Voiced Missions not Worth It in the End

[Neloth]

I loved the voice acting. It really pulled me into the story.....the first time. Now I space bar everything except class story line when leveling an alt. I had thought that I would want to play the different 'decision' trees through the conversation, but have found them to be inconsequential making the replay not worthwhile.

 

So this I believe will be the first and last MMORPG that offers such an extensive voiced narrative. The cost benefit does not exist to support it. The lead time required for development is also a problem.

 

What do you think?

 

Fully voiced is the only games I'll accept from now on. I can't see myself ever playing a text-quest based mmo ever again, it just plain sux in comparison. I'm glad The Elder Scrolls Online will be fully voiced as well, I don't expect TOR level of story but think I'll be fun.

[Master-Nala]

Well, if all the players that purchased this game were told those exact words by Bioware BEFORE they spent their money, this game would have sold 10% of what it did. Most players play for endgame, end of story.

 

Unsubstantiated statistics don't help your case. You don't know what 'most' people play for. Historically, in most games, people play for a lot of different reasons. Endgame appeals to some. PvP to another. House-decorating even has its fans.

 

Bioware did tell folks that this was a heavily story-focused MMO. They said they would have some raids (operations), but they never said that the game starts at end-game. I'm sorry you weren't paying attention.

[Master-Nala]

Except you ARE killing 10 droids and gathering 5 hides. It's just with voice acting at the beginning and end.

 

No you're not. Yes, there are some quests like that. But there are many more like the Tatooine planetary quest where you're

interacting with ancient aliens, killing mecha zombies, and pissing off the natives.

 

[Chrysantemum]

The money spent for the rest would have been much better used in developping other aspects of a true MMO that many were hoping for:

- lifestyle tools like LFG tool

- a real space combat with cooperative and PVP versions

- world PVP, with vehicle combat, siege, large battlegrounds

- a more dynamic world, which doesnt feel like a wax museum, with mobile mobs (funny hey, mobs are static in TOR, quite a contradiction) and a sense of a living world, you know simple things like 2 patrols of opposite faction engaging each other when and if they meet, not just static spawns pretend shooting at each other, regardless of there is something to shoot at or not.

- big planets worth exploring where every square metre of land is not flagged with an arrow that says "your next quest is here"

- more public dungeon / heroic areas with challenges and loot that make it worthwhile geting a group to crawl through

etc...

 

Interestingly enough, I still vastly prefer full VO over every single item on your list. For me, it's the voice-acting that brings swtor to life and, in my opinion, having only class quests voiced and the rest text just doesn't cut it.

[Gungan]

No you're not. Yes, there are some quests like that. But there are many more like the Tatooine planetary quest where you're

interacting with ancient aliens, killing mecha zombies, and pissing off the natives.

 

By killing them or stealing stuff off the ground.

[Gungan]

Interestingly enough, I still vastly prefer full VO over every single item on your list. For me, it's the voice-acting that brings swtor to life and, in my opinion, having only class quests voiced and the rest text just doesn't cut it.

 

So you like to watch movies -> Go watch an actual movie.

 

Games need gameplay, and a persistent world needs to have things happening in which all players can participate.

Edited May 12, 2012 by Gungan

[Vlacke]

Story in this game is fantastic and voice overs are top notch, it's one of the reasons i like and play this game.

[vsalcedo]

For me too. It helps me to immerse into the game. Even if it's my 5th alt, it still helps me. I end up caring more about the planet struggles and the npc requests.

 

I'm one of the players who only listens to the good stories, like I skip thru most of the Hoth stuff bu always listen to mot of Voss or Belsavis. Cor story I dont care for much, Balmorras got great music the story is just blah but on the Rep side Im glad darth lachris is killed by me shes such a *****.

[vsalcedo]

So you like to watch movies -> Go watch an actual movie.

 

Games need gameplay, and a persistent world needs to have things happening in which all players can participate.

 

There is gameplay...TOR is split into different planets not one like WoW. Of course wow wont have to shard or instance very much. Unless you come up with a way to not shard planets and have the same well written stories that differenciate the Reps Taris with the empires version, dont talk.

[Chrysantemum]

So you like to watch movies -> Go watch an actual movie.

 

Games need gameplay, and a persistent world needs to have things happening in which all players can participate.

 

No need to be condescending. Your opinion is as valid as mine. But let me have mine, at least. I considering VO as much as part of the gameplay as combat and an important part of the narrative.

Edited May 12, 2012 by Chrysantemum

[Ghaiana]

So you like to watch movies -> Go watch an actual movie.

 

Games need gameplay, and a persistent world needs to have things happening in which all players can participate.

 

VO in this game are part of the gameplay, you make the choices and your chars react according to that.

[Gungan]

VO in this game are part of the gameplay, you make the choices and your chars react according to that.

 

With no consequence to your character, or branching story lines.

Edited May 12, 2012 by Gungan

[WickedDjinn]

Unsubstantiated statistics don't help your case. You don't know what 'most' people play for. Historically, in most games, people play for a lot of different reasons. Endgame appeals to some. PvP to another. House-decorating even has its fans.

 

Bioware did tell folks that this was a heavily story-focused MMO. They said they would have some raids (operations), but they never said that the game starts at end-game. I'm sorry you weren't paying attention.

 

Not really a valid response.

 

While Bioware did say it was story focused, what we actually GOT was a standard, by the numbers, cookie cutter MMO with voice acting inserted.

 

The game follows the theme park MMO model to the letter in every way. How can you blame people for expecting the game to function like what it is?

 

It would be one thing if Bioware had actually created a story based game.. but that's not what this is. Story missions are a fraction of your game time, the rest being the same questing players have been dealing with for the past several years.

[LilSaihah]

It was a bold move, and I think everyone's learnt how VA'd quests can be used effectively. It's great when the questing content is good itself; in particular, the class story content really benefits from it. It doesn't really compensate for unsubstantial gameplay, though.

[Chrysantemum]

The game follows the theme park MMO model to the letter in every way. How can you blame people for expecting the game to function like what it is?

 

It would be one thing if Bioware had actually created a story based game.. but that's not what this is. Story missions are a fraction of your game time, the rest being the same questing players have been dealing with for the past several years.

 

It all depends what you expect from a game. Judging from my own experience, storylines are what I consider to be an important part of my gaming experience. I am a wow refugee, and to be honest, wow's storyline is, in opinion, really mediocre and badly told. What was the blizzard norm again? 150 words of quest text max or something like that? After levelling one character to 80, and later 85, I simply couldn't bear to level another one because of the sheer drudgery of it. And after I threw in the towel on endgame, there was simply nothing left.

 

Enter swtor. I went to this game to get away from all that endgame crap and I was never disappointed. The fully voiced characters are what makes this game a joy for me to play. Bioware promised a storydriven MMO and they delivered and I'm happily playing a small army of characters... none of which will ever set foot in any form of endgame content.

 

Mind you, I'm not saying something like a dungeon finder shouldn't be included for the people that want it. I realize quite well that the fact that I don't miss a DF doesn't mean it's lack is not a problem for someone else who does want it. It's just that the VO and the involved storyline is what makes the game for me personally. Nothing more, nothing less.

[DarthWoad]

I loved the voice acting. It really pulled me into the story.....the first time. Now I space bar everything except class story line when leveling an alt. I had thought that I would want to play the different 'decision' trees through the conversation, but have found them to be inconsequential making the replay not worthwhile.

 

So this I believe will be the first and last MMORPG that offers such an extensive voiced narrative. The cost benefit does not exist to support it. The lead time required for development is also a problem.

 

What do you think?

 

I agree. Although the voice stuff makes it different frmo the other mmos, its not really that interesting. i only listened to my class story, but theneed to get to max level ooverpowered the need to listen to the story.

 

I spacebar all the time, i have no interest in listening to stuff which has no impact on my character at the end of the game, as all the stories are the same for everyone.

[Gungan]

It all depends what you expect from a game. Judging from my own experience, storylines are what I consider to be an important part of my gaming experience. I am a wow refugee, and to be honest, wow's storyline is, in opinion, really mediocre and badly told. What was the blizzard norm again? 150 words of quest text max or something like that? After levelling one character to 80, and later 85, I simply couldn't bear to level another one because of the sheer drudgery of it. And after I threw in the towel on endgame, there was simply nothing left.

 

Enter swtor. I went to this game to get away from all that endgame crap and I was never disappointed. The fully voiced characters are what makes this game a joy for me to play. Bioware promised a storydriven MMO and they delivered and I'm happily playing a small army of characters... none of which will ever set foot in any form of endgame content.

 

Mind you, I'm not saying something like a dungeon finder shouldn't be included for the people that want it. I realize quite well that the fact that I don't miss a DF doesn't mean it's lack is not a problem for someone else who does want it. It's just that the VO and the involved storyline is what makes the game for me personally. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

How can you stand repeating the same side quests 4 times per faction (min to get 1 of every class)?

[Chrysantemum]

How can you stand repeating the same side quests 4 times per faction (min to get 1 of every class)?

 

Very simple reason - because I like it. I want to get at least one character of each advanced class, maybe mix up some races when I unlock more race-class combo's through the legacy system. So that's 16 characters at least. Not quite there yet, but I'm sure that I will.

 

I gather it's for the same reason that people run the same dungeons over and over and over, I guess.

[Kubernetic]

How can you stand repeating the same side quests 4 times per faction (min to get 1 of every class)?

 

Because no matter what kind of game you're playing, you're always going to have a set of quests or missions and a set of goals to complete on that mission. Either it's just pure points scoring, killing a number of mobs, gathering a number of items, dropping a bomb in a location, just surviving your way through a map, something.

 

This is the basic formula of all video games outside of a few exceptions. Most of us do those side missions multiple times because it makes us some more credits and provides a little more loot or commendations as rewards, which then furthers the progress of the game.

[Chrysantemum]

This is the basic formula of all video games outside of a few exceptions. Most of us do those side missions multiple times because it makes us some more credits and provides a little more loot or commendations as rewards, which then furthers the progress of the game.

 

Loot, commendations and credits are definitely a nice extra, and it helps that I'm a completionist. One of the things I really like in swtor is the reward system: you always get something you can use. Loot is always tailored to your advanced class and commendations can give great orange moddable gear. Looking nice > stats, imo.

[Lord_Ravenhurst]

They could totally leave VO out for side quests.

I´m not even playing sidequests anymore. A few exceptions, but mostly the same go there, kill mob, click some stuff which explodes, go back.

Packaging a whole voiceovered story around that is a bit of an overkill. The money is better invested elsewhere... the graphics team.. the programmers... primarily the secret space project team...

Edited May 12, 2012 by Lord_Ravenhurst

[tloops]

No you're not. Yes, there are some quests like that. But there are many more like the Tatooine planetary quest where you're

interacting with ancient aliens, killing mecha zombies, and pissing off the natives.

 

umm yes you are,those mundane quests really dont need voice work

[Kalfear]

I loved the voice acting. It really pulled me into the story.....the first time. Now I space bar everything except class story line when leveling an alt. I had thought that I would want to play the different 'decision' trees through the conversation, but have found them to be inconsequential making the replay not worthwhile.

 

So this I believe will be the first and last MMORPG that offers such an extensive voiced narrative. The cost benefit does not exist to support it. The lead time required for development is also a problem.

 

What do you think?

 

Disagree

 

Fact is if there is one area of TOR that gets constantly good reveiws, its the voice over storyline.

 

Frankly for myself, I doubt I could go back to just reading text again, voice overs are now standard and mandatory for me in MMORPGs.

 

As for cost, we really dont know how much EAoware paid for the voice overs so saying the cost outweights the value is silly and short sighted.

 

I think future projects that start now and going forward will all be voiced over fully and have well written storylines.

 

If TOR taught us anything its that voice over alone will not keep subscribers, you need the voice overs but you also need to focus on traditional MMORPG elements like community and socialization and interaction.

 

EAoware just fooled themselves into thinking the voice overs alone would be enough and now they panicing to fix that mistake. But TORs subscription loss in no way negatively effects the popularity of voice overs.

 

Your trying to tie so many other factors to voice and its not a match.

[Shonuff]

The biggest draw for me in this game was the voice acting. As mainly a console gamer I got tired of readnig through endless scrolls of black text if I wanted to learn the lore of the game. Mass Effect and KOTOR was a big turning point with me with voice overs and story telling. It was one of the reasons I can't get into WoW. I bet half the fans who play the game don't even know what or why the Horde and Alliance are fighting.

 

In other words, SWTOR holds my attention where other MMO's fail to do so. Some MMO's are going that route but not intensivly.

 

Here is where I think the Voice Over work fails. The idea of voice work revolved around your choices. It worked in Mass Effect and KOTOR as well as other games but it falls right on it's rear in SWTOR because if it's not your class quest, any decision you make is pointless and only serves to give you plus or minus Affection/Dark and Lightside points which really don't make a difference. This is probably why most folks here say they don't skip the Class Quest.

 

I don't feel the resources towards voice work hurts development though. Some people like the voice over sidequest. The only people it bothers really are the hardcores that need to get done with a quest in like 2 minutes and point 9 seconds. Even still, people can just mash spacebar and its a done deal. The voice work and story is a seperate team anyways. Content like patches and expansions come from a different team so even if you don't think it's worth it, getting rid of it would'nt make a difference nor would it be consistant with their promis of a fully engating story.

[Tiergan_Manasa]

I loved the voice acting. It really pulled me into the story.....the first time. Now I space bar everything except class story line when leveling an alt. I had thought that I would want to play the different 'decision' trees through the conversation, but have found them to be inconsequential making the replay not worthwhile.

 

So this I believe will be the first and last MMORPG that offers such an extensive voiced narrative. The cost benefit does not exist to support it. The lead time required for development is also a problem.

 

What do you think?

 

Disagree. The voice acting adds a layer of engagement that I like. I suspect extensive voice acting within MMORPGs is actually going to increase as games become more "realistic" over time.

 

That, and I really like hearing Laura Bailey's voice (Kira, BloodRayne). I am just saying it. ;-)