Going forward, should SWTOR drop voice acted PlayerChars?

[Stradlin]

Absolutely Not!

It's the Voices of our characters and the cinematic style of play, that makes Bioware different from every other run of the mill, hack and slash MMO out there.

 

This is bit offtopic and touches the bit off topic bits towards bottom of the OP:

Imho it is bit sad how this is usually seen as such a great thing among gamers. If game storytelling ends up being " cinematic", folks sound as if game had ascended to some new level. As if it "becoming cinematifc" were something stories in games should try to pursue and reach for. Video game storytelling, mmo storytelling in particular could go to so many different directions. "Cinematic" could and should be sad, inferior relic fit to be left behind by games..not some golden goose to chase.

 

Besides that...when it comes to SWTOR's take on cinematic.. PC stands infront of NPC. Camera takes turns cutting to faces of both.Neither usually moves much or does anything. This is cinematic in same way some news anchor interviewing expert via satelite link is cinematic.

[TrixxieTriss]

 

Besides that...when it comes to SWTOR's take on cinematic.. PC stands infront of NPC. Camera takes turns cutting to faces of both.Neither usually moves much or does anything. This is cinematic in same way some news anchor interviewing expert via satelite link is cinematic.

 

I think it’s obvious your view is the minority in this thread and topic. Why do you keep trying to convince people? Anyone would think you are an EA accountant looking for new ways to cut costs at BioWare

Edited December 14, 2021 by TrixxieTriss

[Damask_Rose]

The quality of the recent stories has not been good enough to stand on its own. Bioware would have to dramatically improve the quality of writing to make the stories worth subbing for without the benefit of voice acting. As it stands, if I want to read a good story, I'll pick up a book.

 

Personally, I'm only half engaged with the half-voiced alerts and events, and I'm completely disengaged with the text only missions on Yavin. It doesn't help that there is no animation to those scenes, so we are staring at the back of a non-moving head. Might as well be playing a rock. When I read my characters text, I don't get the same feel for their individual personalities, and that is the biggest draw to my playing and paying.

 

We have begged and begged for Bioware to write letters from our companions as an inexpensive way to help us stay involved with them, but we got crickets. There is zero reason to believe we would get more and better story content if they ditched the voice acting.

[Stradlin]

I think it’s obvious your view is the minority in this thread and topic. Why do you keep trying to convince people? Anyone would think you are an EA accountant looking for new ways to cut costs at BioWare

 

People whose views are in minority should be..silent?

 

I'm sure folks can't be convinced on anything here. Its worth talking about this sometimes though; like as not it'd be only way to get larger expansions again.

 

We have begged and begged for Bioware to write letters from our companions as an inexpensive way to help us stay involved with them, but we got crickets. There is zero reason to believe we would get more and better story content if they ditched the voice acting.

There's some truth to this too ofc. There'd be tons of things in TOR to develop that doesn't have to involve PCVA. GSF, PvP..even ops, FPs, daily areas, new zones. Or things like mail. Tons of stuff like this either requires no PCVA by default or could easily go around such needs. Yet, all of this stuff comes in small, slow drops just as well. So yeah, who knows.Even so, imo it stands to reason that significant part of whatver EA moneybags TOR still has earmarked to it go to Player Char voice acting. Only BW/EA knows the magnitude of these burdens ofc.

Edited December 14, 2021 by Stradlin

[DWho]

No, I think you massively overestimate the cost of the voice over work. The cost of the voice over work is minimal compared to the cost of the Devs time and most of that is spent on group content. Operations and Flashpoints have multiple difficulty levels (generally 3 levels each), each of which need to be balanced against the expected gear level. The solo/story content is not balanced since it is intended to be easy and thus requires little Dev time (and based on the tiny amount we have seen in the last several "expansions" very little writer's time as well). Story/solo content is full of re-used assets while new Flashpoints and Operations are filled with new models, new mechanics, and new abilities for the bosses.

 

Voice actors do not get paid very well which is why you see the same voice actors in a whole bunch of titles. We aren't taking about having Jennifer Lawrence or Tom Cruise doing voice-over work for the game. While the voice over actors may be "famous" in terms of sheer amount of work, very few of them are in demand and thus can claim high salaries. If you wanted to save money, you should start reusing Operations and Flashpoint assets instead of creating new ones. There are so many models and mechanics in Operations and Flashpoints that recombining them in different ways to create "new" content would save tons of time and money.

[xordevoreaux]

The game would become a slideshow without voice acting.

[TrixxieTriss]

People whose views are in minority should be..silent?

.

 

Of course not. But you’re prolifically arguing with everyone else’s points as if ours don’t matter either. You can’t have it one way and not the other.

 

Most of us can see the logical points of your argument, but you are missing our points that it would kill the the game. People would unsub and leave faster than if they just stopped releasing new story content because it would fundamentally change the feel of the game.

 

We also know it wouldn’t entail more story content because EA are all about cutting costs. They would remove the voice actors and reduce the budget at the same time to boost the profit percentage. How do we know this? Because they’ve demonstrated that over and over with this games development and it goes hand in hand with EAs other business practices of milking games and studio’s till they die.

 

What Bioware could do is add more group/end game content and less story (without removing VA). But that comes down to allocation of resources. That might be what they think they are doing with this expansion. Sadly they’re also taking away a lot of player enjoyment by remaking the gearing system and nerfing conquest.

 

Advocating they remove VA as a way to increase more content in expansions will only give the nefarious money managers at EAware more ammunition or ideas on how to strip things out of the game to make more money. They won’t use your idea to boost content or player enjoyment. They will just use it to make more profits.

Edited December 15, 2021 by TrixxieTriss

[ImmortalLowlife]

One of my biggest gripes is NPC's showing wide ranges of emotion in their voices and delivery while my character just stands there mute. I tolerated it in the past, but now it's an immediate turn off. That's why I'll replay mass effect on a whim, but have to force myself to replay games like kotor and dragon age origins.

 

This game going with non voiced PC's would immediately loose my sub.

[GeneralGyro]

this is a fantastic idea

[SaerethDL]

half the players wouldn't leave, yall are blowing smoke. Text based instead of voice based is fine, worked with kotor and kotor II, works with eso and other mmos with a lot of story. I agree we should get rid of player voice actors at this time or just use ai voice actors. We would get way more content.. it will be a good trade off you guys just don't realize it yet. Oh well. Edited December 15, 2021 by SaerethDL

[SaerethDL]

The game would become a slideshow without voice acting.

 

voice acting wouldn't be removed, just player controlled voice actors.

[SaerethDL]

No. If they drop VAs, this game loses what makes it, it.

 

I don't mind games with no voice acting. One of my favorite MMOs has no voice acting. But VA is not part of that games charm.

 

And Alliance Alerts suck because of it.

 

Again, everything will be voice acted but the player characters.

[Damask_Rose]

Again, everything will be voice acted but the player characters.

 

And the player characters being fully voiced is the #1 draw to this game. It is the only thing that makes SWtOR stand out in the market. Everything else is just mediocre at best. We got to see how crappy the game is without it in the half-voiced alerts.

[Eranis]

voice acting wouldn't be removed, just player controlled voice actors.

 

But it's not just the pure voice over that would be gone, but the cinematic way the cutscenes are done - our characters, walking, gesturing, acting, fighting. How would that look without voice acting? Or do you just want everything to be like Alliance alerts, where our characters stand like cardboard figures, we only see them from behind and the people in front of them are acting? No thanks. That's okay for a few filler quests, but not for the main story.

 

So, also a big NO from me.

[eabevella]

They may as well just shut the game down if they cut the voice acting.

 

And blaming the lack of contents on the voice actors is just so... what's the definition of that word in dictionary? "having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense" I don't know what kind of smoke screen you want to created, no one with half a functioning human brain cell won't believe that is the true reason why we get less and less contents.

 

If Bioware for some reason do pull this cheap trick on me? I'll cancel my subscription. End of story.

Edited December 15, 2021 by eabevella

[SaerethDL]

And the player characters being fully voiced is the #1 draw to this game. It is the only thing that makes SWtOR stand out in the market. Everything else is just mediocre at best. We got to see how crappy the game is without it in the half-voiced alerts.

 

it may be the #1 draw for you, but if thats the only reason you play I really don't know what to tell you. I had more impact and emotions from kotors story and the player character wasn't voice acted, it made it even more immersive to me because it meant that voice was you, or anyone you wanted to to be and not some simple designated voice, you could roleplay that character or speak out the lines in your head or out loud. There is nothing wrong with it.

[SaerethDL]

But it's not just the pure voice over that would be gone, but the cinematic way the cutscenes are done - our characters, walking, gesturing, acting, fighting. How would that look without voice acting? Or do you just want everything to be like Alliance alerts, where our characters stand like cardboard figures, we only see them from behind and the people in front of them are acting? No thanks. That's okay for a few filler quests, but not for the main story.

 

So, also a big NO from me.

 

it would look like watching a movie with subtitles? I don't get your point.

[SaerethDL]

They may as well just shut the game down if they cut the voice acting.

 

And blaming the lack of contents on the voice actors is just so... what's the definition of that word in dictionary? "having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense" I don't know what kind of smoke screen you want to created, no one with half a functioning human brain cell won't believe that is the true reason why we get less and less contents.

 

If Bioware for some reason do pull this cheap trick on me? I'll cancel my subscription. End of story.

 

speak for yourself, I will still play the game without voice acting player characters and be just fine with the loads of new content they would give us, do you guys realize how much money, time, and effort it is to pay 16 high-quality voice actors every time you need to add story content? Not just the money, but to get everyone on schedule, when people are busy doing other projects.. you truly have no idea do you and just insult people because you don't like a difference of opinion.

Edited December 15, 2021 by SaerethDL

[Stradlin]

They may as well just shut the game down if they cut the voice acting.

 

And blaming the lack of contents on the voice actors is just so... what's the definition of that word in dictionary? "having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense" I don't know what kind of smoke screen you want to created, no one with half a functioning human brain cell won't believe that is the true reason why we get less and less contents.

 

If Bioware for some reason do pull this cheap trick on me? I'll cancel my subscription. End of story.

 

Merry Christmas to you too:) Nice to see somebody handling differing opinnions about video games so gracefully. "i disagree so ur really dumb" No reasoning,or arguments beyond that. Nice going, lol.

 

Since notion of 48 Main Playerchar voice actors actually costing a notable amount of time, effort and money is so incredibly dumb, then I assume you've figured out it is..super easy and cheap to roll with fully voice acted MMO RPGs, right? Since ihaving almost 50 Playerchar voice actors is so ridiculously cheap, howcome SWTOR is literally the only MMORPG doing it? All other MMOs out there, countless single player cRPGs and so on.. don't have fully voice acted PC because why exactly? They just don't like the idea? Nobody else devving an MMO has yet figured out that most people really like voice acting in their story driven games?

 

Extremely story driven "writing before all else" MMORPGs and RPG releases like The Secret World, that are all about " cinematic feel" like TOR end up rolling without PC voice acting because of..why exactly?

Edited December 15, 2021 by Stradlin

[SaerethDL]

Merry Christmas to you too:) Nice to see somebody handling differing opinnions about video games so gracefully. "i disagree so ur really dumb" No reasoning,or arguments beyond that. Nice going, lol.

 

Since notion of 48 Main Playerchar voice actors actually costing a notable amount of time, effort and money is so incredibly dumb, then I assume you've figured out it is..super easy and cheap to roll with fully voice acted MMO RPGs, right? Since ihaving almost 50 Playerchar voice actors is so ridiculously cheap, howcome SWTOR is literally the only MMORPG doing it? All other MMOs out there, countless single player cRPGs and so on.. don't have fully voice acted PC because why exactly? They just don't like the idea? Nobody else has yet figured out that most people really like voice acting in their story driven games?

 

Extremely story driven "writing before all else" MMORPGs and RPG releases like The Secret World, that are all about " cinematic feel" like TOR end up rolling without PC voice acting because of..why exactly?

 

yeah exactly, we are talking about big names here like David Hayter , Jennifer Hayle, Nolan North.. not some people off the streets that don't get paid much.

[Stradlin]

yeah exactly, we are talking about big names here like David Hayter , Jennifer Hayle, Nolan North.. not some people off the streets that don't get paid much.

 

Yes..Several PC VAs are front row talent. This is true for German (and maybe French) localizations too. Navigating through schedules of some of these people alone must be a major head scratcher. In general, SWTOR has tons and tons of voice acting and virtually all of it is of very high quality. Apparently all these people do it for Mcdonalds coupons and free gametime. oO

 

Maybe I create some telemarketing company and instead of actual telemarketers, hire top rated voice actor talent to do telemarketing. They are so cheap, apparently, that it'd be cheaper than hiring randos as telemarketers.

Edited December 15, 2021 by Stradlin

[LeMage]

It isn't a given that if we don't have to pay for VA they will use the money somewhere else in game. We lost talent when Anthem was ramping up. Did it all come back when Anthem was shuttered??

[TrixxieTriss]

Again, everything will be voice acted but the player characters.

 

Seeing my own characters scenes where they talk is what keeps me playing swtor. I’d be more inclined to space bar through NPCs waffling on so I can watch my own characters.

The worst part of the whole game is where you have the txt chat window to talk to the people on Odessen. I know they didn’t have a choice at the time because the VA’ers were on strike, but it ruins the experience.

Doing as the OP and yourself suggest would completely ruin my emersion and that would make me stop playing as I’m sure it would others.

I’ve tried playing other games over the years and I always find them boring now. Swtor VA has ruined other games for me where I have to read the interactions. Its why I never leave for long because no one else does VA like swtor. Removing it from future content would make a large chunk of people leave and ruin the games unique draw card.

Do you really think the game would survive with that amount of people leaving? We’ll be lucky if it survives the amount leaving over the 7.0 changes. And now you want to remove VA on top of that?

Edited December 15, 2021 by TrixxieTriss

[DWho]

speak for yourself, I will still play the game without voice acting player characters and be just fine with the loads of new content they would give us, do you guys realize how much money, time, and effort it is to pay 16 high-quality voice actors every time you need to add story content? Not just the money, but to get everyone on schedule, when people are busy doing other projects.. you truly have no idea do you and just insult people because you don't like a difference of opinion.

 

Really, from 15-30 minutes of story content, you think getting rid of voice acting would allow Bioware to put out "loads" of new content. You are dreaming. Dropping just 1 boss from an Operation or Flashpoint during development would save you a lot more money. By cutting the Devs work by 20% you could add 20% more content straight up, probably more because they wouldn't have to balance the content three times. Drop a full difficulty level from an Operation and you could probably add two extra Flashpoints or several hours of story play.

 

Would you be for dropping a boss from an Operation or Flashpoint so they could put out more story content. I seriously doubt it. The voice acting is the one thing that differentiates this game from other MMOs. It is by far the best quality feature of the game.

[TrixxieTriss]

Merry Christmas to you too:) Nice to see somebody handling differing opinnions about video games so gracefully. "i disagree so ur really dumb" No reasoning,or arguments beyond that. Nice going, lol.

 

Since notion of 48 Main Playerchar voice actors actually costing a notable amount of time, effort and money is so incredibly dumb, then I assume you've figured out it is..super easy and cheap to roll with fully voice acted MMO RPGs, right? Since ihaving almost 50 Playerchar voice actors is so ridiculously cheap, howcome SWTOR is literally the only MMORPG doing it? All other MMOs out there, countless single player cRPGs and so on.. don't have fully voice acted PC because why exactly? They just don't like the idea? Nobody else devving an MMO has yet figured out that most people really like voice acting in their story driven games?

 

Extremely story driven "writing before all else" MMORPGs and RPG releases like The Secret World, that are all about " cinematic feel" like TOR end up rolling without PC voice acting because of..why exactly?

 

You know a lot of the voice actors have multiple roles that they fill in the game. Some have 2-4+ roles they voice. So I really doubt there is even 15 “semi-permanent” VA’s on the books. But if you think there are, would you mind listing them as I’d like to look into it.