Flowerslayer Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 This has been mentioned before, but I'll mention it again. I am not at all convinced that the absence of voice-acting would have led to a better game. You are making a lot of assumptions (like the VA-actors being good programmers if we put them there *joke*). To begin with. A lot of you say that you want VA for the main quest-lines. Fine. Good. Let's think about that for a while. This means that the game engine has to be able to handle VA pretty much the way it does now. Time and resources have to be spent getting there, and they have been. Now. With all of this machinery in place. How much extra work is it to actually have the actors read the lines and incorporate it into the other quests as well? No new functionality needs to be added to the engine, it's just a matter of actually making the cut-scenes. How much does that cost? I don't know. Would the money saved had made a better game? I seriously doubt it . The arguments here are the ones thrown around in politics all of the time -- not one cent to anything until X works. The world has never worked this way. Its an assumption that the game would've been better without VA. It's a fact that they would have much more resources to make that happen had they not went with VA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iusedtoplaywow Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Agreed. I love both Mass Effect games because of the same style we find here in this game. This type of style is to be expected from a BW game. Silly argument. Its seriously sub-par when compared to VA in OTHER Bioware games. So, if you remove the minor amount of MMO that this game has, its left to stand as a sub-par bioware single player game. Also, the main point here that the OP is making is that in an MMO, leveling/questing makes up just such a small fraction of your characters existence and lifespan. Even if you assume the movies are A+ quality and amazing cinema, the point is that should so much of the budget been allocated to a portion of the game that your character only spends 5 or 10% of his lifespan in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eegorr Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Its an assumption that the game would've been better without VA. It's a fact that they would have much more resources to make that happen had they not went with VA. It's exactly this assumption that I'm questioning. I don't believe sufficient resources would have been made available to make a difference. Even if it did, quality of software does not scale with the amount of money you pour into it. Lot's of people are making this claim -- the money could have been used to make a better game without the VA. I do not believe this to be the case for the reasons I've listed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TucoR Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 It's the best part of the game,if I had to worry ,i'd worry about the crappy Textures ,they're pbly a money sink. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FoxNemhauser Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 (edited) The voice acting is worth it; even though I do not listen to every quest I like that I have an ability to do so if I'm in the mood. I listen to all the class quests and the main planet storyline or to the voiced character that seems interesting enough. However I spacebarl all the droid and alien language stuff - if they won't bother to talk to me I won't bother listening (or rather, reading) :-) But I regret that they did not remove 10-20-30 quests and just made way more responses to the companions. "Eat lightsaber, jerk" is great, but gets a bit stale after I hear it hundred times over. Edited January 11, 2012 by FoxNemhauser Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nighenhale Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 The only real downside to me is that there is not enough VA, I want much more! I want to be able to choose between a variety of voices for my characters. A good example of a voice that makes it limiting how your character looks is the male bounty hunter voice. It is awesome for body types 3 and 4 (with the right face), but becomes downright silly for bodytypes 1 and 2. Also way too many aliens that don't speak english and force me to read subtitles again that either go too fast or give me the only reason to use the spacebar when it's going too slow. Usually it goes too fast for me becuase I am a slow reader and since I want to know what they are saying I have to ESC out of the conversation and start over. However I can't do that when grouped, or at least it would not be appreciated by my teammates. So at the risk of sounding like a 4 year old: I want more, more, more! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitharen Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Or is it just go where the quest helper marker is and click stuff until it turns blue? Most of the time: yes. Often I don't care about the story behind some quest. Go to big pile, click blue shiny tile, return for credits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kebabz Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 In short. YES they are. I listen to every line of it at least the first time around. Its part of playing an RPG. People have gotten so use to playing bland MMOs that they have forgotten that the RPGs are their roots. BW has not forgotten this and has created a true MMORPG instead of just another MMO... and this goes for many other RPG features in the game from companions to choices etc. Well done in my opinion. Voice acting the root of RPGs? I lolled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bolthus Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 YES. No voice acting = another MMO LOTS of free 2 play MMO No voices = I don't pay a single penny for this game Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kozzmozz Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 I'm starting to worry about the cost of voice acting in the future of this game. I, like the majority of people I speak to in this game skip the majority of the dialogues, I only listen to my main story, which is great. But I feel that BioWare are wasting a lot of time and resources on the voice overs for everything else. I know BioWare have said several times that they've recorded far ahead with voice dialogues, but imagine the work load if they decided to add new races in an expansion, it would be huge to re-write and record dialogue for all of the current quests. Another problem is that the voice acting was one of the main features that they focused on when advertising/promoting there game, so it'll be unlikely for them to tone it down or even admit it failed. I just hope they have some kind've statistics that show who is skipping which dialogues, so if only a small percentage of players are listening to everything, they can allocate resources elsewhere. its the #1 reason i was hyped about this mmo & it lived up the expectation, so YES. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nighenhale Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Most of the time: yes. Often I don't care about the story behind some quest. Go to big pile, click blue shiny tile, return for credits. You call that fun? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitharen Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 You call that fun? Yep, playing my MMOs exactly this way since '97. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FoxNemhauser Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Voice acting the root of RPGs? I lolled. you missed his point STORY is the root of RPGs, and what voice acting does is make it more accessible. I, for one, have never bothered reading two pages of the text that NPCs throw at me, but I do read/listen to the couple lines of dialogue and even though the quest itself might be boring (kill ten rats) the visible attitude to the quest made by my character makes up for it in some way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snakeIL Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Totally worth it!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tirani Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 (edited) I'm enjoying every minute of this game. The only thing bothering me is the high number of "alien" speaking NPC, I'd rather have normal VO. I never felt the need to skip the VO so far. So no, it's totally worth the effort... If you don't want VO, Pandaria is that way -> Edited January 11, 2012 by Tirani Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iusedtoplaywow Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 I'm enjoying every minute of this game. The only thing bothering me is the high number of "alien" speaking NPC, I'd rather have normal VO. I never felt the need to skip the VO so far. So no, it's totally worth the effort... If you don't want VO, Pandaria is that way -> Don't you want MORE content? Telling people to F off is not going to help subscription numbers, and the fanbois aren't going to be feeding bioware enough money to keep it going and keep the 'casual' content churning out. Dont cut off your nose to spite your face. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Siderialmoon Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 No the voice acting wasn't worth it, it is apparent how much they sacrificed for it. Imagine this, imagine they were able to make two completely separate games at the same time. Imagine one is full of VO exactly like the one we have now. Imagine the other game has very minimal VO restricted to class quests only if any at all. This would also mean that the vast amount of resources that didn't go into fully VO'ing the game could be dedicated to better functionality, map design, quest hubs, total number of quests, multiple quest areas per level to choose from, perhaps 8 completely unique classes instead of 4, proper 2011 tools, acheivement systems, richer pvp content, and on and on and on. I wish they could have magically made both, and let the people choose which they liked better merely by seeing which was actually played more. I without a doubt think it would be the game with minimal VO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tirani Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Don't you want MORE content? Telling people to F off is not going to help subscription numbers, and the fanbois aren't going to be feeding bioware enough money to keep it going and keep the 'casual' content churning out. Dont cut off your nose to spite your face. Sure, more content is nice, but I want more quality content like it's already in the game, WITH VO. The voiced over content is one of the things that set this game apart from the mass of MMOs out there and I hope it stays that way! If I wanted walls of text and cheap content I could play any other MMO out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naroga Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Face it Most people aren't going to listen to every quest I listened to every quest. How in the world do you know MOST people aren't listening to every quest? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghaiana Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Voice acting is fully worth it. I'm a RPG fan, and this MMO finally delivers on the story side. The fact that's a MMO is a plus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eegorr Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Imagine the other game has very minimal VO restricted to class quests only if any at all. This would also mean that the vast amount of resources that didn't go into fully VO'ing the game could be dedicated to better functionality, map design, quest hubs, total number of quests, multiple quest areas per level to choose from, perhaps 8 completely unique classes instead of 4, proper 2011 tools, acheivement systems, richer pvp content, and on and on and on. I don't believe this statement is true, for reasons I've listed earlier in the thread. Short version. I do not believe the resources required to add VO to the non-class quest to be 'vast' and pouring money at a project does not scale with the quality of the project. I will never claim to have any numbers, nor claim what my perception of any majority does or does not think. But I do try to motivate my reasoning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iznigoe Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Class quests: yes. Everything else: no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgui Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Not worth it. Its a mayor misuse of resources. Yes for main quest, flashpoints and some big chain quests on planets it's awesome. however for go kill x mobs or bring me y, it's not. While i leveling my alts i skip most of them. They should put more effort in to game mechanics then they put in VA. Because of VA it would be hard and inefficient adding new content. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GamerInDallas Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Probably not worth it. I imagine they spent a lot of their budget on voice acting for one of the most expensive games of all time. I appreciate the voice acting to an extent, although I've got one character that was voiced by a poor actor or at least was poorly produced. I don't skip the dialog, but if they had of made it all text they would have had a LOT more flexibility. They could have addressed characters by name, for instance. And changing things for a new added race or something would have been far more simple. And I tend to read the subtitles more then listen anyway, just to make sure that background noise and what not doesn't make me miss something being said (which it often would otherwise). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xzenthal Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Voice acting adds to this game ina great way. Wouldn't be the same without it. BEts leveling experience in any mmo so far for me. So yes worth it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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