Would you accept no voiceovers if it meant more frequent content?

[The_Grand_Nagus]

With only a few exceptions, the majority of the missions in TOR have fully voiced dialog. While this certainly adds to the immersion of the game, it also makes the content development process more expensive and time consuming. Some people feel that it is "worth the wait", while others would rather sacrifice the voiceovers to see more content more often.

 

Would you accept no voiceovers if it meant more frequent content? (click link to vote)

 

After you vote, please share your thoughts

[Soul_of_Flames]

If your character speaks or if your character speaks to an NPC, I fully expect it to be voiced for continuity sake.

 

However, I don't mind text based missions, like from mission terminals.

Edited September 15, 2013 by Soul_of_Flames

[Gomla]

To be honest, the voice overs were great the first time round.

 

Class quests I can still sit through but the planet quests and other side quests get old real fast, my spacebar has taken a beating over this game.

 

I'd be quite happy to miss out on voice acting if it was easier to make content that way.

 

Fortunately I learned to read at a young age so quest text would not bother me.

[Trevalon]

Welcome to Everquest 2.

 

The first voiced MMO - At least till its first expansion pack - when Sony realized that it was completely not feasible to keep using VO on everything - Money or Time wise.

 

So all expansion after that were not voiced except for the "epic" questlines.

 

Since then EQ2 is now on its...10th? expansion and has more content than pretty much any other MMO on the market today (even EQ1 imo).

 

My answer: Yes, drop the voice acting - it was a bad idea when Sony did it for EQ and a bad idea when Bioware did it for SWTOR.

[Nemmar]

Yes, i heard this from the FFXIV ARR producer aswell. If it means more content i am fine with there beeing less voice acting. Have voice acting for the Class quest and world quest and the rest we can just pick up from a terminal.

Actually, thats pretty much what happened with Makeb already, minus the class stories (wich can be just like 2 per planet aswell, aslong as there are some).

Heck, the planet story can not be voice aswell for all i care. I realised that companion quests would be more important for that voiced content.

 

The No option also has merit and can be misleading. I would find the content worth waiting for aswell, but only if we were promised in advance that this content was gonna come. Iddeally though, a mix would be the best.

Edited September 15, 2013 by Nemmar

[Blackardin]

Tough choice as the voice overs are what helped to bring my character to life. However, I'd have to look at it logically. Do I pine away for content that will not happen, or do I take a bit less to get that content (class storyline).

 

Sort of like turning down a job that will make you 200 dollars (instead of the desired 400), when you have nothing on the schedule. You take 200 or nothing.

Edited September 15, 2013 by Blackardin

[Shadray]

Just have aliens give the quests, not like I can understand them anyway, they could reuse the same VO for many quests.

[Lesaberisa]

Is there any indication that voice acting has any kind of significant impact on the speed of content? In other words, I'm not getting the point of this topic. The only comment I can recall is one that specifically states that voice acting is not as expensive as people think.

 

I don't think dailies or every single side quest needs to be voiced, but I don't think quests being voiced or not really has any kind of substantive impact.

Edited September 15, 2013 by Lesaberisa

[Silko]

The voice overs where great for the class story and the main planet story. But do we really need a 5 min convo about going out and collecting 5 of item x? At this point I believe BW should save the voice overs for the primary story arc which is the War and the Dread Masters. Voice overs for game events? Sure why not but not every quest needs a voice over. Terms are great and should be used as they are being used now and possibly even more.

[MajikMyst]

I don't think everything needs to be voiced over.. Sure.. A main story line or quest line.. Perhaps the story that explains an Op or a flashpoint or something.. I mean most of the dailies now are not voiced..

 

I am fine with it.. I just want the content..

[tyranusdarec]

I would accept minimal voice overs. Important things voiced over. Everything else use terminals. While the whole voice over thing was cool at first.... now its kinda worn thin to me. I am getting to the point I space bar through everything.

[oJebuso]

Is there any indication that voice acting has any kind of significant impact on the speed of content? In other words, I'm not getting the point of this topic. The only comment I can recall is one that specifically states that voice acting is not as expensive as people think.

 

I don't think dailies or every single side quest needs to be voiced, but I don't think quests being voiced or not really has any kind of substantive impact.

 

This, as far as I know Bioware said VO was the easiest/cheapest part of SWTOR. I don't think it makes as big an impact on developing speed as some people think.

[Alpha-Llama]

i like the voiceovers it adds to the game. I sometimes forget to press space because the game is immersing. Text is just walls of text to me.

[JediRelentless]

Is there any indication that voice acting has any kind of significant impact on the speed of content? In other words, I'm not getting the point of this topic. The only comment I can recall is one that specifically states that voice acting is not as expensive as people think.

 

I don't think dailies or every single side quest needs to be voiced, but I don't think quests being voiced or not really has any kind of substantive impact.

 

My feelings exactly.

[Elfa]

The problem I see is that they didn't think ahead well enough when designing their content system. I mean they were bragging when this game was in development that they were going to keep their whole team and pump out new content.

 

EA then pushed them into early release to please investors and impatient fans and when the sub numbers dropped, they freaked out and took a **** on the entire staff of Bioware.

 

Now, we have a F2P option bringing in the masses and seemingly half the game's resources are geared at Cartel Market releases for fast and easy money while games like GW2 who have no sub system at all are pumping out new content every fort night.

 

Now understand that I've been here since launch and I'm not leaving anytime soon for any other game but to be outdone by GW2 is frankly embarrassing. One has to wonder where is all the quick cash the're making going to? The game seemingly isn't seeing it's fair share of reinvestment of that cash. I want to support the market more to help support the game but I feel like the money I'm giving isn't being put back into this game in the form of content anywhere near fast enough. Hell, for the amount of cash they're raking in from the Cartel Market, they aren't even releasing content for it fast enough.

 

Yes, we're getting new content faster than before, sure, but before wasn't exactly normal to begin with. Frankly, I like the voice overs but at this point I'll accept whatever. We have enough daily and reputation areas, we need more stories, more FP's, more Op's, more innovation.

 

I have faith in this game and I'll keep my sub here to whatever end, but in return I hope I'll see faster content releases and better reinvestment of capital.

Edited September 15, 2013 by Elfa

[GalacticKegger]

Voice acted (not voiced over) quest interaction is this game's pride & joy. So no, I wouldn't. If I wanted blind click-and-go quest grinding then I'd go play, well ... pretty much any other MMO out there.

 

Since launch there has been a faction complaining that the game is too much like other MMOs. Those same folks have also been complaining since launch that TOR needs to be more like other MMOs if it is to survive. They're talking out of both sides of their mouth.

 

No mistake was made in how the game was designed or is played. Bioware was publicly touting their game's VA quest interaction system long before it ever came out of alpha. They delivered and I love it.

Edited September 15, 2013 by GalacticKegger

[chuixupu]

"[Voice acting] was a known entity, and cost was quite low in comparison to the cost of the rest of the project." In other words, BioWare had been there and done that with voice acting already in its other games and budgeted accordingly. However, BioWare did not have a tested platform to build an MMO. Much of the cost was funneled toward creating an engine that supported a team of over 300 people working on it at the same time and adding choice and consequence to the MMO story. "Don't be scared about adding voice over and cool cinematic content," he advised his audience, "but do be careful about adding lots of choice with consequence because that adds to QA cost and development cost and makes it hard to design everything.

 

Voice overs aren't a problem.

 

But to answer the question, no. It's more complicated than that. Do we need voice overs for every little thing? no, but I think they've already moved past that and eliminated a lot of VO that isn't necessary in the process.

[Lunafox]

I think I could live with reading regular quests from NPC's, but in Class and companion and main storyline quests, voice is important.

 

I would be quite happy, if my character, companions and a few main characters only would speak. It's a compromise I could live with, if it mean I'd get more Individual Class and Companion stories. I really don't need some random Moff to tell me to kill 20 banthas and find the data they were smuggling, but I like it when Darth Marr gives out the orders/requests for main stuff, and definitely, the companions have to be voiced.

[Rafaman]

Checked in on WoW recently. Ran around... got a few quests... started to read the story as it relates to the quest and the associated objectives... didn't finish, and logged off.

 

So, for me, no. Voice acting and good story are key. I'll wait.

Edited September 15, 2013 by Rafaman

[Arkanzues]

Nope, I love the voice in game on everything, brings the whole universe to life when everyone speaks, this game has only been out for a year and has plenty of content within the year and more content is coming up soon....they're fine how they are going in my opinion.

 

Think if they DID release more frequent content, then they run out of ideas quicker in the long run. Things become more repetitive when it comes to things.

 

That's just my personal opinion though.

[Gomla]

Is there any indication that voice acting has any kind of significant impact on the speed of content? In other words, I'm not getting the point of this topic. The only comment I can recall is one that specifically states that voice acting is not as expensive as people think.

 

I don't think dailies or every single side quest needs to be voiced, but I don't think quests being voiced or not really has any kind of substantive impact.

 

Not really a major impact but I know a few of the folks that do voices for this game also work on other projects so pulling them all in would probably be time consuming.

 

Back to topic.....

 

People keep bringing expense up. The OP isn't mentioning the cost but the speed of creating content.

 

It sounds logical that creating a few text based quests would be quicker than creating full cut scene quests.

 

That may not be the case, I know nothing about game design, but it sounds like an easier and quicker job.

[TheLexinator]

No. I want as much VO as possible. The VO, story, and atmosphere are literally the only reasons I play TOR.

[Andryah]

With only a few exceptions, the majority of the missions in TOR have fully voiced dialog. While this certainly adds to the immersion of the game, it also makes the content development process more expensive and time consuming. Some people feel that it is "worth the wait", while others would rather sacrifice the voiceovers to see more content more often.

 

Would you accept no voiceovers if it meant more frequent content? (click link to vote)

 

After you vote, please share your thoughts

 

Quality, NOT quantity. Voice over adds a new dimension of quality of play in MMOs.

 

And I will not vote in any more of your "polls"

[The_Grand_Nagus]

And I will not vote in any more of your "polls"

 

Maybe not, but hanks for the bump!

Edited September 15, 2013 by The_Grand_Nagus

[Lenlo]

Do what Besthesda does and have unique and general VOs.

 

Example: Satele Shan or Darth Marr get their own VOs. Random quest givers or non story characters get one of fourteen VOs who rotate around for variety's sake.