[Feedback] Voice acting + dialogue

[Feedback] Voice acting + dialogue

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Posted by: Ashantara.8731

Ashantara.8731

I loved the voice acting for the core campaign (except for Trahearne’s, but that’s a seperate topic I do not wish to discuss here, as the devs are aware of what went wrong, so it’s pointless). The parlance (tone, vocabulary), the realistic intonation — everything was on point. It made you immerse into the world that is Tyria.

Then came HoT. Don’t get me wrong, I love its story campaign (and the maps have grown on me too over time), it’s my third favorite from all the story content provided thus far, and probably the most exciting regarding the way and pace in which it’s being told! But the way characters would talk changed drastically: the pace of speech in general, but especially for your player character, suddenly dropped to an artifically slow pace with over-pronounced syllables. It also started a new trend, which only got worse with LWS3 (see next parahraph).

Then we got Living World Season 3. Oh my, where should I start? It sported the same issue regarding the pace of speech and the artificially sounding intonation. But on top of that, half of the dialogue (for the PC and his/her companions in particular) didn’t even try to hide the use of contemporary slang anymore (of which we already saw hints in HoT, but not even close to this extent). That teenage slang and the constant use of sloppy contractions on one hand (e.g., “Whershoe partner?” for “Where is your partner?”), taking turns with the fake sounding tempo and the over-emphasis of each syllable on the other (almost robotic in its artificiality), ruin the whole feeling of listening to actual people and immersing into a real world.
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tl/dr; Could we please have the same quality of dialogue and voice acting again like we used to in the old days? Normal pace, neat enunciation, and cultivated vocabulary and parlance?

(edited by Ashantara.8731)

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Posted by: Ayrilana.1396

Ayrilana.1396

I saw no difference between the dialogue from the personal story and the LS3 episodes. You’re putting way to much emphasis on your dislike of contractions and so forth as you have already explained several times amongst the several other threads you created about this matter over the last few months.

[Feedback] Voice acting + dialogue

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Posted by: Randulf.7614

Randulf.7614

The overwhelming feedback from the early years on these very forums for core and LS1 was to improve the dialogue and VA quality. The VA and dialogue from those campaigns is of distinctly lower quality in comparison to what we have had since LS2 onwards. in my opinion. It’s not perfect, but it has been improving and I hope to see that continue.

I agree there are some issues still and some of them you rightfully point out in your OP, but the vacant feeling that exists in so much of the early stuff is accentuated a lot when I play through them on an alt after playing through the newer campaigns.

Some of the issues of the newer stuff seems to be VA specific however. I find the male Sylvari voice sounds very artificial in both emotion and how they express themselves, whereas human male and most of the female VA has improved greatly.

So no, definitely would be against regressing backwards to the core way of things in this respect.

[Feedback] Voice acting + dialogue

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Posted by: Ashantara.8731

Ashantara.8731

I saw no difference between the dialogue from the personal story and the LS3 episodes. You’re putting way to much emphasis on your dislike of contractions and so forth as you have already explained several times amongst the several other threads you created about this matter over the last few months.

The reason is that I am just playing through the HoT campaign for a fifth time, and the artificially slow pace and bad pronunciation (“Whershoe partner?”) and contemporary vocabulary etc. are striking me as extremely out of place and highly unpleasant again. I can’t enjoy the content as much as I would if we still had the same quality in the aforementioned departments (see my initial post).

Everyone saying they don’t hear the difference is either not paying much attention to dialogue or completely insensitive to the matter.

The overwhelming feedback from the early years on these very forums for core and LS1 was to improve the dialogue and VA quality. The VA and dialogue from those campaigns is of distinctly lower quality

Maybe in regards of what is being said, but not in how it is being said. That is the huge difference I am talking about!

(edited by Ashantara.8731)

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Posted by: TexZero.7910

TexZero.7910

The overwhelming feedback from the early years on these very forums for core and LS1 was to improve the dialogue and VA quality. The VA and dialogue from those campaigns is of distinctly lower quality

Maybe in regards of what is being said, but not in how it is being said. That is the huge difference I am talking about!

I’d have to disagree. There’s only been one instance of earbleedingly bad dialogue in HoT and that was near the end of Hearts and Minds. Outside of that the VA’s have been pretty good about tone, pacing and delivery of the lines.

Now it could always be better, we all know Matt Mercer, Liam O’Brien, Nolan North, John DiMaggio etc… are all great VA’s capable of some amazing feats but they are limited in time which ultimately puts an artificial upper limit to what they and Anet can produce together.

[Feedback] Voice acting + dialogue

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Posted by: Ayrilana.1396

Ayrilana.1396

I saw no difference between the dialogue from the personal story and the LS3 episodes. You’re putting way to much emphasis on your dislike of contractions and so forth as you have already explained several times amongst the several other threads you created about this matter over the last few months.

The reason is that I am just playing through the HoT campaign for a fifth time, and the artificially slow pace and bad pronunciation (“Whershoe partner?”) and contemporary vocabulary etc. are striking me as extremely out of place and highly unpleasant again. I can’t enjoy the content as much as I would if we still had the same quality in the aforementioned departments (see my initial post).

Everyone saying they don’t hear the difference is either not paying much attention to dialogue or completely insensitive to the matter.

The overwhelming feedback from the early years on these very forums for core and LS1 was to improve the dialogue and VA quality. The VA and dialogue from those campaigns is of distinctly lower quality

Maybe in regards of what is being said, but not in how it is being said. That is the huge difference I am talking about!

Or they just see it as a non-issue.

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Posted by: Ayrilana.1396

Ayrilana.1396

The overwhelming feedback from the early years on these very forums for core and LS1 was to improve the dialogue and VA quality. The VA and dialogue from those campaigns is of distinctly lower quality

Maybe in regards of what is being said, but not in how it is being said. That is the huge difference I am talking about!

I’d have to disagree. There’s only been one instance of earbleedingly bad dialogue in HoT and that was near the end of Hearts and Minds. Outside of that the VA’s have been pretty good about tone, pacing and delivery of the lines.

Now it could always be better, we all know Matt Mercer, Liam O’Brien, Nolan North, John DiMaggio etc… are all great VA’s capable of some amazing feats but they are limited in time which ultimately puts an artificial upper limit to what they and Anet can produce together.

That the one where the tone abruptly changed to them yelling to them being calm with the very next line?

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Posted by: starlinvf.1358

starlinvf.1358

“Thats quality armor”

[Feedback] Voice acting + dialogue

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Posted by: Randulf.7614

Randulf.7614

I saw no difference between the dialogue from the personal story and the LS3 episodes. You’re putting way to much emphasis on your dislike of contractions and so forth as you have already explained several times amongst the several other threads you created about this matter over the last few months.

The reason is that I am just playing through the HoT campaign for a fifth time, and the artificially slow pace and bad pronunciation (“Whershoe partner?”) and contemporary vocabulary etc. are striking me as extremely out of place and highly unpleasant again. I can’t enjoy the content as much as I would if we still had the same quality in the aforementioned departments (see my initial post).

Everyone saying they don’t hear the difference is either not paying much attention to dialogue or completely insensitive to the matter.

The overwhelming feedback from the early years on these very forums for core and LS1 was to improve the dialogue and VA quality. The VA and dialogue from those campaigns is of distinctly lower quality

Maybe in regards of what is being said, but not in how it is being said. That is the huge difference I am talking about!

I disagree, I have found it to be quite the opposite (dependant on what I write below), with some momentary dips. However, the overall quality varies a lot more between race/gender combination than it did in core which is possibly the issue you are encountering.

One of the other things to bear in mind is that the effect the voice acting style has on a player depends also on whether you believe the character actually sounds the way you want them to.

For example, the male human voice perfectly fits my male human characters. The male Norn one is also pretty close, although he does often veer off into slightly less Norn-like dialogue, but I can forgive that more as his voice is right for him. The male human VA is also improving with every story arc and this has helped form a better connection to the dialogue he uses. Same with the female voices for Norn and human.

My male Sylvari do not sound anything like how I envision them to speak. In fact as each arc progresses, the exaggerated tones are pronounced and obvious so now I try to go in with someone else leading just so I don’t have to listen to their speaking as much.

Overall, the quality of written dialogue and the way it is delivered is a lot better than it was, but that isn’t always consistent for me at times across all the VA

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Posted by: Ashantara.8731

Ashantara.8731

I’d have to disagree. There’s only been one instance of earbleedingly bad dialogue in HoT […]

I never said there was “earbleedingly bad dialogue” in HoT. I said that it’s where characters started talking ridiculously slow and over-pronouncing syllables! (Like. Take. Your. Time. To. Finish. Your. Sen-. -Tence. We. Are. Not. In. A. Hurry.)

As for bad dialogue, I just stated that the contemporary awfulness that followed was being set up in HoT, but not to the extent in which we heard it in Season 3 (where it was “earbleedingly bad”, no doubt).
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For instance, I loved the male voice acting for the human player character in the core campaign. It was still okay in the follow-up seasons. In HoT, it was like someone gave the actor the following directions: “You need to slow down so that even preschoolers can follow you!”

In Season 3, the directions were extended by: “Please try to portrait an immature adolescent with a bubblegum accent, thank you!”

(edited by Ashantara.8731)

[Feedback] Voice acting + dialogue

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Posted by: Illconceived Was Na.9781

Illconceived Was Na.9781

There is no such thing as the “same quality of dialogue” or “same quality of voice acting” …“like we used to in the old days” because even in the old days it was a mixed bag. Some of the dialogue in the old days (and some of the voice acting) was horrid. Some of it was fantastic. Some people love some voice actors, not others. Some people hate the same parts of the story that I really enjoyed.

“Normal pace, neat enunciation, and cultivated vocabulary and parlance”
I don’t consider any of that to be part of “good dialogue”. People who grew up on the streets often don’t have cultivated vocabularies, smart people don’t always enunciate.

For me, the game is much richer (and more immersive) if different people speak differently.

John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”

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Posted by: maddoctor.2738

maddoctor.2738

tl/dr; Could we please have the same quality of dialogue and voice acting again like we used to in the old days? Normal pace, neat enunciation, and cultivated vocabulary and parlance?

I hope not because the quality of the “old days” was worse than we get now. No need to reduce the quality of the voice overs to what it used to be in the core game.

The reason is that I am just playing through the HoT campaign for a fifth time

I think you should play the core game again, probably you forgot how it was back then.

Anyone remember Lionguard Mira?

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Posted by: Chadramar.8156

Chadramar.8156

In Season 3, the directions were extended by: “Please try to portrait an immature adolescent with a bubblegum accent, thank you!”

I have to agree with that. Maybe it’s the “snotty high schooler” (and/or “condescending, unearned familiarity”) behavior from a lot of characters that makes the slang stand out more. Either way, it’s a reason why the main story in LS3 got on my nerves pretty much from start to finish, Caithe and Rytlock aside.

Then there’s the “overacting befuddled grandma” spiel they gave General Almorra Soulkeeper of all people.

Generally, I think conversations flow better now, because as charming as the vanilla conversation screen may have been for about five minutes, it was also awkward and clunky and took the characters “out of the world”. They try to improve, but IMO it’s going way too far in the “high schooler” direction combined with a general obsession with NPC drama that leaves no room for the player character and “this is my story”.

I wonder if this was partly inspired by Canach’s popularity. Many players like him, so more snark by more characters equals more fun, right? Except Canach is actually smart, on-point, well-spoken, and — ironically — pretty much the only person willing to show some empathy for the player character (if playing a sylvari through HoT). And he was one character. There’s a big difference in the “feel” of a story between having one character like that and having a bunch of mouthy gits; namely that it becomes hard to take anything or anyone seriously, IMO.

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Posted by: Chadramar.8156

Chadramar.8156

I hope not because the quality of the “old days” was worse than we get now. No need to reduce the quality of the voice overs to what it used to be in the core game.

I don’t know. I liked the theme, premise and many of the characters from the vanilla game a lot more than anything and anyone introduced afterwards. The execution of the story could feel clunky and hamfisted, yes, and there were some absolute facepalm moments. But the same is very much true for the current writing as well. It just doesn’t feel so obviously clunky and hamfisted anymore because the technology has improved. As mentioned above, cutscenes and conversations “flow” better and have less “gaps” between characters acting/talking. Doesn’t mean that the writing, the characters or the plots are better … though “better” is obviously always at least partly in the eye of the beholder. We still get steamrolled by stupidity, it’s just that without the gaps and pauses, each moment stands out less.

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Posted by: TexZero.7910

TexZero.7910

I’d have to disagree. There’s only been one instance of earbleedingly bad dialogue in HoT […]

I never said there was “earbleedingly bad dialogue” in HoT. I said that it’s where characters started talking ridiculously slow and over-pronouncing syllables! (Like. Take. Your. Time. To. Finish. Your. Sen-. -Tence. We. Are. Not. In. A. Hurry.)

As for bad dialogue, I just stated that the contemporary awfulness that followed was being set up in HoT, but not to the extent in which we heard it in Season 3 (where it was “earbleedingly bad”, no doubt).
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For instance, I loved the male voice acting for the human player character in the core campaign. It was still okay in the follow-up seasons. In HoT, it was like someone gave the actor the following directions: “You need to slow down so that even preschoolers can follow you!”

In Season 3, the directions were extended by: “Please try to portrait an immature adolescent with a bubblegum accent, thank you!”

I think you’re looking at this from a very warped perspective that’s elevating the performances due to nostalgia and not looking at the characters growth as a reason for their tone shift. If you stop taking each individual piece and comparing it with the past and look at the journey as a whole its pretty easy to understand why someone whose literally killed 2 elder dragons, several lieutenants, been in harms way the entire time with no respite and is now facing off with a literally god might… just might be a bit frazzled in deliver and not speak like a foreign dignitary at every chance.

That the one where the tone abruptly changed to them yelling to them being calm with the very next line?

Correct