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Now that you've played it, do you still think 100% voice is a great idea?
arieste
Member UncommonPosts: 3,309
First of all - if you're like me and you've always thought that wasting most of the game's budget on voice was a terrible idea, then you need not reply, i already know your opinion 
What I'm curious about is the updated opinions of the folks that - prior to the game's launch - thought it was going to be a game-changer and the greatest thing since leia's slave outfit.
I'm seeing more and more people - people who're avid fans of the game - admit that really, having every single dialogue voiced gets to be a bit of a drag (at best) or downright annoying (at worst).
So, to you that were excited the voicing, are you still excited about it? Are you looking forward to LISTENING to 200 more "kill 10 rats" quests with generic dialogue that is fully voiced? Or would you rather see the dialogue scaled back to the more important & interesting areas of the game, parts that actually have interesting story and characters whose names you might actually remember?
"Id rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."
- Raph Koster
Tried: AO,EQ,EQ2,DAoC,SWG,AA,SB,HZ,CoX,PS,GA,TR,IV,GnH,EVE, PP,DnL,WAR,MxO,SWG,FE,VG,AoC,DDO,LoTRO,Rift,TOR,Aion,Tera,TSW,GW2,DCUO,CO,STO
Favourites: AO,SWG,EVE,TR,LoTRO,TSW,EQ2, Firefall
Currently Playing: ESO
Comments
Absolutely. Voice aciting has become a "must have" from 2011 onward. MMORPGs usually have an aspect of RPG to them. I don't know many people that would play any RPG that didn't have fully voiced quests. Singleplayer RPGs crossed the bridge from text to voice overs almost a decade ago. It's about time MMORPGs caught up. Does it increase the expense of RPGs and MMORPGs? Yes. Is it worth it? YES!
Some people may skip the voice over to get the quest quicker in both RPGs and MMORPGs. But having a believable voiced character there if you want to hear it makes all the difference.
for class quests , planet stories and flashpoints the first time through i liked it. There were too many quests where it was a waste of time however.
I would rather have the voice acted dialogue any day. Especially with the ability to skip it with the space bar if I have done it before.
Its not annoying at all for me. Some of the acting, dialogue and choices during your story is fantastic and just like ME2 or Dragon I would not skip it at all the first, and often the second time around.
Like I've said before, VA is just window dressing and nothing relevant gameplay-wise, but I think the problem lies with abysmal fan fiction level of writing present in TOR that we're somehow still supposed to take seriously. This was personally my reason why I skipped through a good deal of the its voiced dialog, something I would never do in, let's say, Legacy of Kain games despite them being verbose like hell. Why? Mainly because they actually feature GOOD writing.
I'm with you on this. To me, it's the quality of the writing that's more important. On average, I find that I'd rather READ a LoTRO quest than LISTEN to a TOR quest, just because the former will actually be well-written and make sense within the world. Of course the voiceovers in LoTRO were awesome also and worth listening to because they were so few and far between, so if TOR's were better written, I'd probably support having more of them.
"Id rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."
- Raph Koster
Tried: AO,EQ,EQ2,DAoC,SWG,AA,SB,HZ,CoX,PS,GA,TR,IV,GnH,EVE, PP,DnL,WAR,MxO,SWG,FE,VG,AoC,DDO,LoTRO,Rift,TOR,Aion,Tera,TSW,GW2,DCUO,CO,STO
Favourites: AO,SWG,EVE,TR,LoTRO,TSW,EQ2, Firefall
Currently Playing: ESO
SWTOR isn't 100% voiced though. at least 70% of the game is not cutscenes, and only ~5% of the VO is outside of those cutscenes.
I'm not sure what your point is. Are you just looking to have me correct the percentage in the post's title? Because if you are, it was meant metaphorically and I think most people understand what I mean without further clarification.
"Id rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."
- Raph Koster
Tried: AO,EQ,EQ2,DAoC,SWG,AA,SB,HZ,CoX,PS,GA,TR,IV,GnH,EVE, PP,DnL,WAR,MxO,SWG,FE,VG,AoC,DDO,LoTRO,Rift,TOR,Aion,Tera,TSW,GW2,DCUO,CO,STO
Favourites: AO,SWG,EVE,TR,LoTRO,TSW,EQ2, Firefall
Currently Playing: ESO
Yes, loved VO and would love more in further games.
No, but that isn't what TOR has. It has 100% cut scenes, which is different. EQII had 100% voice overs and it didn't make me care anymore than not reading the text. But the cut scenes in SWTOR make me want to keep playing to see what happens next. So 100% voice overs no, 100% cut scenes, yes.
So as long as future quests have 100% cut scenes with NPCs, it doesn't matter to you if they're voiced or text/subtitles?
"Id rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."
- Raph Koster
Tried: AO,EQ,EQ2,DAoC,SWG,AA,SB,HZ,CoX,PS,GA,TR,IV,GnH,EVE, PP,DnL,WAR,MxO,SWG,FE,VG,AoC,DDO,LoTRO,Rift,TOR,Aion,Tera,TSW,GW2,DCUO,CO,STO
Favourites: AO,SWG,EVE,TR,LoTRO,TSW,EQ2, Firefall
Currently Playing: ESO
I disagree here. The voice acting is gameplay. If it wasn't part of the gameplay then I would probably have skipped most of it. If you are playing an MMORPG with your character in mind then the things that they say are actually a little important to you. There's also the light side and dark side points that can alter your appearance and gear appearance. And third the social points gained in dialogue give the character access to items, gear, and customizations. These are some parts of gameplay that people may or may not be interested in but it's still gameplay. I don't think SWTOR would be as fun for me without those parts of gameplay.
Its like black and white. People saw white, ergo almost no voice-over, then came SWToR: voice-over everywhere. Black.
Some people might like a greyzone. I personally dont, because voice-over on every NPC feels more natural. Just dont do it like Skyrim, tell in the press you have 70 unique voices and then ingame you come across only like.. 10? Very bad idea. Get variety in it!
My son got mad at me because while he enjoys eve, he wanted a game that both of us could play together. So we downloaded the rift light to give it a try. I couldn't do it. I couldn't just click on the quest givers and move on, and the quests weren't interesting enough to read. I have been spoiled now and I don't think there's any going back for me. I tried playing wow on the wife's account also during some TOR downtime and had the same problem.
That's a problem I have as well with this game. Most of the stories/quests are so god darn awful, it's not even funny.
the Jedi Consular storyline is just plain boring. The Jedi Knight storyline is so-so, while the Trooper storyline is so far the most engaging on Republic side.
I don't like playing Empire, but I've heard the storylines on Empire side seem to be of much higher quality, hence probably why we are suffering from such a huge faction imbalance. :-(
It's just another example of EA/Bioware more interested in boasting with incredible number of hours of voice acting to use as Marketing tool, but then dropped the ball on actual quality writing. :-/
Oh, it matters, a lot. I was just pointing out that its not just VO. Everybody says the high point for the game is the VO but as I said EQII had this and it didn't enhance the game at all for me, I would still collect the quest and just walk away while they were still talking, so it is more than that.
Sometimes I get frustrated because I feel quest givers can get wordy. I think they like the sound of their own voices.
the point was it's not 100% voiced.
anyway VO is a good thing, much better than quest text. Bioware needs to put voiced content into the game as well, not just the cinematics.
Like someone else said: Voice acting should be the new standard for questing. I was on the fence going in but I found it to be very immersive and enjoyable.
that's a design flaw of the game itself, the VO is still good. they should probably shorten the fetch quest conversations in the future.
In a word: yes!
DCUO spoiled me on voiced quest-givers (the quality of which surpasses TOR). TOR built on that with a "fully voiced experience" and I'd rather not go back.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
You make good points, but what you mention here seems to be the importance of having dialogue and interacting with NPCs, not of that dialogue & interaction being voiced. All your points above make total sense. But they're also just as applicable to text-based dialogue. Having a conversation, making dialogue choices, gaining alignment - all these things still exist without voice.
"Id rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."
- Raph Koster
Tried: AO,EQ,EQ2,DAoC,SWG,AA,SB,HZ,CoX,PS,GA,TR,IV,GnH,EVE, PP,DnL,WAR,MxO,SWG,FE,VG,AoC,DDO,LoTRO,Rift,TOR,Aion,Tera,TSW,GW2,DCUO,CO,STO
Favourites: AO,SWG,EVE,TR,LoTRO,TSW,EQ2, Firefall
Currently Playing: ESO
I didn't notice how false it feels go back to the silent protagonist until I played skyrim... to see your character staring blankly make it look like it doesn't live in the world.
I don't care as much for a 100% VO.. but scenes, reactions and see my character act is a must for me.
It is over used. I was actually relieved going back to one of my old games that I didnt have the need to press my spacebar.
Important dialogue like class quests are so much more meaningful VO'd. I liken it to the enjoyment of chocolate sure I want a bit here and there but if I have it as a main meal for a week even Id never want to touch it again.
Full voice acting seems like an incredible waste of money and resources. It's really a minor detail in a genre of gaming which has considerably bigger obstacles to overcome ie, gameplay mechanics.
That said I'm not against it completely, and enjoy the immersion it can bring, however I would never voice the player character, would only voice particularly important questlines/scenarios. Where you draw the line is subjective, but voicing everything seems wasteful and actually counter-productive if it affects the expansiveness and diversity of the game.
Not that the original poster really cares. They are doing nothing more than forum trolling.
Yes, I was looking forward to SWTOR professional voice acting story driven idea, and I am still enjoying it.
Comparing SWTOR to any other online game, is like comparing a modern (sound/color/sfx) movie to the early black and white silent movies.
"Don't corpse-camp that idea. Its never gonna rez"
Bladezz (The Guild)