300million and lots of worn out spacebars

[islander]

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?

 

Nope, I LOVE the voice acting. My alts are spaced far enough part and between the factions so I honestly don't get tired of listening to them.

The only ones I vigorously spacebar through (and wish I didnt have to) are the daily repeatables at 50.

[Celebrus]

Coming from someone who is a long time rpger and has always hated the "silent hero" of most video games, I absolutely cannot stand the voice acting at this point in this game.

 

The first time through it was kind of quaint, the second time through is was mostly annoying, the third time through I had basically summed it up as a gating mechanic.

 

In my personal opinion, the voice acting in this game is actually in place to make leveling take longer, without it, hitting 50 would take a week or less. It's really nothing more than another gate to make up for a lack of content.

[islander]

Coming from someone who is a long time rpger and has always hated the "silent hero" of most video games, I absolutely cannot stand the voice acting at this point in this game.

 

The first time through it was kind of quaint, the second time through is was mostly annoying, the third time through I had basically summed it up as a gating mechanic.

 

In my personal opinion, the voice acting in this game is actually in place to make leveling take longer, without it, hitting 50 would take a week or less. It's really nothing more than another gate to make up for a lack of content.

 

Wow, talk about an oxymoron.

 

If voice acting was such a "gate to make up for lack of content' why is it when I leveled my first character through all of this 'gated content' I managed to be 2 levels over the minimum for every subsequent planet?

 

I barely touched Corellia's quests on my first character. I intentionally glossed over Voss my second time through so I could actually do the Corellia ones

Edited May 11, 2012 by islander

[GnatB]

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.

 

It's going to ALSO significantly ramp up the time it takes to make said new content, which means lost subscriptions of people getting bored @ lvl cap.

 

 

Oh, and my personal opinion? All kinds of a waste since I tend to skip through conversations after reading the text in pretty much every game I play that's foolish enough to waste money/dev time on speach in dialogs, including this one.

[redsovereign]

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.

 

I love this game but I think it's not as innovative as u make it out to be. Yes you have choices in dialogues but TOR is not the first game to feature VO in mmorpgs.

[discosoc]

Why are people still bringing up the $300 million rumor that was debunked years ago by the very person who started it? It's confirmed the budget was less than $100 million for the entire game.

 

The games budget has never been confirmed, actually. Wall Street and other financial analysts (who tend to be pretty good at figuring out such things), have estimated it to be between 150 and 300 million. It may not be 300 millions, but it's still considered the most expensive game ever produced.

[Trenter]

For me the VO together with the class- and planet story arcs have been some of the absolute highlights of TOR so far. Some might go "well, that says a lot about this mmo", but to me it really does, because it's the most fun I've had in an mmorpg. I'm not much of a raider or PvPer, so I really hope they will keep as heavy focus on these features in the future. Can't go back to text now. Never.

[Celebrus]

Wow, talk about an oxymoron.

 

If voice acting was such a "gate to make up for lack of content' why is it when I leveled my first character through all of this 'gated content' I managed to be 2 levels over the minimum for every subsequent planet?

 

I barely touched Corellia's quests on my first character. I intentionally glossed over Voss my second time through so I could actually do the Corellia ones

 

Nothing that you said in any way is in disagreement with what I just said, so I'm not exactly sure why you've said it....

 

I'm mostly seeing an agreement from you that it's extremely easy to level, but nothing that says that dialogue isn't just a cheesy way of *ATTEMPTING* to slow down the leveling process.

 

I didn't say anything about it being a gate to cover up for a lack of leveling content (which I personally do think there is a lack of) it's a gate that is in place to slow you down from hitting 50, which without dialogue and constant space barring, would take like 5-6 days.

[otherworlder]

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.

 

What about the time spent adding it/tweaking it/cleaning it up/testing it? The animators working on the characters speaking the dialogue? The overhead that goes into any sound recording process?

 

If you think a lot of money and time won't be spent on this, you're underestimating how complex and expensive a process it is.

 

It's good to know the VO artists have already been paid (though I note you didn't include a source for that info), but it won't change the fact that a lot of money and time will need to continue being spent to retain this feature that could better be spent on actual gameplay and features.

Edited May 11, 2012 by otherworlder

[discosoc]

I like the voice overs the first few times, but the whole feature seems wasted on an MMO. Especially one that is as linear as SWtOR. Literally 90% of every character you play will be repeated, generic content that you've done before, aside from the first character.

 

Maybe they initially figured that each playthrough would feel unique depending on if you went lightside or darkside, and to a certain degree it does, but the chances to actually make those decisions are pretty infrequent and often superficial anyway; they don't change the quest or story at all.

[GamewizX]

Nothing that you said in any way is in disagreement with what I just said, so I'm not exactly sure why you've said it....

 

I'm mostly seeing an agreement from you that it's extremely easy to level, but nothing that says that dialogue isn't just a cheesy way of *ATTEMPTING* to slow down the leveling process.

 

I didn't say anything about it being a gate to cover up for a lack of leveling content (which I personally do think there is a lack of) it's a gate that is in place to slow you down from hitting 50, which without dialogue and constant space barring, would take like 5-6 days.

 

You think of it as a gate, I think of it as part of the content. Therefore, this game has a ton of content for me.

[Trenter]

It's good to know the VO artists have already been paid, but it won't change the fact that a lot of money will need to continue being spent to retain this feature that could better be spent on actual gameplay and features.

 

I disagree. I'm personally most looking forward to what happens with the story next, with our characters and with the galaxy. For example, adding loads of FPs, OPS and WZs are more of a waste on me. New features are always nice, granted, but the story and the VO need to stay heavily in focus in my opinion.

[Dyvid]

Don't NGE my SWTOR bro!!!

 

Seriously the selling pont of the game was a storybased MMO with voice acting. You don't do a complete 180 on the games core design simply because the monthly warriors stopped playing.

[discosoc]

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.

 

Not directly, no. But voiceovers are a bit of a time sink for implementing. It's not usually as simple as going in, and reading a few lines before calling it a day. At least, not if you want it to have any quality to it.

 

On a side note, I've seen no confirmation that payment has been made in advanced for future voice over work. The voice actors typically have future content obligations as part of their initial contract, but they aren't paid up front for work they have not done.

[Jederix]

Wrong forums to get a biased opinion on your question- to many fanbois and over zelous forum mods lock anything or bash anything that puts a dampner on this game

 

There is plenty of rational conversation going on in this thread. Just because you consider everyone who doesn't see things your way as a "fanboi" doesn't change that fact.

 

And fanboi is the last resort of a poster who has nothing better to say except to call those who disagree with them names.

[Demonwar]

thats exactly what im talking about my friend..

 

if you sit through every cut scene and every conversation choice with your 4th alt then i really want to swap lives with you because you either have the attention span of a fish or fair too much time on your hands.

 

No different to any other quest based mmo then.

 

If you don't like the amount of cash someone made up about the cost of this game and the over use of the spacebar then find another game.

[discosoc]

No different to any other quest based mmo then.

 

If you don't like the amount of cash someone made up about the cost of this game and the over use of the spacebar then find another game.

 

The main difference with other quest-based mmo's is that they tend to offer at least a few different paths for leveling. WoW is a classic example, and an experience many people are probably using for comparison. On any given faction, you generally have at least two or three zones you can choose to level in, at any given level, with only a few exceptions (starting zone and Hellfire Pen, namely).

 

With ToR, you basically have one path for each faction.

[Jederix]

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.

 

Then don't play a game that has been advertised as one with story and cutscenes, maybe?

[kurzis]

No different to any other quest based mmo then.

 

If you don't like the amount of cash someone made up about the cost of this game and the over use of the spacebar then find another game.

 

i tried finding another game.... if skyrim was online i'd be there

 

oh wait....

[TheMunny]

People sit around all day dreaming up what they think are whimsical thread titles?

 

Having said that, I'm sold on quality VO. It's one of the reasons I'm not buying GW2..the voice acting sucks. And if I want to read text on a screen these days, I'll use my Kindle.

 

I'll take addictive and FUN game play over ToR's VO any day.

[GamewizX]

I'll take addictive and FUN game play over ToR's VO any day.

 

Good thing I have both with TOR.

[TheMunny]

Good thing I have both with TOR.

 

Give it 3 more months heh heh...

 

Guessing your first MMO was WoW...

[GamewizX]

Give it 3 more months heh heh...

 

Guessing your first MMO was WoW...

 

First MMO was SWG, and the list of MMOs I've played just off the top of my head are SWG, MO, LOTRO, CO, COH, STO, EVE, WOW, DCUO, Aion, and a slew of other smaller named MMOs.

 

And I've been playing this game since last August when I got into beta.

 

Try again.

 

 

Edit: Oh, add WAR to that list. Also, I'm only counting the games where I've had at least a 3 month subscription to.

Edited May 11, 2012 by GamewizX

[TheOnlyKyrenS]

I only space barred the missions I've already done.

[kurzis]

First MMO was SWG, and the list of MMOs I've played just off the top of my head are SWG, MO, LOTRO, CO, COH, STO, EVE, WOW, DCUO, Aion, and a slew of other smaller named MMOs.

 

And I've been playing this game since last August when I got into beta.

 

Try again.

 

you must have the opposite of midas touch

 

 

just waiting for this game to turn from gold to crap now