Guild Wars 2

Hi!

I started playing GW2 only a few months ago, so there’s a lot of things about the game that I still don’t know. But I’m already passionate about GW2 and I want to keep learning more and more!

I created this topic because I’d like to suggest something (although I’m still a noob). I tried to find a discussion about this particular issue but there’s too many topics out there… So basically, is it possible to choose our character’s voice? If not, I think it would be nice if we could do that, just like we do in The Sims 3: we can choose from 3 types of voices and then adjust the voice to make it more sharp or more deep. There are so many details in GW2 that we can change to make our character even more unique, I think the voice is a very important detail as well!

I have 4 characters at the moment, 2 of them are female humans, which means they have the same voice. And that really bothers me because they are not the same person, so why would they have the same voice? In fact, their personalities and the stories I made for each other are pretty much opposites: a brave, energetic, ferocious Warrior vs a peaceful, shy, charming Mesmer. One wears heavy armor, the other wears light armor. One follows Balthazar, the other follows Lyssa. One is a street rat, the other is a noble. Just to name a few. And yet they have the same voice…

I like my ferocious Warrior with this voice, but my charming Mesmer does not go with it, it doesn’t match. I think a cute, thin voice would go much better with her personality.

(Sorry if I brought an issue that was already discussed; like I said, I searched for this subject or similar, but didn’t find it. And sorry if this is not the best place to create this topic, but I’m still learning about this hole GW2 thing!)

Unlikely that different voices would be offered for characters, as there is a ton of voice-acting in the game, and V.O. does not come cheap.

It has been suggested, before, to tweak the voices, with mixed reviews.

Welcome to Tyria, and good luck.

The idea comes up every so often. It’s just a lot more involved than most of us think.

I try not to typecast my characters based on their voice. Sure, I’d prefer that there be more than two Norn voices (especially the female — I don’t play norn females because her acting is the worst I’ve heard in any game, although the actor herself has done plenty of good stuff).

First, keep in mind that each snippet of dialogue gets recorded multiple times, there might be notes between takes, and it then has to be edited down to fit. That has to be done 50 times per line — five races times two genders times five supported languages. Those actors have to be retained on an ongoing basis, so that they can participate in the next expansion and future Living World Stories.

So if you just want a ferocious warrior and a shy mesmer, you’d double the amount of work they already do (assuming that the current voices fit one of the above).

If you’re not convinced it’s a lot of work, go to the wiki and follow the story line, beginning with Defending Shaemoor and just say aloud the text for the dialogue spoken by <character name>. Now imagine doing that 4-5 times per story just for one voice and do it again using your favorite accent or impersonation.

So while it’s certainly possible, it’s not cost effective nor practical.

I wonder how expensive it would be to add some sort of voice changing software to alter voices slightly within very strict limits. Not enough so that your hulking male norn sounds like a tiny asuran female, but enough for some slight amount of personalization.

Then, of course, charge for its use in game.

I too wish there was a possibility for more VO’s. After almost 5 years, it’s getting quite stale hearing the same thing.

Lets be realistic. I would like this too but rn there are 10 va’s for english only let alone the rest of the va’s for other languages (so prob around 40?).

If we were to lets say add 1 more va for each race and sex that would mean 10 more va’s for english alone (and 40 more in general). Thats 80 va’s whch would be double the cost. In se3 where vacting is back we already see the tradeoff with less episodes in this season.