The game needs more unvoiced text dialogue.

[zealex.9410]

Was originally thinking of posting this on the lw tab but then i realised expacs too could benefit from more text so here it goes.

 

Since i finished the se2 rerun i've been thinking about the dialogue, yes, the overall reduction in voice acting is noticable and i think i prefer a voice protag over an unvoiced one, however, what took me by surprise is how much more dialogue the devs would put into the patches. Because the entire story wasnt required to be voice at the time, theres alot of character and world building in the dialogue and interactables text that fleshed out characters and the setting a whole lot more.

 

Playing through hot again (to get a full picture leading up to eod) as well as se3 its very noticable how much more substance is lost because the text that did alot of the fleshing out was missing. Yes more voice acted stuff has been injected and that good, but i dont think these are/should be mutually exclusive. Only voiced stuff requires the va to be available as well as recording studio availability while unvoiced pure text dialogue can be done on the writters own time (not outside of work ofc, i would never ask ppl to take their work home) and doesnt requre rehersals or editing or mixing or anything.

 

Another game ive been playing, ff14, is very unapologetic about giving you unvoiced stuff inbetween the voiced bits (too few voiced bits but as expacs go it improves without losing much on unvoiced character and world building/flavour) and this has substantially raised the immersion and interest one can develop for that game's world and characters.

 

Closing, idk why the writters shy so strongly away from giving us lots of unvoiced stuff even if it could serve to expand and support the quality of the main narative and the world of tyria as a whole, there've been multiple ocasions where the voice dialogue left alot to be desired plot wise and i felt that some injected written stuff would aleviate those shortcommings.

Edited August 8, 2021 by zealex.9410

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

The FF14 comparison is the first thing I think of for this. So much content can be made to flesh out the game more if they didn't rely on voice acting. It is perfect for side quests.

[decease.3215]

No way i want all text to be voiced.  Even if most of are done by machine.  Hard to read when game are so flasy

[Beleron.9347]

You wouldn't want to make the poor dears actually have to read, would you??

[Ellye.9123]

Yeah, unvoiced content allows for a lot more dialogue.

 

I like the way FFXIV does it - voiced content for much of the obligatory dialogue of the main storyline, but also a lot of unvoiced optional dialogue both in the main quest and in side content.

[Zavijah.2695]

No. It doesn't need it. 

[miraude.2107]

I love the fact that there is so many voiced lines. Why? Because I don't miss half the stuff happening as I'm focused on trying to read than actually doing the content and the surroundings. I hated being introduced to a new place, there's no voice lines and having to pay attention to the words on the screen and not just be 😮 at my surroundings. I can actually look around with the camera, not remain focused on chat or the bubbles coming from the NPC. Honestly this is a curse most JRPGs have that you can miss nuances in movement or environment because your eyes are glued to words.

 

Case in point: When Phlunt comes back with reinforcements in the one living world episode. I would NEVER have noticed it as I'm too busy trying to kill the mercenaries. The fact that there is a voice line adds a lot more than going 'OH SHI- what just flashed in the chat box, scroll scroll, kitten I just got knocked out.' Another is Canach calling out to drop the chandelier (I'd have never touched it otherwise) that I'd ignore the chat text otherwise. Tell me, would you be trying to read chat while fighting Caudecus? The Mind of Mordemoth? MAD KING SAYS? Oh god, Mad King Says would be a nightmare if it was chat only with people trolling to screw it up. Also, a lot of people have NPC chat turned off. I had it turned off in other games I no longer play as I'd might miss a call out to do a dungeon/raid/quest because the NPC chat filled it up moving from bank to trader to crafting. With GW2, I can listen to the NPCs talk while keeping my chat clean...well as clean as Map chat can be at times.

 

It also stems from the hatred of wanting to read but can't! I really do and having that interrupted because something respawned or another player decided to drag half the mobs to the NPC. I don't know how many times I had to stop reading kill or try to kill before dying and restarting all over again and finding what part I left off on. As much as I liked ESO, I stopped reading dialogue if it was outside a town solely because of that. It just became grab the quest, kill the thing/collect the thing, and move on. I no longer cared about the story, about reading the books scattered about, about whatever daedric prince was doing what as 9 outta 10 I couldn't read it without being attacked by mobs.

 

You want more text? ASK FOR A LIBRARY AND ACHIEVES FOR IT. We already have a baby one in Eye of the North where we can go back and read the 'ahem nudge nudge wink wink' books we find. I'd love for an expansion of that. To have a wing of the Eye of the North be opened into a library where the Priory are, collecting books for them that can be read later when I'm not worried about being attacked by a respawn or having someone decide they gonna drag half the area to me that either knocks me out of reading. Add incentives to it. Imagine getting a title called ''The Scholar" or something and a chair that's nothing but a mountain of books with your character sitting on a pile and flipping through one. That would be interesting and lore adding to the game.

[anninke.7469]

I am a greedy gal so I'd like more text-only dialogue IN ADDITION to all the voiced stuff we get, not instead of it.

[Stalkingwolf.6035]

if you want unvoiced textboxex, go play FF XIV, the game is full of them

[Dawdler.8521]

An unvoiced dialogue is called a reading a book. I dont play this game to read. 

[Naxos.2503]

I personally feel like emotions and tone are not so transparent in text. 

 

Canach wouldn't be such a joy to witness if you cant hear the glorious deadpan sarcasm the VA is putting into it. 

[Quench.7091]

I don't like relying on the timed text bubbles too much, as the ambient NPC banter doesn't spam my chat box. However, I do enjoy finding random NPCs that I can talk to. If I remember correctly, they also let you talk with multiple NPCs in the same conversation, but those are more rare.

[reddie.5861]

muted gw2 since the day i bought it, what gw2 really needs is a SKIP button on everything.
npc's babbling with each other > skip
stupid video > skip

talking to npc be able to just smash ur left mouse thru all text boxes.

etc, im not in mood for any story or anything lore related but most of the time i just have to walk away from pc cus its all so god kitten slow..

[Dante.1763]

3 hours ago, Naxos.2503 said:

I personally feel like emotions and tone are not so transparent in text. 

 

Canach wouldn't be such a joy to witness if you cant hear the glorious deadpan sarcasm the VA is putting into it. 

On the other hand. Braham wouldnt be so winny, Taima would be less annoying, my own PC would have the voice i hear when she talks, and the list goes on. Which..why i usually have sound off now. Listened once, let me skip stuff now and that is one of the bigger issues with post core game story. You cant skip anything when they are talking.

 

4 hours ago, anninke.7469 said:

I am a greedy gal so I'd like more text-only dialogue IN ADDITION to all the voiced stuff we get, not instead of it.

This would be the way i was thinking it would it go.

 

4 hours ago, miraude.2107 said:

.

 

 Tell me, would you be trying to read chat while fighting Caudecus? The Mind of Mordemoth? MAD KING SAYS? Oh god, Mad King Says would be a nightmare if it was chat only with people trolling to screw it up. Also, a lot of people have NPC chat turned off. I had it turned off in other games I no longer play as I'd might miss a call out to do a dungeon/raid/quest because the NPC chat filled it up moving from bank to trader to crafting. With GW2, I can listen to the NPCs talk while keeping my chat clean...well as clean as Map chat can be at times.

 

 

Yes i would, i do it already. Isnt that hard for me honestly. I have a seperate chat window turned on just for that, with no other things in it.

 

Now. I do get the attraction to voiced characters. Sometimes though it does detract from the game(fo4), here its not so bad, and my issues with the voiced everything could be answered by putting in skips.

 

As is i go do other things when npcs are speaking, specially for story.

[Danikat.8537]

I'd like more as well, and specifically in addition to what we've got now.

 

So all the stuff which is currently voiced will continue to be voiced in future releases and people who only pay attention to voiced dialogue will still get the same amount of story and won't miss anything important. But they could add more optional extra unvoiced text with additional details for those who want to take the time to look for it.

 

This already happens, so it's nothing new, but it is pretty minimal sometimes. For example during Season 2 you could often have a conversation with each NPC after the instance was over to find out more about their thoughts on what was going on, but that doesn't seem to happen very often in newer instances. If you stick around they just stand there not reacting to you or maybe say one generic (but voiced!) line of idle dialogue.

[zealex.9410]

On 8/9/2021 at 7:23 AM, decease.3215 said:

No way i want all text to be voiced.  Even if most of are done by machine.  Hard to read when game are so flasy

Its a matter of when its used text in the middle of a meta or combat is not good but theres calm moments they could expand with text dialogue.

[zealex.9410]

On 8/9/2021 at 2:20 PM, Beleron.9347 said:

You wouldn't want to make the poor dears actually have to read, would you??

Think of the dears ;-;

[zealex.9410]

6 hours ago, miraude.2107 said:

I love the fact that there is so many voiced lines. Why? Because I don't miss half the stuff happening as I'm focused on trying to read than actually doing the content and the surroundings. I hated being introduced to a new place, there's no voice lines and having to pay attention to the words on the screen and not just be 😮 at my surroundings. I can actually look around with the camera, not remain focused on chat or the bubbles coming from the NPC. Honestly this is a curse most JRPGs have that you can miss nuances in movement or environment because your eyes are glued to words.

 

Case in point: When Phlunt comes back with reinforcements in the one living world episode. I would NEVER have noticed it as I'm too busy trying to kill the mercenaries. The fact that there is a voice line adds a lot more than going 'OH SHI- what just flashed in the chat box, scroll scroll, kitten I just got knocked out.'

 

Oh you missed the pun :/

Quote

Another is Canach calling out to drop the chandelier (I'd have never touched it otherwise) that I'd ignore the chat text otherwise. Tell me, would you be trying to read chat while fighting Caudecus? The Mind of Mordemoth? MAD KING SAYS? Oh god, Mad King Says would be a nightmare if it was chat only with people trolling to screw it up. Also, a lot of people have NPC chat turned off. I had it turned off in other games I no longer play as I'd might miss a call out to do a dungeon/raid/quest because the NPC chat filled it up moving from bank to trader to crafting. With GW2, I can listen to the NPCs talk while keeping my chat clean...well as clean as Map chat can be at times.

You  assume i mean to  add more written stuff during high octane combat, im not, theres calmer moments and momemts of detective work (exploration) that could and should have more unvoiced dialogue to expand of the plot and context.

Quote

It also stems from the hatred of wanting to read but can't! I really do and having that interrupted because something respawned or another player decided to drag half the mobs to the NPC. I don't know how many times I had to stop reading kill or try to kill before dying and restarting all over again and finding what part I left off on. As much as I liked ESO, I stopped reading dialogue if it was outside a town solely because of that. It just became grab the quest, kill the thing/collect the thing, and move on. I no longer cared about the story, about reading the books scattered about, about whatever daedric prince was doing what as 9 outta 10 I couldn't read it without being attacked by mobs.

 

You want more text? ASK FOR A LIBRARY AND ACHIEVES FOR IT. We already have a baby one in Eye of the North where we can go back and read the 'ahem nudge nudge wink wink' books we find. I'd love for an expansion of that. To have a wing of the Eye of the North be opened into a library where the Priory are, collecting books for them that can be read later when I'm not worried about being attacked by a respawn or having someone decide they gonna drag half the area to me that either knocks me out of reading. Add incentives to it. Imagine getting a title called ''The Scholar" or something and a chair that's nothing but a mountain of books with your character sitting on a pile and flipping through one. That would be interesting and lore adding to the game.

 

[zealex.9410]

6 hours ago, anninke.7469 said:

I am a greedy gal so I'd like more text-only dialogue IN ADDITION to all the voiced stuff we get, not instead of it.

Same boat, didnt say replace one with another.

[zealex.9410]

5 hours ago, Naxos.2503 said:

I personally feel like emotions and tone are not so transparent in text. 

 

Canach wouldn't be such a joy to witness if you cant hear the glorious deadpan sarcasm the VA is putting into it. 

Fair altho that also heavily depends of the skill of the writter i would imagine, you can still put alot of soul and character on text.

[anninke.7469]

47 minutes ago, zealex.9410 said:

Same boat, didnt say replace one with another.

Let's row on then. 🙂

I got confused when you mentioned LS2 - as that season is remarkably "under-voiced" in my opinion and the constant switching between voiced and unvoiced parts kind of gets on my nerves.

[Teratus.2859]

I'm an old school RPG guy so I grew up with a lot of text dialogue based RPG's.

There is definitely merit to having a lot of text walls in your game but it can be excessive if done too much.
Gw1 and many older MMO's suffered this issue with so many quests and walls of text explaining the lore around them etc lol

Is can be fun though and it's certainly a great way of filling the world with lore etc
So i'm all for more text in Gw2 but have it out in the world with random NPC's, not so much in the main story like it was in season 2.
Certainly better to have all the main stuff voiced so the game flows better.
But if I want to talk to a random fisherman or farmer or something.. sure give them a bunch of text that I can read, doesn't have to be anything important.. could even be utterly irrelevant to anything I am doing.
It would still make the world feel bigger and more alive.

[Harfang.1507]

My short opinion: please no!

My more elaborate opinion: if we want lore more fleshed out, then derived products, like novels, is more along the line. How many elements are already trying to grab our attention on screen? I am thinking of the DRMs. I was desperately trying to stay alive and keep up with the action and there were these walls of text scrolling past in a corner. Add the usual guild chatter and I would have needed to just stay put with popcorn, had I wanted to enjoy reading a story whose hero I was supposed to be. All in a corner that makes about 10% of my screen. This is what books are for.

[Mezza.6358]

11 hours ago, anninke.7469 said:

I am a greedy gal so I'd like more text-only dialogue IN ADDITION to all the voiced stuff we get, not instead of it.

not sure. personally i haven't played run and escape, but gw2 unvoiced is murder.  less reading = more time to enjoy the game whilst keeping the immersion up. 

maybe im just getting too old ...sigh 😕

[marielleberto.3865]

Disagree. Voices add more to the drama! I already have to read too much in academia lol