Voice overs potentially ToRs downfall?

[Soluss]

The best part of the game. Also could potentially be TORs biggest problem. We all know that leveling was the best aspect of the game. I think everyone could agree it was enjoyable, atleast the first time through. I think its going to hurt the game in the long run.

 

Reason 1... Voice overs are too costly to make. It takes a lot of money to not only pay the actors, for all the voice over work, but to also code everything and design cutscenes for it. The game is not doing as well as they had hoped it would do. F2P may turn that around and it may not. The funding may not be there for future voice over work.

 

Reason 2 ... Time it takes to create. Voice over work takes time. Not only in recording and editing but also, like above, in coding and cut scene design... syncing etc. I think that BW was pretty ambitious about future content and what they thought they could do.

 

I believe that because voice over work is both time consuming and costly, that it may not be that often. I dont think we will see the qaulity or quantity, of the leveling game, in the future. I think the past products are showing this already. We have had no story updates. The new dailies are all from a terminal, instead of quest givers with voice over. The planet Makeb has said to have world arc stories but no class stories and no companion stories, even though there will be a level cap increase. Sadly, I think the best part of the game is going to fall to the wayside for quicker and cheaper content. I also believe that this will turn away those that play the game for that experience alone. If that happens it will only get worse.

 

I think they would have been better off using voice over work for class story and companions as well as major world arc stories. I think all the side quests they should have just been like a terminal or the standard text box. This would have saved them in budget and time and those resources could have been allocated elsewhere. I dont expect to see the same quality as we had at launch, in the future.

[Sarfux]

I enjoy the voice overs. But...

 

I agree that if they spent as much time as they did perfecting the voice over content and spent 100,200 mill on the core of the game itself we would have a full flight space game, chat bubbles, customizable ships, more planets, faster load speeds, more classes, races, more spaceships to choose from, more things to encounter, and they could have had every planet being level 1-50 content. Want to level on Hoth? BAM! Want to level on Tatooine? BAM! Want to level any planet any time? BAM!

 

If they didn't put all their eggs into one basket such as strictly voice over, they could have had A LOT more things to do in this game. It's nice and all listening to the stories, for I LOVE the immersion, but I do agree with you. We would be getting content at a MUCH faster rate and I doubt it would have gone f2p option. That's honestly what I think about the whole thing.

[The_Duck]

if they ONLY did class voiceovers and all else normal then I agree there would have been much more time for innovation and management of other areas.

 

Think about the manpower and management involved with implementing hundreds of hours of voiceovers and graphics and synching, etc.

 

You need to involve so many groups. Also, this is time taken away from management who could otherwise be overseeing another part of the game.

 

shoulda/woulda/coulda. doesn't matter now though ...

[Sarfux]

if they ONLY did class voiceovers and all else normal then I agree there would have been much more time for innovation and management of other areas.

 

Think about the manpower and management involved with implementing hundreds of hours of voiceovers and graphics and synching, etc.

 

You need to involve so many groups. Also, this is time taken away from management who could otherwise be overseeing another part of the game.

 

shoulda/woulda/coulda. doesn't matter now though ...

 

You are correct. Class missions would have been GREAT for them to do. But nothing else. All others could have been done like when you get a new mission from the bounty box, just pops up and you accept it That's what I honestly think. When I truly think about it now. wow..did I just say that? lol

[Talimar]

Voice overs have nothing to do with the failure of this single player online RPG.

[Sarfux]

Voice overs have nothing to do with the failure of this single player online RPG.

if you are going to say it's a single player game then so is wow, tera, eve, aion, dcuo, and all the rest because every single one of them you can solo easy, no problem.

 

MMO is = having hundreds or thousands (considered massive) of people all online at the same time playing with each other in a world/universe. That's an mmo.

[Sarfux]

actually I agree with OP to an extent. But the true downfall of this game and then needing to go the f2p option is EA rushing it out the door (i.e. warhammer online) and EA constantly firing the people who had a certain vision for this game when BioWare was BIOWARE and not EAWARE and them dismantling the greatest gaming company that once existed! THATS what ruined this game. BioWare had a vision, before EA. BioWare was making it what the fans wanted. Then EA bought BioWare and EA thought they could make it a cash cow. All they saw was BioWare + mmo + Star Wars= money!!! They don't care about reputations, they only care about money. How cold.

 

EA

Edited September 3, 2012 by Sarfux

[Soluss]

I enjoy the voice overs. But...

 

I agree that if they spent as much time as they did perfecting the voice over content and spent 100,200 mill on the core of the game itself we would have a full flight space game, chat bubbles, customizable ships, more planets, faster load speeds, more classes, races, more spaceships to choose from, more things to encounter, and they could have had every planet being level 1-50 content. Want to level on Hoth? BAM! Want to level on Tatooine? BAM! Want to level any planet any time? BAM!

 

If they didn't put all their eggs into one basket such as strictly voice over, they could have had A LOT more things to do in this game. It's nice and all listening to the stories, for I LOVE the immersion, but I do agree with you. We would be getting content at a MUCH faster rate and I doubt it would have gone f2p option. That's honestly what I think about the whole thing.

 

This would have rocked. I think it would have retained alot more subs this way. Your post was pretty much what I was getting at.

[Master-Nala]

Voice overs have nothing to do with the failure of this single player online RPG.

 

Repeating this tired canard (especially while maintaining a sub) shows how little weight anyone should give to your ideas.

[TheBetty]

I don't think it's going to be that much of a problem for them. If they really wanted to cut costs,they can recycle old voice overs adding bits and pieces to cover new content. As well as recycling alien voice overs, it all sounds the same just different sub titles lol.

[Ricktur]

having to fully voice content means slower content updates.

 

i was thinking this before the game even launched.

[WhillB]

recycling alien voice overs, it all sounds the same just different sub titles lol.

 

 

True

[Talimar]

Repeating this tired canard (especially while maintaining a sub) shows how little weight anyone should give to your ideas.

 

I'm sorry, I don't recall saying I don't like the game. My like for the game is obvious, I am here, I am paying. This does not take away from the fact that it's mostly a single player game with a very directed experience and a definite end point. Just because I plan to play all 8 classes before I move on doesn't mean others didn't move on after just 1.

 

If you think they took resources away from core game development to do voice acting, then you seriously have no idea how games are made, especially one with the budget and resources of EA. This is the game Bioware wanted to make. If they chose ot make text based quests instead, they would have budgeted far, far less to make the game. They spent 100's of millions because that's what their design called for, and the brass expected that would be value for money. EA didn't just throw down 100 mil and say have at it Bioware!

 

You really think they would have made an open space game like SWG? Go take a look at KOTOR. This is what Bioware thinks we like.

[Lord_of_Mu]

This would have rocked. I think it would have retained alot more subs this way. Your post was pretty much what I was getting at.

 

At this point I think us, the vocal minority are well aware of that. And maybe those few that decide to read our posts on these forums.

 

The strong point of TOR is the story and voice acting work, the weak points are all the rest. Which is really why we're in the state we're in. Taking what the industry leader (World of Warcraft) does and adding what Bioware does best (Story and voice over) isn't a recipe for success.

 

At this point I doubt we'd be able to go back to text based missions, we've come too far to turn back now. It's pretty much up to Bioware to redefine or redesign the three pillars of their game.

[Darth_Victus]

No.

 

The voiceovers in the game make it stand out. It is a good quality of the game and really makes the NPC's feel more alive rather then just a wall of text thrown at the player.

 

Personally, I blame EA for TOR's downfall. As a distributor, they don't understand the MMO market. They only look for fast financial gain. As we all know, MMO's are not quick money, but rather make it back and more in the long term with subscriptions and cash shops. EA didn't grasp this concept and looked to cash out on BioWare's reputation for making compelling story driven games and the Star Wars franchise, with BioWares previous success with the original Knights of the Old Republic.

 

One would figure that would of been a knock out combination right there.

 

Of course that didn't happen. While I do not think the game is a failure. It is managing to slowly draw some players back as more things are tidiously being fixed and added. New content coming; though BioWare could work a little better on its time table distribution of the new content.

 

Just my two credits.

[Kophar]

The voice overs its what distincts this game from everyone one out there. It gives immersion to the storyline of your character like no other MMO had done it before.

Personnaly i cant play any other game without this type of voice over.

LOVE IT!!! Keep it coming BW. Your doomfall community will understand you sooner or later.

Edited September 3, 2012 by Kophar

[pauljc]

 

The strong point of TOR is the story and voice acting work, the weak points are all the rest.

 

What I don't get is the jump in logic from this statement to "They should de-emphasize voice acting/story in the future (i.e. the ONE thing the game knocked out of the park)".

 

Without the voice acting this really is just a reskinned WoW.

[Knightsire]

The voice overs its what distincts this game from everyone one out there. It gives immersion to the storyline of your character like no other MMO had done it before.

Personnaly i cant play any other game without this type of voice over.

LOVE IT!!! Keep it coming BW. Your doomfall community will understand you sooner or later.

 

Yes, I agree completely. It sets a new standard for me.

[tolaf]

Voice overs are the only thing that makes this game bearable, but ironiclly it's the reason they cut corners every where else and why they can't do any decent updates.

[Soluss]

What I don't get is the jump in logic from this statement to "They should de-emphasize voice acting/story in the future (i.e. the ONE thing the game knocked out of the park)".

 

Without the voice acting this really is just a reskinned WoW.

 

Well, from my standpoint.. Im not talking about taking the voice overs away from the game. I just think they should leave it to the class quests and major world arcs. I dont think its necessary for every single side quest. I just think they could utitlize resources elsewhere and produce different types of content and at a faster rate.

[RobNightfall]

if you are going to say it's a single player game then so is wow, tera, eve, aion, dcuo, and all the rest because every single one of them you can solo easy, no problem.

 

MMO is = having hundreds or thousands (considered massive) of people all online at the same time playing with each other in a world/universe. That's an mmo.

 

Which is something this game does not facilitate. More than 20 and it becomes a lag fest. I think he was trying to indicate that if they spent the money on core development and not on voice overs, the results would have been an MMO, and not a single player online RPG.

[oakamp]

The voice overs its what distincts this game from everyone one out there. It gives immersion to the storyline of your character like no other MMO had done it before.

Personnaly i cant play any other game without this type of voice over.

LOVE IT!!! Keep it coming BW. Your doomfall community will understand you sooner or later.

 

true,

even gw2 has its own class voice,

but i dont really need all sub quests are all voice over,

we just need class story has voice,

 

but again, this downfall is because of EA , and the game engine.

[SilentKitty]

The voice overs its what distincts this game from everyone one out there. It gives immersion to the storyline of your character like no other MMO had done it before.

Personnaly i cant play any other game without this type of voice over.

LOVE IT!!! Keep it coming BW. Your doomfall community will understand you sooner or later.

 

I'm with you =) love the voices and really missed it during the last event when my poor little JK was silent the whole time. If they stopped having voices, I would find it much less enjoyable.

[krystianswtor]

i skip through most cutscenes so i dont care much about voice overs. thus potentially making voice overs the downfall of swtor because much less ppl care about them than you think - and creating a new class with so many dialogues will be impossible for them lol

[Yogol]

Voice overs have nothing to do with the failure of this single player online RPG.

 

I agree with both you and the OP.

 

The fact that the voiceovers make it harder to add levels, does indeed make the expansions more expensive. But that is a problem for long-term planning.

 

It's not the reason why most people left the game already. They got more problems with short-term fidelity that should be adressed. But those problems aren't being adressed at all.

 

Voiceovers are a nice bonus, yes. But not the reason why people play a MMO.