RPG Names

The addition of full voice overs for characters in RPGs in the last few years has led to some interesting compromises in player naming which I guess you could call a generic title. In older games you would type in your character name and the game could refer to you by that name because all the speech interaction was text based. In more recent titles actors are being hired to voice those lines instead. However that means they can't refer to the character by name as it would be impossible to record every possible variation for all the possible names a player could choose.

So that has led to the generic title I mentioned which I've been thinking about today. In Fallout: New Vegas you're "The Courier". In Fallout 3 you're "The Vault Dweller" or "The Lone Wanderer". In Neverwinter Nights 2 you're "Harbourman" or "Knight Captain". In Dragon Age you're "Warden". In Mass Effect you can pick your first name but your surname is fixed as Shepard so you're either called that or Commander and I understand they're taking a similar stance for Dragon Age 2 where you will be called Hawke.

Mass Effect and Dragon Age seem to be attempting to find a way to get away from the generic title to something a bit more personal while still leaving a little room for customization. This all got me wondering why there have not been a lot of advances in the area of voice synthesis. This seems like a perfect place such a technology could be used (other than reading to the blind of course). It could reduce your voice actor budget for ancillary characters and add more variety. Although based on the last voice synth I heard that will be a while off. That was on the Kindle which has an option to read to you but it still sounds like Stephen Hawking.