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[Darkmere]

Welp. I've been here six years, first time I've ever been sigged. I'd like to thank my agent, my family, chimichangas, and Eris, goddess of discord.

[TheBiggerFish]

Not a real Sig. Try harder next time.

Lies!  All lies! He tells the truth, sire.  Thou speaks't the most deplorable falsehoods!

FTFY

FTFTFYFY

[Bohandas]

chimichangas, and Eris, goddess of discord.

Get out of my head

[itisnotlogical]

The more I think about audio logs, the more I'm just baffled by how silly and ridiculous the entire idea is.

Spoiler: Big list (click to show/hide)

Why would you leave an audio log?
- Listening to an audio log is slower than reading a journal entry
- Digital audio logs take up hard drive space
- Cassette audio logs would take up space AND cost money for each one produced
- While people do keep journals, they usually write in them at home

Content of audio logs
- Audio logs always seem to contain exactly what the protagonist needs to progress, usually a password or puzzle hint
- The other option is that the protagonist is psychic and instantly skips to the relevant section
- Audio logs are always recorded in perfect conditions, with no background noise, people talking, wind, etc.
- Unless the speaker dies, in which case it will be completely obvious what happened. The recording will fade out to static, even if it's a digital device recording to local media where there wouldn't normally be an opportunity for static. Either way, the recording device and/or storage media will be completely intact when you find them.

Misc. complaints
- You will always find audio logs in chronological order, as if the person who left them somehow knows your path through the game
- You'll find recordings all over the place, no matter what obstacles lie in between the locations
- Who even bothers to keep a thirty second long recording
- Why is every audio log totally 100% pertinent to the protagonist's situation?

[ArKFallen]

Yeah audiologs make more sense for things that are supposed to have undercurrent information, like emotional states.
Consider though that it may be more time efficient for the character to do than all other alternatives because you can be doing something else (likely still related to lessen mental strain) at the same time.

Good catch though.

[Darkmere]

The bioshock ones did it well. And the whole idea is people really don't like stopping everything they're doing to read a chapter of someone's journal, so the extremely vast majority will just skip all reading possible.

[Shadowlord]

The more I think about audio logs, the more I'm just baffled by how silly and ridiculous the entire idea is.

What game did all this to you? It sounds rather badly done, but I wouldn't blame the entire concept of audio logs for that.

I wrote answers for your big list, drawing from the two games I've played which had audio logs, System Shock 2 and Saints Row 4. Also real life a bit.

Spoiler: Big list with answers! (click to show/hide)

> Why would you leave an audio log?
> Listening to an audio log is slower than reading a journal entry
Except you can do other things while the audio log is playing, such as walking around, searching containers, fiddling with your inventory... (I think they keep playing in SS2, unless I'm misremembering)

> Digital audio logs take up hard drive space
We have metric fucktons of hard drive space.

> Cassette audio logs would take up space AND cost money for each one produced
Who uses cassettes anymore? CDs are ridiculously cheap, and I wager you could do better in the future.

> While people do keep journals, they usually write in them at home
If you have access to a device like a smartphone, with lots of space and real-time voice processing capability (so a bit more advanced than ours now, which have to access remote servers to do voice processing), or something more advanced, you could record journals anywhere. You can already do them in text format with any note-taking app.

> Content of audio logs
> Audio logs always seem to contain exactly what the protagonist needs to progress, usually a password or puzzle hint
IIRC in SS2 they were logs from the dead crew which told you what had happened while you were unconscious, or before you arrived, without the devs having to code up a conversation system and put live friendly NPCs in the game. You'd want to hear them just to know what was going on, at the very least. I don't recall if any had important information, but there was a case or two where something would happen in the game when you found one and listened to it, iirc.
In Saints Row 4, they were basically recorded journal entries left around the simulation, which had no impact on gameplay and were completely optional.

> The other option is that the protagonist is psychic and instantly skips to the relevant section
That's what happens with books in Bethesda games, but not audio logs in SS2, or the ones in SR4. The SR4 ones are definitely just parts of larger logs, scattered around the simulation, and the SS2 ones are definitely entire log entries.

> Audio logs are always recorded in perfect conditions, with no background noise, people talking, wind, etc.
You are complaining because it is not hard enough to hear and understand the person in the log? But I think, although I'm not certain, that there might have been environmental noise in the logs in SS2. Also monsters. Not in SR4, though, but I think SR4's were just there as character background stuff if anyone cared.

> Unless the speaker dies, in which case it will be completely obvious what happened. The recording will fade out to static, even if it's a digital device recording to local media where there wouldn't normally be an opportunity for static. Either way, the recording device and/or storage media will be completely intact when you find them.
I don't recall any static, but *shrugs*. (SS2)

> Misc. complaints
> You will always find audio logs in chronological order, as if the person who left them somehow knows your path through the game
Nope!

> You'll find recordings all over the place, no matter what obstacles lie in between the locations
There were a lot of people desperate to leave SOME kind of record behind! (SS2)

> Who even bothers to keep a thirty second long recording
That depends, do you think alien monstrosities are maybe coming to kill you in 45 seconds? Better record a log and stash it someplace. And by kill you I mean merge you into their hive-mind. (SS2)

> Why is every audio log totally 100% pertinent to the protagonist's situation?
I'd love to know what game you played so that I never play it.

[itisnotlogical]

> Why would you leave an audio log?
> Listening to an audio log is slower than reading a journal entry
Except you can do other things while the audio log is playing, such as walking around, searching containers, fiddling with your inventory... (I think they keep playing in SS2, unless I'm misremembering)

That was an in-universe problem I have a one-track mind, I know that I can't listen to one thing while doing another thing with my hands.

I was mostly thinking about Doom 3 and Warhammer 40k Space Marine. Although in Space Marine it's less egregious, because the audio logs are mostly optional. Doom 3 was the first time I'd ever seen the concept, so maybe it left a bad impression on me.

[Fniff]

If you want to see audiologs done right, check out Bioshock 1 and SOMA. There are some downright chilling audiologs in those games.

[Neonivek]

Audio-logs are done mostly for ease because they are easier to do and hand in then written logs are.

They aren't silly they are just... really oddly used.

For example in Star Trek they use both written (mostly for reports) and audio logs.

---

My favorite nonsense audiologs though are from Fallout 4

DEAR SWEET CHRISTMAS!!! do they have the greatest noise canceling technology known to men, women, and only a select form of chickens!

[Darkmere]

I was digging through my Steam backlog, thought I'd vent here.

Spiteful, petulant developers

"Oh, you want a quality of life change? Here's the shittiest possible implementation we could come up with. We hope you choke on it."

A while back I bought the Rise of the Triad 2013 reboot, and it was awesome. For about an hour. There's one crippling flaw that drove me from the game for more than a year: the save system. They used a checkpoint system like archaic consoles used to use (the game was never released on consoles, nor to my knowledge was it ever intended to do so). If you haven't played RotT, there's generally a lot of secrets in each level for you to find, so you're rewarded for exploring a decent amount.

The checkpoint points are one-use.
There are typically 2 to 3 per entire level.
There are fairly regular traps that will one-shot the player.
There are first-person platforming segments.

In short- unneeded frustration especially when the original 1995 version had save-anywhere. People bitched up a storm, and finally sometime several months later the devs added quicksave. People rejoiced, until they played it.

You have one quicksave slot. Ever.
It is unlabeled, does not take a screenshot of where you saved.
You cannot load from the main menu.
The feature released broken, sometimes resurrecting all enemies on a level, sometimes closing and locking previously unlocked doors.

So I guess that stays uninstalled, then. I can think of a couple other examples but this is the worst offender I've seen in a while.

[Shadowlord]

Here's a pet peeve:
EVERY TIME I HEAR THIS AND IT ISN'T WARCRAFT II

That's just the sound clip on youtube. Maybe you'll recognize it. Maybe not.

It's fucking bizarre to be watching something on TV, and the camera pans past a real actual farm and there goes the SOUND EFFECT for a PIG FARM from WARCRAFT II. What, the real pigs weren't loud enough for you? Surely there's more than one pig sound effect you could use!

Oh, and the sound effect for when a spell fizzled in Ultima Online - there was a monster on Buffy that used that same sound effect, but I've only heard that 2 or 3 times in 20 years as opposed to over half a dozen for the "oink oink OINK" sound effect.

Maybe the people selling and buying the sound effects just assume that nobody's hearing and/or memory is good enough to actually notice when they're re-used... Maybe my standards for sound re-use are too high because I remember sounds and things forever. I don't know.

[dorf]

Many times developers or movie sound effects producers use "famous" sound effects.

For instance, the Wilhelm scream. I've heard it in TV series, movies and games. I'm not sure why they do it. I guess it's a type of easter egg for the in-crowd?

[Yoink]

Welp. I've been here six years, first time I've ever been sigged. I'd like to thank my agent, my family, chimichangas, and Eris, goddess of discord.

Chiming in to agree that yes, chimichangas are awesome.
As if burritos weren't great enough to begin with... ahhh no, now I'm hungry.

[miauw62]

I can agree with the sound effects peeve. One very good example is the "Source Engine Creaking Door Sound".