LoginToDownload Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Just a quick question: Are quest mods nowadays (/old geezer) expected to be voice-acted, to the point where no voice acting is thought of as a significant strike against? I'd like to know before I hypothetically start work on such a mod. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric31415 Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Voice acting should be considered a nice touch, nothing more. Personally, i decided to voice the NPC in my mod for a few reasons. First, the CK makes adding voices extremely easy, after quest-making it was a welcome break. Second, i didn't want my mod to feel like a mod, i wanted it to feel like it was part of the game in the first place. And lastly, i had always wanted to try voice acting. I guess it came came out all right, but next time i think i should do a little more work on the dialogue first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Brasher Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Since the voice acting software in Skyrim works, (unlike Oblivion) and since it is easy to use, I think that voice-acted quest mods is the norm for Skyrim. I have not looked at the figures to see what percentage of the quest mods are voice acted versus what percentage are not, but a lot of those which are not voice acted are clearly of inferior quality in many respects. A lot of them are sort of like, "My furst MoD: i hope every1 liks it i wurked hard on t but the secind part casus CTDs n i didnt remember to put in the quest reward swords textchur" So if you want to have a popular quest mod, I think you need voice acting. There are tons of voice actors out there begging for work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoginToDownload Posted June 6, 2012 Author Share Posted June 6, 2012 (edited) Voice acting should be considered a nice touch, nothing more.I agree, but I don't care so much about the prescriptive side (or, for that matter, popularity) as whether it would actually bother people. Thanks to both of you. Please, keep them coming! It's always useful to have a bunch of opinions on questions like this. Edited June 6, 2012 by LoginToDownload Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kryptopyr Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Most of my previous experience with mods is from Oblivion where voice acting was the exception rather than the norm. For me, whether or not a mod had voice acting really wouldn't make a difference in my decision to download the mod or not. If the quest looked interesting and well done, I would download it regardless of whether it had voice acting or not. If the voice acting is done well, it's certainly a great feature, and it does tend to give the mod that little extra flourish that really makes it feel finished. However, I would personally much rather have no voice acting, than poor quality voice acting (which, for me, breaks immersion even more than having no voice and can actively detract from the mod). I'm really curious to hear what others have to say about this as well. Many of the mods I've made thus far have used existing characters. I really don't want to voice their dialogue with a different voice, but of course that limits my dialogue options to lines that can be made from editing their existing voice files...or to using silent dialogue. So far, I've managed to edit the existing lines, but if I really want to expand the mods, it's going to become increasingly difficult to have all their dialogue be voiced. I was discussing this with someone who uses my mod. I hope they don't mind me quoting them, but this was their response: "My favorite mods for Morrowind were story-driven companion mods, same for Oblivion. I have absolutely zero problem with unvoiced dialogue if it means more complex companions with more to say about the plot." So maybe the unvoiced dialogue will bother some people, but there are definitely those of us who don't mind at all. I would suggest going ahead with the mod, and if you choose to add voice, add it at the end. I think it's better to do this anyway, and to have completed (or nearly completed) the dialogue before finding voice actors. You'll have a much better sense of what you want and will be able to convey that more effectively to the actor if you've already completed the quest/dialogue than if you're just getting started. It also prevents time wasted (both yours and theirs) recording lines that later get thrown out or having to go back and re-record or add more lines because you decided to change the dialogue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Brasher Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 I wish that Oblivion and Skyrim had been mainly unvoiced like Morrowind. The existence of voiced dialog and the expectation that people will use it really sort of ruins quest-modding for Skyrim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynster Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 It used to be hard to get a good enough microphone (that wasn't an expensive professional one) to properly voice act for the older games, but there are some amazing ones from $30-$100 - even if you wanted to do some voices yourself - that you don't hear any static at all, the sound is crisp and clear. For me - I love hearing the new voices and the voice acting :D Many NPCs in skyrim sound very down to earth and just like normal people trying to get by - and that's perfect for modders who just want to make a quick line of dialogue and go :) At least that's my opinion anyway. I had a very pleasant experience recording my own voice for a mod that needed a voice and I will definitely do it again. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gasti89 Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 I agree with you in nearly everything, but i think in some cases voiced dialogues are needed. I'll make an example with the story-line i'm writing: I have a NPC who always has a neutral voice, seems to have no emotions, but when you ask him about some kind of "enemies", he start acting like Clark Kent with cryptonite. Ingame i used a "cowering" idle while playing that dialogue line. Now, having him cowering and the line popping out with lots of "......" will seems a bit...weird? But if you have a voice, it will result far better! Obviously, like you said, no voice is far better than bad voice. his is just my 2 cents ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexanderJVelicky Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 I personally think voice acting is a must for my own projects. However, this is made an easy choice because I have been adding voice to my mods for over 3 years now, and I've gotten used to doing it. If it would hinder you far too much, I don't think people would mind it not being there. However, good voice acting can really make a mod that much more awesome. At least in my opinion. As for some other comments, I would recommend that you do NOT voice your own mod. Most people think voice acting is easy, but it's actually really hard. Most self voiced mods I've seen out there are poorly voiced, and it really drains from the mods quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynster Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 I dunno - If you are voice acting an average person - you might want to try it out - I mean if it sounds bad or fake, by all means get a voice actor lol, but as long as you act and don't just read off lines like you are reading, it's interesting. No one expects it to be perfect, and people don't sound perfect in real life when they react to things either. I'd say try it out - and maybe get a second opinion too :) Just don't be afraid of it - that's all, because you never know :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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