Having your character talk during cutscenes

[Shougun]

I'm not a big fan of silent characters either (when those characters are meant to be "my" character). I know some people on the first page said it makes it easier for them to get into their character, I'd just say the opposite. Silence is a characteristic and If I wouldn't do it at that time then it isn't "my" character.

Then of course I don't mind watching other's stories (doesn't have to be "my" story, like FFX was great - everyone uncontrollably talked and referred to themselves, and I was happy with that). Silence in some characters is just annoying I'm like - say something already-, or in others its an interesting characteristic (but in both cases I didn't really feel like it made it "mine", just a characteristic of someone else I happened to being playing or watching).

Adding a few different styles of dialog would be great imo, then you can pick "silence" or actually respond. I'd be interested in seeing diverging paths from the dialog (like different quest rewards or different quests in general).

However this being an MMO, and this being a game that has already happened for some.. it could be a problem. Like John telling an NPC to screw himself so you now cant play with your buddy because you both responded differently to the quest. Or that for some of us have done most of the quests already, and therefore how does SE decide what choices we made?

Basically, I think it would be really cool to have dialog and even cooler to have it actually mean something - but I'm slightly skeptical on how it will be implemented in ARR as the game has already been played by some. Of course if the dialog has no effect you can implement it no problem.

I gave you a +1 because I think its interesting but its a very interesting challange as well lol

[fusional]

Silence is a characteristic

just because your character doesn't have lines of dialogue, that doesn't mean they're mute.

the silent protagonist in games generally isn't actually silent. their responses are implied, and you fill in the blanks yourself with whatever you're thinking or feeling as you watch/play along. they're interacting in the story, but as a blank slate.

i never thought it was that complicated, but it seems even outside of preference a lot of people have difficulty grasping this concept.

[Shougun]

just because your character doesn't have lines of dialogue, that doesn't mean they're mute.

the silent protagonist in games generally isn't actually silent. their responses are implied, and you fill in the blanks yourself with whatever you're thinking or feeling as you watch/play along. they're interacting in the story, but as a blank slate.

i never thought it was that complicated, but it seems even outside of preference a lot of people have difficulty grasping this concept.

Its interesting it seems you quoted what I want to reply to this with.. so you misunderstood what you quoted.

Silence is a characteristic - its an action and response a personality. When someone says holy shit the town is burning down and I shrug off the wall and silently walk into the town to save everyone - I have developed my character and yet I didnt speak.

I understand this, obviously you do too - but you dont understand my post at all.

[fusional]

Its interesting it seems you quoted what I want to reply to this with.. so you misunderstood what you quoted.

Silence is a characteristic - its an action and response a personality. When someone says holy shit the town is burning down and I shrug off the wall and silently walk into the town to save everyone - I have developed my character and yet I didnt speak.

I understand this, obviously you do too - but you dont understand my post at all.

the direct quote was "Silence is a characteristic and If I wouldn't do it at that time then it isn't "my" character." you also go on to use "silence" as an example for a dialogue choice.

based on that, everything i've said stands- and it seems like you actually don't understand. to put it into context- just because the silent protagonist doesn't say anything at that time doesn't mean they're not actually saying anything at that time. whatever you think or feel is the response, which you project onto them. if you're projecting silence onto them as a result of not seeing or hearing lines of dialogue, well... that's on you.

the point is, silent protagonists aren't your preference and that's fine. but your perception of them being silent and associating it with being a characteristic and therefore 'not you' doesn't, in fact, mean they possess a silent characteristic.

the default response of the silent protagonist isn't "silence"- it's whatever you imagine them to say. so it's only a characteristic if you yourself perceive it that way (which i suppose is understandable, but not at all intended)

[Shougun]

the direct quote was "Silence is a characteristic and If I wouldn't do it at that time then it isn't "my" character." you also go on to use "silence" as an example for a dialogue choice.

based on that, everything I've said stands- and it seems like you actually don't understand. to put it into context- just because the silent protagonist doesn't say anything at that time doesn't mean they're not actually saying anything at that time. whatever you think or feel is the response, which you project onto them. if you're projecting silence onto them as a result of not seeing or hearing lines of dialogue, well... that's on you.

the point is, silent protagonists aren't your preference and that's fine. but your perception of them being silent and associating it with being a characteristic and therefore 'not you' doesn't, in fact, mean they possess a silent characteristic.

the default response of the silent protagonist isn't "silence"- it's whatever you imagine them to say. so it's only a characteristic if you yourself perceive it that way.

If they don't say anything at that time they don't say anything. I'm not going to mentally -force- extra scenes into the scene. Sometimes they do things like "explain the situation "yes/no"" and then you start talking and it fades out and fades in - that is something you can add imagination to I suppose.

But if not, that's not on me. You are being extremely unreasonable to defend some point like "If you don't see the purple dragon in the back ground well that's on you!" ... Except there was no purple dragon in the background and you are making stuff up to satisfy the point (imagining things your character says to say that's how he is, except he never spoke during the scene for you to be able to say he said anything).

Please don't make things up to make points... those aren't points - its just nonsense to argue fact with (saying you imagined extra scenes or something, if there are fade in fade outs for every talk then there are "in-between" scenes that you can say are designed for imagination but otherwise there were no scenes to explain the extra imagining scenes at that moment).

Assuming the point we are making is that silence makes or does not make a character easier to personalize - which I say it doesn't (for myself).


Edit: explained everything more / removed some unnecessary comments.

[KyahAlmasy]

the direct quote was "Silence is a characteristic and If I wouldn't do it at that time then it isn't "my" character." you also go on to use "silence" as an example for a dialogue choice.

based on that, everything i've said stands- and it seems like you actually don't understand. to put it into context- just because the silent protagonist doesn't say anything at that time doesn't mean they're not actually saying anything at that time. whatever you think or feel is the response, which you project onto them. if you're projecting silence onto them as a result of not seeing or hearing lines of dialogue, well... that's on you.

the point is, silent protagonists aren't your preference and that's fine. but your perception of them being silent and associating it with being a characteristic and therefore 'not you' doesn't, in fact, mean they possess a silent characteristic.

the default response of the silent protagonist isn't "silence"- it's whatever you imagine them to say. so it's only a characteristic if you yourself perceive it that way (which i suppose is understandable, but not at all intended)

The game has never suggested that our characters are actually talking during a conversation unless they cut away for a moment and the NPC clearly acknowledges a point we've made. As Shougun mentioned, the ever common "Fade" in, and out technique.

Aside from that, our character merely stands on the sidelines as the NPC's go about their conversation and we, the character are swept away with no personal say in the matter. It has become a reoccurring trait for our character to remain speechless, and thus Shougun is right; its a characteristic. For instance in the Limsa intro, even when the Miquote speaks directly to us and our character looks her in the face, they don't speak, but simply walk away from her. There's no dialogue there, but if you wish to pretend for the sake of projecting yourself, than by all means go for it. But the truth is right in front of you.

If it's a duck, it's gonna quack, no matter how hard you wish for it to bark.