voiceover is just an audio element which comes from a source which is not present within the current environment. This can be a narrator narrating, or a voice commenting on the player's actions, or someone on a recording that is triggered by script or player action (audio logs) or similar. The purpose of this is usually for artistic reasons, to provide a lore or instruction dump (bunch of information), or to provide hints or context to the players actions.

 

If an NPC is speaking directly to the player when that NPC is present within the environment, it is not a voiceover, it is just voiced dialogue. When an NPC is talking in a room and being overheard by the player, it is not a voiceover, it is voiced dialogue or voiced monologue. If the source of the sound is localized to the environment, it is not a voiceover, it is either ambient audio or voiced dialogue depending on where it is localized. A voiceover has no location in the environment associated with it, but rather seems to come from the player themselves. An NPC can still have the same voice actor or even the same dialogue as what might be played during a voiceover, but the deciding factor is where the voice comes from.

 

These terms, afterall, have their roots in writing, stage, and movie production just with minor changes based on the medium of choice; so they all have similar applications and usages.