discussion Why aren't more games voiced?

[rifticc]

I think you’re being pretty realistic about it there’s definitely still value in professional voice work, but AI closing the gap on cost and quality is hard to ignore. It’ll probably just become another tool in the mix rather than a full replacement anytime soon.

 

[cayneed]

cheaper to make basically. hard to find someone that sounds good also

 

[Reyman7775]

Cause it's expensive. Honestly I feel like I don't mind if they used AI voice as long as it doesn't sound robotic tbh.

 

[salk2014]

probably because it's too expensive to get real voice actors paid

 

[vova228322]

Too expensive for real voice actors, AI can sound too robotic, file size gets pretty large pretty fast, some people might not like the voice you choose, so when there's no VA then players can imagine whatever perfect voice they want

 

[adsgsf]

i think its too much work and an expensive thing,so i understand why most of the games doesnt have voice acting (i dont count ai voice)

 

[spectrobb]

Too expensive for real voice actors, AI can sound too robotic, file size gets pretty large pretty fast, some people might not like the voice you choose, so when there's no VA then players can imagine whatever perfect voice they want

Just curious. do most people hear different voices in their head for every character when reading? I certainly don't...

 

[edgat]

It's too expensive to pay for voice actors and the work can be too much to the devs.

 

[londonbridge90]

The NTL media games and daughter for dessert are the only games I can think of that are voice. I'm sure there are more, but I would think it would be a lot more common when you can use Ai instead of hiring voice actors. Is it because of the difficulty, large file size, or is it not something most people enjoy?

Speaking of daughter for dessert: I only found a html version. Does someone know if there is a renpy version? If I remember correctly, I tried it a few years ago and it was a slow burn wasn't it?

 

[bapcules]

It seems there are a lot of gamers who hate music in games.
I'm one of the others.
The right background music makes the game much more emotional.

 

[irh15gh]

I suspect it's for a couple reasons. For why they don't use ai voices, I suspect that they fear that there will be backlash for using ai, and rightfully so, since a lot of people don't support ai in any manner. Secondly, I feel it's either hard or just plain embarrassing to hire a voice actor for a porn game.

 

[byehy3333]

maybe because i play games in mute idk about everyone

 

[Paradigminant]

There's a whole audio-erotica community out there. A lot of pro/semi-pro/amateur voice actors who might be very interested in voicing games.

 

[Derek70&]

I guess it will be a matter of time until AI voicing becomes less flawed.

Real voice actors are understandably concerned about that, though.

 

[kamikazejihad]

Simple voice acting is expensive

 

[plebpig7843]

I would be willing to try a yaoi VN if it was accompanied by shitty voice acting. Please, someone do this.

 

[exlurker]

The cost cascades. For example it makes localization and translation more complex and expensive.

 

[ahktosh]

probably not many willing to do it even without the money involved.

 

[Wrexy]

It's not common knowledge, but adding voice actors to games is VERY expensive, plus not everyone likes characters to talk.

Furthermore, no matter how advanced AI is, it still has that artificial tone that you immediately detect when you hear it, and it's limited to certain voice types. You can do it yourself with AI voice modifiers, but again, that falls back on the first problem: it's expensive.

There is a concept in production that talks about “doing more than what is asked for,” and it is also the reason why many AAA games are so ridiculously expensive to make, in terms of their retail price and long development times. I mention this because adding voices to AVNs falls into that category. It's not necessary, most people don't even ask for it, and many don't even like it. You delay development by doing something that doesn't even improve the value of the game.

Bad Voice acting is a disaster, so it just isn't worth the effort and expense. Directing voice actors or even AI voices to get the performance you want is a skill that almost no one has. With short animated clips you can get some nice dirty talk sometimes, but having naturalistic conversations is a much higher level of difficulty.

And I imagine with animated clips, most of the good Voiced stuff is going to be Rule 34 animations where the Voice actors are doing an impression of an existing voiced performance. That makes it so much easier. The Audience is primed and ready to enjoy a performance that Sounds like Ellie from The Last of Us 2. Hearing the voice of an unknown original character requires a performance constructed from thin air.

 

[Ymetho]

With how many of my favorite games end up abandoned, or take half a year to sometimes over a year to get an update. I am happy to exclude features like voiced characters. Would just add to the complexity, time, and cost of the production.

Plus it really draws me out of the story when I hear a VA miss pronounce something. Sometimes its funny. But a lot of the time it just draws me out of the story and annoys me.