Why does every video game character talk to themself now?

[rusty_shackleford]

Is this a result of people with no inner voice creating games and they think it's natural for people to talk to themself? Presumably, therefore, the influence of wom*n who inherently have no imagination or inner voice?

Humorous reddit thread about this full of redditors saying they talk out loud to themself all the time and it's completely normal:

[Vlajdimir Ermenović]

More like women/soyjaks who love hearing themselves talk. It's the kind of weakness where you don't feel secure unless you vocally remind people that you exist every 2 seconds. That, or simple self-absorbedness, where you feel that each thought you have must be shared with everyone, no matter how unimportant.

Either way it's the inability to let your actions speak for you. It's the same with games like ocarina of time that can't stop felxing their graphics. This has been going on for a long time.

[Lich]

I blame Joss Whedon.

[General Reign]

Why do people in TV and movies talk out loud when they are alone dong stuff? The answer usually is that character is often alone doing stuff and it would be boring to never see them talk and only hear the inner monologue. This is why comic books have the nice little balloons that really do not translate well to games and movies without a cartoon bubble. If this does not make sense I am tired and going to sleep. Night.

Lol dong stuff.

[The_Mask]

To be 100% fair, there is a big epidemic of loneliness amongst the younger generations today. Not that anything they might be coming up with is helpful, but not being aware of the issue can only make things worse.

[Humbaba]

"Omg this Guybrush dweeb is such a **** and a ******, keeps talking to himself, why can't he just shut up???"
- Gamers (1990)

[Acrux]

"Omg this Guybrush dweeb is such a **** and a ******, keeps talking to himself, why can't he just shut up???"
- Gamers (1990)

Unironically yes

[Tweed]

Why wouldn't I talk to myself? I enjoy intellectual conversation with someone who actually understands me.

[Segata]

Voiced games were a mistake

[Tweed]

What do these people mean by talking out loud though? Mumbling about everything they do or talking at key points? The only game I remember playing recently that had a problem with a character that never shutup was the Gothic remake demo.

[Lich]

Nowadays being in touch with your feelings is like the most important thing ever. Consequently video game characters need to do the important thing of expressing their feelings frequently.

[Vlajdimir Ermenović]

We're forgetting that this isn't talking to yourself, it's talking to the player. If a character talked to himself during cutscenes, I'd appreciate that. I do that too in real life, everyone does. But if he/she's doing the Horizon Zero Dawn thing where every minute action has to be punched up with commentary, then that's a problem. That is self-importance, insecurity, and not knowing when to shut up.

[Atlantico]

"Omg this Guybrush dweeb is such a **** and a ******, keeps talking to himself, why can't he just shut up???"
- Gamers (1990)

This but unironically. Secret of Monkey Island is Reddit distilled. The humor, the politics, the cringe.

To be fair, in that screenshot he's just breaking the 4th wall, but that game was all about soy, deconstructing archetypes and strong independent women (of color even) and cowardly, stupid and needy men.

Monkey Island is the Reddit of games.

[Tweed]

In adventure games it's kind of a necessity for the character to talk to the player unless an unseen narrator is telling you what you can and can't do.

[Vlajdimir Ermenović]

In adventure games it's kind of a necessity for the character to talk to the player unless an unseen narrator is telling you what you can and can't do.

True. It is the genre where it's the most necessary. Still, that means you gotta only do it when it's necessary, otherwise you turn it into tl;dr and the player will begin to tune out gameplay-necessary info.

Games like Witcher 3 have adventure elements. If Geralt said something useful, you wouldn't know it because you stopped listening ages ago. So they gotta resort to stupid **** like objective markers.

[KnightoftheWind]

So one-liner spewing characters like Duke Nukem are zoomer schizos now?. Sounds like a creepypasta video in the making.

I don't mind it when characters talk, as long as it's not all the time and doesn't feature any cringy dialogue. Which is the norm for every game release nowadays, courtesy of the aging millennials who write them. I think in a general sense they're more necessary in third-person games, where you actually see the character you're playing as and the camera is pointed at their backside more often than not. It'd be awkward if you were playing as a third-person character who never talks or makes a sound.

[Gregz]

Voiced games were a mistake

There are some very rare exceptions like Thief and Jupiter Hell, but otherwise, I agree.

[Tweed]

And Duke 3D! It's time to kick chew and gum bubbleass!

[rusty_shackleford]

It's definitely much less annoying when it's just text, so I wonder how much of this might be caused by failed writers moving to video games, a very well known & documented occurrence.

[J1M]

In adventure games it's kind of a necessity for the character to talk to the player unless an unseen narrator is telling you what you can and can't do.

Telling a story without a narrator is like making a game without challenge.

[J1M]

It's definitely much less annoying when it's just text, so I wonder how much of this might be caused by failed writers moving to video games, a very well known & documented occurrence.

Root problem is paying/measuring performance by word count.

[rusty_shackleford]

I actually find the voice acting of 90s games before it became professional rather charming. When it was done well, anyways. Now it just feels like a movie.

[rusty_shackleford]

I actually find the voice acting of 90s games before it became professional rather charming. When it was done well, anyways. Now it just feels like a movie.

c'mon, this oozes charm

[KnightoftheWind]

I actually find the voice acting of 90s games before it became professional rather charming. When it was done well, anyways. Now it just feels like a movie.

c'mon, this oozes charm

Old voice acting had a charm to it, it felt sincere despite how shoddy it was at times. You could tell the industry was just forming, and CDs were new at the time so developers had to find ways to fill the space.

I feel the same way about older Youtube videos now that I think about it. I think the bad mic quality actually contributed to the experience. Now everything is too clear and overly processed, it makes Zoomer videos even more difficult to watch because they love to up the bass on their voice over, and it gnaws on my ear drums.

[Lich]

Part of the charm is the old low-quality audio making the recordings feel otherworldly. One might be able to reproduce this effect to an extent with old equipment.

[Vlajdimir Ermenović]

I actually find the voice acting of 90s games before it became professional rather charming. When it was done well, anyways. Now it just feels like a movie.

c'mon, this oozes charm

You got a point, there are games where the voices are more tongue-in-cheek flavour, and those are great. The RTS games are my favourite, some of these units are quotable as ****.

[Vlajdimir Ermenović]

You listen to this and tell me video game VA was a mistake.

[Tweed]

OG System Shock had good voice acting, far better than the remake.

[maidenhaver]

Why wouldn't I talk to myself? I enjoy intellectual conversation with someone who actually understands me.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Narratively you want the audience to know what the character is thinking. It's just poorly executed in Western games. Japanese games like visual novels and some JRPGs have you hear the character's inner thoughts, but make it clear (with a reverb effect, and/or different looking dialogue box) that he isn't speaking out loud. Some visual novels with voice acting like Utawarerumono also voice act these thoughts. It was also very important in that game since the protagonist was secretly impersonating a leader and had hardly any confidants he could speak honestly with, and was constantly lying to people to maintain the facade and army morale, so you only really hear what he really thinks in his inner thoughts.