Is the voice acting worth it?

[Blackfriar]

This is exactly the game I thought I was buying........ did you not read any reviews or pre-release articles?

 

lol. Pre-release articles.... According to pre-release DAII was a great game. PCGamer gave it a 94...

 

 

It was a putrid pile of excrement. So bad that about 85% of it's total sales were from the 350K preorders. It was so bad it beat DA:O to the bargain bin. It was a complete joke.

 

 

Now, what are you saying about previews and reviews? Because I've found them, when it comes to BioWare products, to be worthless. There all still thinking this is "The New Baldur's Gate" and telling us all about how nice the Emperor looks in his New Clothes.

[DonDuke]

lol. Pre-release articles.... According to pre-release DAII was a great game. PCGamer gave it a 94...

 

 

It was a putrid pile of excrement. So bad that about 85% of it's total sales were from the 350K preorders. It was so bad it beat DA:O to the bargain bin. It was a complete joke.

 

 

Now, what are you saying about previews and reviews? Because I've found them, when it comes to BioWare products, to be worthless. There all still thinking this is "The New Baldur's Gate" and telling us all about how nice the Emperor looks in his New Clothes.

 

Nice try at flaming but if you pay attention to the context of my statement, I was specifically addressing the FACTS of the construction of the game. Not subjective opinions. So save your venom and pay attention to what you read (or actually don't read?). Sigh............

[MattieP]

Side quests really didn't need to be voice acted.

 

This.

 

 

 

I listen to the class quests. But the side quests I skip through. In fact, I hate getting dismounted when I accept a side quest.

 

 

 

This is just my opinion. I know many others take in every word, and appreciate the voice acting. For me, it gets too dull, and I just want to get moving, so I just continually hit space.

[ApesAmongUs]

So basically they have a toggle to enable subtitles to the VO story. They just need to mute the VO when the toggle is engaged for those that don't want to listen to the VO.

It's not a question of how people can avoid listening to it, it's a question of whether or not enough people don't want to listen to make it a waste of money to produce.

[sobrolho]

Warhammer and AoC, for example, went from 800K subs to 100K subs very quickly.

 

if you ever played AoC you cannot even start by saying they lost subscriptions because of the voice acting. the game had and still has major problems that can't be easily solved.

SWTOR is miles ahead of AoC, also in voice acting.

 

other than that, you people keep saying that us that like the voice acting and think it's worth it are wrong, because according to you people most players skip the dialogues.

when that fails, you come along saying you have 32424 characters. well maybe that's the problem, if you're redoing the same areas and quests over and over endless times you will probably get a bit bored.

still...some people won't. I won't. others won't.

I did get utterly bored from reading in other mmo's though.

[ptwonline]

It is interesting the first time through. After that it loses value quickly and becomes a bother.

 

I would say it was the wrong place to spend the cash.

 

I agree with your first point, but not the second.

 

Spending the time and money on it is definitely worth it. It's the story that makes this game engaging and immersive. However, the emphasis on where it is used is wrong. Too much of the questing--and hence the VO--is on planet-specific stories and thus get shared by all your characters on a faction. This gets repetitive and boring.

 

On the other hand, class quests you'll probably play through only once or maybe twice, and so it stays fresh.

 

Basically, they need a higher ration of class-specific to planet-specific quests. The problem with this, of course, is that one planet quest is worth 4 class quests since 4 classes can use each planet quest. So if they made 40 class specific quests--10 per class for a faction--and 60 planetary quests for a faction, each character would play up to 70 quests on a planet for the 100 total quests made. Change the ratio: make it 80 class specific quests (20 per class) and 20 planetary quests. Suddenly each player now only has 40 total quests for a planet even though the same 100 total quests were made.

 

Basically, once Bioware starts getting more of the basic systems and content in (Legacy, UI, Flashpoints, etc) and bugfixes done, they really, really, REALLY need to focus huge resources on adding a lot of new story and questing to the game, and much more heavily class-story and not world story. Make it too much world story and you're going to see the rapid burnout like people got from running the same stuff over and over and over with all their alts in WoW's Firelands.

 

Unfortunately, I suspect that Bioware is going to have to learn the hard way. They will introduce a new planet and scratch their heads at why people get burned out on it so fast. The answer will be that it will take each person a few days to complete the content and then they will do it another 3-4 times on their other chars, and they will be sick of it because it's almost all the same.

[einsoff]

i would have much rather had BW put the millions from voice work into developing a full blown dynamic content gameplay system rather than click the npc gameplay system.

[ptwonline]

i would have much rather had BW put the millions from voice work into developing a full blown dynamic content gameplay system rather than click the npc gameplay system.

 

Guess what? You wouldn't have gotten it anyway because designing "full blown dynamic gameplay" is extremely complicated and has significant risks.

[Naroga]

100% worth it. I love the voice-acting.

[skorpius]

The voice acting is why I am here, they do have Panda Land over -----------------> there

[Caramel_Ham]

LOL, you take out the voice acting off of this game and what do you have left??? NOTHING.

 

I love the voice acting for my IA female. One of the best imo.

[ptwonline]

100% worth it. I love the voice-acting.

 

To be more precise though, it's not JUST the voice-acting. it's the fact that they edit the conversations into something that is more like a cinematic that really makes it special.

 

Look at Skyrim. Tons of voice-acting, but since it is not very dynamic or cinematic it ends up as being extremely dull. It's mostly just an NPC talking AT you. I skip virtually all of the VO in Skyrim. I skip almost none of it in SWTOR.

[CalBeast]

For me it is worth it. If anything, I'd say "Story + Voice Acting" is what makes this game so enjoyable for me. I'd like to hear additional VA for my character because some of them just repeat themselves in dialogs, so there is space for improvements but it is definitely worth it for me.

[Ranid]

It's not a question of how people can avoid listening to it, it's a question of whether or not enough people don't want to listen to make it a waste of money to produce.

 

A thinly veiled discussion, If people weren't talking about VO's then it would be is it worth all the cut scenes with the subtitles.

[TheHeadCapper]

To be more precise though, it's not JUST the voice-acting. it's the fact that they edit the conversations into something that is more like a cinematic that really makes it special.

 

Look at Skyrim. Tons of voice-acting, but since it is not very dynamic or cinematic it ends up as being extremely dull. It's mostly just an NPC talking AT you. I skip virtually all of the VO in Skyrim. I skip almost none of it in SWTOR.

 

Nice explanation.

[SWImara]

if you ever played AoC you cannot even start by saying they lost subscriptions because of the voice acting. the game had and still has major problems that can't be easily solved.

SWTOR is miles ahead of AoC, also in voice acting.

I appreciate this, seeing people shoehorn their nonsensical reasons that other MMOs failed into whatever personal desire they have for the next new MMO is one of the most frustrating aspects of being an MMO gamer. AoC had all kinds of problems, yet plenty of people stuck with it for quite some time due to appreciation for the setting and/or the (largely terrible) PvP, voice acting in no way impacted people's reasons for disliking AoC and arguing that it did is pretty absurd. I wanted to love that game, its about my favorite setting every for fantasy material and the combat system could have been great, it took me months to decide the game was trash and even then I went back when they made the Blood & Glory (or whatever its called) FFA PvP servers. The game's flaws were really deep and numerous.

 

other than that, you people keep saying that us that like the voice acting and think it's worth it are wrong, because according to you people most players skip the dialogues. when that fails, you come along saying you have 32424 characters. well maybe that's the problem, if you're redoing the same areas and quests over and over endless times you will probably get a bit bored.

still...some people won't. I won't. others won't.

I did get utterly bored from reading in other mmo's though.

Sadly this is a standard MMO forum issue, hopefully it'll cool off some after a few months. Essentially some wander from game to game trying to make them all the same as some other game they played and quit. In the end these folks doubtlessly leave the game after devs make changes to cater to them, leaving those who enjoyed the game from the start now dealing with a bunch of crap they didn't want.

 

If BW intends to draw "community" opinions on stuff, I hope they do so through in game surveys etc as other games have done. MMO forums are unfortunately just for trolling.

[Tacola]

I love it,

 

I haven't skipped any of the side quest VO either. At lvl34 currently.

 

It seems the more intellectual and longer attention spans you have lean toward watching and listening. So you know why you are to kill these droids or why you need to gather medical resources, or whatever it is you are asked to do.

 

As for Endgame, well not one MMO has ever had a finished endgame in the first month. There is PvP currently so there are things to do at 50, but surely you didnt expect a finished endgane in the first 4 weeks of release?

 

With the amount of people playing, expansions are sure to follow =).

[Cameirus]

Guess what? You wouldn't have gotten it anyway because designing "full blown dynamic gameplay" is extremely complicated and has significant risks.

 

true.

 

But to me, risk averse is a recipe for disaster.

 

Its a case of "been there done that", its just the same old mmo stuff over and over and over again.

 

Time for something new. But thats not SWTOR, who played safe, but in this case safe = boring.

 

Other companies take risks, and I'm damm glad they do so.

[ionDivvy]

Yes it is, and it makes me sad to know that people like you are making up the userbase of the game. I play for the story, not for stupid loot and mundane endgame grinding.

[krookie]

As much as I like voice acting--it really does add atmosphere--the major issue with spending so much resources on it is that eventually the content and the voice acting associated with it runs out. I mean it's not something you can revisit again and again. Once you experience it, it's done.

 

In my opinion, more resources should've been spent on gameplay features, as solid gameplay will keep people coming back. Voice acting should never have been the main driving force behind this game. It's nice to have but essentially it's fluff.

[NRieh]

they really, really, REALLY need to focus huge resources on adding a lot of new story and questing to the game, and much more heavily class-story and not world story.

And this is what I really, really, REALLY think to be true. They gave us some VERY nice thing, and we're sure to MISS IT MUCH once main story content is over. That IS a problem. Hope they knew what they were doing and how to avoid some kind of disappointment from all the voices&stories lovers.

 

Still, as I already mentioned on some local forum - even if there'll be no "happy ever after", I won't consider my money wasted. Yet I hope they got a plan that won't let me unsub even after the story is over.

[Rhinoplat]

Yes, it's worth it.

 

It's not worth it, when they could be putting that money to use on other game play issues; namely improving the PvP by opening up new worlds for guilds.

 

Too much time and money went into a system that I and others bypass 90% of the time. If it's a side mission I space bar through it. Now that I'm 50 and have no class quests I space bar through everything.

 

The voice system was neat for telling a story, but it's a very short lived gimmick in the life of an MMO; especially for players that will stay with the game for 5 years or more. End game content will always be a better money maker from a time & cost perspective than adding gimmicks (even if the voice acting is one of the cooler gimmicks).

[Jimer_Lins]

I'm a voice actor IRL, so I have some insight into this process- and it's not as costly as you might think.

 

The costs associated with adding voice to a project like this, while not insignificant, pale in comparison to the other tasks required to generate new content.

 

At the end of the day, when you're talking about VO added to a quest line, you're not talking about anything more complicated than what the content managers do- who, by the way, are NOT going to be developers, by and large, but rather use tools the devs create for them to put the pieces together.

 

Looking at content development for an MMO in an abstract way, you're taking multiple different assets and putting them together to create a seamless, enjoyable experience. In that context, adding voice to the mix does not dramatically increase the cost if it's assumed to be the way you'll do it from the start. It's just another binary asset you need to put together with the rest of it.

 

It would be FAR more costly to add VO to a system not designed from the ground up to incorporate that type of content in the asset mix. In the case of SWTOR, the writing starts with the assumption that it will be voiced. The incremental costs are paying the talent and the production end, but at the end of the day the person doing the actual generation of the stuff that goes in the game selects an audio file and timesyncs it with the facial animations and cutscenes.

 

It really is not going to add a huge cost to the development of the game- it does add some, but not as much as you might think.

[TheHeadCapper]

It's not worth it, when they could be putting that money to use on other game play issues; namely improving the PvP by opening up new worlds for guilds.

 

Too much time and money went into a system that I and others bypass 90% of the time. If it's a side mission I space bar through it. Now that I'm 50 and have no class quests I space bar through everything.

).

 

Lots of people also bypass pvp so you could turn your argument right around on it. I wouldn't even be playing this game if it didn't have VO.

[knightblaster]

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.

 

Very unlikely. It's BioWare's main calling card as a game designer. They're as likely to abandon the idea of voice overs as they are to replace the SW setting with Battlestar Galactica.