Would you play a game without voices?

First off, I want to say that this question has NOTHING to do with the game I'm working on, Shady Brook. That game will have voices regardless.

I'm just curious, as a general rule. Certain games (mostly RPGs, but some adventures, too), such as Morrowind or Final Fantasy, don't have spoken text because of the massive amount of dialog and characters contained within the game.

So, my question to you is, would you play an adventure game if all the dialog was text-based instead of vocal?

I am REALLY interested in knowing, as a...future project, shall we say, might contain massive amounts of text, and I'm trying to determine if text-only is an option.

Thanks, everyone!

I tried playing Morrowind and that was one thing I did NOT like about the game.

Up until a year or so ago I didn't have headphones and just used the subtitle feature. It wasn't until I bought a game that did not offer subtitles that I actually "heard" a game. Since that point I always use the headphones because it gets you so much more into the game. I can't believe what I've missed. If you could still get into the game without hearing I would be willing to try it but I do like the atmosphere you get when there are sounds.

Ana

I shall be happy to play text-only game. I don't mind whether the game has a voice or not. Instead, my concern is if the game has a text or subtitle that can replace voice. I'm from Korea. English is foreign language for me, so it's hard to enjoy voice-only game.

Hi

A game that didn't have voices wouldn't bother me one bit if the other aspects of it were good

Lots of the early games had text only

Cheers.

Mad

Like Mad, if it were a good game in all other respects, I wouldn't mind not having voices either.

I like the text option even when I do have voices and also enjoy text adventures. I would much prefer text to bad jumbled voices that are hard to understand or annoying and in fact turn them off if possible in some cases.

Melanie

I just played The Labyrinth of Time, which uses text instead of voices. A couple of times I missed a comment because I was looking at the scene instead of the text line, but on the whole, I had no problem with it.

I would play, but I much prefer voices, even with lots of text.

I would like to have the option of choosing either text or voice, or both. There are times these aging eyes don't see as well as they once did, and it would take more time to read the displayed text.

I prefer no voices to bad voices.

Music and background sound are more important than voices to me - unless the voices are really exceptional. In Grim Fandango or Faust: Seven Games of the Soul voices added a lot to the games and were important. In most games voices are not so great.

My preference is for voices using competent actors. However, I want the option of hearing the voices and reading the text, since I like to get the conversations down in my game journal. Now if you want my optimum mode, I would like the text of all conversations readily accessible within the game in a Conversation Journal. Then the text during the actual conversation is not so critical.

Hello-

I can say with a firm no, I would not play a text game at all, had one last year, made no sense to me and so I sold it. I have played Dungeon Siege, but it is not text and I like it, although I hope the new one has more talking.I think giving an option of text or voice would be very good.

Hope this helps you.

Margo

We're talking about a graphic adventure game with sound but using text rather than spoken dialogue?

Yes I have played and would play (and am playing one such in fact right now.) For me I find I adjust to the limitations of the game I'm playing - so if it's a good game story-wise puzzle-wise it not having 360 scenes or a 3D engine or smart graphics doesn't matter.

I usually activate the subtitle option anyway if I can. I would be wary of playing a game with masses of text to wade through, though.

No problem for me. I'm playing a text only adventure right now.

Would not bother me at all. I often turn off all the sounds in the computer games I play because I find them annoying. I appreciate having a text option.

I've been playing adventures since way before speech was an option, and while I would (and do) play non-speech adventures, the speech option adds so much to the experience. Furthermore, I am much more willing to be forgiving of the lack of speech in older games than in brand new ones.

I love to be able to speak to people in the game.
I love the music too, it adds so much more!
That's why silent movies didn't stick around. As soon as sound could be added, it stayed!! People like movies and games to be as real as in person.
Just my opinion anyway!

I prefer to have text and voices because sometimes I don't catch what the person said. I also like the background music and sounds. It helps create the right atmosphere

I'm with Jenna. I turn the music off or waaaay down. Sometimes, I turn all sound off. I always have text/subtitles on & dislike when there aren't any. I'm a visual learner, so I prefer to read things for myself rather than listen to someone tell me. However, the best combo is voice AND text together with the ability to turn them off. Serves all types of folks. Also like the conversation log so you can look back for important clues.

Love, Jen

Sure. I always use the subtitles anyway, when a game has them. I read A LOT faster than anyone could possibly act through dialog, so if a conversation is taking too long I just skip through at my own pace. And lots of games that I love convey information in a written form--journals, etc. So I don't really see much difference.

The one thing I would say, though, is, if you're going to do that PLEASE make sure of your spelling and grammar. It drives me crazy to see "it's" instead of "its" and "There" instead of "their." Hire a competent copy editor!

WW

I think that for the game to reach the widest audience, it would need to include voices. But for my personal enjoyment, it would not. I have headphones attached to my PC, not speakers, but I often don't put them on. The sad fact for game developers is that I just don't appreciate aural input from games, often finding the background music annoying or intrusive, and preferring to hear what is going on in my actual environment (with two dogs and four cats, one has to be alert!) than the virtual one.

If its a choice between no voice acting and bad voice acting, I'd choose no voice. I really appreciate having the option to turn on subtitles when there is voice acting because I read much better than I hear. I find that a conversation log that exactly reproduces the speech, or a journal that summarizes the salient points of conversations is also an extremely useful tool in games. I am content to read dialogue and other narrative exposition, but I am aware that others find that reading destroys the pacing of the game.

I am currently playing Neverwinter Nights, an RPG with lots of dialogue, and it uses a combination of spoken word and text. The major characters have speech recorded with the text also displaying on the screen; minor characters just have text displaying. Some of the minor characters will have a spoken greeting that alerts you to the fact that you need to talk to them, but then the actual dialogue is text only.

cheers,
jasper

I have only played two text games and missed the voices both times. I think you have to be more focused if you are using less of your senses to get information.

I always use the subtitles as I can often miss what the player says--I do like the voice--and really like the ambient sounds---whether or not I would play it would depend on whether the game sounded really interesting to me or not--sometimes I get so busy ready the text I miss some action---but if the game itself was of interest, had an immersive story line--then the fact that I had to read the text would be fine with me---

Voice and sound are important factors to me. This is 2005, not the days of silent movies. So I definitely would not buy a modern day adventure with text only.

Thanks, everyone!

Just to clarify for those who asked, the game would still have sound effects and music, just no voices.

This is an option I'm weighing considerably...luckily, there's still plenty of time, since Shady Brook isn't even done yet! hehe

I would definitely be interested in a game without voice acting, especially if the game still had ambient sounds. For example, if the character was wandering around inside a spooky house and the character was reading a lot of journals or diaries (my own personal favorite thing in a game--I love wading through all of the written stuff that a lot of people don't like), then it would irritate me to hear the character read them, so I would have to take off my earphones to read at my own pace. The only exception to this is with great voice acting (which is fairly rare). An example of that would be Ceremony of Innocence, where the game is composed of letters written between two people, and actors read their letters. The voices are so perfectly matched to the material that the game would lose its beauty for me without the voices. However, in a game with just normal voices, especially voices reading diaries and things like that, I usually use the enter key to skip the voices anyway. This may be because I read faster than the voice reads, or I want to re-read certain passages to note them and the character is ahead of me in reading the next passage. I also play many amateur games that do not have voices, and it doesn't bother me at all.

I guess to sum it up, I'm interested in the artistic vision of the game creator, and if the game is created in a way that is enhanced by not having voices, I prefer it that way.

You said - " might contain massive amounts of text,"

Those two little words 'MASSIVE TEXT' would make me afraid to buy the game.

Journals, letters, articles that need to be read are fine, as the game waits for you. Convesation should be heard while the game goes on. And having a pause button would REALLY screw it up.

I would prefer voice in adventure games but if it has good subs and it fits with the style of game aka lucasarts style, then yeah i could live without it i supose.

Make's a valid point.

Absolutely. Sometimes I just find myself in a mood to just play a nice quiet relaxing adventure game where there is no chattering or loud noises. Rather a nice calm time after a hectic day.

Hi

Something to consider might be that the "developer" is a newie and so possibly can't afford to give us an all singin' all dancin' "everything" game first time around ??
[I've no idea how these things are costed up.]

But if we all buy the game - thus giving financial as well as moral encouragement - maybe next time round we WILL get voices ??

Just a thought
[One of those few rare ones

I am playing Divine Divinity right now and it has a mix of text and voice and it took me awhile to slow down and read the text but now I am use to it. I did think in the beginning my game was broke when it was just text so you may want to explain that right up front to players. I am very curious to play Marrowind and see what it is like to play an all text game.

I have grown very fond of music and ambient sounds and things like different foot falls in different terrain.

I like the quiet Myst type games but lately have been playing 3erd person games and getting use to the chattering, in which case I always have both voice and subtitles on. I use the subtitles to catch dialog that is slurred or hard to understand.

Black Mirror was almost ruined for me because of the bad voice acting but then I got used to it and just considered the main guy to be a little slooow and socially inadept and it worked for me.

Well enough babbling

Since you talked about text and voices that focused my thoughts to that alone. However, I have enjoyed games in which there was essentially no interaction with other characters, except in a few video clips, and in which one wandered about exploring the location and working puzzles. Examples would be MYST and SHIVERS. There was, however scene music which, if well done, makes the game even more enjoyable. I sometimes returned to SHIVERS just to catch the "room music" again.

That doesn't mean there can't be quite a bit of text to read, but it is text found in documents, books, notes, etc., but not text as conversation, although that wouldn't necessarily deter me if there weren't a great deal of it.

I would certainly play a game with just text and no voices, after all that is what games were like when I started playing

And judging by how busy the 'trading post' is, with people searching for older games, I suspect a lot of gamers would

I recently played 'Other Worlds' that was text and no voices, but I really enjoyed it, as long as it is a good story, it doesn't bother me

Sue