Haajib Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 i never want to read like 50 pages of text next time i play something Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasoneth Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 The voice acting adds an degree of immersion, a feeling of really being there. But when the mission being offered is yet another kill/fedex/fetch variant, it feels overdone. I've now working on my third toon (2 50s and a 37) on the same faction, so have done a lot of repeated content, aside from the story missions. As long as you're not leveling in parallel (that is, switching between alts and so doing the same content on all of them at roughly the same time), it's not too bad, having to go through the same dialogs again. I'd have preferred more mission terminal quests, maybe 50/50 relative to voice-acted missions. That's especially true for the missions obviously designed after the voice acting was done, where your character only uses stock lines, and the quest giver is speaking an alien language. Note: using procedurally-generated alien speech is a nice touch, but given it actually bears no relation to what's being said, it's kind of pointless to listen to. I always spacebar through alien dialog, as soon as I've read the subtitles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terko_Koslah Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 True enough... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fardarter Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 I have to disagree. While swtor is heavy on story it is very light on other mmo elements. If I am anything like other mmo players I will take more content and better game mechanics over voice any day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jumajin Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 I have to disagree. While swtor is heavy on story it is very light on other mmo elements. If I am anything like other mmo players I will take more content and better game mechanics over voice any day. Seven weeks ago, I would have disagreed with you. Seven weeks of playing this game, though, I am in complete agreement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tintagel Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 I would disagree, they are enjoyable at the start, but I think they should have been left to just the class quests. After a while you even start to be able to predict your charaters responses. Thers only so many times I can listen to "I really am the best" "What has this got do do with me" "Yawn" I also find it rather annoying that in a fully voiced game they choose to give me a companion which dosen't speak galactic basic(Jedi Sage here) as the first one, bit of a waste. Imo I think they just pushed it to far, I don't really need voice overs for a bog standard gofor quest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ladybastilla Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Personally I'm not worried about whether SWTOR changes the MMO landscape. I just want it to hold it's own. Because I'm enjoying it and hope to remain here for a while. I'm not even looking at other releases right now. I'm too busy playing. The only reason I'm on here is maintenance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zhiroc Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Actually, it was Mass Effect that killed text-only and even "half-voiced" RPGs of any sort for me. After ME, no other RPG feels alive to me. Tried some of the recent "greats" like Fallout and TES: Oblivion, and even Dragon Age: Origins, but didn't come close to finishing any of them. THE reason I'm playing SWTOR is because it is fully voiced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikkeos Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 They had to top the VO of LOTRO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ladybastilla Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 (edited) I also find it rather annoying that in a fully voiced game they choose to give me a companion which dosen't speak galactic basic(Jedi Sage here) as the first one, bit of a waste. . Despite anything else said, I will give *this* my 100% backing and support. I can somewhat understand having some of the companions be aliens that don't speak basic. But for some classes -- such as the Sage listed here -- you spend several *planets* before you get another one. I cannot read the text in this game. The font is way too small. So even when an alien with a foreign language that sounds cool is the companion (i.e. Khem Val) I only know what *he's* (hello, 3 a.m. mistype!) saying because my boyfriend tells me. Sorry for the double post, but I *had* to add to this. Edited February 7, 2012 by ladybastilla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dire-Wolf Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 I don't know if TOR has killed text based MMOs but I will say that I'm going to have a hard time playing any MMO that's not fully voiced after this. I mean I'll be trying out Guild Wars 2 and The Secret World when they come out and I'll probably go back to WoW for a bit when Mists of Pandaria comes out but I can't really see any of them, except maybe Guild Wars 2, holding my attention for any significant period of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scratcha Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Generally, I've enjoyed the plots and animation very much. I do all of my quests with a partner and we've leveled six different toons apiece; so, yeah, I'm getting a bit tired of the voice acting. My partner doesn't seem to understand the spacebar concept and all the repetition is getting a little old. Still, the first time through I found it intriging and it added greatly to my enjoyment of the storyline. My game partner works days; so, I use that opportunity to grind and stay away from quests, which kind of breaks the monotony a bit. Most of my toons are 3-4 levels above the story progression, making questing a piece of cake. I also like that the grinding interludes insure I have plenty of credits and extra commendations for the best gear. I also farm for mats while grinding and am well ahead of the crafting curve on all my toons. For a variety of reasons -- great game mechanics, well developed storylines, and having a quest partner -- SWTOR is unquestionably my favorite MMO (and I've played many). One nit pick -- I wish there were auto-pathing. I've got the patience of Job for most everything, EXCEPT running in circles looking for obscure items, bosses, or mobs. I'm not sure I'd continue playing SWTOR if my quest partner didn't do most of the navigation. For whatever reason, navigating WoW, PW, Rift, LOTRO, and others seems somewhat less obtuse. This isn't a knock on the game in any measure -- I know most people don't have a problem navigating, it's just me. One more observation: SWTOR isn't a first-person shooter, it's also not an "MMO"; it's an MMORPG, with emphasis on the RPG. I think if you don't like the RPG aspect of SWTOR, then maybe you should play something else. SWTOR is wonderfully crafted in this respect, and I found the animations/voices added very much to my ability to get into the heart and soul of my toons, much more than any previous MMORPG I've played. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grahlx Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 I dunno, I turned on subtitles and read the dialogue mostly. I skip some of the voice acting, although there are some pretty cool cut scenes and voice acting for some missions. A lot of it is repetitive though, especially for side quests. I'm not really interested in the story behind why I have to kill 20 sand people, I'd rather just get busy killing them and move on. Anyway, I don't think voice acting in MMO's is the wave of the future or anything, I would play a game that didn't have any and it wouldn't bother me at all if it was a good game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DTuloJr Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Voice acting is a gimmick, that apparently works on the OP. First time players of the quests may be impressed that everything is voiced... until they realize that they skip the VO work because it takes too long to listen to a trash NPC drone on and on and on, spewing mindless drivel that has absolutely no relationship to any main story element whatsoever. To make matters worse, there's long pauses as cut-scenes are setup, animations are kicked in, and the action comes to a grinding halt as things are loaded. For. Nearly. Every. Quest. Sorry. For me, that's a massive waste of resources on a flashy element that should NOT have been present for a good 90%+ of the quests. Immediate VO work, without the cut-scene animations, might also have worked better. The whole production, though, kills immersion. It's not fun. It becomes tedious, very quickly. They should have concentrated VO and cut-scene work on class-quests only, perhaps some VO work for major quests, and no extensive VO work for everything else. They wasted resources and development time. But then... BWA would know this, if they actually listened to their testers that provided them honest and objective opinions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delekii Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 This post summed up a large part of what I'm feeling. I will go as far to say, no AAA MMO released after 2012 will be without voice acting. Text based MMOs are dead. SW:TOR killed them. I have 3 level 50s and around 250 levels altogether, and I *********** HATE voice acting. When I skip over text it doesn't spam my speakers with wh.. hi.. to.. wha.. be.. sp... sh.. (1. Good choice: 2. Bad choice: 3. Neutral Choice). wh.. hi.. to.. wha.. be.. sp... sh.. (1. Good choice: 2. Bad choice: 3. Neutral Choice). wh.. hi.. to.. wha.. be.. sp... sh.. (1. Good choice: 2. Bad choice: 3. Neutral Choice). wh.. hi.. to.. wha.. be.. sp... sh.. (1. Good choice: 2. Bad choice: 3. Neutral Choice). wh.. hi.. to.. wha.. be.. sp... sh.. (1. Good choice: 2. Bad choice: 3. Neutral Choice). The above is what I get from swtor questing. Atleast in text based, I can speed read it and pull out the important information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dvsxxx Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 I disagree with this as well and have learned i dislike full vo quests. for the main story lines and such its great but for every little side quests it gets so old I would much rather have a quick read of the quest and move on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ansultares Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 (edited) I completely disagree. Plot and voice acting aren't the same thing, anyway.^^^^^^ I don't care for them, but they're not going to stop me from enjoying the game. It 's just, the rest of the game isn't all that great, possibly because of all the effort put into cutscenes/voiceovers. I could see a game using them for class quests, because apparently so many people are absolutely captivated by them, but using them extensively is costly, in time, in finances, and also by leaving developers free to think that the cutscenes alone can carry the game; they can't. Also, at some point you realize that the cutscene responses only allow you to pick the subsequent NPC response; few to none have any more consequence. So few that when I came across instances of such it made me think even worse of the system, for what it could have been. And there's some element of anti-fun in being forced to pick LS/DS, with no neutral option, especially because LS/DS isn't a very engaging system and offers very limited rewards. Edited February 7, 2012 by Ansultares Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xQuicksilverx Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 I am fine with the 1-49 dialogue in questing/flashpoints... but I seriously can not do another hard mode esseles run.. my space bar needs a break. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerrard_Ennui Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 I disagree. In fact, I bet voice-narrated MMOs will be few and far between for a simple reason: Voice in a game just doesn't add the same type of longevity as engaging game play, interesting mechanics and challenging encounters. Its a cool novelty but it doesn't hold weight. The speech in TOR is flawless. Aside from the horrible paraphrasing, its almost perfect - the acting is even decent sometimes! It makes you wonder just how many bugged items, broken encounters and glitched abilities would be working as intended if Bioware had put as much effort into the game play as they put into the cutscenes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superawesomerman Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 (edited) Jedi Consular: Deathmark: you've just shielded your 3rd jedi master and are killing yourself by giving away your life essence, WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO NOW! Consular: im going to sprint around everywhere and kill a bunch of stuff, maybe use a few panels, then im going to Disneyworld, Baron Deathmark! Deathmark: well for someone who's slowly killing themselves you look *great*! what's your pal gotta say about all this? Qyzen: <something about points and hunting> Deathmark: wow, dont bring THAT guy to the karaoke bar, he sounds like an empty bottle of Tatooine rotgut going down the trash compactor! Qyzen: <more stuff about points> Deathmark: yeah whatever. On to someone more interesting! Girada: Yaz doo rah shoobie doodoo peee rahrah! Deathmark: apparently there isn't anyone more interesting! luckily, for our viewing audience, our boring interviewees are standing RIGHT IN A *woosh* Deathmark: FLAME TRAP! yeeeEEESSSSS! *cheering* <fin> edit: oh yeah, i forgot. the VO is totally overrated. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=212884 why i thought the single player sucked. Edited February 7, 2012 by Superawesomerman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demorgoth Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 man i hope not... by lvl 40 i was so sick of listening to every person go on and on bout whatever the quest was about. Not to mention my 1-5 generic responses i always gave back to them. I miss the wall of text but spacebar-ing will kill voice overs.. I agree totally. I played through to 50 listening to just about everything (side quests included) on my first character, but when I starting running a few alts up (I've got 6 chars over L20 now) you find that everything outside the main class quest is exactly the same no matter what class you play. I'd happily forgo the voice acting and lip synching if all the budget allocated to that aspect of the game had been redirected into other areas of gameplay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StealthStalker Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 This post summed up a large part of what I'm feeling. I will go as far to say, no AAA MMO released after 2012 will be without voice acting. Text based MMOs are dead. SW:TOR killed them. I didn't think any AAA MMO released after Warhammer would lack Dual Targeting, but I've been disappointed each time so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fentz Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 nope, you'll be able to go back when I played darkfall: "I'll never be able to play tab-target games again" when I played swtor: "I'll never be able to play normal quest mmos again" played WoW some day ago and it wasnt as boring as you'd might think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeacefulViolence Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 man i hope not... by lvl 40 i was so sick of listening to every person go on and on bout whatever the quest was about. Not to mention my 1-5 generic responses i always gave back to them. I miss the wall of text but spacebar-ing will kill voice overs.. Yes i literally felt like crying, once i got in the 40's it just became so damn stale and annoying, i had no desire whatsoever to listen to any quest giver, i don't understand why games need to just be one or the other though, why not just give people the option to disable or enable the voice overs, why the hell is that so damn hard? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StealthStalker Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Yes i literally felt like crying, once i got in the 40's it just became so damn stale and annoying, i had no desire whatsoever to listen to any quest giver, i don't understand why games need to just be one or the other though, why not just give people the option to disable or enable the voice overs, why the hell is that so damn hard? I sorta do half and half. I let the entire scene playout on class stories and stuff. I like to hear the entire conversation due to the excellent Voice Acting by the likes of Jennifer Hale and company. If it's just a run of the mill quest, I still let it play but I have subtitles enabled and read them whilst partially listening (just so I can read it in their voice, y'know?). I attribute the latter method to my watching of many subtitled videos over the years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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