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General discussionVoiced vs Silent vs Mute protagonist?(50 posts)(50 posts)
(50 posts)
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Posted November 17, 2019
Ah, the fine choices. I suppose I should clarify a thing or two first:

A voiced protagonist speaks, if of their own agency or yours depends on the game. Some of them are so full of themselves as to be incongruous of the internal writing or lore. Examples are JC Denton, Lara Croft, and Alucard.

Mute protagonists do not have any outright lines to speak, but still vocalize in grunts, pantomime, or inference of dialogue. Chrono, Link, and Mario in the RPGs.

A Silent Protagonist can't even be bothered with much outside basic binary choices required to advance. They often appear in games where socializing isn't important, or possible. Sometimes they can be powerful, othertimes it just means the developer was lazy and couldn't be bothered. Pokemon Protagonists fall into this category, for example.

So, how do you prefer it?
Posted November 17, 2019
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Darvond: Ah, the fine choices. I suppose I should clarify a thing or two first:

A voiced protagonist speaks, if of their own agency or yours depends on the game. Some of them are so full of themselves as to be incongruous of the internal writing or lore. Examples are JC Denton, Lara Croft, and Alucard.

Mute protagonists do not have any outright lines to speak, but still vocalize in grunts, pantomime, or inference of dialogue. Chrono, Link, and Mario in the RPGs.

A Silent Protagonist can't even be bothered with much outside basic binary choices required to advance. They often appear in games where socializing isn't important, or possible. Sometimes they can be powerful, othertimes it just means the developer was lazy and couldn't be bothered. Pokemon Protagonists fall into this category, for example.

So, how do you prefer it?
Where would Master Chief from Halo fall? Occasional cutscenes where he talks, but once the gameplay starts he will remain mute until the next level cutscene with some plot advancement.

Depends on the game. I've always enjoyed feeling like I'm IN the game, or part of the story. So, for me I prefer the silent, mute or something-in-between protagonist.
Posted November 17, 2019
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Darvond: So, how do you prefer it?
It depends a lot on the game. Voiced fit Deus Ex perfectly (as did Stephen Russel's voice acting for Thief), whilst Half Life 2 had in-game jokes about Gordon's endless silence. Edit: So did Portal with the ending song containing the line "I had a pretty good life, and then you showed up, you dangerous, mute lunatic..." :-)
Post edited November 17, 2019 by AB2012
Posted November 17, 2019
Mute protagonist is a bad idea. Lots of misunderstandings can ensue; the kind of which, even same party (and party) members, may switch over side to your enemies'

Real protagonists should always speak their mind. DAMN
Posted November 17, 2019
What do you consider dialog trees: voiced, silent or other?

I'm specifically thinking of games like Arcanum.
Posted November 17, 2019
I usually prefer voiced protagonists, if they are part of a good story. If there is voice acting and not just text, then the voice actor must display a good performance.

For some games a voice is not necessary at all, and it's fine. It depends on how the developer uses storytelling techniques. I remember RiME, a game that tells a story without you even realizing at first, and without a single line of dialogue.
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Darvond: Pokemon Protagonists fall into this category, for example.
I think in Pokémon a silent protagonist is fitting, since the main storyline isn't (and was never intended to be) the big focus of the games: the story is your own journey and the team you assemble along the way.
Post edited November 17, 2019 by ConsulCaesar
Posted November 17, 2019
For RPGs I think a silent protag is almost necessary. To have a wide variety of responses, questions and reactions to things you need a lot of writing that is cost prohibitive. They could do it, but very few game. Mass Effect, Fallout 4, etc... they just don't have the same player personality options as games like New Vegas, Arcanum, Dragon Age, etc.

For other genres I think voiced is obviously the way to go. As much as I love games like Half-Life it makes no sense Freeman never talks. Dishonored changing from silent in the first game to voiced in the second was a nice improvement.
Posted November 17, 2019
Depends on the game but for the vast majority of games especially isometric crpg's then no voice without a doubt. For Witcher and similar games with heavy character interaction where you can see facial expressions then voiced works fine i think.

Bad voice acting can definately ruin a game however.
Posted November 17, 2019
I am playing Dead Space and the silent Isaac seems outright dumb. He wouldn't even shout to tell a comrade that they have a monster coming from behind. At the beginning he just stares in the void while others are speaking to him and the best thing he can do is to put an helmet on. For this kind of game a voiced character would have worked better. The off thing is that the NPCs are speaking to him but he can't say anything back.

[spoiler]

There's a weird guy telling him about a conspiracy, he never informs his team. It becomes embarrassing to play a character like this.

[/spoiler]

I don't have a preference as long as the characters beheaviour is coherent with the world they inhabit.
Post edited November 17, 2019 by Dogmaus
Posted November 17, 2019
Personally, I would prefer (by your definition) silent for not just the protagonist, but for all characters in the game. See games like Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog for examples of how I prefer my games in terms of dialog.

Yes, RPGs are my preferred genre, but I still prefer there to be no dialog, so that the focus can be on the gameplay.

(Exception can be made if the game has queer characters (and no queerbating!) in it, but such exceptions are rare.)

(As a side note, I don't like voice acting, and I prefer it when games don't have that feature.)

Edit: s/ade/made
Post edited November 17, 2019 by dtgreene
Posted November 17, 2019
If the story can move itself along at a reasonable pace, then a mute protagonist is fine. Doom 2016 pulled it off quite well.

Personal preference - I don't particularly care. I do draw a line at "hardly ever shuts up" though.
Posted November 17, 2019
The more a game tries to be a movie, the more likely I am to dislike it. Protagonists without voice acting where you choose what to say is my favorite. Either that or completely mute like Gordon Freeman, Link and so on.
Posted November 17, 2019
Whatever fits the game best.

(Provided the voice-acting quality is not too terrible, that is.)
Post edited November 17, 2019 by Leroux
Posted November 17, 2019
Which I prefer? Hmmm, variation is the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melange_(fictional_drug)]spice[/url] of life, they say. One place I do not care for voice acting is the main character in a rpg with lots and lots of choices in text. Tends to end up with a lot less choices.

One more example of "full of themselves": Lo Wang in Shadow Warrior. Typical guy who thinks he is god's gift to mankind. Not a main character I can identify as. Still playable in my humble opinion. He is just so silly.
Posted November 17, 2019
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Darvond: So, how do you prefer it?
I don't really care. As long as voice acting is natural I'm ok with chareacter being voiced. As long as lack of voice doesn't create communication problems - I'm ok with silent/mute protagonist.
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General discussionVoiced vs Silent vs Mute protagonist?(50 posts)(50 posts)
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