Curse

shinta_himura · Feb 26, 2012, 07:31 AM // 07:31

I can't remember what it was called but it's in WoC part 3

I think everyone is going to completely disagree and get a bit mad about me saying this but I want to express how I felt about this quest and the impression I took from it, I think that's fair as long as I'm not attacking anyone or giving unwarranted criticism.

I have no problem with a quest where you're running away trying to escape the bad guys. I have no problem with a big discussion between the characters about ethics and what it means to be a hero, and a killer. But when you put these two things together... and put them in the Kaineng slums of all places, yes I have a big problem. If you haven't played this yet, avert your eyes because I'm going to explain what happens.

There are some peaceful protestors going out on the streets raising a stink about the ministry. You get tipped off that the ministry is going to go and kill them, so you have to crash their little party and flee with them to Xangqua Skyway through one of the Kaineng zones. Now as you and these NPCs are running for your lives from a sudden deluge of red dots, you decide to have a nice long chat about whether or not the player character is a hero, a killer, a pacifist or whatever.

This truly bothered me for a couple of reasons. Logically, I don't understand why this conversation needed to be had while they were running away, fleeing for their lives. There was ample time afterwards to discuss this in the safety of Xangqua Skyway. I'm not saying it's impossible for people to banter and bitch at each other during such a moment, but the depth of the discussion and the particular topic just did not feel right for that moment.

Secondly, and I think most important... I'm running through Kaineng City trying to avoid mobs oh god jesus please stop talking! If you know Kaineng you'll probably understand it as a confusing mess of streets, rooftops and sudden turns. Watching the environment, watching the radar to make sure I'm going in the right direct and not about to run into a mob... This clashes drastically with the long-ass dialogue that persists throughout the whole chase. Where is there any time during this to read what they're saying? Mind you I had Jora using "Fall Back!", even so there were a few moments where I was suddenly facing an invisible wall and needed to frantically look for a street, nearly getting jumped by the mobs. Why did anet expect the players to focus or pay attention to this dialogue now, in the depth of such a gameplay segment? I've noticed this happens quite a lot, not just in WoC but in WiK and even the core game. Either there is a bunch of dialogue occurring during tense moments, or tense moments begin far too soon after dialogue, before I can finish reading.

Finally, the one thing which I expect will be met with the most disagreement, but it needs to be said; that cutscene with Initiate Zei Rei... I know the GW1 live team is small and strapped for resources, but come on. Grab someone, anyone, show them the lines, record it in Audacity for crying out loud. Get your buddy on skype and send him a few bucks on paypal to read the lines! All of the cutscenes in this game were voice-acted and to watch this one, and not hear anything, felt very awkward and to be completely honest, seems like a major case of corner-cutting.

Anyway, that's it. If anyone wants to take issue with this I suppose that's only expected, I just wanted to see what other people thought about it and if anyone shares some of these opinions.

MithranArkanere · Feb 26, 2012, 07:40 AM // 07:40

The problem with the audio is not having it, but translating it.
One can easily record some English voices. But then you need the other languages too.

It's the same reason that kept Sorrow's Furnace cinematics from having voices too.

shinta_himura · Feb 26, 2012, 07:51 AM // 07:51

I guess that's a large issue. Would it be terrible to have one language all the way around in the meantime and just use sub-titles though? Or even ask the community to translate and put together a sound clip for them. There's gotta be some people in this community with a knack for decent voice acting.

Anyway that's not the main point of my post, I'm glad to know now why the voice acting isn't present though.

KotCR · Feb 26, 2012, 08:15 AM // 08:15

I guess they do it for suspense or whatever. It's really not that uncommon for characters to argue while running from enemies in any story-telling media. In this case, I didn't really have a problem keeping up with the dialogue as I was running, and it did save time overall as I didn't have to stand around doing nothing for as long for the NPCs to go through it all at the end of the run (and there's still alot of conversation there as is when you arrive).

It did feel like a rather dramatic mission because of some of the dialogue, and certainly a memorable one. I feel like if the characters had been silent while running, until the end, that the mission would have had far less of an impact upon me.

Sagittario · Feb 26, 2012, 08:34 AM // 08:34

This horribly annoyed me too. Not because she would distract me running.
What annoyed me was that I had to pay attention to the road and couldn't pay attention to the dialogue, so I read it on wiki later.
Also, after you've run to the end, the quest will tell you to go back to KC for reward, the cinematic is delayed and many people just map-traveled when the q was done without knowing they were yet to see a cinematic.

Btw, that q is called Ministry of Oppression and the girl's name is Xin Ji.

Mintha Syl · Feb 26, 2012, 10:04 AM // 10:04

I noticed this as a general tendency i the WoC, not only when running, you always get text while in action. Like, all the times dialogue is going through and suddenly battle begins and dialogue goes on, so you either get killed cause you are distracted by dialogue (which is really too fast to read even if you're not fighting) or miss the dialogue directly. I thought they did it as for WiK people complained for having to wait for long dialogues to finish while doing nothing, so they made em faster and during action, which imho is terrible but I guess all those who don't bother with the story and just go kill kill appreciate it.
And I can imagine, realistically, while running for your life you can hardly even breathe, let alone going through philosophical debates....

Dewshine Wildclaw · Feb 26, 2012, 10:29 AM // 10:29

I did not really have a problem with this. For one it was not that bad finding the way imo, yes Kaineng can be a pain to find your way through, but with new markers for where to go fairly close every-time it was not hard. Reading all the dialogue while running... not easy, but the dialogue is still there in team-chat when the quest is done, so I could read the bits I missed while running before zoning and stuff (maybe turn off ally, guild, local chat in the mean time)

shinta_himura · Feb 26, 2012, 03:15 PM // 15:15

So it's more of the same in Final Confrontation. Sometimes the simpler something is the more memorable it is. The PC says a few last things, then "Show me the strength of your beliefs!" and the battle starts... The battle itself is really cool and there was a lot to it that could be appreciated, but the characters just do not stop interrupting with dialogue. Miku even says "The only thing left to say to reiko will be spoken with these blades."

Trying to read the tool-tips for Reiko's abilities, on top of fighting, adapting to the battle and what's going on, and having to skim through the dialogue, personally it stresses me out. And before you know it, it's over. I'm going to the wiki right now because there was no way I was going to figure out all of what was going on in that battle.

Raid on Shing Jea was a greater challenge. Reiko was supposed to be guarded to, just not as heavily.

Not just game play and story are important. Presentation is another big factor.

I don't want to give any impressions that I didn't enjoy part 3.

Eevee11 · Feb 26, 2012, 09:22 PM // 21:22

I always felt that TOO much dialogue kinda takes away from the experience (Togo's nonstop rambling during Tahnnakai Temple, or spending a half hour going in and out of the HoM to watch Keiran ramble on and on to Gwen comes to mind). That said, I'm glad that the text seems to scroll/change faster in WoC that it did in other areas. >.>

MithranArkanere · Feb 26, 2012, 11:41 PM // 23:41

You also have to hire make sure the voice actors sound somewhat the same.

Haven't you notice how your character's voice changes across campaigns?

That's why we need better voice synth technology.

When we get that, all we'll need is the text, and the characters will say the text with the voice we chose for them, and all NPCs could have their own unique voices, just by setting some variables for things like pitch and accent.

But right now synthesized voices sound too unnatural for that.