Some of you may remember me from the original City of Heroes, but if not, then this episode of [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ABLnpEPLHM]Stan and Lou #16[/url] might sound familiar — I did every male character voice throughout the series. I'm a hobbyist actor with a decent vocal range and plenty of accents.
Wed, 09/23/2015 - 15:50
#1
Volunteer for Voice Acting
Thanks, but we're not going to use voice acting in CoT.
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[center][color=#ff0000]Interior Map Lead and UI Designer[/color][/center]
I realize the whole issue about voice acting was pretty much covered in another recent thread. I understand that full blown "voice acting" is not going to be used for CoT for various reasons.
But the side topic did come up concerning the possibility of having a set non-verbal oriented "grunts" and/or other sound effects that might be made by characters jumping or reacting to taking damage. I understand that things like that might be more easily handled by libraries of "sound effects" that don't strictly require a live actors "acting" with spoken words. But still it might be possible (as a cheap alternative) to get some human volunteers to record reasonable sets of "grunts" to provide the game several options for male and female versions of this.
Games like ESO have plenty of full blown voice acting. But they also have options during character creation to allow a player to choose from among like 6-8 different voices that are used by their own characters strictly for the purpose of customizing their own non-verbal vocalizations. I think something like that might be a reasonable alternative for CoT to eventually have as well.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
I'd also like to point out that CoH had a form of it in radio broadcasts and the like, though it was an incoherent babble similar to Simlish. Of course then there's the greatness of Lord Recluse's propaganda speech in Grandville. IMO, small, immersion adding samples here and there would be welcome.
[B]Revenge is motivation enough. At least it's honest...[/B]
Roleplayer; Esteemed Villain
[img]http://www.nodiatis.com/pub/5.jpg[/img]
Agreed with Lothic and Nightmare.
Not using "voice acting" in the sense of not having NPC's and Contacts speak doesn't mean that there's no need for voice work at all.
Also, I never got the sense that the Devs are strictly prohibiting any use of voice in the game, just that they don't want to set a precedent of it being an expected integral part of the game so that they are free to develop without the need for voice acting holding them back--which I wholeheartedly agree with.
But doesn't mean they have to "salt the earth" in regards to voice use.
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
That approach, we will probably do someday, or at least we'd certainly like to give it a good look at some point. But it's not something we want any sort of commitment to right now. 'No voice acting' is the starting point, we'll explore gray zones from there when the time is right for us.
And Lothic, that's not a cheaper alternative to sound effects libraries for grunts, that's a work intensive alternative. Probably more expensive once all is taken into account.
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[center][color=#ff0000]Interior Map Lead and UI Designer[/color][/center]
I've never "priced" sound effect libraries so I really have no idea how much that would cost. And considering that you might be able to get "non-professional" people (i.e. some of the Devs themselves) to record a few "grunt" noises I suspected that would effectively cost nothing money-wise.
But again I suppose the time and effort to record your own sounds might be more trouble than it's worth even if you don't have to technically pay the "talent" involved so maybe as you imply the sound effect libraries would be easier even if you'd have to pay for them.
Just trying to consider all the alternatives. *shrugs*
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Hertz, thank you for offering your services.
"THE TITANS ARE COMING! THE TITANS ARE COMING!"
I would like to bump this thread and also offer voice talent. Maybe this will be reconsidered or maybe not but its all I can offer. Oh and of course I'm funding the kickstarter too ;)
If the developers ever look into voiceover, I would like to throw my hat in as well.
Here are a couple samples of my capability: http://leviwhitney.icanvoice.com/
I hope voice is reconsidered at some point if possible. Decent voices add quite a bit to a game. Even if used very sparingly for background effects (crowds yelling when fleeing from bad guys), or for dramatic moments, or only having certain catchphrases, or the first introductory sentence of an NPC voiced, these things go a long way to drawing players in. Champions online chose to have voice acting here and there, taking important bite sized chunks out of dialogue to voice. This cuts down on voice work and allows you to use varying names without having to voice them. "Oh no X is coming bar the door!" would just have "Bar the door!" voiced as a rough example. Instead of voicing an entire villain monologue, just voice the "Mwahaha!" laugh that is starts with. Etc.
I understand the additional effort involved is significant, and it being something that really has to be done well if you are going to do it at all.
I'm sure that a screams from fleeing people/crowds counts as a sound effect rather than voice over, fairly sure it's so for a "mwahaha" laugh as well.
As for only using part of the dialog (like in CO) I find that to be a bit jarring since I read more than I hear and that creates a bit of a disconnect in my mind. I found it better when they used a generic term like cape or supes or similar.
That is a good point. Perhaps limiting "voices" to CoH and sim style garbled "not quite words" for speech is the way to go. Voice effects like laughing and yelling that aren't words work too. You don't get AAA voice acting but you get enough voice to help bring out the mood of the scene. As a bonus, doing that sort of voice work means you don't need to translate the sound at all across languages. That in itself is a big help.
Plenty of games have pulled off this style of "voice" work and done really well. Introducing sections of dialogue with a voiced sound that expresses an emotion without using words helps a great deal here, whether it is a gasp of surprise or an HAAHA! exclamation or bellow of rage. It works really well with more hammy over the top scenes where you want some exaggeration, but we're talking about a super hero setting so those should be relatively commonplace! Not that every sound effect has to be hammy and over the top, but you get the idea.
Plus, from what we've seen, players are going to choose what direction conversations go in but their own dialogue is left up to their imagination. So not voicing players at all (at least in dialogues) actually works fine with that system.
This compromise with sound work might allow a solid impression at launch with a relatively low investment of time. A silent experience would feel odd and put people off, but a stylized and slimmed down experience that is the audible equivalent of a caricature could fit perfectly with the overall theme.
Angry birds toons says a lot without using any words. I think Luigi's Mansion did it with the professor. I can't say I liked it at first, but later I thought it was quite brilliant.
"THE TITANS ARE COMING! THE TITANS ARE COMING!"