Writers in the Recording Studio - Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing - page 99

Good voice acting can instantly create indelible characters. Bad voice acting
can have exactly the opposite effect. Nothing can wrench a player from the reality
of a gameworld faster than a beautiful elf princess who sounds like she grew up in
Newark, New Jersey (unless, of course, it's a fantasy adventure set in Newark, New
Jersey).
11.2 Why Do So Many Games Have Such Terrible
Voice Acting?
Audio Atrocities is a website dedicated to “the study and enjoyment� of terrible video
game voice acting. Clearly, this has been a problem since the first audio file was
inserted into the very first video game. Sometimes the problem is the dialog itself.
If it is stiff or stilted or awkward or just plain embarrassing, not even a great actor
can save it. For the purposes of this particular chapter, we're going to assume that
the dialog in question is snappy, witty, believable, and smart. So, if the dialog is
serviceable, why is the voice acting in games so often less than stellar? Well, for one
thing, quite a few game developers and producers aren't experienced or educated in
the area of acting, directing, or drama. It's possible that some of them literally can't
tell the difference between good and bad voice acting. Or maybe they don't believe
it's all that important. They know people don't buy games for the voice acting, so
why sweat the small stuff? Of course, the biggest bugaboo is probably the budget.
Many publishers only allocate a tiny part of the budget to this part of the process.
They don't want to spend the money necessary to hire union voice talent. They don't
want to hire a casting director or a professional voice director, so they'll make do with
either the audio engineer or one of the designers. Once in the studio, they'll go with
the first or second take, whether it's working or not. All those decisions affect the
final product. Of course, you can hire a slew of Hollywood stars, rent the best studio
in town, spend a fortune, and still end up with lame voice acting. Blowing money
doesn't necessarily guarantee quality. So what can developers do to ensure that the
voice acting in their hot new game doesn't cause players all over the world to wince?
Before we get into the specifics, I'd like to give some props to games that do
have great voice acting. There were a few early games with fantastic voice acting.
Some of these include Fallout (Interplay, 1997), StarCraft (Blizzard, 1998), Wing
Commander II (Origin, 1991), and Sacrifice (Interplay, 2000). Luckily, the tide is
turning and voice acting in games has improved dramatically over the last few years.
Publishers are beginning to understand its importance, because they know it affects
their bottom line. And because the bar has been lifted, players are demanding better
voice acting as well.
Whether a game is realistic sci-fi, fantasy, contemporary crime drama, or whim-
sical comedy, they all have one thing in common. The acting is authentic, truthful,
real. This chapter will examine how to raise the level of acting above the majority of
games.