Is the main character still mute in this game?

[Foster Doshwalker]

Staying mute while people explain things to you is pretty cringy.

[Dex]

Yes

[Epero]

Why people prefer stupid puppet than real character?
Someone who doesn´t thanks for gifts, who is silent when is accused of bad act, who doesn´t laugh at jokes, who is doesn´t answer on questions? Someone who like fool with half brain stand when other people talk, make plans, threats, discuss important things. Someone who doesn´t move story, who is just a tool for other character in story?
Why?

[jackman071]

Because most gamers are like that in real life and they just mimic that behavior in the game...

[Rūshi]

Because i rather laugh about jokes myself than listen to someone else laugh thinking should i be laughing as well, i rather think something is disgusting than listen to character say "eww that's gross".

Its better to experience emotions yourself than have your character react in some way telling you that's how you're supposed to react. But that's just my opinion.

[Epero]

Originally posted by Professor Intellector:

Because i rather laugh about jokes myself than listen to someone else laugh thinking should i be laughing as well, i rather think something is disgusting than listen to character say "eww that's gross".

Its better to experience emotions yourself than have your character react in some way telling you that's how you're supposed to react. But that's just my opinion.

It is not to tell you how you should feel. It is how character feels. I am not 10 years old, so I don´t think "I am the character". I help character, but it is not me.
You can have your own emotions and characters should have his/ her own. You are not him/ she. You are in it together. In movie you watch character, in book you read about him, in game you control his actions.
Nobody will like movie with nameless mute character. It will look like idiot. Same as our puppet in Far Cry. When they ask what best course of action is, would you suggest something to monitor? Probably not. So you just stand like dummy while others planning. They can´t count with you, because you are mute so you are only tool which is good for killing, hunting animals, complete their goals.

I feel like E.T., or android, or some other alien/ machine/ something when they talk to me, give me names (can I call you Cap?) give me questions and answer them for me, etc. It is character without backstory and motivations. You do things just because game told you so, not because your character decided that way. You don´t feel any connection to game, world, NPCs.

What about those characters:
Lara Croft, Kratos, Ezio, Altair, Arno, Bayek, Kassandra, Edward, Big Boss, Geralt, Bayonetta, Leon Kennedy, Sam & Max, Dante, Garrett, Nathan Drake, 47, Duke Nukem, Shepard, Sam Fisher, Rayne, Max Payne, Franklin Clinton, Michael de Santa, Trevor Philips, Tommy Vercetti, Carl CJ Johnson, B.J. Blazkowtich, Bruce Wayne?
Would you rather have them silent as well?

They say that good story need a good villain. But also good main character with whom you want to spend time, you care about him, you want him to succeed.

[Rūshi]

Almost every character you mentioned is controlled in third person, and it works mutch better that way. When you see them act scared etc it looks natural. And keep in mind Blazkowitch started off silent as well (and I preferred it that way) and Duke only said one liners, which worked.

Now most complains about far cry 3 were about how annoying protagonist was. They tried to make a real character out of him, and in the end it felt unnatural as well because how can you have character act emotionally in fps when at any point in time player can gun everything down without any care, like a gun expert. (in far cry 4 they tried it to much lesser extend but it still annoyed people)

I dunno it may be just my mentality, but while I'm way past 10 i still prefer to have my character (in fps shooter) behave like id behave, to certain extend naturally hehe. And seeing how devs went away from voiced protagonists i can't be alone.

[Epero]

Because some characters were bad it doesn´t mean they have to stop trying.
Or go totally opposite direction. Like in Watch Dogs. There was complains that character from WD1 was too serious, too much depressing. So they didn´t try to balance it. In WD2 they made character that was too cool, too funny in life and death situations, too unrealistic because nobody is that cool and joking while facing death in the eyes.
This is just quitting.

I would be repeating myself. For me, it is stupid puppet who don´t say "thank you" for gift, who don´t say something to planning action, who don´t defend himself when accusing of wrongdoing, who don´t express his sympathy over someone loss. It is drone, puppet, robot, uninteresting thing that in no way can make connection between game world and player.

Because it is not me. I help Geralt be together with Triss, I have help Kassandra reunite her with her family, etc, but those characters are not me. So that is why I hate mute characters.

I understand that some people don´t like story and push ESC immediately when some scene starts. It is OK, it is how they like it. But when you want story, you need to be interested in characters.

You liked Blazkowitch silent? For me his relationship with Anya, his friendship with Fergus, his shock from world under rule of Nazics, it was really interesting. It made me invested in game to fight for friends and love and therefore for free world. Silent character having sex with Anya will be like you are rubber doll which can fight.
I played Doom, Quake, Heretec and those old time shooters when they were new. And It was good, but game needs to be developed. Not in every aspects, but in those that are better in developed way. In those times were much smaller budgets for much smaller audience of players so nobody even expect more voices, enemies were mostly aliens/ monters and when you have some cutscene at the end of a game it was reward itself. Silent characters in AA or AAA game are simply cheap trick on customers.

Devs went for silent because it is cheap and they can use complains on bad characters like excuse for not making voice. Why do you thing they started with voice in the first place? Because people wanted it.
Or do you believe that people want also microtransactions and other hated things that devs making? Because they make them on the basis of wishes of players? You should know that only CD Projekt Red and Rockstar don´t use cheap tactics and empty excuses.

[Rūshi]

In games like gta im happy with voiced characters and I expect them, but not every game needs them. Imo it was fine in fc5 and new dawn since most of it took place in open world, and there weren't that many moments that felt awkward (to me at least).

As for wolfenstein i was fine with the story and cutscenes, but did he really have to talk during gameplay? Like that time he drowned a guy in toilet followed by "eat ♥♥♥♥ Nazi", or how in new colossus he constantly whined to Caroline how tired it is . It made me wonder if I'm playing as legendary soldier to whom vacation means fighting in frontline, or a teenager trying to act cool.

Now compare that to a simple silent scene in colossus where you walk up to a Hitler and kick him in the face before getting shot i had to pause a game due to laughing. It was brilliant and I'm sure it would get ruined if they added some "take that monster" quote.

I just feel there are times when it's good to hear your character talk, but when it's forced everywhere it often ruins immersion just as mutch as beeing silent when asked something. I know I didnt anwser everything you said, but I'm typing from work at breaks and i gotta be fast. And I don't want to be an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and spam OP notifications so if youd like to continue feel free to send me invite, i hope I at least showed you a bit of the opposite point of view

[restarter]

why dont you just act out the responses? voila! problem solved. And you can say whatever you want! win/win!

[Epero]

I agree that some comments from characters are simply stupid. But worse is to be idiot who is silent when all around talk. Most striking it was in Dragon Age, we decide about fate of the world, mourn loses and you see character just standing there. Every NPC full of emotions, gesturing and even though you have some text options, you are telepat without voice and it looks simply stupid.
Few stupid comments (yes, really stupid, I fully agree) doesn´t counterweight silence with NPC. It is different in games when you are almost always alone and only speaking to yourself is only speaking expecept few rare cutscenes. But here they are trying to go to RPG. And in playing "as character" you can´t be mute puppet.

[RageMojo]

Characters in games remain silent to not alienate huge swaths of players. This was true in GTAV Online as well because if you pick a man or woman, then that is twice the cost of voice actors. If they sound American people in other countries wont like it, if they dont sound american, it wont sell as well in its biggest market. If the character does or does not have an accent of some kind can be distracting. Unless thats all part of the story like in Sleeping Dogs or GTAV SP.

Games are not movies, it is a different medium. And characters remain silent in order to include more people in taking on the role of the protagonist. your not watching someone else, your living it. And some of the people would complain about some accent they dont identify with.

[RasaNova]

I'm sure a big part of the reason boils down to the devs would have had to record separate male & female voice dialogue. Although games like Mass Effect and Saints Row seemed able to figure out how to do it.

[Epero]

Originally posted by RageMojo:

Characters in games remain silent to not alienate huge swaths of players. This was true in GTAV Online as well because if you pick a man or woman, then that is twice the cost of voice actors. If they sound American people in other countries wont like it, if they dont sound american, it wont sell as well in its biggest market. If the character does or does not have an accent of some kind can be distracting. Unless thats all part of the story like in Sleeping Dogs or GTAV SP.

Games are not movies, it is a different medium. And characters remain silent in order to include more people in taking on the role of the protagonist. your not watching someone else, your living it. And some of the people would complain about some accent they dont identify with.

Money? We paid for those games. So they should invest in them. In many games it worked, like mentioned Shepard in Mass Effect. So it isn´t some hypothetical theory about "what if there was voice acting".
If you pick a man or woman it shouldn´t be just twice cost for dubbing. It should be twice cost for some choices, alternative approaches, and quests results. But again - developers’ doesn´t care. It is mostly just cosmetic change with real impact at most to your love interest.
I don´t know how in other countries, but I never care about how character sound, just if it is good for hearing, if it isn´t some boring, or noxious voice.
In US I believe it. Americans don´t believe in other cultures. But it is stupid not to watch good movie because it is not made in Hollywood, not to play good game because character isn´t from US.

As I stated more times - silent characters seems stupid and rude, not interested in what is happening around him. Nobody denied that, nobody disproves it. So it is sad that people rather play for stupid vulgar person without manners and brain just because they don´t want to be offended by accent, or stupid comments from character. Or because players are so polite that they want to save money for developers - especially such developers who don´t hesitate ask money for cosmetics.
Yes, Games, comics, books, tv shows, movies - all are different mediums. But look at characters I have mentioned before. Games that are highly successful and yet you relive story of monster slayer, or sexy witch, or secret clonned agent. Those are games with specific back-story for characters and yet nobody has problem with it, whether it is American, Spaniard, Frenchman, or anyone else.
Role playing game is about this. You know LARP? There people don´t play silent characters, but they choose different characters with backstory and anything. They don´t play as themsleves. That is whole point of role playing. Yes, character act like I want to act (good deeds/ bad deeds/ stole/ work, etc) but it is different person, different gender, different race, and different entity. So you living it but as someone else.

[RageMojo]

Dude you can rant and rave all you want, i dont even disagree with everything your saying. But there is what you want and then there is reality. Also the world doesnt revolve around what you want and like.

Gamers are to blame for devs being full of short cuts, day zero patches being standard and normal. GTAV for example, made more money than God, Almost 5 billion and still counting. But it is precisely the people who thought they were supporting the game with shark card purchases, that caused it to be a neutered watered down greedy cash grab. They had hired voice actors, they had begun creating more SP DLC and Heists, but when shark cards blew up, they cancelled all of that. Why pay high dollars to create something thoughtful with a lower rate of return, when you can reskin some models, revamp some existing game modes, and pump out cloned trash that people will throw their money at by the truck loads.

So sometimes its an artistic choice, sometimes its a business choice. That's life. Not every game is going to have a voice actor, they dont always need one, and games have gone both ways since the days of side scrollers and sega genesis.

[GetToTheTop]

Maybe the mc was just born mute.