Going forward, should SWTOR drop voice acted PlayerChars?

[TrixxieTriss]

I don't remember what exactly I said, I remember saying how I enjoyed going back to the kotor like dialog.

 

I found this from 2015

 

If you found that, why can’t you link the thread?

[SaerethDL]

If you found that, why can’t you link the thread?

 

here ya go. https://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=849016

[DWho]

It probably will be our last expansion and not because of the VA’s using up too much development funds.

 

The issue as I see it is Bioware continually wasting funds by redesigning the wheel every bloody expansion. I get that each expansion has to have gear upgrades and grinds, but why does it need to be 100% redesigned every time from the ground up.

 

Any problems with a gearing system can just be tweaked unless it’s fundamentally broken. But Bioware don’t do that. They throw the baby out with the bath water and then need to gestate a brand new baby each time. How much time and money have they wasted just on doing that? I’d put hard money down that the VA budget wouldn’t even come close to that amount of cost and I dare say waste or money.

 

Then you have them redesigning other systems or things that aren’t broken and no one asks for. And unless a redesign drastically improves performance or QOL, then they should spend those resources squashing exiting bugs and making playable content.

 

Bioware have made some drastic changes for 7.0 and if they don’t start walking back on some of their announcements, this will indeed be the last expansion because a truck load of players are going to leave or stop paying to play.

 

Gotta agree with this cause for smaller and smaller updates. 6.0 was a complete reboot of the 5.0 gearing system and 7.0 will be a complete reboot of the gearing and character ability systems. Without those we could have had a much larger expansion. There was really nothing wrong with 6.0 gearing that couldn't have been fixed with a minor patch or two. Lurching from one direction to another doesn't help either. Focus on Story followed by Focus on Group Play switching to a strange hybrid with Story Flashpoints for the Traitor Arc.

[TrixxieTriss]

here ya go. https://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=849016

 

Thank you.

 

I noticed not one person in that thread agreed with your suggestion to get rid of VA

[kage_goomba]

not worth my time to look for it, if you wanna find it you can, i'm sure you know how.

 

And you call me a troll. People like you need to step back and think before you speak.

Edited December 16, 2021 by kage_goomba

[SaerethDL]

Thank you.

 

I noticed not one person in that thread agreed with your suggestion to get rid of VA

 

I told you I haven't located the comment/thread i was talking about, and I never said anyone agreed with me.. might wanna quote me if I did.

[SaerethDL]

And you call me a troll. People like you need to step back and think before you speak.

 

troll? there are literally thousands of comments i've posted over 10 years, you want me to go look through each and every one of them? ok bud.. keep stirring stuff up and talking about irrelevant stuff.

Edited December 16, 2021 by SaerethDL

[TrixxieTriss]

I told you I haven't located the comment/thread i was talking about, and I never said anyone agreed with me.. might wanna quote me if I did.

 

Never said you did say that. I was just trying to point out that no one agreed back then either. It’s only the OP and you that think getting rid of the VAs is a viable option. Everyone else has so far expressed they hate the idea.

[Lichtfaengerin]

I'd be very sad if BW dropped this, and I'd stop playing also. Cutscenes without PCVA are not at all immersive for me, just weirdly out of place and boring.

I don't care about a single one of the old KOTOR style cutscenes, always skip through them all because I can't be bothered.

 

Hated it in Dragon Age Origins, too, and it's the reason why I can never bother to replay that game.

Your character can't really get many awesome moments like this, all the cool grand things are said by other people. Anora held the last battle speech, the Seneschal said the joining oath, lame!

I don't even remember the lines my Warden "said" at all.

 

Also, I've really fallen in love with and grown attached to my characters' voices over all these years. It's a big part of why I stay.

[Wittand]

Loosing the Voice over would be a big blow and drive many players away.

 

I fully believe that in development they made the error to have the class story as main story and the galaxy as side story. Which meant that they endet up with too many companions, most of which end up standing around as decoration 99% of the time after the first three chapters, and too many voice actors for the main character.

 

If they want to reduce the number of voices they have to record, I could imagine that as part of a future storyline the main character suffers an injury that changes their voice so that all four republic males (or even alle eight male classes) can be voiced by the same voice actor, greatly reducing the amount of time and money needed for recording.

[Stradlin]

Never said you did say It’s only the OP and you that think getting rid of the VAs is a viable option. Everyone else has so far expressed they hate the idea.

 

Its not like those who'd drop pcva roll with some "hey guys wouldn't it be fun to get less va?! .. -sentiment. Ditching em isn't great but it might be necessary. Hiring nearly 50 people for one role is prolly just about as cost efficient as it sounds.

Edited December 16, 2021 by Stradlin

[Pietrastor]

It could drop French/German dubbing at most. If it drops English VO as well, what the eff is left of this game's vision/uniquness really? Grinds? And frankly, Voice Acting is not that expensive actually and its cost is highly stable and predictable. It is not the main issue why content production/release for SWTOR is in such a sorry state. Really, if it was, shouldn't we see a ton of non-voiced features, gameplay, content and stuff getting added? There's next to none.

 

So Voice Acting is not the issue and if it ever came to that they should sacrifice French/German part of the budget first.

 

But don't even give them ideas like that. They already think we will accept any barebone update once a year, ask no questions and still sub for 15$ monthly. Next thing they will assume "we" are totally fine giving up the sole remaining feature that make this game stand out

Edited December 16, 2021 by Pietrastor

[SaerethDL]

im really surprised by this thread honestly. You guys didn't care for games like kotor, elder scrolls, dragon age, fable, fallout, Baldur's gate, half life.. these are some of the best games of all time with no voice protagonist . Edited December 16, 2021 by SaerethDL

[DWho]

im really surprised by this thread honestly. You guys didn't care for games like kotor, elder scrolls, dragon age, fable, fallout, Baldur's gate, half life.. these are some of the best games of all time with no voice protagonist .

 

They never had it. That's the difference. Voice Acting wasn't the hallmark of those games like it is for SWTOR

[TrixxieTriss]

im really surprised by this thread honestly. You guys didn't care for games like kotor, elder scrolls, dragon age, fable, fallout, Baldur's gate, half life.. these are some of the best games of all time with no voice protagonist .

 

Truthfully, no I didn’t care for them. But then we didn’t really have VA in games back then like we have now to choose from.

I mainly played WoW or RTS games before I came to swtor. And once I started playing swtor I stopped playing all other games.

Over the years I’ve tried going back to WoW and tried other MMOs like Gw2, but because they don’t have voice acting, I’ve not been able to get back into them.

The VA in swtor is what makes it engaging and unique for me. Without the VA and the fact this is a SW game, I’m almost certain it would have failed years ago. I certainly wouldn’t still be playing it.

Edited December 17, 2021 by TrixxieTriss

[SaerethDL]

Truthfully, no I didn’t care for them. But then we didn’t really have VA in games back then like we have now to choose from.

I mainly played WoW or RTS games before I came to swtor. And once I started playing swtor I stopped playing all other games.

Over the years I’ve tried going back to WoW and tried other MMOs like Gw2, but because they don’t have voice acting, I’ve not been able to get back into them.

The VA in swtor is what makes it engaging and unique for me. Without the VA and the fact this is a SW game, I’m almost certain it would have failed years ago. I certainly wouldn’t still be playing it.

 

I don't think so, this is star wars, the only star wars mmo out. I know a lot of people besides this game who prefer silent characters, its a roleplay thing and also opens up more dialog choices. If you don't continue it for the next expansion I don't think many people would just quit the game. Maybe you and some of the vocal minority here, but not everyone. I personally haven't touched the story in a while, i imagine some people play to do pvp, or raids, or flashpoints, or conquest.. I don't think most people still here are playing for the story anymore, we've had 10 years to do it over and over and the new story content we do get every couple years can be done in a couple hours max. Just my train of thought and my personal opinion.

Edited December 17, 2021 by SaerethDL

[TrixxieTriss]

I don't think so, this is star wars, the only star wars mmo out. I know a lot of people besides this game who prefer silent characters, its a roleplay thing and also opens up more dialog choices. If you don't continue it for the next expansion I don't think many people would just quit the game. Maybe you and some of the vocal minority here, but not everyone. I personally haven't touched the story in a while, i imagine some people play to do pvp, or raids, or flashpoints, or conquest.. I don't think most people still here are playing for the story anymore, we've had 10 years to do it over and over. Just my train of thought and my personal opinion.

 

Just because you play a certain way, doesn’t mean it’s the main way the majority play. You only need to visit the starting worlds and sub lvl 50 worlds to realise there are a lot of people playing or replaying the story. If you aren’t playing it yourself, you wouldn’t know that. But I’ve over 150 Alts now on two accounts that I’ve played the story on, so I see just how many people are around doing it.

 

You also need to consider us “oldies” arent Bioware’s focused player base anymore (). Bioware care more for new players or really old returning players than they do for us who’ve been loyal subscribers for 10 years.

 

You are correct on one thing. This is Star Wars and the only SW MMO out (at moment), so they have a captive audience in that regard.

But if this wasn’t SW, this game would have died long ago from the weight of unfixed and multiplying bugs, continually increased Desync and lack of content development and it not having a clear development direction (schizophrenic design swerving).

 

Without the VA, I would never have kept making that many Alts and replaying the story. So when Bioware wreaked pvp for me and other parts of the game, I would have had no reason to stay subbed and keep playing. Without the VA content, I wouldn’t have become hooked on the story.

In a way, Bioware wreaked other MMOs and games for me because they don’t have the VA that swtor does. But if swtor had never spoiled me with its VA, I would have probably given other games like Gw2 more a chance and maybe even gone back to WoW and stayed (I was heavily addicted to WoW before I came to swtor). So without the VA, I probably wouldn’t be here and I’m sure I’m not alone in that respect.

Edited December 17, 2021 by TrixxieTriss

[eabevella]

I don't even like MMO. This game isn't even that impressive without the story-voice acting-cutscenes. If SWTOR drops the VAs, I'll just unsub, uninstall, and go back to my PS5. Better game play, more care about the story, and no abomination like a mod-less gen chat.

[SaerethDL]

Just because you play a certain way, doesn’t mean it’s the main way the majority play. You only need to visit the starting worlds and sub lvl 50 worlds to realise there are a lot of people playing or replaying the story. If you aren’t playing it yourself, you wouldn’t know that. But I’ve over 150 Alts now on two accounts that I’ve played the story on, so I see just how many people are around doing it.

 

You also need to consider us “oldies” arent Bioware’s focused player base anymore (). Bioware care more for new players or really old returning players than they do for us who’ve been loyal subscribers for 10 years.

 

You are correct on one thing. This is Star Wars and the only SW MMO out (at moment), so they have a captive audience in that regard.

But if this wasn’t SW, this game would have died long ago from the weight of unfixed and multiplying bugs, continually increased Desync and lack of content development and it not having a clear development direction (schizophrenic design swerving).

 

Without the VA, I would never have kept making that many Alts and replaying the story. So when Bioware wreaked pvp for me and other parts of the game, I would have had no reason to stay subbed and keep playing. Without the VA content, I wouldn’t have become hooked on the story.

In a way, Bioware wreaked other MMOs and games for me because they don’t have the VA that swtor does. But if swtor had never spoiled me with its VA, I would have probably given other games like Gw2 more a chance and maybe even gone back to WoW and stayed (I was heavily addicted to WoW before I came to swtor). So without the VA, I probably wouldn’t be here and I’m sure I’m not alone in that respect.

 

Fair enough, good read. This game is on its last leg so to speak, I wanted nothing more than to enjoy more swtor content every year like they said they would do at launch, they gave up on us quickly, moved the budget to games like anthem or padded their own payrolls. I waited patiently for 10 years, revan was the best expansion they could muster and expansions like that are long gone out the window. This game is awesome for new players but not much reason for a veteran to stay around much longer. Games like ff14, eso, wow are putting content out much quicker and more abundant than swtor has the whole time. At this point I just want a new star wars mmo to at least relive/enjoy it for a little while until they abandon that too. If they have to pull the plug on this one then so be it.

[SaerethDL]

I don't even like MMO. This game isn't even that impressive without the story-voice acting-cutscenes. If SWTOR drops the VAs, I'll just unsub, uninstall, and go back to my PS5. Better game play, more care about the story, and no abomination like a mod-less gen chat.

 

We talking about just dropping the VA's for the player characters, nothing else. But even that is not going to happen so don't worry, enjoy you guys 2 hours of story content every 2+ years. I'm not sticking around much longer depending on 7.0

[Gilrenna]

For me, voice-acted playable characters and romanceable characters are the only reason I still play SWTOR. I would like more content but not at the expense of these two things. They are what sets this game apart for me from other MMOs. Lose one or both of these, and I would quit playing the game since I can get everything else I really like from those other MMOs.

[Pietrastor]

There's NOTHING wrong with a silent Player Character. That or a voiced PC is nothing more than a design choice and different people have different preference for one over the other.

 

However, as with other design choices (i.e. 1st/3rd Person Perspective) the game should be built around them accordingly. Silent PC means differently structured dialogues, NPCs carrying 99%of the conversations as well as (what should be at least) a far less predefined, blank-slate persona of the Player Character etc. You cant just suddenly switch between these two mid-way through and expect it to work, it will be jarring and clash with how the rest of the game's dialogues and conversations are mapped out.

 

KOTOR 1 & 2 had silent PCs from start to finish, that's how these games were designed and the writing took that into account.

 

Same goes for SWTOR. It shouldn't just switch to silent PC after 10 years following a different design path. Meaningless grind quests is the *only* acceptable reason to continue using the KOTOR-style cutscenes on a rare occasion. And even that is debatable seeing how Feast event story quests actually had some some narrative content and it was jarring not to hear our characters speak through any of it. In a game with so much content voiced by the PC, anything non-voiced will automatically feel irrelevant and low(er)-budget.

Edited December 17, 2021 by Pietrastor

[TrixxieTriss]

At this point I just want a new star wars mmo

 

One that isn’t made by any EA subsidiary and uses a paid expansion and subscription model to hopefully guarantee a substantial amount of future content.

 

It would be great if Square Enix was interested in doing one. Hopefully lead by Yoshi.

Edited December 17, 2021 by TrixxieTriss

[MystyqeofXev]

one that isn’t made by any ea subsidiary and uses a paid expansion and subscription model to hopefully guarantee a substantial amount of future content.

 

It would be great if square enix was interested in doing one. Hopefully lead by yoshi.

 

+ 1

 

/5char

[Damask_Rose]

One that isn’t made by any EA subsidiary and uses a paid expansion and subscription model to hopefully guarantee a substantial amount of future content.

 

It would be great if Square Enix was interested in doing one. Hopefully lead by Yoshi.

 

I keep hoping for more details on the Ubisoft open world Star Wars game that many reporters think will be an MMO. Since they have been so tight lipped about it, I'm afraid it is going to be nothing but vaporware.