Voicing or Text

[dragon wench]

I was just reading something related to this topic in GB News. which made me think of this..
Now, I am one of those weird people who tend to prefer reading text in a game over voicing. I think some voicing by key characters, especially at pivotal moments, adds enormously to atmosphere and immersion (i.e Irenicus in BG2), but for the more mundane bits I generally prefer text.
Partly, it is because I often turn down my sound when I play a game, and also, well-written dialogue is enjoyable to read, or at least I think so.

Of course, now the trend is largely toward complete voicing ... but I'm a dinosaur. Is there anyone else here just as reptilian and scaly?

[SleepingDog]

I tend to agree with you but probably because I'm a dinosaur as well. I think that text gives you the ability to go at your own pace or even just skip over it if you already know what the message is. I do agree that the use of voicing adds greatly to atmosphere if done well.

Perhaps it would be good just to have both with on-off options.

[Kipi]

*urgh*

Well, not dinosaur, but definately caveman

Besides what mentioned has been mentioned here and in the thread in GB News, I would also like to point out how much in terms of storage capacity it takes to voice every dialogue. If it's not made in similiar way to Morrowind (and Oblivion as well?), that every npc in certain race has same voice, and mostly same lines of dialogue execpt few specific characters. This of course reduce the time, money and space the voicing requires, but then there has not been achieved anything special...

[mr_sir]

I actually like a combination of both. The voice adds to the atmosphere of the game and gives more character to the npcs etc., but I also like having the text so I can read it at my own pace or just re-read it if I missed part of the voice dialogue or get distracted. Whenever games have voice I always have subtitles on for this reason, but I prefer it where you have a few lines of voice but all of it in text like in the Baldur's Gate games and the Icewind Dale games.

[Tricky]

Text, because it still isn't cost-efficient enough to give every character in a game a unique voice. My mind can fill that niche just fine. There may have been more spoken dialogue in Oblivion, but it was done by.. I don't know.. half the amount of voice actors used in Morrowind? To my knowledge, the only game that truly had a great amount of unique voice actors was Deus Ex.

As for online games, I don't need another reason for people to annoy me. It's bad enough kids these days can't type anything without adding z's and x's everywhere. I really don't want to know what those kids sound like when they are talking.

[DesR85]

I've played games that uses all text such as the earlier Final Fantasy series and quite a number of DOS-based games, half voiced and text such as Flashback (CD version) and Grandia 2 to name a few, and fully voiced (most games nowadays) so practically, any of the above would suit me fine as long as the dialogue is well written. What I'm more concerned is the fact that main characters in most RPGs these days are devoid of personality and the ability to talk.

[BlueSky]

LIke most replies here, I prefer a mixture of text and voice. This seems to me to allow people to play more at their own pace. Like Mr._Sir, I have had to re-read what was said sometimes, either because i just missed it, or the voice over wasn't that clear.

[Xandax]

In CRPG I prefer text over voicing simply because of the sheer amount of dialog which should be in a CRPG would be limited if it was all voice over .... (SW:KOTOR series a point in case )

[Siberys]

I prefer a blend where text is the majority. Like in morrowind. You get a greeting in actual voice, and everything else is in text. Works just fine for me really.

[Celos]

CRPGs should have mostly text with a bit of voice acting sprinkled on top. Take Planescape for example. There is no way it could have been better with full voice acting. There was just too much text and every character had a personality. That personality couldn't have been possible when fully voiced.
Action RPGs are a different matter however. Gothics for example wouldn't have been as great with only written text as a way of forwarding information.

[Elessar-NWN]

I prefer a mix, like NWN2 or BG2 did. KOTOR got boring, and I usually skipped it all, and Aribeth in NWN1 also got vy annoying, her silly voice.

[Gilliatt]

Like most of you, I also prefer a mix of voice and text. I love voice and cinematics in the most important events, but prefer text for the rest of the game because cinematics and voice tend to slow down the pace of the game.

One of the things I hate the most is when you have cinematics with voice just before a major fight and cannot save, and then have to see it another couple of times because you can't skip it.

[Denethorn]

I've always argued for the Baldur's Gate style of text and dialogue, especially in the discussions while waiting for Oblivion when Bethesda was trumpeting fully vocalised dialogue. Minor/generic NPCs having one-liners to give a hint of their character (such as that brilliant "I need some air" drunkard at the Friendly Arm), major characters having the odd sentence.

When dialogue is written to be read, rather than spoken, it is generally higher-quality; writers seem to get sloppy when doing vocalised dialogue. As some have pointed out, the sheer quantity of dialogue needed for a decent RPG means that fully recorded dialogue is wasteful (and should be impossible ), but also I get tired listening to reams and reams of spoken dialogue - reading it is far more pleasurable and quicker.

[QUOTE=Tricky]To my knowledge, the only game that truly had a great amount of unique voice actors was Deus Ex. [/QUOTE]

I forgot about Deus Ex. Yes it did use voice-acting effectively, but it was a very focussed and concentrated RPG, often deviating to Action-RPG. Plus one of it's greatest assets is the amazing writing.

[BGRocks]

I think it depends on the game. Games like Baldur's Gate would not be as good if it had voice acting for all the dialogue. It would take a long time to listen through it all, and lots of the character from the dialogue would be lost, imo. However, Deus Ex and its sequel did a pretty good job with voice acting, but Vampire Bloodlines has done it the best. The talent in that game is quite remarkable, and a lot of character is conveyed, which I think definitely improves the game. Part of the reason it works so well is that it has far fewer NPCs than Baldur's Gate or Oblivion, which suffered from boring, generic characters because of it.

So basically what I'm saying that is that if there are lots of NPCs, it should be text with the occasional voiced line, but if there are fewer NPCs, and if it's done well, voicing is the way to go.