Voice options in character creation?

[TheLadyOfTheRings.9148]

Hi everyone.

I believe some of us have already expressed our desire to have options for voice being added to character creation, like we have in The Sims 3, for example.

Do you think it's realistic to hope for voice options in GW2?

[decease.3215]

Personally i also want other player to use a different voice set... so when they cast a skill, i could tell a different..

[Parasite.5389]

I don't think it's realistic to expect Arenanet to hire new voice actors for re-record 9 years of content.

[Zephire.8049]

It would be nice but at this point it's probably too much work. Even if you just run the current lines through a filter, you still have hundreds of thousands of lines of dialogue to go through and then also need to quality check them all and tweak them where needed. Though you'd still run into an issue of certain options not emphasizing the parts you would think they would and other subtle things VAs add to their performances to get across the personality/mood of the character.

 

Or you could pay for VAs to read/re-read hundreds of thousands of lines, which would be far from cheap. And those would all require the sound techs to go over them and tweak them where needed.

 

It's far easier to do that from the start, in MMOs where there's limited talking, in single player games, or the "talking" is gibberish where weird filter effects won't stand out. It is feasible in GW2 but the cost and resources put it far below other projects.

[Shadowmoon.7986]

This is the excuse for not added tengu as a playable race, having to re record thousands of voice lines twice. 

This suggestion would be even worse.

[Clockless.2503]

The easiest way to give your character a new voice actor is to change languages, although that introduces a new problem.  I do think it would be nice if there were a language selection option at character creation so that you could see what they would each sound like.  Right now I think you need to restart the game just to test one out, which is a bit of a hassle.  Even something like that really isn't worth implementing though.

[AgentMoore.9453]

I distinctly remember a patch some years ago that inexplicably broke voice acting across the game. You had male Sylvari Mesmers yelling female Asura Guardian voice lines, and it was absolutely hilarious. So the technology was there, once upon a time, just not as intended.

You're more likely to get a pitch slider for voices than anything else, but even that is a slim hope. Consider that we don't even have scars, makeup, or beards that aren't baked into faces. Character creation as a whole could use a glow up.

[Rogue.8235]

As much as I would love this, implementation doesn't seem feasible.  I'm also imagining the outcry from whatever number of players denouncing ArenaNet for wasting resources on soemthing so trivial (as happens on occasion).

 

The last time I had lot's of fun with character voices was Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2.  I enjoyed that level of customization.

 

As for slider options, it does seem easy on the surface, but I'm not sure how the engine handles distortions to sound files.  This would be another system layered on top of everything that gets loaded as needed when playing the game.  Not sure if this would unreasonably bloat the already strained resources on the client side.  I do know enough that rendering sound distortions has a non-zero computational requirement.

 

For the sake of the forum thread, I like the idea of implementing something additional to character voices.

 

 

[Dean Calaway.9718]

[This message is unwelcomed and was removed.]

Edited September 30, 2021 by Dean Calaway.9718

[Kalocin.5982]

Most they could really do is a pitch shift, they hired some pretty well known actors for the main characters so they probably want to capitalize on that

[fatihso.7258]

Sadly, character creation/edit system is archaic in this game. Your character is the main point at how you interact with the game world. Anet should have kept it improved and add more features over the long years.

With EoD approaching, I hope it will get some love more than the confirmed hairstyles.

 

Edited September 27, 2021 by fatihso.7258

[Elricht Kaltwind.8796]

On 9/25/2021 at 7:58 PM, AgentMoore.9453 said:

Consider that we don't even have scars, makeup, or beards that aren't baked into faces.

Beards aren't tied to specific faces, they're entirely separate.

[erapago.4387]

I could see this happening if the player character wasn't fully voiced and it was just a question of recording a few emote/combat grunts and lines like most other MMOs. But that's not what's happening in Guild Wars 2.

[Gibson.4036]

It is a bit strange if you play a lot of characters of the same race and gender to hear them all speaking with the same voice.

But yeah, that would be a huge, costly endeavor just to add one more voice to each race and gender.

If the races weren’t so different from each other, they could have recorded all the voices and let us pick from them. It’d be really strange to hear a Charr with Asura voice and vice versa though.

[kettering.6823]

What I would really love is just the ability to choose voice packs from other languages. I want to play human males but I can't stand the human male voice actor; if I could switch my voice over in game to another language, maybe I could tolerate him. 

[Doggie.3184]

I wish it were possible but it'll probably never happen since so much dialogue is voiced. If it's just pitch sliders it'd be more likely but still no.

It'd be nice though if I could at least get an option to delete the "Eat my dust" line human males say when they gain swiftness. It is the worse voice line in the entire game. XD Or be able to select different lines to say during actions. I'd even pay gems for such things if it became a common addition.

Edited September 27, 2021 by Doggie.3184

[kettering.6823]

6 minutes ago, Doggie.3184 said:

It'd be nice though if I could at least get an option to delete the "Eat my dust" line human males say when they gain swiftness. It is the worse voice line in the entire game. XD

 

For me it's human male 'urge to kill rising' when you have fury... I hate it so much lol

[Linken.6345]

21 minutes ago, kettering.6823 said:

 

For me it's human male 'urge to kill rising' when you have fury... I hate it so much lol

You can turn off chatter like that in the options menu.

[Rogue.8235]

1 hour ago, kettering.6823 said:

 

For me it's human male 'urge to kill rising' when you have fury... I hate it so much lol

 

The only characters I love getting Fury on are my male Charrs.

Yes, we definitely want to "KILL 'EM ALL!"

Nothing says fury like wanting to kill everything, living or not, around you.  Grawl, Krait, Quaggan, Pigs, Bandits, Rocks, Birds, Armadillos, just kill everything!

 

 

[AgentMoore.9453]

4 hours ago, Elricht Kaltwind.8796 said:

Beards aren't tied to specific faces, they're entirely separate.

I main Sylvari - they're baked in for them.

[Mungrul.9358]

13 hours ago, kettering.6823 said:

I want to play human males but I can't stand the human male voice actor

Nolan North is sad 😞

 

Saying that, I agree with the OP that options like in The Sims with pitch and tone shifts would be welcome changes, and wouldn't necessitate re-recording everything.

 

Edit: But it also got me thinking... what are the legal implications of this?

Would they have to renegotiate contracts with the existing voice talent?

Would SAG-AFTRA (the Screen Actors Guild) get involved?

 

Technically, tone and pitch shifts might be relatively cheap and easy to implement, but because videogames are big business these days, they could be a legal minefield.

Edited September 28, 2021 by Mungrul.9358
Exposition and exploration.

[MaLong.2079]

Tone and pitch sliders would be nice but knowing my server they will all be sounding like chipmunks in no time. 😁

[Astralporing.1957]

On 9/25/2021 at 11:49 PM, TheLadyOfTheRings.9148 said:

Hi everyone.

I believe some of us have already expressed our desire to have options for voice being added to character creation, like we have in The Sims 3, for example.

Do you think it's realistic to hope for voice options in GW2?

Not really. Voice selection generally is not an option in games where your character is fully (or even significantly) voiced. More choices would mean every voiced line would have to be recorder more than once. Then you'd need to multiply that by each race and gender...so for every additional voice option you'd need to record every line additional 10 times. And that's just for english only.

Like someone mentioned, that's more work than just adding voiced options for a new race (2 new recordings for each voiced line) and that is already considered to be an effort big enough to make introducing a new race not realistic. It's not just about the cost, btw - recording takes a significant amount of time. Having to double that work (for just one additional voice option) would probably extend development duration of any living story episode.

That's why you see voice option selections the most in games where your character barely speaks at all, and it is generally limited to grunts and battle shouts.

Edited October 1, 2021 by Astralporing.1957

[Astralporing.1957]

On 9/28/2021 at 3:04 AM, AgentMoore.9453 said:

I main Sylvari - they're baked in for them.

Bcause for Sylvari they truly are "baked-in". Sylvari do not have hair and beards. They really have parts of their bodies that are shaped in order to imitate those. It's one of their great features, because, in at least some shapes, it clearly shows how truly inhuman they are.

[AgentMoore.9453]

4 minutes ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

Bcause for Sylvari they truly are "baked-in".

I mean thanks, I know, but the thread's about character voices and I only mentioned beards as part of my post because those (among other things) are also something I want to see more customization for in a future update.

If you would like to open a thread about Sylvari beards, moustaches, or engage in healthy debate over whether or not they shave, I'll meet you over there.