300million and lots of worn out spacebars

[kurzis]

I'm assuming you mean that as a personal opinion and not a fact. Because they are just very different styles of RPG. What is considered the best is all a matter of personal preference.

 

everything i post is personal opinion, this whole thread is based off a personal opinion combined with a rumor about costs

 

if i had real facts then im either an employee of EA or bioware or i know someone close to the company because "facts" are something the mod/dev team don't like to give out.

[Kubernetic]

And again all the alien languages ... lazy. After a while you start recognizing the patterns and go... hmmmm I've heard this before wait .. thats not what was said last time ( meaning the sounds don't match the text and are recycled). I am especially annoyed that there are Chiss speaking hutteese. There is NO WAY they would use that language they would speak their own if not using basic.

 

I feel exactly the same way. When I hear Americans speaking French it just infuriates me. They should be speaking English!

 

Ils parlent français pourquoi?!?! C'est fou, n'est-ce pas?

[JediZenn]

What hooked me in beta was the story and voice acting. I've played pretty much every day since pre-launch: I never hit space bar, and still enjoy the stories.

 

PS $300 million is an unsubstantiated myth. The number is high, but not that high.

 

What about the quests where its in a alien language that is nothing but some random sounds repeated in random order?

 

You don't spacebar those? I usually spacebar the moment I hear a anything outside of "basic" being spoken. I know they did it to save time for some of the quests, but I really HATE alien quest givers. The Republic side has more of them, which is sad.

Edited May 11, 2012 by JediZenn

[CormacAlClian]

I was the last person who was supposed to hit the spacebar...

In Beta and in the beginning...

Now - I just keep pushing spacebar. And don't feel well because of that...

But listening all this stuff over & over again - pointless.

[Kubernetic]

I agree, but at least they're all different. Only content unique to each class should be voiced.

 

Totally disagree with this last part. I love the fact that even the side missions are fully voiced. Other MMOs which use text-based quests or missions now seem completely outdated to me.

 

BioWare has definitely raised the bar to a brand new level, IMHO.

[Gungan]

I'm actually kind of curious what the "spacebar" group thought they were getting when they bought a game advertised as being... "A cinematic story driven MMORPG".

 

If "watching people talk when giving you a task to do" constitutes "a cinematic experience", then Hollywood has been doing it all wrong all these years!

 

News flash. There are no real cinematics in this game other than the Hope and Deceived trailers, and whatever the intro is called. There are only dialogues.

 

I am so frickin' tired of watching people talk - that's what TV and movies are for. I want good gameplay in my games.

Edited May 11, 2012 by Gungan

[kurzis]

If "watching people talk when giving you a task to do" constitutes "a cinematic experience", then Hollywood has been doing it all wrong all these years!

 

News flash. There are no real cinematics in this game other than the Hope and Deceived trailers. There are only dialogues.

 

QFT

 

/10char

[Jaavik]

Please drop the tin foil conspiracy theories. I've personally talked with both of them, even had a great one on one conversation with Greg Zeschuk last year. They are incredibly passionate gamers, and that is not something easily faked, especially when just talking casually to someone one on one.

 

Have you read the contract between EA and Bioware? If not, do not make any claims about who is in charge of what when it comes to Bioware and their development procedures.

 

I'm right there with you.

 

SO many of the people posting in these forums are SO completely convinced that "they" are the pinnacles of the gaming community and game developers are complete fools for not taking their "expertise' into consideration when they troll the forums.

 

The main thing to remember is that the people who are on the forums constantly complaining are not an accurate sampling of the SWTOR community. Just the loudest...

 

It's absolutely true that Bioware can be doing some things a lot better, but on the whole, it's a really good product and there is plenty of time and room to grow. The game has been out less than 5 months. Take a deep breath, post what changes you would like to see and stop stamping your feet because it doesn't happen "yesterday"...

 

I have a theory about so many of these forum trolls that want to get on here and claim that it's "the worst game ever", run by the "worst game developers ever" owned by the "most evil, greedy corporation ever". If all this were true, you would just unsub and move on. But you don't, you sit here in the forums and rant and rage.

 

Is it possible that you actually LIKE the game more than you are letting on and are just trying to get the changes you want made pushed through with more urgency by throwing tantrums and making it look like the developers murdered your cat? There's a name for that... "drama queens"

Edited May 11, 2012 by Jaavik

[Blackavaar]

A. Not everyone presses the space bar through every conversation. Even those that do don't do it their first time through, for the most part.

 

B. They already said that they have enough voice work already done to provide content for years worth of development.

 

and C. The voice acting and focus on story is the biggest draw about the game. Most people love it. It feels like you're a character in a movie and that's what the fans really want.

 

Edited May 11, 2012 by Blackavaar

[kurzis]

I'm right there with you.

 

SO many of the people posting in these forums are SO completely convinced that "they" are the pinnacles of the gaming community and game developers are complete fools for not taking their "expertise' into consideration when they troll the forums.

 

The main thing to remember is that the people who are on the forums constantly complaining are not an accurate sampling of the SWTOR community. Just the loudest...

 

It's absolutely true that Bioware can be doing some things a lot better, but on the whole, it's a really good product and there is plenty of time and room to grow. The game has been out less than 5 months. Take a deep breath, post what changes you would like to see and stop stamping your feet because it doesn't happen "yesterday"...

 

I have a theory about so many of these forum trolls that want to get on here and claim that it's "the worst game ever", run by the "worst game developers ever" owned by the "most evil, greedy corporation ever". If all this were true, you would just unsub and move on. But you don't, you sit here in the forums and rant and rage.

 

Is it possible that you actually LIKE the game more than you are letting on and are just trying to get the changes you want made pushed through with more urgency by throwing tantrums and making it look like the developers ***** your cat? There's a name for that... "drama queens"

 

lets clear a few things up... seeing as im the OP

 

i love this game, really, really love it, i spend more time playing this game than i do in work, i try to take as much time off work to play its bordering on an addiction

 

i dont want to see the game for F2P

 

i dont want to see this game die

 

i don't want voice actor costs to contribute to the games downfall.

 

i just want this game to succeed.

[Urael]

If "watching people talk when giving you a task to do" constitutes "a cinematic experience", then Hollywood has been doing it all wrong all these years!

 

News flash. There are no real cinematics in this game other than the Hope and Deceived trailers, and whatever the intro is called. There are only dialogues.

 

I am so frickin' tired of watching people talk - that's what TV and movies are for. I want good gameplay in my games.

 

/agree.

 

QFT!

Edited May 11, 2012 by Urael

[Leovinus]

anyone think voice acting was worth the money or was it a waste and has it just heavily restricted the game?

 

any new content, expansions etc will require voice actors, this is going to ramp up the cost of new content meaning development time might be pointless.

 

im starting to worry that going down the voice actor route might of killed the game before it even started, especially considering the lack of communication from the dev team, new bugs with every patch and lack of content being released.

 

im wondering if the devs have any plans to revert back to the tried, tested and working text based approach for new content or will they keep pointlessly wasting money on mediocre voice actors?

 

I would be absolutely shocked if any expansions require NEAR the same monetary investment in VO that the original game did. Given that they expected to produce expansion content (what MMO wouldn't), I'd be >99% sure that they've got the majority of the voice recording in the can already for quite some time to come. They may have the random thing that needs to be redone, but we're talking hugely less required investment.

[kurzis]

I would be absolutely shocked if any expansions require NEAR the same monetary investment in VO that the original game did. Given that they expected to produce expansion content (what MMO wouldn't), I'd be >99% sure that they've got the majority of the voice recording in the can already for quite some time to come. They may have the random thing that needs to be redone, but we're talking hugely less required investment.

 

if thats the case then awesome!

[BlueFromMoon]

What a waste of money, Im 30 level I can predict everything, I want to press that spacebar baaaad. LOL. Elder Scroll Online better make it better. Quality of story just isnt there sadly. Edited May 11, 2012 by BlueFromMoon

[kitsinni]

Voice Actors are what kept me playing this game. When I don't feel like PvP or doing an OPs or Flashpoint I will jump on an alt and the voice acting is what makes leveling in this game fun as opposed to something you rush through as fast as possibe to get to top level.

[corbanite]

So if you don't like a fully voiced MMO and went and brought SWTOR to play and thinks the devs are idiots for making it fully voiced.

 

If I wanted a holiday but didn't like cold weather I would not think the holiday company were idiots because I booked a holiday in antartica.

 

I most certainly wouldn't then go onto a public forum and whine about my supidity.

Edited May 11, 2012 by corbanite

[Goretzu]

anyone think voice acting was worth the money or was it a waste and has it just heavily restricted the game?

 

 

The voice acting is absolutely GREAT.......... once.

 

However after that YMMV, for some twice through (the same content) and they'll be space barring, for others it might be many more times through.

 

For me it was the 4th time through I just started to space bar (everything but the new class quests) as I couldn't take it any more, 2nd time through I enjoyed it, 3rd was ok.

 

It also seems worse at the higher levels, as many of the lower level quests seem to crafted and well designed, but the upper levels many seem to have been rushed out as quickly as possible, rather than crafted and designed.

Edited May 11, 2012 by Goretzu

[Blistrich]

Voice Actors are what kept me playing this game.

The moments when I interact with the game world in a meaningful way are the highlights of leveling.

[otherworlder]

Like them or not, the VOs are going to become a problem going forward as the OP predicts.

 

No matter what direction you look at it from, they've set this game up to include VO dialogues. That means whenever new content comes in, they will need to record new VOs and pay those artists to record them.

 

It's no secret the game is on a severe downward spiral (No, I'm not linking the EA investor call or sub figures, they're all over the forums already) which means there's a high chance development dollars will get cut. And a chunk of what remains will have to go toward paying for those new VOs.

 

That's money that would be better spent on actual content, in my opinion. More voiced quests will not retain subs or attract them back.

 

Also, I greatly enjoyed the VOs for much of the game, but when 8/10 of the side quests turned into one Imperial fop after another begging me to do his job because he's incompetent and can't fix his own comm relay, my spacebar started taking a hammering.

[redsovereign]

so you'll take an ending of a single solitary game (despite the entire franchise being glorious) and then one game out of the entire library of games that bioware has brought you including the original Neverwinter Knights and Baulders gate. which were fantastic games which actually moved the RPG genera forward.

 

and discredit everything they've done because of something you've heard and your general disdain towards SWTOR.

 

totally rational. Bioware has been in business for over 12 years. they will survive you and swtor will grow despite not having 26 million people playing which seems to be the ONLY indicator of success these days.

 

I see this mistake over and over and over... No Bioware did NOT develop, design or program Baldurs Gate. Bioware did however buy Black Isles Studios when Black Isles went bankrupt. Black Isles is the studio that made both Baldurs Gate 1 and 2.

The 2nd game was not only a game that was developed for the fans but as a thank you to one of Black Isles lead designers who suffered from a grave disease that he suffered from all the way back in his childhood through his adulthood. That disease lead to his death which occured just before the release of Baldurs Gate 2 (RIP and ty for hours of fun and awesomness). Black isles put a thank you letter to their beloved designer in the game manual.

 

The games that Bioware did was the Neverwinter nights series, Mass Effect etc etc. Baldurs Gate was made by Black Isles Studios based on the Wizards of the Coast campaign.

 

Everytime I hear someone believeing that "- blööööö Bioware did BG1 and 2 blööööö" my inner child self who enjoyed and loved the Baldurs Gate series to death and grew up with them cringe. A lot of the ppl that worked at Black Isles studios was then hired when Bioware bought out the company and they started to work on the first Newerwinter Nights game.

Edited May 11, 2012 by redsovereign

[Urael]

The voice acting is absolutely GREAT.......... once.

 

/agree.

[GamewizX]

Like them or not, the VOs are going to become a problem going forward as the OP predicts.

 

No matter what direction you look at it from, they've set this game up to include VO dialogues. That means whenever new content comes in, they will need to record new VOs and pay those artists to record them.

 

It's no secret the game is on a severe downward spiral (No, I'm not linking the EA investor call or sub figures, they're all over the forums already) which means there's a high chance development dollars will get cut. And a chunk of what remains will have to go toward paying for those new VOs.

 

That's money that would be better spent on actual content, in my opinion. More voiced quests will not retain subs or attract them back.

 

Also, I greatly enjoyed the VOs for much of the game, but when 8/10 of the side quests turned into one Imperial fop after another begging me to do his job because he's incompetent and can't fix his own comm relay, my spacebar started taking a hammering.

 

It's already confirmed that contracts and payment for extra voice-over has already been secured for future content. It will not need to be cut nor will it hurt future development costs.

[Kthx]

from what i've heard EA invested 80mill when bioware sold their souls to them and gave up producing quality games, lucas arts invested hundreds of millions before EA got involved.

 

what i've heard = rumor, unless substantiated by credible sources

[Kthx]

News flash. There are no real cinematics in this game other than the Hope and Deceived trailers, and whatever the intro is called. There are only dialogues.

 

There are definitely scripted cut scenes that are not just dialogue. You may be of the opinion that there should be more, but it's simply false to claim "there are only dialogues."

[Andryah]

anyone think voice acting was worth the money or was it a waste and has it just heavily restricted the game?

 

Not at all. There is no indication that most players do not enjoy the cutscenes as an integral aspect of the game. A minority of malcontent complainers attempting to speak for the majority is non-sequitur.

 

Based on your thread title, clearly you lack respect and/or appreciation for a game feature that is liked by many and is in fact innovative for MMOs (regardless of people who don't like it).

 

Anyone that does not like the cutscenes in this game should just go play something they like that does not have cutscenes, rather then complain and rant about them and their choice to abuse their spacebars.

 

As for your apparently contrived worry about cutscenes economic impact on the games future development, personally I think you are worrying for nothing. I'm pretty sure they developed story board and scripting for a lot of future content and had the core voice overs done as part of the orginal voice over contracts. Anything they missed, they can either synthesize digitally from the original voice capture, or in odd particular circumstance simply contract piece work to the original actor. Nothing that will have major investment required. This end of things is not that difficult. The really difficult (and expensive) part was completed in development: building a cutscene engine into the game and a cutscene generator engine in their development platforms.

Edited May 11, 2012 by Andryah