Request for silent protagonist.

[Bristingr.5034]

1 hour ago, Mungrul.9358 said:

Uh, you DO know who Nolan North is, don't you?

Never heard of the name before until this thread.

[Mungrul.9358]

Heh, give that video @Chichimec.9364 posted a look, then realise there have been another 7 years since that was posted.

Steve Blum is prolific (he voices Rytlock). Nolan North is ubiquitous.

[Tatwi.3562]

9 hours ago, Follyfoot.2803 said:

The one reason I won't play some races and genders is because I really dislike the voice acting.  So I would request that you would consider giving us a option in future patches to  silence our characters?

You will never find a voice that pleases all but with a silent protagonist your character will always speak with the perfect voice.

Completely agree. I bought the game in Dec 2012, but I barely played until... 2015ish?... because I couldn't get into it, in large part due to the voice acting of the main characters. The only one I actually like is female Sylvari. Female Norn and Human are alright, I suppose. The Asuran voices are enjoyable in small doses. 

 

What REALLY gets me is that other than the Clint Eastwood face, there aren't any old looking character options, but it doesn't matter anyway because all of the story treats you like you're a 20 something anyway! I tried to make a male Norn as a Gandalf type character, but his voice irritated me and the way he spoke was all wrong, as were the things he said. He's a female now.

 

Voice over is cool for watching a story, but it sucks when it's telling you the story for your character in a way that's all wrong for your character.

Edited August 17, 2021 by Tatwi.3562

[Telgum.6071]

7 hours ago, Mungrul.9358 said:

His voice is fine for cis white males, but really doesn't suit any other configuration.

LMAO

[nosleepdemon.1368]

2 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

Strangely enough I've had the opposite problem to many people in this thread. I think the voice actors are fine, or at least it doesn't bother me any more than any of the other character creation limitations, but I found it really weird when I replayed Knights of the Old Republic because I couldn't stop hearing Bastilla Shan as my sylvari doing an impression of Queen Jennah. 😄

 

All 3 are voiced by Jennifer Hale, who is a great voice actress and can sound different on each character, but her voice for Bastilla was so perfectly a mix of those two that I couldn't stop hearing it that way.

 

But things like this are one reason I often re-make my characters in games and spent most of the GW2 betas experimenting with options. I don't want to get too attached to a certain type of person and then find it's not possible to make a character like that or it won't really come across. Sometimes I've had entire character concepts I saved for a different game because it wasn't going to work in the one where I first had the idea. But with me it's usually more to do with dialogue and story choices than voices or appearance. For example I wouldn't make a GW2 character who is always carefully to fully consider the consequences of their actions before making a decision because they...don't do that.

 

I don't mind working within limitations like only having 1 voice actor per race/gender, but if they can add an option to disable the voice acting just for the player character I think it could open up more options.

 

Yeah I get the opposite of that from a few friends, if I say I'm from Surrey they helpfully inform people it's "not the posh bit of Surrey, it's the other bit". 😄 (Which is...not untrue.)

 

I once overheard a teenager in a Vauxhall supermarket loudly arguing with her friend that she can't be 'from Africa' because she's "never even been to Africa!" and thinking to myself no matter what she looks like as soon as she opens her mouth there's no doubt she's from London.

 

(Also I'm now wondering if Black South London may have been a bad example, even if it's the one I'm most familiar with, because a lot of people are probably imagining received pronunciation mixed with African-American Vernacular English.)

 

I'm hearing Idris Ewohhl-Bah. 

 

We need Idris Elba to voice the silent protagonist option.

[marielleberto.3865]

I don't mind the voice acting, but I can see it can be a problem also for non-binary folks that are obligated to choose a gender.

[Follyfoot.2803]

Yeah keep the lip movement and text, just make my character silent.  Being silent doesn't mean they are silent.  I can hear their voice as clear as day in my head and it's perfect.

I find I can always connect better with my character when they are without voice acting.

Like I say, it's the main reason I will not play some of the races and genders.

Edited August 17, 2021 by Follyfoot.2803

[ChronoPinoyX.7923]

I can see the possibility of having a separate setting for our own character's voice so we can make them silent while NPCs still have theirs.

 

They did the same thing in MH Rise, I don't see issues with that being plausible here since we already had moments of no VA during early releases of IBS