why is there 0 voice acting?

[MythN7]

if this game is all about the immersion and the story, and the journey of talking to people, why is it a huge novel simulator?

[Nert]

Because it wouldn't add anything

The only living characters to talk to are basically your tutorial and entry point, the rest of the game is exploring an ancient race through their writings

[Psymon²]

i prefer to read, than listen.

ive seen far more BAD voice acting than bad writing.

may i turn the question around, why are you upset that there isn't voice acting?
also, they're aliens, which "language" you want their voices to be?

[Thomas the Gank Engine]

Originally posted by Psymon²:

ive seen far more BAD voice acting than bad writing.

Not only that, but voice acting (even if technically good) will actually draw attention to bad writing. Voice acting only works if you have good voice actors, good direction, and good writing.

Without voice acting you don't need the first two, and the latter can get away with being a little iffy as long as it's interesting and the game is fun.

[MythN7]

Originally posted by Thomas the Gank Engine:

Originally posted by Psymon²:

ive seen far more BAD voice acting than bad writing.

Not only that, but voice acting (even if technically good) will actually draw attention to bad writing..

so are you saying this game has bad writing?

[Nert]

Far from it, the writing is incredible and got the writer a job with Obsidian to work on Outer Worlds as well, just to be confusing XD

I think they're just giving a reason why voiceovers aren't universally a good idea.. I think they work great for a lot of games but this one in particular really shines on how information and context can completely change your perception of everything in the game - and voices would be way too difficult to have that same twist

[MythN7]

Originally posted by Nert:

Far from it, the writing is incredible and got the writer a job with Obsidian to work on Outer Worlds as well, just to be confusing XD

I think they're just giving a reason why voiceovers aren't universally a good idea.. I think they work great for a lot of games but this one in particular really shines on how information and context can completely change your perception of everything in the game - and voices would be way too difficult to have that same twist

for me i guess its cause i have severe adhd and a bit of autism, so it takes away from the game for me, feels more like reading a textbook.

[CrazyJayBe]

I never cared for voice acting. It was a novelty in the early days when compressing an audio file was a big deal but no game lately has ever been improved by actors, even celebrities. I'm just fine with short bursts of important text.

[SMJSMOK]

What would there be to voice act? 95 % of what you read is written.

[Psymon²]

Originally posted by SMJSMOK:

What would there be to voice act? 95 % of what you read is written.

ಠ_ಠ

[Dustin Dalby]

Here's a few more things to take into account :

Voice acting can be expensive as hell, in funds as well as time and work. As a direct consequence of that, Voice Acting tends to format the way dialog is written. An extreme example of that would be the way dialog has changed from Morrowind to Oblivion and skyrim. They get shorter, more condensed, to increase the efficiency of the voice acting process by reducing the amount of material to voice.

Now a good way to dodge that is what I'd call Hollow Knight Voice Acting : give every character a small number of sounds they emit when talked to, to help establish their voice and give them an audio identity. These sounds aren't spoken sentences so much as noises, a throat being clear, a moan, a grumble... Helps establish character while not being much of a drag on ressources.

That might have been a better choice for Outer Wilds than actual voice acting would have been.

[daveh47]

IMO voice acting for the Hearthians would have been problematic because they're genderless beings. Giving them human voices would immediately create biases in the player's mind about what "gender" each of them are.

[Psymon²]

Originally posted by daveh47:

IMO voice acting for the Hearthians would have been problematic because they're genderless beings. Giving them human voices would immediately create biases in the player's mind about what "gender" each of them are.

😒🤦‍♂️

[PlutoDeamon]

Originally posted by MythN7:

if this game is all about the immersion and the story, and the journey of talking to people, why is it a huge novel simulator?

the journey is not about talking to people. did you even get out of timber?

[noxteryn]

I'm willing to bet that all these fanboys who are here defending the lack of voice-acting would also be here defending the existence of voice-acting, if the game did have it and someone complained about it.

The reality is, voice-acting would have been nice. It would also make the game far more accessible.

[CerN]

Originally posted by noxteryn:

I'm willing to bet that all these fanboys who are here defending the lack of voice-acting would also be here defending the existence of voice-acting, if the game did have it and someone complained about it.

The reality is, voice-acting would have been nice. It would also make the game far more accessible.

There is so little spoken dialogue though that I don't really see how it would make that much of a difference... Sure, it could be nice, but yeah...