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A voice for the PC?


Vaelastraz

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Would you guys like the PC in a possible Kotor 3 to have a voice?

 

It would sure mean a lot of extra work for the development team, because a male and a female voice would be needed, but I think it would be worth it. If the voices are chosen carefully, it can be a great improvement to atmosphere... and that's always worth it IMO.

 

What do you think?

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I vaguely remember this topic being discussed earlier... anyway, I'm still undecisive about the matter - on one hand yes, it would be nice to hear the PC speak, on the other hand no, it would change the concept of the PC in KoTOR and separate him/her a bit from the player's own idea.

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it can be a great improvement to atmosphere... and that's always worth it IMO.
I don't think so because you'd read what you were about to say and then listen to it afterwoods, a bit redundant. Anyway, having a voice would make it feel less like you were the character.
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Hm do you guys actually know a RPG where this concept is used? The Gothic series has fully voiced dialogs and it is really good...

 

Dialogs are a very important aspect of a RPG, and it feels so much more real when you can hear what the PC is talking. If you 've played Gothic you know what I mean.... emotion is also no problem at all, in fact its often very entertaining especially if you choose provocative and sarcastic answers!

 

 

@Redhawke: sorry about that...

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Hm do you guys actually know a RPG where this concept is used? The Gothic series has fully voiced dialogs and it is really good...

 

Dialogs are a very important aspect of a RPG, and it feels so much more real when you can hear what the PC is talking. If you 've played Gothic you know what I mean.... emotion is also no problem at all, in fact its often very entertaining especially if you choose provocative and sarcastic answers!

 

I agree. But then I've played Gothic myself :)

 

Seriously, I do get the point about making the character the player, but when I consider the drama, I find I'd gain more from having my character able to speak in cutscenes than I lose by having the game define the character's voice for me. K1 and JA had voices for Revan and Jaden Korr respectively (though little of it in K1), but I don't think they suffered from it. Indeed, it is possibly unnerving that the Exile never speaks during a single cutscene in TSL when everybody else does, and it's pretty much the same with Revan in K1 as well. After all, removing voice from the main character means that you can never have lengthy cinematic cutscenes, where the character speaks. And considering that, I find the cost of losing the voice to be too high.

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I'm against that idea. If you play enough KotOR, (or other RPGs) you get used to your character not having a voice. I think it allows much more customization that way, myself.

 

If they introduce Mass Effect's dialogue system, though, that's another matter. If they have the right voice, it would definitely make the game seem more cinematic.

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I believe last time this topic came around I said I would rather that the PC not speak. But since I saw the Mass Effect trailer from E3 I changed my mind. A voice over for all male and female options would be massive and time consuming I'm sure, but if done correctly it could work great.

 

I don't really buy the "I don't want to hear the voice so I can imagine my own" argument. By that logic no character would have voice overs, and the PC character isn't your own after all, Revan and the Jedi Exile belong to Lucas Arts and their respective developers.

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I don't really buy the "I don't want to hear the voice so I can imagine my own" argument. By that logic no character would have voice overs,

NPC's voices are another subject altogether.

 

and the PC character isn't your own after all, Revan and the Jedi Exile belong to Lucas Arts and their respective developers.

Incorrect, the playable character in an RPG is the players to mold and play not the developers. If you were a GM at a PnP game and stated something like this you would either recieve laughter and be propmtly ignored, and/or your table would empty quickly with numerous scoffs and jeers. ;)

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Incorrect, the playable character in an RPG is the players to mold and play not the developers. If you were a GM at a PnP game and stated something like this you would either recieve laughter and be propmtly ignored, and/or your table would empty quickly with numerous scoffs and jeers. ;)

 

I have to disagree, and comparing KotOR with a PnP game isn't a fair comparison. In a game like Dungeons & Dragons I can create and customize a character however I wish, personlity and back story especially.

 

So far the main characters of the KotOR series have not been "blank slates"; they are a number of pre-created (physically) men and women, with well established back stories prior to the player ever creating them. I don't get to choose what race my character is going to be, how old, distinguishing facial or personality quirks. You get to use what the game provides you with and nothing else.

 

And with a PnP game, your story is only as limited as your imagination. In KotOR, your story is as limited as how many options the game designers chose to (or can) give you. After all, if Revan had been "my" character, she would never have fallen to the dark side in the first place.

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Incorrect, the playable character in an RPG is the players to mold and play not the developers.
That statement is completely false in terms of KotOR, and most other RPGs. The only non-MMO RPG series I've played that I've ever seen such a statement be true is Neverwinter Nights, because your character was wholly unimportant, beyond killing things.

 

If your character was completely yours to mold, he would (1) not have a backstory or history, (2) not have any character interactions (after all, the way your party members treat your character says something about their personality that you did not choose for them to say!), and (3) would not have his or her own pre-programmed game goal. To ask for those three things in this type of game is rediculous. The only reason it worked for NWN was because you were not following your own ambitions, but the ambitions of the characters around whom the game actually revolved. An ingenius setup, that game had, but one that KotOR did not adopt.

 

So far the main characters of the KotOR series have not been "blank slates"; they are a number of pre-created (physically) men and women, with well established back stories prior to the player ever creating them.

Revan and the Exile don't belong to us, and they don't belong to the devs. They now belong to themselves, and their own histories. If you can't change everything, you shouldn't try to change anything, nor claim anything. Master Kavar gets it. We're already given way more choice than we ought been given, considering how much was pre-written. I almost think the level of choice in the game really limits the story's potential. But what are you going to do when thousands of people are used to MMO's where they have the ultimate level of choice?

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I vote against the idea. Adding a PC Voice would mean tons of sound files, and the PC's voice itself would take up half a gig or so, maybe an entire CD (despite the fact that now it will all be on DVDs, but wth?)

 

Besides, I like it if the PC has no voice, it leaves things to your imagination, like the classic RPGs. And as a rather smart member had noticed a few threads ago, it serves no point to speak out something you have already read on the screen.

 

Now, PC voice has been used in games where the character has some level of speech on his own. In the KotOR series, the PC's speech is entirely dependent on the player, so no use there. :)

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Revan like the Exile were indeed ours to mold...

 

If your character was completely yours to mold, he would (1) not have a backstory or history,

All characters have a back-story or history, figuring it out was what KotOR did for storyline reasons, it doesn't alter the fact that our character was the result of our choices. ;)

 

(2) not have any character interactions (after all, the way your party members treat your character says something about their personality that you did not choose for them to say!), and

Character interactions are generally neutral in the beginning and are changed/affected by how you respond to them, ergo you are indeed choosing and controlling your characters personality.

 

(3) would not have his or her own pre-programmed game goal.

All games have a goal/story... if not you are aimlessly drifting, and this gets booring quickly.

 

and comparing KotOR with a PnP game isn't a fair comparison.

I didn't, if you go back and look I compared your statement to a PnP setting. ;)

 

In a game like Dungeons & Dragons I can create and customize a character however I wish, personlity and back story especially.

Not entirely true. Almost all beginning characters in any RPG's have a starting history that is largely determined by the game world they are in, and almost always there will be aspects of the game where that history is used.

 

Example: You can't have a Forgotten Realms history for your character if you are playing in the Dragonlance setting. ;)

 

The characters are still ours, even with a pre-set or limited history.

 

But this is off-topic now so I will stop...

 

On Topic: No PC voices for me thanks. :D

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