How many folks would be bothered if the VO was scaled back to only class quests?

[Shaith]

It would bother me immensely, and is counter-productive to what this game is about. So wear out your spacebar or ask for a option where you can cut off Voice Options.

 

think you can to an extent - isn't there already an auto-skip movies toggle?

[Blavatsky]

I don't think I would mind if the side quests and world quests were scaled back to being the classic wall of text to read rather than a full-blown cut-scene. I love the class stories and what VO does for them, but if it helped with development resources, I would not mind seeing the side and world quests scaled off of full VO.

 

I think this is a great idea

 

should also have an option to remove them entirely from FPs

[Fomore]

what i am wondering about is wy still use voice actors. With computer and sound technology it is posible to get everything voiced over without even to have a single person talking. But yea without the voice overs ya kill the only thing that makes this game stand out.

[curzen]

I'd be bothered and see it as a strong indication that the game is withering away.

[Photoshop]

The only good part of Swtor that stands out from other MMOs is the VO.

 

Take that out and swtor will have nothing original.

[Lionflash]

what i am wondering about is wy still use voice actors. With computer and sound technology it is posible to get everything voiced over without even to have a single person talking. But yea without the voice overs ya kill the only thing that makes this game stand out.

 

Uhm...lol not exaclty. Humans are still needed it seems, unless you want Siri to voice all of SWTOR, the game would sound robotic and monotone. She would do well with the droids but that's abou it.

[Jett-Rinn]

I would hate it....I like the Vo I'm not here to read walls of text or to ignore the quest because I want to level the umpteeth million alt

 

If they start cutting corners I'll move on.

[Kaisernick]

i would unsub to the game if they did.

[Alexi_son]

It wouldn't bother me at all. I miss most of the voice overs now because the audio is buggy and doesn't play the sound a good portion of the time anyway. I enjoy it when it works, but its sort of like rolling a yahtzee.

[Kubernetic]

Dailies I'd expect to be short or nonexistent. Flashpoints and Ops equally so in some cases.

 

But those are a lot different from the next chapters of content on the way with Chapter 4 and beyond. Those non-class quests are vital IMHO to the feeling of the game. And I'm perfectly fine with them focusing their resources there.

[JediElf]

It would bother me immensely, and is counter-productive to what this game is about. So wear out your spacebar or ask for a option where you can cut off Voice Options.

 

This! ^

 

If the voices got scaled back, I'd unsub in a heartbeat.

 

The voices and cinematics, are what make SW:TOR so special, and so unique, among MMOs.

Edited May 24, 2012 by JediElf

[mattgyver]

I seem to have misjudged the tone around here. Cool. Thanks for your opinions folks.

 

I only like VO for the class quests and some of the more involved quests that have several parts. Other than that I can take it or leave it.

 

I do believe that they should have random mission terminals that groups or singles can grab that are targeted to random spawns, in random locations somewhere out in the worlds. Let 50s do missions on other worlds. This would be better than dailies.

Edited May 24, 2012 by mattgyver

[Akea]

I'd be in favor of VO's being scaled back to just class quests.

[JediElf]

I would be bothered quite a lot. Full game VO is one of the main reasons why SWToR got my attention.

 

Also this.

 

Seriously, if you guys thought that the sub number were low now (I don't think they are, at all, but folks like to say that on the boards)? You have no idea how empty this place would be if they scaled back the most of the VO, for this game.

 

This game, would be a ghost town.

Edited May 24, 2012 by JediElf

[Monoth]

I don't think I would mind if the side quests and world quests were scaled back to being the classic wall of text to read rather than a full-blown cut-scene. I love the class stories and what VO does for them, but if it helped with development resources, I would not mind seeing the side and world quests scaled off of full VO.

 

I think were already seeing them cut back on VO's, look at Black Hole all the quests are given on a Terminal with text..... Only Voice acting was the news guy on the space station explaining Black Hole...

 

I would expect to see more of this happening with the free content stuff, very minimal VO's which is fine with me, I imagine the Expansions will be full of VO's but in order to get the free content out on a timely manner they need to keep doing what they did in Black Hole... .IMO anyways..

[Annedromeda]

I really enjoy the VO content. To me, it gives the game more life. I think to remove the human voices, or any voices, would be like sterilising the game. On second thought, it would almost be like ripping the heart out of the game. With out the voices, you remove the life, in my opinion.

 

Edited for:

In addition, I'm not worried about getting more content. I have still WAY to many things to do to be worried about new stuff. By the time I get my 2nd level 50 there would have been an expansion out anyway.

Edited May 24, 2012 by Annedromeda

[Alexi_son]

Real world economics hinge on cost vs. gain and return on investment.

 

SWToR has a fixed production budget, regardless of how its split up into various internal sub-teams.

 

Folks can argue till they are blue in the face how adding voiceovers is a different team than new content development, but the simple facts are that all of those sub-teams roll up into a project budget. And budget allocation for a lot of actors and scripts to do voice acting and cutscenes takes away from the other budget pools.

 

I would like more features and less cutscenes and voice acting. Class quest line VO would be plenty. Maybe final bosses in an Op.

[Nyla]

...

I imagine the Expansions will be full of VO's but in order to get the free content out on a timely manner they need to keep doing what they did in Black Hole... .IMO anyways..

 

I don't get that timely manner, it doesn't take much time, it's done in parallel and can be done early just after the writers wrote the stories and way before the developpers finished what's needed for thoses quests.

[Gungan]

Not bothered at all. They're just using mission terminals for new quests anyways.

[JediElf]

I really enjoy the VO content. To me, it gives the game more life. I think to remove the human voices, or any voices, would be like sterilising the game. On second thought, it would almost be like ripping the heart out of the game. With out the voices, you remove the life, in my opinion.

 

Edited for:

In addition, I'm not worried about getting more content. I have still WAY to many things to do to be worried about new stuff. By the time I get my 2nd level 50 there would have been an expansion out anyway.

 

You've summed up my final thoughts on this, really well.

 

Voice Acting may be a nuisance to some, but to some of us, it's everything.

[sumoftwosins]

I like the voice overs. I don't mind that repeatable quests, like Black Hole are just given by the terminal. There really isn't any story to those. Just go kill stuff. The Heroic, which has story, does have VO's. I'm in this back because I'm a Star Wars fan, not a traditionalist MMO player.

 

VO work isn't that resource intensive. You mail the VO artist their lines. They usually do this in their own setup. The send back the files. They are run through a generator to create a file for LIP movement. Done.

[Alexi_son]

Also this.

 

Seriously, if you guys thought that the sub number were low now (I don't think they are, at all, but folks like to say that on the boards)? You have no idea how empty this place would be if they scaled back the most of the VO, for this game.

 

This game, would be a ghost town.

 

In its current state, with its current features, yes. But, if VO was gutted to provide more content, real planets with a more majestic world feel and not isolated pocket zones for a fixed level range, real space exploration and combat, attackable/defendable guild capital ships, etc. Just more active and interactive world features instead of cutscenes to spacebar through after the 3rd or 4th dozen time you've seen it.

[DevonDs]

I would be bothered quite a bit. Some of my favorite quests have been general, non class quests. It would also say to me that the game was giving up on being story driven and was going to join the endless number of PVP sandbox and Raiding MMo's that are already out there.

 

I enjoy this game more than any other MMO I have ever played and the main reason for that is Story.... not just the VO, but the way story permiates the game experience, from simple emails to the relationship with our companions and so much more. I have a feeling that it is inevitable that this game will end up being a PVP focussed "online sport competition game". Nothing wrong with games like that, I just thought that maybe the market woudl support one game based more on "enjoying an expereince" than on "beating the game", or other players.

[Annedromeda]

You've summed up my final thoughts on this, really well.

 

Voice Acting may be a nuisance to some, but to some of us, it's everything.

 

Thanks for that, I was really struggling with being able to clearly articulate how VO makes me feel, but I think in the end really, I feel the words fit how I feel. There is no better way to explain it I think.

 

(I just realised there was liberal use of "feeling" in this reply. Ach well.)

[Talorya]

It would bother me as well, the voice over is what sets this game apart.

 

Indeed, aside from the voice overs, this game has little to offer in terms of MMO basics.

With the voice overs, the game is fantastic and bearable, without, it's just another grind and borefest.

 

The problem isn't with VOs, but the base design and content they're coming out being outdated and inadequate.

 

In its current state, with its current features, yes. But, if VO was gutted to provide more content, real planets with a more majestic world feel and not isolated pocket zones for a fixed level range, real space exploration and combat, attackable/defendable guild capital ships, etc. Just more active and interactive world features instead of cutscenes to spacebar through after the 3rd or 4th dozen time you've seen it.

This isn't VO issue, but design, gutting VO would still result in the same spacebarring and not reading with repeated quests.

Solution? Rotate out the quests, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or change the quests slightly with different goals and rewards. They always record more lines than they use, this is a great way to use it and keep player interest high at all times.

 

Again, the real issue is with the game design, not VO.

Edited May 24, 2012 by Talorya