An Epiphany: Voice Acted content.

[Jalliah]

This is what I said during the beta as well. While I enjoy the voice acting the first time, I spacebar through it on alts and I always spacebar through the wookiee-******-pinchy gibberish aliens speak. Does that even really count as voice acting anyway?

 

Frankly, the whole "focus on story" thing is nothing more than a marketing gimmick that works on extremely gullible and/or stupid people. All MMOs have stories, and some even have great ones. That's what in that box with the paragraphs of text most of you disregard while you mouse over to the 'Accept' button. I suppose voice acting is a godsend to the illiterate, but it really is a waste of time and money and the quality of the game content (especially at end game) has obviously suffered due to a waste of resources and a lack of attention.

 

Hardly an 'illiterate' here. I've written and published stories. I read at least one novel a week and have written and read non fiction works for over 25 years. I also love visual media and am a movie hound. And for an added bonus, showing how 'illiterate' I must be I have a PHD and am working on a second masters degree just because I am a geek and enjoy learning (and reading) for it's own sake.

 

But yes I must be stupid and gullible to actually like a game that uses voice rather then just text.

 

Yeesh the reasons that some people try to come up with to explain why other people happen to like something they don't. Oh hey someone else likes something that I dislike. They must be stupid or something. That MUST be the reason because I am so awesome and smart.

[Stejo]

Voice acting itself isn't a problem at all, and it's extremely well done and adds immersion to parts of the game.

 

The problem that the OP, and the quoted post, seems to be missing is that it's not that the voice acting is there... it's that 90% of the people you talk to really have nothing interesting to say, but say it anyway. The voice acting itself is outstanding and adds to the portions of the game that it's used well in, but there's only so many times you can hear someone tell different variations of how you should fight your way through Imperials to turn the power back on before you start to ignore them.

 

It's compounded a bit by the simplistic responses being:

 

Choice 1) I am good! I'll do it because I'm good.

Choice 2) Well, I guess, pay me for it though.

Choice 3) I am evil! But I'll do it for xp.

 

Put simply, the voice acting works when there's depth to the conversations, and it doesn't when there's not. There's just too many places where the conversation serves no purpose other than to send you out to blast things or turn something back on just because filler was needed in the leveling process.

 

Amen.

[Faytte]

Amen.

 

Double Amen.

[Quip]

The voices I hear in my head are awesome too, OP.

[Katalishia]

I think the voice acting is great. It makes me smile.

 

inb4 "lol its 4 casuals"

 

I have more Gladiator titles than you, promise.

 

It's just a nice, enjoyable feature. Why can't people just appreciate it for what it is? It's just cool. Saying "WELL I COULD HAVE READ IT FASTER NEWAY" is ridiculous... it's like saying "what's the point in going to an art gallery just tell me what the pictures are of idiot".

 

It seems to me that the most common argument against the voiceovers in this game is "well the rest of the game is broken!! WoW is so much smoother and no voice acting!!"

 

It's pretty clear to me that those saying this weren't around for the first month of WoW.

 

Should they maybe have pushed back the shipping date a couple months? Yeah, I think so. Should they be listening better to community input? Yeah, definitely. Does the fact that they have voiceovers in the game preclude them from fixing bugs? No, it doesn't, at all. Derp.

 

It's a lot easier to fix mechanic bugs in a voiceovered game than it is to add voiceovers to a smooth running game. Yeah they should have pushed back the release date but people saying "this game is gay because they wasted time on pointless voiceovers" are just being idiotic. If you don't want to listen to the voiceovers and want to skip and power level then heeeeeeeeeeuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrr derp a lurp reeee duggg TURN ON SUBTITLES AND PUSH THE SPACEBAR KID.

 

98% of people complaining about this are terrible anyway. Removing voiceovers from the game isn't gonna deactivate your S key, fyi.

 

This is exactly why we can't have nice things. Because angry nerds do a poo on them.

[Tripleforce]

It's not useless.

 

What you people don't understand is that Bioware games are not Bioware games without awesome dialogue (well at least since 2003).

 

 

I see the dialogue as part of the entertainment value. The fact that the game gives me hilarious and witty options to reply to quest gives and other NPCs is amazing, and it's one of the main reasons I liked Kotor/Jade Empire/Mass Effect/ and Dragon Age as well.

 

 

So what if there are no "longterm" consequences? Your reward is seeing the NPCs reaction, experience, companion approval, and possibly light side or dark side points.

 

Here's my epiphany: Voice acted content is AMAZING.

[areto]

The story is pretty good, when you laugh out loud and someone else in the room asks you what's funny and you say, "My twi'lek is angry at me because I forced her to watch me have sex with this guys wife." it makes it all worth while.

[PibbyPib]

Seriously. I have grown SO annoyed with the female SI's voice actor. She says everything so slooow and drawn out and dramatic, when not everything needs to be said that way. Some of the voice acting is great, but not all. I just skip through when my character talks as a female SI.

 

I shall have...

 

A CHEESEBURGER!

 

WITH FRIES!

 

And a COKE.

 

YEEEeeessss... SUPER size my order...

[Ageizm]

It's hardly useless. You may skip through it because you'd prefer to read it...

 

But if not for the voice acting? How many people do you think would simply click the NPC, find the objectives for the quest, and hit ACCEPT?

 

Do you honestly think people read the block text that comes with most quests in other MMO's? Because I sincerely doubt most people do.

 

How is that any different than "spacebaring"?

[areto]

I shall have...

 

A CHEESEBURGER!

 

WITH FRIES!

 

And a COKE.

 

YEEEeeessss... SUPER size my order...

 

"I don't appreciate dramatic pauses."

[DieselCheezel]

Voiced quests are interesting the first time you hear them then spacebarspam every other time.

 

A voiced protaganist who only says the sort of thing you actually think its going to half the time on the other hand is bloody horrible every time. I don't know why bioware likes voiced protaganists so much but it never makes their games better.

[adamaj]

It's completely and utterly useless.

 

A common fallacy; being convinced you speak the truth just because you're saying what you think.

 

And for everyone spouting off about too much money being spent on voice acting and not enough on "other" things, wise up. Like you know what they spent, right? Show me the facts and figures or shut up.

 

I like the voice acting. For me it adds a level of immersion lacking in other games. It conveys the story more effectively than a generic paragraph that never gets read. I wonder how ridiculous and shallow the quests in a game like, WoW, would appear if Blizzard cut to the quest giver and had them voice the forgettable, kindergarten text present in the majority of the quests in that game? I also wonder how many would actually take the time to read the quest text that would be required to convey the nuance and feeling present in the professionally acted quest scenes in SW:TOR if voice acting were removed and replaced with that? The forums would be inundated with whining trolls complaining, "I paid for a game, not a novel. If I wanted to read a book, I'd buy one." etc. It's laughable. People just have to have something to complain about.

 

If you don't like the voice acting, fine, use your space bar, by all means.

[xGBox]

Those who hate the VO: Either go back to WoW or some other like MMO, or hit the spacebar and quit complaining. You are literally paying for a game that offers VO that you willfully refuse to listen to.

 

Those who enjoy the VO: Keep on truckin'!

[DarthNemis]

lol. voice acting is good.

[Phishums]

Not to mention, at some point, most people turn subtitles on anyway to read, then space bar before the voice actor has finished the sentence.

I started doing that shortly after creating my first character. I do still read the conversation text (unless I have it memorized already), and I'm enjoying some of the stories I've ran across, but the voice acting doesn't interest me much and is just a bunch of fluff.

[Cameirus]

That's 'your' opinion. I love the voice acting and I really get into the game with it.

 

Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it should be eliminated.

 

NO ****?

 

why point out its my opinion, i'm perfectly aware of it....

 

 

this, incase you have not noticed, is a discussion forum, its ALL opinion.....

[EsotericWhim]

I personally adore the voice acting, as I find text-based quest dialogue a bore to read, and not engaging in the slightest. The voice acting and the animations give you a real feeling of immersion in the game. That your little side quests actually matter to someone.

 

There are stories behind every little side quest, which makes the story much more connected and fluid.

 

With voice acting, you also get the humour and other nuances about character that is usually missing in text based chat.

 

Ultimately it comes down to personal preference, but I must ask: if you don't like voice-acting, why did you buy the game in the first place? For how long was it actually advertised as being fully voiced? Not sarcastic, generally curious.

[moosedog]

They should have only included voice acting for class quests and flashpoints, I'd say the vast majority of people are going to skip the regular quest dialog on their first alt if not on their main. Would have saved a ton of money also.

[Jswizzle]

Don't hate on the voice actors.

 

I'll send Nadia Grell after you. "You picked on the wrong people!"

[Griminal]

It's sad to think what BW could have done with this game if they put the insane budget they used for VA's to something related to actual gameplay. Perhaps the entire end game wouldn't have been completely broken to start.

[Murasakikitsune]

I think the voice acting adds a massive amount of quality to the game.

 

In other games, questing is tedious and dull. It really boils down to "find quests, click accept, and [kill stuff, get something, talk to someone]". All of the content in many games (I'm looking at you, WoW. MapleStory too. And others.) is at the end-game level, giving a great deal of pressure to grind. Sure, there's several different ways to grind, but you're really just cycling through this nonsense quest cycle for hours and hours.

 

Because of that, taking the time to read the quests becomes a nuisance, and what little, uninteresting story there was becomes absolutely no story at all.

 

 

In SWTOR, I do not feel pressured to level, because the voice acting adds a human element to the experience. Suddenly, I'm able to feel something for the people I'm helping. Despite the fact that the quests follow the exact same pattern as they do in other MMOs, I'm having fun doing it.

 

Now, leveling just comes naturally as I go across the galaxy helping people.

Edited January 29, 2012 by ZoeTuah

[Krummwalker]

Some of the posts in this thread are hilarious. Now that more people have played the game and have their high level alts as well, the good old agenda arguments are not "making sense" anymore, since other people can now form their own opinion, but still some of them have been using the same old stuff anyway, i guess some of you have been skipping the daily agenda meetings, where you set the hate/doom topic of the day, review the phrase of the day and update the troll bait section of your vocabulary.

[Thumpor]

Voice acting itself isn't a problem at all, and it's extremely well done and adds immersion to parts of the game.

 

The problem that the OP, and the quoted post, seems to be missing is that it's not that the voice acting is there... it's that 90% of the people you talk to really have nothing interesting to say, but say it anyway. The voice acting itself is outstanding and adds to the portions of the game that it's used well in, but there's only so many times you can hear someone tell different variations of how you should fight your way through Imperials to turn the power back on before you start to ignore them.

 

It's compounded a bit by the simplistic responses being:

 

Choice 1) I am good! I'll do it because I'm good.

Choice 2) Well, I guess, pay me for it though.

Choice 3) I am evil! But I'll do it for xp.

 

Put simply, the voice acting works when there's depth to the conversations, and it doesn't when there's not. There's just too many places where the conversation serves no purpose other than to send you out to blast things or turn something back on just because filler was needed in the leveling process.

Great point. I spacebar through world quests NOT because the voice acting is bad, but because world quests are repetitive and uninteresting, both in dialogue, story, and objectives. Voiceover is actually a great part of the game, though.

[daeseer]

Well if you have that sort of warped, point A-to-point-A sort of thinking, then I....guess I could see how you interpreted that - even though that's not reality.

 

1 - You have no control over how the story unfolds in a movie. That is part of what a movie is - how it unfolds. A game is not a movie. The comparison is a fallacy.

 

2 - All the side quests (and 90% of class quests) do not affect the main story in any way what so ever, and are there for simply a time sink.

 

3 - With most modern movies, yes, I can guarantee you if I read the script, it would be better than what ends up on screen. (i.e. Skyline).

To answer your points:

 

1 - You have no control over how the story unfolds in a certain other MMO either. SWTOR is more like a movie than it is like any other MMO I've played. However, in many respects, it's better than a movie because the choices I make can affect the way the story unfolds. Really, SWTOR's main progenitor is not any MMO, but games like Mass Effect (and KOTOR, obviously, but the conversation system is very much Mass Effect.) And Mass Effect is as cinematic as any game gets. Yes, you can influence the story, but the acting in the ME games is better tnan in a lot of films I've seen. In reality, RPGs are becoming more cinematic all the time, which is for the good in my opinion.

 

2 - I completely disagree with that. The side quests involve you in very important parts of the Republic vs. Empire drama that's still unfolding. I've only really played the Empire side, but in the course of getting to level 50, I've been involved with securing the planet of Balmorra as an Empire bulwark, been instrumental in thwarting Republic plans on their prison planet of Belsavis, kept the Republic from regaining a foothold on the destroyed, previously Republic, world of Taris, and secured an alliance with the Voss race, among many other things. In the process, I'm now a Dark Council member. Now tell me, how do those things not affect the main story?

 

3 - I just went and saw Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy today. The script was fantastic, but it was the acting that really pulled me into the story. Gary Oldman seriously deserves an Oscar for his performance. If you think modern movies are that bereft of quality, I'd say you're simply watching the wrong movies.

Edited January 30, 2012 by daeseer

[Jalden]

It's completely and utterly useless.

 

What I came to realize is that, it takes the same amount of time, if not SHORTER, (so the attention span argument is invalid) to just read quests instead of hearing a voice actor painfully say it slower than I can read (and in nowhere near as awesome of a voice that I hear in my head. You know, the one that my creativity gave the NPC). And, even on a personal note, it's kind of pathetic that the majority of society isn't interested in something just because they have to read.

 

You also think movies were a pointless invention as we already had books?

 

The voice-overs make massive difference to me. They make the quests matter. It may be different to you, but stop going on like you have revealed something important to the forum.