re: lisalover's signature

[brunoafh]

I used to always want protagonists to talk when I was a kid. But I've so rarely come across quality voice acting that I now have decided I'd rather them be quiet than open their mouth and annoy me.

I was thinking more of silent protagonists in 16-bit/32-bit RPGs when I said that. So I guess it doesn't really apply here...

[o.pwuaioc]

I used to always want protagonists to talk when I was a kid. But I've so rarely come across quality voice acting that I now have decided I'd rather them be quiet than open their mouth and annoy me.

I was thinking more of silent protagonists in 16-bit/32-bit RPGs when I said that. So I guess it doesn't really apply here...

I'm still with you on that. I always wondered why Cecil talked, but Link didn't. But for an RPG with a story like that, you really need the all the characters to talk. It's certainly more of an interactive movie than the singular hero's quest, like in Zelda games or Fable. But then again, it seems to work so far in Breath of Fire III.

[jfrost]

I don't much like silent protagonists either, but I agree it would be silly to give him a voice now. However, they could at least give him a body:

[Ack]

It irritated me to no end to see a charming, likable character like Alex that we'd probably all love to marry talking to some boring, a-hole who completely ignores the affections of a woman who is sticking her neck out for you and trying so hard to get you to lighten up and maybe flirt with her a bit. It just made Gordon seem kind of like a douche. I know that the silent protagonist is a gaming trope though and I'm taking it too seriously, but I like to see games evolve from this kind of stuff and grow up.

Maybe he finds it creepy that he's being hit on by a girl who just so happened to be...what, 4 the last time he saw her, which for him happened to be...what, yesterday? And she is the daughter of his former boss. Plus, he's got a PhD from MIT...isn't it possible he has trouble talking to girls, or anybody for that matter. Oh, and his entire world happens to have been turned on its ear as he has just come face to face with the shattering of both time and space.

Frankly we're probably lucky he didn't just shoot himself the first time he got his hand on an gun.

[AmishSamurai]

It irritated me to no end to see a charming, likable character like Alex that we'd probably all love to marry talking to some boring, a-hole who completely ignores the affections of a woman who is sticking her neck out for you and trying so hard to get you to lighten up and maybe flirt with her a bit. It just made Gordon seem kind of like a douche. I know that the silent protagonist is a gaming trope though and I'm taking it too seriously, but I like to see games evolve from this kind of stuff and grow up.

Maybe he finds it creepy that he's being hit on by a girl who just so happened to be...what, 4 the last time he saw her, which for him happened to be...what, yesterday? And she is the daughter of his former boss. Plus, he's got a PhD from MIT...isn't it possible he has trouble talking to girls, or anybody for that matter. Oh, and his entire world happens to have been turned on its ear as he has just come face to face with the shattering of both time and space.

Frankly we're probably lucky he didn't just shoot himself the first time he got his hand on an gun.

Maybe after four games of grenades and guns constantly going off near his unprotected ears, Freeman is actually deaf. He's just very skilled at lip-reading.

[YoshiEgg25]

Maybe after four games of grenades and guns constantly going off near his unprotected ears, Freeman is actually deaf. He's just very skilled at lip-reading.

I was thinking he might be mute.

[the7k]

I wouldn't say I strongly desire Freeman to have a voice, but I wouldn't hate it either - mainly because I have faith that Valve could do it right.

Personally I feel that if Freeman was given a voice/personality, he should avoid the gruff macho action hero deal and be one of those deadpan types that are humorous precisely because they are completely humorless. The type of guy who says exactly the thing that would kill the suspense of the moment with an logical break-down of why this particular situation is nothing to worry about - that sort of thing. I've seen it done before, but I just can't remember where...

[GSZX1337]

So if Gordon Freeman started talking a lot, had tons of inner monologues, and Half-Life 3 started having cutscenes, how would you guys feel about that?

Fuck that. Especially the cutscenes.

I don't much like silent protagonists either, but I agree it would be silly to give him a voice now. However, they could at least give him a body:

I was thinking this while reading the thread. It's always bothered me in most FPSes that you don't see your hands. I don't like Killzone much, but I loved actually seeing that character's hands on the ladder and seeing them climb into turrets.

[Xeogred]

I'm fully behind Ack, GSZX1337, and brunoafh on this one and basically I was just taking a jab at how pointless and out of place it was for Team Ninja to do what they did to Metroid with Other M and Samus' character basically. If Gordon suddenly started talking, that would mean I'm no longer Gordon Freeman myself. Bringing up Dead Space 2 here is a perfect point... with him talking and spouting out stuff constantly it felt like I was no longer Issac myself. The intensity of that awkward silence and a lot of the atmosphere from the first game was completely lost to me in 2. And as for Metroid that series has never been or ever will be about narrative to me, the narrative is the atmospheric experience that lets my own imagination run wild and sink into these crazy worlds to come up with my interpretations about what's going on and everything. Unreal and System Shock 2 are the same kind of experiences, the only dialogue (if there even was any) that I can remember might have been during the end cutscenes... but aside from that, I like the lack of dialogue and character because it lets me become the avatar.

Certainly in a game like Deus Ex or with characters who are actual characters it's a completely different thing, but the issue is when you change a franchise that has never been heavy on narrative or change a mute character to non-mute... that's one of the worst things you could ever do to a series in my eyes. It's not the same anymore!

If Ack is being serious there, that's just goes to show how awesome ones own interpretation about things can be, but if Gordon actually talked... or did start talking in a later installment and they started shoving answers and all details about everything down our throat, it throws this stuff out the window.

All this reminds of how there's rumors the Prometheus movie if tied to Aliens, will go into more detail about the Space Jokey. Who the hell wants that? Not me. Don't ruin my imagination.

Subtlety is amazing.

[MrPopo]

<snip>

Subtlety is amazing.

See, this is the first argument I have seen against what they did with Metroid Other M that wasn't just "Wahh! You didn't do exactly what I had imagined with no basis in canon!" I get the sense that any characterization of Samus would be undesirable for you. I personally liked seeing Samus get fleshed out, but I can understand and respect the way youv'e experienced Metroid up til now.