this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2024
25 points (100.0% liked)

Gaming

30556 readers
589 users here now

From video gaming to card games and stuff in between, if it's gaming you can probably discuss it here!

Please Note: Gaming memes are permitted to be posted on Meme Mondays, but will otherwise be removed in an effort to allow other discussions to take place.

See also Gaming's sister community Tabletop Gaming.

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
alyaza@beehaw.org
TheRtRevKaiser@beehaw.org
gyrfalcon@beehaw.org
Whom@beehaw.org
The_Hunted_One@beehaw.org
chloyster@beehaw.org
remington@beehaw.org
25
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Will Have a Character Voiced by Text-to-Speech at Launch - IGN (www.ign.com)
submitted 10 months ago by alyaza@beehaw.org to c/gaming@beehaw.org
14 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] alyaza@beehaw.org 25 points 10 months ago (4 children)

While we really dug the game (you can check out our review for more on that), there's one odd detail that stuck out we can't help but give its own article: one of the game's minor NPCs will be voiced by a text-to-speech program at launch, seemingly because someone — probably Ubisoft — forgot to record and add a human being's voice for the role.

what a... weird thing to have happen. i'm not sure what the utility of it would be for one minor NPC but this being an accident honestly strains charitability, i think

[–] brsrklf@jlai.lu 23 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

"We didn't mean to do this, honest!

Now, on a scale from 1 to 10, please tell us how strongly you feel about this. And, hypothetically, whether you'd mind if a few dozens more NPC were like that too."

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

"On a scale from 0% to 500%, how much more would you pay for a game where main characters used [insert your favorite actors/people]'s AI cloned voices?"

[–] Pxtl@lemmy.ca 17 points 10 months ago

Trial balloon.

This character is the thin edge of a very large wedge.

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Not saying this was a honest mistake, but I do see how that could happen:

  1. Game story gets written
  2. Dialogs are worked on
  3. TTS versions of all dialogs are generated
  4. Once they get approved, talent is cast
  5. Talent is scheduled to record the dialogs and get paid
  6. Final dialogs get included in the game

Knowing how game studios love to push everyone into "rush mode" the months before launch, I can see how, for a minor NPC, someone could have forgotten to cast and/or book a recording of some dialogs... while everyone is getting pressured to release NOW OR ELSE!!1!

Honestly, I wonder how many minor NPCs in games have been TTS all along, and nobody noticed or cared.

[–] frog@beehaw.org 10 points 10 months ago

Yep, looks really suspect. Even if it's true that they forgot to get someone to record the lines, it does seem implausible that they couldn't source any voice actor (or even someone on their own staff) to record the dialogue and get it added to the game, even at short notice.