If Gordan Talked??

Personnally if I was designing a game I would go for a voice for the player character. I find that most people I discuss gaming with kind of take an actor like approach when playing these games. It is like an interactive movie/novel/story in which you inhabit a character in the universe. Gears of War while not on Half Life's level took an interesting approach with the co-op, all the characters were voiced and you inhabited them. As someone else stated, it conveys more story. HLs puzzle like route to learning the backstory was the games sole mistake in my mind. Zero exposition. It could have easily been conveyed with little snippets here and there from side characters.

But at this point in time it would be wrong to add a voice to Gordon. Call of Duty 4 was another great game I thought could use voice from the player characters. So many soldiers talking to you, and nothing in return.
 
I think it's pretty stupid that gordon didn't speak in the first game as everyone else did. I think it's better to watch the vids on page 2 of this thread with gordons thoughts lol
 
haha yeah. Valve tends to say they don't do the character voice because they want you to be the character, and don't want to force emotional reactions of some voiced dialogue onto you. But honestly, I don't think most people care or notice. The number one rule of any good movie/book/story based game, should be plot and character. I think people accept the emotional reaction of characters. Heck, you could still have the voice and make the character a bit of blank slate emotionally.
 
krelokk said:
haha yeah. Valve tends to say they don't do the character voice because they want you to be the character, and don't want to force emotional reactions of some voiced dialogue onto you. But honestly, I don't think most people care or notice.
Click to expand...

I DO think people care, and there have been numerous discussions about that topic in this forum, so at least WE care
 
If you're talking about the caring about the characters and emotional reaction, that isn't what I'm talking about. All that stuff is great. I meant on the most part, I think gamers are indifferent to there being a player voice or not. The average gamer won't care, they just want a good experience. And I'm not referring to fans who will defend every decision Valve makes to the end. Half Life is a fantastic series, and Valve is a fantastic developer, but if the designers are building the plot and characters properly the player should be experiencing similar emotions as the player character anyway. If the game is character based at least. Games like Deus Ex prove its okay to have shooters with player voice. But that one had dialogue only during interactive cutscenes which is a whole other discussion. Some at Valve particularly hate those.

In the end I suppose it is just game design philosophy.
 
krelokk said:
If you're talking about the caring about the characters and emotional reaction, that isn't what I'm talking about. All that stuff is great. I meant on the most part, I think gamers are indifferent to there being a player voice or not. The average gamer won't care, they just want a good experience. And I'm not referring to fans who will defend every decision Valve makes to the end. Half Life is a fantastic series, and Valve is a fantastic developer, but if the designers are building the plot and characters properly the player should be experiencing similar emotions as the player character anyway. If the game is character based at least. Games like Deus Ex prove its okay to have shooters with player voice. But that one had dialogue only during interactive cutscenes which is a whole other discussion. Some at Valve particularly hate those.

In the end I suppose it is just game design philosophy.
Click to expand...


What I was trying to say is that, most people care whether Gordon talks or not (even if you think he should talk). I don't think is something that just goes undetected, I believe is a trademark of Valve and the HL series.
Sorry if I sound agressive in the previous post, wasn't my intention :angel:
 
Cool, cool. =) I suppose my opinion mostly relates to my sole annoyance with the Half Life series, the complete lack of exposition, which I see as a freaking huge issue that the game manages to make almost irrelevant because the rest of it is so damn good, haha. Fixable two ways, either the characters briefly mention bits of history/what happened to the world. Not even in a huge exposition scene, just bits and pieces. Or in the case of a player voice "What the hell happened to the world?"

Though that would also lead to "Some guy in a suit keeps transporting me everywhere. What the hell is happening? Last thing I knew I was in Black Mesa?" And the game would be rather different. lol =P
 
krelokk said:
haha yeah. Valve tends to say they don't do the character voice because they want you to be the character, and don't want to force emotional reactions of some voiced dialogue onto you. But honestly, I don't think most people care or notice. The number one rule of any good movie/book/story based game, should be plot and character. I think people accept the emotional reaction of characters. Heck, you could still have the voice and make the character a bit of blank slate emotionally.
Click to expand...

That's quite dismissive.

Take a search around this forum and you'll see that a lot of people do care. While I am not implying this is the case with the majority of most people, I think it's safe to say that Valve has implemented Gordon's muteness as a design decision, and to state otherwise is just unnecessary cynicism.

I personally think that, for the most part, most players benefit from the decision even if they don't realize it. As much as some people may whinge about not having a voice, I don't think they recognize what a profound impact it's had in their otherwise positive playtimes.
 
krelokk said:
Fixable two ways, either the characters briefly mention bits of history/what happened to the world. Not even in a huge exposition scene, just bits and pieces.
Click to expand...
As I recall there is a cut scene in Black Mesa East where Eli with a projector tells you what's what. I'm interested in that stuff so I would like to have seen it (even if it didn't end up being part of HL2).
 
As I said, different design philosophies. I was simply supporting something other then Valves choices with HL. Not dismissing theirs entirely. Many would argue that a game like Deus Ex is a equal to, if not better then Half Life. Both compete for top 3 games of all time positions frequently, yet they feature wildly different approaches to this subject. I love both. I don't desire a Gordon voice in the game, I think that is just fine the way it is. I do care about the their choices to remove all exposition from the game aside from the puzzle like references on walls. As Operational said, Valve has stated they did explain what happened in a scene with Eli but cut it out for pacing/other reasons. I don't see how bits and pieces couldn't have been spread throughout the game. And I was just saying that a voice could have facilitated conveying this.

Once again, I do have opinions, but I'm really just discussing design philosophies. =)
 
Well, obviously there are trade-offs for employing a mute protagonist. While it is sometimes odd, I feel that it works well enough for the most part to be considered worthwhile. I'm not trying to say that there should only be this one design philosophy either. Deus Ex simply wouldn't have worked if the main character didn't speak. But it's also a drastically different kind of game.

The issue of exposition (or lack thereof) seems to me kinda distinct from Gordon having a voice. And I agree that there's a limited amount of it. It took until Episode 2 for me to feel satisfied with my knowledge of what was happening.
 
By not having a voice I think it adds to the sense that you arent in control of whats going on around you.

Plus, there are some comical moments made out of the fact you dont say anything.

The vast majority of games give you a voice anyways - and the vast majority of games are rubbish.
Half life is the exception.
 
what if they let you choose what to say like the game star wars kights of the old republic
 
Really wouldn't like it. And I don't see what point they would serve since the HL titles are linear, pure FPS games.
 
yeah thats true.......plus they would need make it a role playin game which half life wouldnt suit
 

Gordon has decapitated a Zombie: +20XP
Gordon has killed a Headcrab: +10XP
Gordon has leveled up!
You have Character Point(s) to spend, press 'l' to access the level up screen
Gordon has gained Strong Arm (+10% Crowbar damage)
 
z0mbin3 said:
See now your just covering because you didn't realize it was a joke.
Click to expand...

Go ahead, you think that. I realize when someone is joking quite easily, even subtle dry sarcasm. Don't cry because I thought your attempt to be funny wasn't a good one.

z0mbin3 said:
It's z0mbin3 and I don't get it.
Click to expand...

:| Ironic?
 
.....Cry? because you didn't get a joke then coverd for not getting and then hyped up your abbility to...get sarcasm online (who does that?) then insult me badly? No I will not be crying, just laughing and taking a faint ammount of pitty on you and the rest of the internet douches. It's all s***s and giggles over here :)
 
Shhh... This is the part where you stop talking.
 
I would assume that people around the Half-life universe, prior to having direct interaction with The Free Man, are appointed towards the fact that he is quite a silent, borderline autistic yet surprisingly resourceful individual; and thus, they regard the fact that he doesn't speak much as normal. After all, in a world that's under the circumstances that shape a Combine-Controlled, or a recently Combine-Liberated planet, there are much stranger things than a dude who chooses silence over chatter.
 
What if Gordon sounds like Eddie Deezen lawlz :LOL:
(if you don't know who he is google or wiki him)

Oh and this is a JOKE. *looks at zombieturtle*
 
I think he would sound like Bruce Campbell or something. Or Vin Diesel.
 
Gordon would sound like "da gangsta rap niggah, rollin' high"
 
The next person that calls him "Gordan" will recieve a highspeed boot up his ass..
 
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