Audio Diaries

* See also Audio Diary Analysis ( of Audio_Diaries in the Game )
* See also Public Announcements
* See also Columbia_Audio_Diaries
* See also Kinetoscopes
* See also Records_and_Recordings
* See also Authoritative Narration - Recordings are not 'Fact' about what is said ( Bias and Lies possible ).
* See also Storytime and Story
==Recordings Help Tell The Story==
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== Accu-Vox : ==
There's even a scene of Suchong holding one of these huge things upto his face ( recording an infamous story event happening ) in one of the BaSx scenes ( A proper Dictating machine might be more probable - Something seen in countless 'coroner' scenes in TV shows --- SERIOUSLY how do you cut into a brain only ONE-HANDED ??? ).
They had recording machine things already back then, and you also had a thing called a microphone you could use/wear ( they even had headsets to make things easier ).
Big Clumsy glowing box used to tell the game's backstory ... ( We're carrying like 70 of those things around by the end of the game ??? )
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Your 'Thoughts' Recorded in only a 2-Pound Package !!! Wow ( Aint Modern Technology Wondrous ? ) ... :
Those Audio Diaries ( seen in BioShock Solo games ) - Why are they as big as the cassette Tape Recorders of 40 years ago ? And then they record ONLY a single message of only about a minute, with NO interchangeable media. (( I do understand they had to make a game object that was easily visible, but with that glowey highlighting you coulda found Elizabeth's lost thimble easily, as the game's highlighting was so blatantly done )).
If these things were so useful, then you would think we would be 'knee-deep' in them in the game. But instead, there just weren't that many of the overly expensive/clumsy things for us to find ...
Apparently another recorder company had come up with a superior aluminum 'disk' media system with magnetic stuff on its surface ( call it 'GammaMax' ), which would FIT into an interchangeable recorder/player, and would each disk hold 20 X as much messages. But ( the story goes ) that Fontaine didn't like the way it competed (as in beat out) HIS product, and he bought the company out cheap ( with some of his usual 'coercion' ), and put them out of business. You will be finding these superior 'disk' message things in the MMORPG, and the magnetic-players are being made again for them ( as probably WOULD have happened sometime after Fontaine was killed -- except for the 'civil war'/terrorist_campaign starting ).
Interesting would be Game Assets recorded by Player Creators using their own voices -- voice talent isn't cheap ( so don't expect the MMORPG company to record many ). But there might be plenty of sufficiently good Players able to create these things ( audio diaries/public announcements/commercials/radio programs ) - IF the Computer Generated Voice quality isn't "up to snuff" by then.
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Sidebar : With all the people Fontaine forced out of business, in real life ( as an example of a similar situation in the Novel illustrated ) one of his victims (or their relatives) would have walked up to him, stuck a sawed off shotgun in his face, and blown his head off. Rapture wasn't a big place, and unless Fontaine hid all the time, some determined person would eventually get even with him ( no matter how many bodyguards he had ). But then ... 'plot' ... 'cuz' ... 'shooter-game' ...
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Audio Diary Conundrum (Do It Better) :
But notice in the Real(reel ? Heh) World you still should have Removable Media because of the expense of the machine ( and other things like encumbrance ).  In Rapture the recorders seem to have become 'ordinary'/common in their use, which denotes being cheap enough to use for single recordings and to toss away (the whole thing), as we see them littering the terrain.   Not having removable media (tape) could have allowed them to be simpler and more stylized/decorated ( don't need a window to see the tape ) as a consumer product.  Unfortunately, they are rather too huge to keep in the pocket or to lug around more than a few of at one time.
The one which is REALLY ludicrous is : that Infinite BS equivalent - With that exposed record ( Vinyl invented 1926 - ridiculous for Fink to possibly get all these materials no matter what ideas he saw ).  But I guess they had to (slavishly) copy that game element, and did not want Booker hauling around a Victrola with its huge listening Horn.  I would have had 'listening stations' left all-over from Columbia's Exposition days, and the found plot things/objects just being Records ( and also half of the 'story info' objects being old newspapers blowing around ).  A miniature Edison cylinder ( for a small handheld Player ) just wouldn't be big enough to spot in-game, even with a big flashing indicator pointing the Player at it ( "Booker I found another Recording ... Hear Catch !!!" ).
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Have a Realistic AccuVox Product :
Dozens of recordings on each one -- You didn't think that whole brick was meant for just one 30 second recording did you ??? How stupid would that be ? 
We can now have the Mundane and Strange and lots more recorded content which the Solo games didn't bother to provide to the Player.
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Just Records, and Not a Cassette Tape in Sight ...  : 
With the near enough use in the AccuVox mechanism ( apparently for 5 (?) years already by BS1 ) you'd think someone would have thought of applying that mechanism ( especially with all the teenagers there must've been in Rapture by then - though showing corpses of even teenagers was seen as 'risque' ).   Maybe this was done elsewhere (out of sight), but was an underground usage making them of music that might have been frowned upon by all the 'Squaresville Adults' ...  ( Shouldn't we have found at least ONE AccuVox with a music recording ?? )
Assuming nothing was smuggled in ( perfect contraband, that one copy smuggled in could be reproduced a thousandfold ),  and assuming nobody passed around copies of such ( which would make Accu-Vox handy for rerecording, despite the quality ).   So music available could be upto 1960.   The small reel-to-reel (appears sealed) viewable on every Accu-Vox, possibly might have given the idea to someone for a cassette type mechanism as a new product.   Children do things despite their 'indoctrination', so that's no bar to any of this.
Reminds me that Transistor Radios were also big (fad) items for various people to possess ( and the handhelds we saw indicates that compatible technology did already exist to allow them ).
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New and Improved Accu-Vox :
The NEW Rapture Accu-Vox Magnetic Media (recording) is a small 3" wide metal disk ( nice and rugged and justifies a 'short' message ), instead of that whole absurd integrated recorder device the size of a lunch-pail.   SO you NOW can keep a whole stack of the 'disks' in your pocket including having your favorite short songs ... ( Fontaine created the Accu-Vox, but Fritz X created the 'MagnoDisk' and its player, and cleaned up in Rapture's recording market ).   Big Daddies may have had a built-in player for the MagnoDiscs in their suit so they could listen to music while they worked ...   "Sing Along With Mr Bubbles"...
* For a remake of Infinite:BS ( Done right using the MMORPG's mechanism/tools/Player Creators ) - The Audio Diaries would be a similarly SEPARATE record media ( the inside edge of a 'cup' (media shape) would be a neat solution to make them robust - Something like the original cylinders ). That instead of that 'pretty' monstrosity which you are supposed to use/carry around ( and which are strewn about the terrain ) with that stupidly exposed record.  To 'Play' them, I would instead have numerous listening stations left over from the days when Columbia was a 'Show Case City' Worlds Fair/Exposition, and were used for self-guided audio tours. For various official events, Old Newspapers you find blowing about your feet or stuffed in those countless trashbins.   Handwritten notes and other types of documents on corpses to tell the 'big story' narrative. At some point you might get(buy) a portable player.
* Infinite:BS had those individual ridiculous Voxophone "recorders", which aren't even the right kind of mechanism to MAKE recordings, AND are perfectly shaped to destroy their exposed records ...  (( Nah, I'm just too logical.  )) But then, we invoke the magic word 'Cuz' and sprinkle on some pixie dust -- BETTER might have been the Player talking into a Fink Mfg. 'Recording Orb' ( pretty glowey thing that pulses with the sound stolen from the 'Fonzy' Dimension ) or other whizbang fantasy technology -- Hey you know : Quantum Particles can do anything .... I'm sure Fink could invent it in a short afternoon and have it ready for sale the next day ...  Hmm ... You drink a potion and the thoughts start to circle your head in a pretty multi-hued lightshow ...  With ghostly voices intoning/chanting the message with guaranteed preservation for eternity ...   Why be mechanically absurd and have it be so mundane, when such Infinite possibilities ( and special effects ) are possible ???  Lets make it so : Fink stole the ADAM secrets, improved them, and grew wondrous Carrots that could remember messages ...  We could have had an interesting freakshow that would have had the Players wondering what they would find around every next corner ...    
As The Comedian Steve Martin would have said : "Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh ..."
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MMORPG Audio Diaries With Video/Visual Component ... :
This is the age of wonders and video was within realm of gadgetry. Perhaps a new 'better' product someone was ready to produce when the %27civil_war%27 started. Maybe --- The New Tele-Diary - brought to you by Sinclair Industries.
A recording of the Audio Diary with video ( or even just 'stills' ). The MMORPG mechanism would make that very easy to create the Assets required. This would be an interesting interface to take Player Snapshots - one of those standard features many games have.
Internally (programmatically) it could record the Template & Parameter codes that defined the current scene, which could more often be smaller data-wise than pixel data to regenerate the scene 'on the fly' in the client. That could/would(?) be '3D' with the allowing the ability to walk into the scene. A recorder like that would also be a invaluable game debugging tool.
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New Accu-Vox diaries(Audio), TEXT messages/speeches/interviews(easier as text), TV recordings and films(Audio+Visual), still photos(Visuals) ...
Various characters from the previous Rapture games ( example - everyone's favorite "Sander Cohen" ) would be available for use as 'puppets' using the stage direction Choreographing Asset Editor ( used for Flashbacks, Cut Scenes, canned Quest presentations, TV/News shows, etc ... with generic characters ). This would be to create various Recordings from 'The Past', back when they were alive, years previous.
Recordings newly found/rediscovered, which presented in the MMORPG, can help fill in some of the old story lines ( really shouldn't make them repeat mission 'loot' (or clues) because the first person to find it will blab it all over the Internetz faster that you hit the button to loot a corpse ). Any finding players will be able to turn them in (unique) for a Bounty, most likely. The New Rapture City Library will probably be a good place to find alot of them. Creating players will get credit and some undisclosed non-monetary reward.
For creation - Directing body motions is fairly easy ( with all the emotes and actions the normal NPCs will have for their behaviors ). If needed, new custom ones are composable with a poser-like animation editor. It will be the voice component that will be harder to create properly. No doubt, out there in the potential thousands of players, there will be some good enough voices/mimics to do the character voice recordings needed. Add use of the existing game recordings that can be sliced-and-diced (edited/recombined) for many useful phrases/words/sounds.
Those old characters could be brought back to life (figuratively) and their lives/stories fleshed out/expanded -- To reach new depths and to test the creativity of the players ( and give many Players something they very much want ).
No doubt there will be much opinion, contention and controversy in the Creation Community about how far to go with those personalities pasts ( and the presentation of ANY new speaking by/story about them ). All would be (very) heavily vetted for those key characters of course, for adherence to the Lore/Canon and guidelines for additions.
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Accu-Vox Recordings Wind Up in Strange Places :
You say to yourself "What is this thing doing here ??"   Maybe some were placed in your path by 'Atlas' or  Sofia Lamb ? ( How likely did any of them fit into their swindles that much ?? )   Why would many recorded by influential people with many personal thoughts be scattered so widely, away from wherever these people would keep such personal things.  A few were messages/memos to someone else, but should phone messaging or real memos have sufficed for that ??
Of course maybe they became items of trade between Splicers, who carried them everywhere/anywhere in Rapture.  Entertainment is where you find it.  They can lose their value if re-recorded over ( any moron/Spider Splicer can find a ton of old Accu-Vox machines, but ones with neat messages, those are much harder to find ... )
A good one you can trade for a whole roll of pre-civil war 'TP Abbreviation for 'Toilet Paper' !!!!
In the MMORPG - we would look for them, and the City Council/Archives are interested in any with Old messages intact, and no doubt there would be some general use for them by the Player as well ( and possibly parts of them or their functionality ).
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They did fit in the Pneumo, so maybe there was a convenience factor if you didn't have to cart too many around.   Really how big are they ?  -- The leather-grip handle makes it look like it is 12 inches tall and 8 inches wide and probably at least 2 inches thick.   THAT is pretty big/clumsy, and as was done real world would call for removable media instead of single-use'ing that entire mechanism .   A magnetic coated metal disk possibly would be a decent replacement for some more complex and long playing cassette type mechanism.
Potentially smaller fist-sized models might have eventually been developed.
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The Audio Diaries :
With all the odd places we find them in BioShock, oddly strewn in often just the right order in our path  ( one wonders at alot of things ).  Bit of a coincidence ... How conveniently contrive these things were.  Well, it is a fricken choiceless "Player is led by the nose" game, What else would you expect ???
Anyway, they are just lying about, convenient for us to find - some Splicers just skedaddled ahead of our arrival in a bit of a hurry ( the Splicer Grape Vine told of a Monster making its way around Rapture, and IT was now headed in THEIR direction ... )
It is possible that Splicers used these recordings for entertainment, or even as a kind of trade good which might account for them being carried just about anywhere in Rapture.  Funny would have been a few re-taped over ones, or with snippets of additional recordings either added later or remnants of a previous recording overwritten by the original speaker :  
* Ryan's comment on some marketing dweeb suggesting new Plasmids deployed via Suppositories
* Fontaine trying different accents while trying to figure out a new replacement identity
* "THIS IS RAPTURRRRRE!!! ..."
* The Thinker, doing Porter, doing a 'stand up comic' monologue. ( "A teletype, a Splicer and a Camel walk into a bar ..." )
* Whale Songs, and the Sonar pulse sound from Ice Station Zebra
* That strange sound Dr Who's TARDIS makes when it de-materializes
* Someone saying : "Is this ON, no, good, So you sees, I'm plannin on sticking a shotgun up Fontaine's butt when he's asleep and blowing that $#%^er's head off and makin myself Da Boss .... Whatta ya think Reggie, are ya in ???" Alternate Dimension - Reggie who now looked like Fontaine (for the 'faked death' plan) OFFS Fontaine and gets in a Sub with Fontaine's ADAM stash and other valuables and heads For The Surface ... We will have fun with this Alternate Reality thing in the MMORPG ... 
* Gag tape of Sofia Lamb's Metamorphosis "book" readings, with farts inserted, and laughter ...
* A drunk McDonagh whining about how he "is not really appreciated in Rapture and the whole place will go to Hell if he was gone ..."
* A rejected tape from "A Journey to the Surface" of Ryan shouting "Don't Be Stupid !! If You Go To The Surface, YOU.. WILL.. DIE !!!!"
* An excerpt from "Cats Sing the Classics" - a humorous commercial record of faked cats 'Singing' recognizable Classical Tunes of Beethoven, Mozart, Handel, etc ...
* Doc Hollcroft's list of ingredients ( things the drinkers of his 'medicine' would NOT want to find out were in it. )
* First half of an seeming Obscene Joke at Sander Cohen's expense, but the punch line is cut off.
* "Secret" *transcribed* comment from a Big Daddy about a particularly sickeningly sweet Little Sister. A recommendation that vomit bags be installed in the BD suits.
* Sofia Lamb shrieking "No More Wire Hangers, Ever !!"
* Splicer Reality Show - One being 'Voted' out of the House(Tunnel), followed by shrieks, screaming and sickening crunching sounds.
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Lost Audio Diaries ( LOTS of Additional Ones in MMORPG ) :
* Player created Audio Diaries ( Let's see how good the Voice Talent is ... )
* Needs to fits the current Lore/Canon for New Rapture
* Old ones from the BS1/BS2 time frame should be found in the game somewhere. (Corrections ???)
* Can be created a part of Quests/missions
* Obviously Player Created Audio Diaries have to be carefully vetted for content.
* Ryan's new recording of how he tricked Fontaine and faked his own death.... ( you find these as the MMORPG game progresses ).
* City Archives might have alot of the original ones from the game accessible ( with documented sequences and analysis by 'historians' ), and new ones can be turned in for credit ( or at least the Accu-Vox that is worth CASH by itself )
* Old Accu-Voxs may need to be 'fixed' (repaired) before they can play.
* New Feature - Accu-Vox with a 'LOCK' on it ( like a personal diary ) -- Players can use or find one that needs to be  'cracked' or 'Hacked'.
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A Tool With Many Uses :
I would assume AccuVox had a general utility, so a whole lot of these Accu-Vox things would have been reused and put to other uses ??? ( Things get boring in Chaos-era Rapture. OR logical use even before that ) :
* Dramatic last words ( "I have only one pair of tumor encrusted legs to give for my Faction -- Hail and Farewell!!!!" )
* Words of 'Loved Ones' long dead ... (a keepsake)
* Messages between Faction groups ( "Join Hephaestus and Stay Warm !!!" )
* Recorded favorite music ( Note - they had to have more than half a minutes worth of recording space )
* Commercials/Slogans ( rigged up to local announcement systems as players )
* Verbal Agreements ( commercial deals, etc ... )
BTW, What powers these things ? - Batteries eventually go dead ( later ones - especially in BS2, which exist often 7+ years after the incidents the recording are about ).
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Improved 'Audio Diaries' :
That BioShock Accu-Vox thing seems more designed for people who like to hear themselves talk rather than have much real utility value ( a paper pocket notebook can hold 100 X as much messages, allow corrections/ modifications/ additions, and even have drawn pictures/diagrams and such ). All that versus the game Accu-Vox recorder mechanism which is shown to be bigger than a brick, and hardly 'pocket' anything ( convenience factor abysmal - hardly a viable 'gadget fad' for very long - and certainly with the number we find scattered everywhere ).
Removable Recording Media would be in the MMORPG -- to have such a 'recording' device make a bit more sense, as well as 'tracks' for multiple messages on the same media ( some kind of early magnetic disk ... ). With the same giant NEON indicators for these objects in the game, they wouldn't be any harder to spot/find than the 'Accu-Vox bricks'.
The 'Pocket Radio' ( possibly by 1959 a common consumer item ) that Jack gets could have had a 'magnetic' Player built in to play these 'disks' ( the Deluxe Version records ). Heh - For Delta/Sigma an In-Suit 'Disk' Player could be likely ( used for constantly playing inspirational/therapeutic materials, or even just music -- Big Daddies can get bored like everyone else. )
Real Notebooks ... There will be lots of those too ( an easier game Asset NOT requiring a Voice Actor or superior Voice Generation to create ). Wet conditions may have somewhat obscured these 'notes', and thus be part of 'puzzle' Quests the Players get to figure out -- "OH GREAT. THAT FRICKEN UNINTELLIGIBLE PART MUST'VE SAID 'DANGER FATAL HAZARD!!!' ... DON'T GO THERE AGAIN !!!!' "
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THE STUPID REGURGITATION USED IN INFINITE BS 
Remember that in BioShock 'Audio Diaries' are supposed to be self-contained to have all the immediate/intimate recordings needed for the backstory delivery element used in the game. In Infinite BS, they never bothered to have something simple like an Edison cylinder Gramophone-type device, which was completely mechanical and WORKABLE in its simple recording system.
Instead, you got something ^^^ a retarded dust bunny would justifiably laugh derisively about - Something so ignorant in design that Elvis would come back from the grave and slap the gamemakers on the head over and over for having something so dim.
SIMPLE Improvements :
* Plausible - You find only the (smaller/more robust) Media (record/cylinder) Object, and YOU play them on public players found everywhere ( was a Show City for Tourists - remember ) ...
* Imaginative - Futuristic quantum RECORDER CRYSTALS ( use stolen tech so to not require that idiotic/dim-wittingly-designed mechanism they came up with. ) Their was No Reason to do technical 'half-measure' re-use of old-type mechanics in a bizarre nonsensical way. It just looks stupid AND done stupidly.
* TO BE Less a Regurgitation ( from earlier games ) -- Have the recorder be combined with a Brownie Camera or Motion Picture Camera to have the game Audio Diaries morph into mini-films ( or at least a slideshow with pictures ).
* Game Gimmick - Include a REAL RECORDER APP ( integrated in the game ) so that the Player themselves can record their own Audio Diaries ( to include scratchy effects and nice filters to make the audio quality appropriately 'tinny' ).
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Caustic Commentary ----------------------> 
======A BAD copy of the previous games' Audio Diary idea -- CUZ the other games had them. ( New ideas ?? ... Naaaah too risky ). Done here with a "mechanism" that probably 'looked neat', but is completely absurd and mentally dim to ANYONE who even understands WHAT a 'record' Record Player is, or how it HAS to work (many of these game artists/managers seem clueless, OR was it they simply didn't care ??) ======
======Sloppy, when alternatives could as easily been used : ======
======Like those little cylinders ( which the actual REAL recording players of those times used ) ... THE OBJECT THEN WOULD JUST BE THE MEDIA. They fit in these little cylindrical boxes to PROTECT them too ... (google it)======
======That instead of having this problematically HUGE/CUMBERSOME carried mechanism (its a great way to BUST records Kenny, and BTW such a thing don't record (outside of terrible Fantasy) without a HUGE machine (see pix below) to record this platter-type media).======
======The Recording Object would then be played on some stationary machine. ( It is a Show City, so they'd be all over the place for the Exposition Tourists to listen to for landmark/event descriptions, No ?? ) -- The idea being in 1893 the EXPOSITION VISITORS could buy recordings ( COLLECT THEM ALL !!! ) and also have their own personal ones made in the 'Booths' at the fair to take home.======
======Logical and fitting for the setting ?? Imagine that.======
======Took me all of 5 seconds to think of that plausible alternative. And WITH exactly the same game usage (backstory) - Maybe a quite a bit smaller as prop objects, but they can still have that same bright *HERE IT IS* neon-glow in-game -- hard to EVER miss seeing/finding them.======
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======Strangely enough, this stupid device here could be swung at an Enemy's Head like 'The Wrench' and do about as much damage ... another missed opportunity. Sad.======
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A (real) cylinder record player (Edison brand) - actually from a time later than the 1912 Infinite BS timeframe. That asinine contraption they used for Voxophones was hard to have been designed any worse than they did. Issues like : Disk too exposed and easy to break, Needle arm unprotected, as well as Humongusness. This is the same as the original Rapture game's needless replication of the WHOLE recording device -- Instead of having the 'Diaries' be found as a "Removable MEDIA" ( THAT was the point of memo recordings - cheap !! - replicating the whole fricken machine is just plain idiotic. ) 
Perhaps they were made huge so the Player could not 'Miss Them'. There really would have been NO problem having the Player find either Disks or Cylinders or Magnetic Cartridges when there is all that in-game glowey highlight clueings ( AND The media would NOT be tiny, just not as big as the huge brick these games had. ).
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Amazing all that went into that wondrous 'recording' Voxophone device.
(( Actually this is some SteamPunk crafter's STEAM POWERED Phonograph ))
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AutoGenerate Audio Diaries ? :
Narratives is not the only use for Audio Diaries in the game. They are also a way to get more flavor into that plot info -- accents, emotives, colloquialisms, inflections, (even sound effects) which are VERY hard to do with simple text or a standardized narration voice. It adds alot to the game to hear more of what various inhabitants Said and Thought - especially things from the past. The info is reviewable/inspectable, more-cohesively than one-time monologue messages immediately from the in-game NPCs ( who really can't do much more than a bunch of disjoint one-liners and a few antics ).
Of course this quality is hard to generate without direct recording of Voice Actors ( meaning that detail would be hard to auto-generate the voice itself). Improvements in Voice Synthesis in the future may make it possible to 'Play Script' the Audio Diaries and bypass the expense of having a statically recording by a Voice Actor.
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Idea for Many Audio-diaries To be Composed 'On-The-Fly' :
Is Voice Synthesis possible to use 'on-the-fly', to have mutatable content for Accu-Vox Assets ( auto-generated Quests have script controlled changeable 'fill-in' details and various optional  wordings/details ).   ( Note-- because Quests presentations usually are not 'real-time' the specific asset need  not be generated in 'real time' ).
The Voice Synthesis converts Text ( possibly a more phonetic form than plain English ) which comes out as voice ( and sound effects/background sounds ).   One would hope that Voice Synthesis advancements include inflections and accent variations by the time of this MMORPG ( otherwise the 'recordings' will sound more like Stephen Hawking than like real people ).
Lore type content is generally fixed, shouldn't much change. ( It is alot of work to fit variations into the  whole fabric of the plot, without introducing conflicts ).
Other minor stories you would want to vary in details between Server Worlds ( different in each World to try  to prevent Internet publishing from Players to get 'fixed' Evidence in the game and put it out for everyone to read and use and spoil any challenge ).    Largely independent Quests can vary in location/personalities/other details ( the mechanism allows the Quest itself to be 'created on-the-fly' with all details scripted ).
Names of new 'semi-big' characters mentioned, might be shifted/inserted, but old known (Classic) ones  couldn't really be modifiable without alot of complex alternate plots ( way too much work, confusing to coordinate across the wider game situation -- the people who 'vet' content have to work in a cohesive way ).
Accu-Vox recordings, Public Announcements matching current game events, generated Media ( TV/Radio shows/advertisements ), Flashbacks, pre-recorded Telephone messages, etc ...  Many uses for this in place of dedicated ( and static) voice acting.
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Infinite BS Coulda Had A Quantum Recorder Thing for Its Audio Diaries :
Might as well have 'phonied up' something like this to match the rest of the nonsensical things in the game ( when they didn't even try to make something like a period-used recording cylinder ). It would be some mechanism Tear-stolen from the future ... A "Micro Tear" forming a circular echo chamber device ( an explanation as plausible as any given in a game chock full of faux-science. ) ( Bast only knows how they might actually manufacture such things - maybe Fink just pilfered a whole lot of them ).
That dim record-player-like Audio Diary object ( used in the Infinite BS game ) makes me think that the designers didn't even know what a record is, or is like, or how it works or anything about how they HAVE to be made.
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This shows how complicated a REAL WORLD 'portable' disk recording machine was ( electronic yet - see the Tubes visible on the electric chassis on right ).
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Something Fink might have TRIED to come up with ( still looks LESS ridiculous than what they had in Infinite BS ).
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DID YOU KNOW ??? :
* That early record players had Bamboo Needles' ( which needed to be regularly sharpened ? )
* That they also had Steel needles which you normally threw away after only ONE use ( or it would damage the record )?
* That It takes a machine weighing hundreds of pounds to record on master recording Disks ( which is why Dictating Machines continued to use cylinders, and for which the sound quality could be fairly poor to still function ).
* That Before electronics existed (amplifier tubes) it was ONLY the force on the needle which generated the sound - thereby limiting the amount of sound an acoustic record could generate.
* That cylinder recordings ( also referred to as 'Roll Music' ) were used into the 20s ( but were superseded by 1915 ... with the Disks shaped records ). Amberol - an early plastic of which later cylinders made - blue colored typically - earlier ones were made of a a hard wax/lacquer.
NOW YOU KNOW !!!
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A portable record (disk) player ( this one NOT a 'pocket' version ). Art_Deco style. Pre-Electronic.
Even in the original BioShock games, there was no reason for the entire PLAYER device to be integral - just the media need be that glowing 'story device' object/thing you could spot/find from 100 feet away.
Tapes, Magnetic-wire spools, Mini-records ... just like the real world would have been fine, instead of carrying that brick Accu-Vox for EVERY SINGLE MEMO, or the even more frickenly absurd record player-like fantasy object used in the third game.
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An Audio Diary You DIDN'T Hear :
Fontaine, Olympus Heights Apartment Secret Room, 1957 : 
"*Drunken Slurred Speech* I'm gonna ram ADAM up Rapture's Arse and Rape it to Death before moving on to the rest of the World !!! I swear I'm gonna do it !! 
F$%^& YOU RYAN !!!!"
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Fun with an Accu-Vox :
Impersonate someone-you-dont-like's voice, get an Accu-Vox, and record a "Andrew Ryan Suxx" message, and then Pneumo it to the nearest Security Station.   That person you don't like disappears, and then you laugh ...  ( Seriously the 'Porter was framed' plot idea like this they made up in BS2 was kinda lame/unrealistic ).
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Flashback SCENE of FONTAINE trying to do this to one of his Business Competitor Targets - trying to mimic that persons voice saying some rather obscene/outrageous things to incriminate them. Funny if it was Peachy Wilkins who actually 'Fingered' Fontaine this same way.
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(New) Audio Diary - Week Before the Shootout - Neptunes Bounty :
Officer Muldoon : Wed September 12th 1958 5AM - Report on Stakeout at Neptune's Bounty.
Observation of the Docks - the usual traffic of the fishing subs coming and going, dumping off their cargo which disappears into the fish processing plant.
Damn all this waiting. We know that Fontaine is doing it, and Fontaine knows that WE know he's doing it, SO why the fuck don't we just take him down, then we can get back to apprehending Splicer muggers and such ...
BUT Ryan wants it all done legally - He said 'what good is this place if Fontaine can be arrested and charged without proper proof' - I'd look like a hypocrite if I allowed some Kangaroo Court' .
Wait. There's that squirrely guy Wilkins. Looks really nervous. Well, it is understandable after what happened to the last guy who only looked like he was trying to talk to the Police. His wife found him floating outside their apartment window, being nibbled on by fish.
There. He's signaling with the 'gimpy leg' he said would be the sign. This could be it, what we've been after for so many months.
What the Fuck was that !!! I've never seen a Splicer do THAT before.
Ok, we're moving in and the guys with those Special Weapons at taking up their positions.
Arrest now proceeding.... Officer Muldoon Signing Off.
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Audio Diaries - ( Real Paper Diaries Would Still be far Better ? ) :
Thinking about it - what is the point of all these Audio Diaries which are 'personal thoughts' just meant for the recorder ? How many times do you need to listen to it ? You keep a pile of them at home for future reference/reminiscences ??? You'd think a paper diary (or a file folder) would be simpler (and quieter), and you can even draw pictures in those ( and store hundreds of hours in something costing a few dollars ). Strange we really didn't find many of those ( though wasn't SitS one giant one of those ? ).
SO you record your personal thoughts - perhaps incriminating if not embarrassing and so someone else might find it and then use it against you. Yeah, NO. Alot of people would be NOT be doing that.
They did seem to get lost alot and wound up in the strangest places ( and probably amused Splicers for years later ).
They also have a cost which many people would not be willing to pay to just store a 30 second blurb on. ( Being a device and not the equivalent of a cassette or magnetic diskette which would have been FAR cheaper per record unit. ) Some 'trendy' people (posers) might use them to show off or to make believe they are 'with it' and 'in the groove' with modern advances. Practical aspects really aren't there for most people. Business use - there already were Dictating Machines ( and its odd we never saw any of these Audio Diaries used for THAT purpose ).
The little (REAL) pocket Recorders some people used ( to record quick thoughts ) were capable of recording dozens of messages. Instead as seen, each one message being clunky and the size of a portable tape recorder ( brick size and weight ).
The Audio Diaries that are used as memos/messages to others are OK ( and could/would be reused too )
Regurgitation Station ( say that three times real fast !! ) - Infinite's reuse of the idea - VoxOPhones - were BY FAR even more ludicrous. Maybe Quantumz forcefields were used to protect the exposed records. ( I like my version much better ) :
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