Do you listen to spoken dialogue in games or skip through it?

[repoman0]

I always want to listen for the "full experience" but most often just end up reading the subtitles and clicking through. I'm playing the original Witcher right now and though the voice acting is good, I think the lack of character expressions makes me want to just read what they have to say instead. I do like the occasional story turning point scenes with the paintings and will listen through those, as well as the scripted important scenes.

Side note ... I started this game at the end of 2014, gave up on it for over a year after about 12 hours in during the swamp chapter, and decided to pick it up again to play through for the second and third in the series ... man, it gets a lot better quickly after that slow swamp part.

 

[Red Storm]

On my first play through, always. I tend to skip dialogue on subsequent attempts.

 

[sxr7171]

Not anymore. Some of the level of drama in these games is too much. I don't even watch hollywood films anymore so why should I listen to video game drivel?

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Skip it. I'm too old and have too much to do to listen to a bunch of talking when I can read it much quicker.

 

[pontifex]

depends

 

[DaveSimmons]

On my first play through, always. I tend to skip dialogue on subsequent attempts.

Same here, unless there are real dialogue choices and I'm now choosing a different path (good/evil, light/dark, nice guy/hardcase, etc.)

 

[Homerboy]

Honestly, I don't care at all about the story in a video game.
Been playing on PCs for 25+ years and never really cared.

So, to answer your question, I skip it.

 

[mnewsham]

If it's a story driven game, of course. No other reason to be playing the game. Otherwise I tend to ignore them, especially on a 2nd or 3rd play through.

 

[Zanovar]

Rich dialogue and funny accents ftw.and yes i lsten to them

 

[darkewaffle]

Usually, yes, but I also tend to enable subtitles at the same time too.

 

[asteldian]

If there is no text, then yes. But if there is text, then no. I don't have the patience to listen to what read much faster, it becomes tedious waiting for them to say what I now already know thanks to reading it.

I never skip dialogue entirely though. If I was not interested in the story I would just be playing an FPS. That said, if I am playing an FPS for the fast action then the story is likely meaningless fluff would be more inclined to ignore

 

[DarkRipper]

Only on the first play-through unless there's multiple choices and I choose another path on a subsequent play-through.

 

[DefDC]

1st playthrough, with good voice acting, I'll probably listen. Also depends on how much gaming time I have, which isn't much lately...

 

[biostud]

Mostly yes, but I don't play games with too much dialogue. Currently playing Wolfenstein new order, so that is a resounding hell yeah. Also warhammer games usually have characters worth listening to.

 

[Midwayman]

I'll usually watch the main story line stuff. The Nth fetch quest I don't really need to listen for 30 sec about why he wants me to get him x widgets.

 

[zinfamous]

Maybe about 50% through the game I start skipping if I have subtitles to read. it depends on whether or not the story or the writing is good or not.

regardless, it always gets skipped on further playthroughs.

 

[cmdrdredd]

For those who skip through dialog and cinematics I hope you don't complain that you don't know where to go because the character explained what you were doing. That's what my friend's son does, every time. He skips all the cinematics, dialog etc until he can move the character and then he asks things like "who is that guy?" "why are they shooting me?" "what am I supposed to be doing and why?" etc. Then he says he doesn't understand what's going on in the game. Well, maybe if you bothered to listen to what characters say and follow the story you would lol.

If you read the subtitles (if available) then ok but he literally skips through it or walks away until it's done. That's nuts. Plus I find that most games these days have pretty good VAs.

 

[Red Hawk]

Depends in the game. In story and character-driven games, I do listen, since the dialogue writing and performances are half the fun. Even in those games though when I'm replaying them, I'll skip through the boring stuff.

 

[DigDog]

depends mkII.

some games have information in the dialogue.. like .. the story. others have dialogue that's like "hey look at me, i can code dialogue!".

 

[Stuka87]

Listen the first time, skip most of the time after that. Most of the single player games I play the dialogue is one of the best parts. Games series like The Witcher and Mass Effect have really great voice actors.

 

[DigDog]

ME1 has this masterpiece:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAM8Phnyxi4

 

[pathos]

Normally I just read the subtitles, and move on. Occasionally the voice acting is good enough for me to want to listen to it. But, thats pretty rare.

As long as I can follow the game by reading whats written, and not listening, that's usually plenty.

 

[JimmiG]

Depends on the game. In Divinity Original Sin, I ended up skipping a lot because there was so much fluff, and the voice acting was annoying. With Elder Scrolls and Fallout games, I usually listen through it on the first playthrough.

 

[mnewsham]

Doing a replay through KOTOR 2 right now, i've done at least 3-4 light side play throughs, but only a single dark side playthrough about 8 years ago. Most of the generic cut scenes and dialog I will skim through, but for actual decision making I need to read a bit more into it and since it's been awhile it's not like I remember anyway.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Doing a replay through KOTOR 2 right now, i've done at least 3-4 light side play throughs, but only a single dark side playthrough about 8 years ago. Most of the generic cut scenes and dialog I will skim through, but for actual decision making I need to read a bit more into it and since it's been awhile it's not like I remember anyway.

I always loved intimidating guards and small fry or mind tricks to get your way. Especially when sometimes after doing it repeatedly they get mad cause they realize you tricked them. Never got old for me. Some of the random dialog from companions regarding these choices are great. I remember in the first one being asked if I was going to steal lunch money from kids next or something like that because I was using mind tricks to get cheaper prices on goods from a merchant. Great stuff