Voice Over has become a standard for me on MMORPGs. I would play any Free to Play mmo without Voice but i would think twice before buying any upcoming mmorpg with no Voice Over. The problem with Swtor and its Voice Over is that they re-used their dialog lines too many times and i think they could have added much more dialog lines for the same budget.
Another problem (and most important IMO) that goes for every developer, not just BW, is that they focus so much in one aspect of the game that they forget about the rest of the game content. I'll give some example:
Rift - Trion focused too much on the soul system and Rifts and left the rest of the game as a generic mmorpg.
AoC - Funcom focused too much on realism and their visceral combat that the rest of the game is just a generic mmorpg.
TERA - They focused so much on their "action combat" that the rest of the game is pretty generic too.
SWTOR - They focused so much on Voice Overs and SW lore that they left the rest of the game as generic as it can be.
there are more AAA mmorpgs that do this (even tons of non-mmos) but these are some of the easiest to detect that development problem.
I swear to God I've been saying the same thing so yes I do agree with you.
Luckily atleast the next two AAA MMOs are attempting to combine most of these elements into one MMO.
And it's obvious who they are and who's attempting these.
Whether or not they fail or succeed is the question but I like devs mindsets on that take.
It's pushing those limits.
I might get banned for this. - Rizel Star.
I'm not afraid to tell trolls what they [need] to hear, even if that means for me to have an forced absence afterwards.
P2P LOGIC = If it's P2P it means longevity, overall better game, and THE BEST SUPPORT EVER!!!!!(Which has been rinsed and repeated about a thousand times)
Common Sense Logic = P2P logic is no better than F2P Logic.
I was interested about the game being voice acted and when playing it through Beta it felt great, however after playing it for a bit longer and also having more guild members playing it together i feel it gets in the way of the MMO being social.
For example, in my old guild in Aion, Ventrilo was usually filled with constant chatter about social lifes, talking about stuff in game, and generally was good to have a natter every evening. Flash forward to my time in SWTOR and it's full of people either muting everyone so they can here storylines, moving into their own channels in small groups to be able to listen to the storylines, and with pretty much all quests VO, its constantly like this.
I personally think it should of been just the main class quests - i don't really care why i'm to kill 10 rats which is told to me in 5 minutes of pointless banter with the NPC, only to then complete the quest with another 5 minutes of pointless banter about how much good it's done to the planet and their race, when actually i can't see any difference!
If this game was a single player RPG, the VO would be great - as an MMO, i still think the traditional text in box does a lot more.
For me, some things are far better left... the way they were. I can't stand voices in mmorpg's and no mmo has come along to give me a reason to change my opinion.
Give me an incredibly detailed, open world full of ambience (dynamic weather, dark nights, ambient sound, etc... ), and my imagination will fill in the voices better than any actor ever could.
There's a reason why the most immersive experiences for me in these games is still back with the old MUDs and first 6 or 7 mmorpgs pre 2001 (M59, UO, EQ1, AC1, AO, DAoC, etc...)
For single player games, I am all for 100% voiced. For mmorpg's though, no thanks.
Edit - I don't mind, and often enjoy, the passing comment from an NPC in audible voice, where everyone around can hear it... it's specificaly the voiced quest dialouge that I am referring to when I say I hate it.
I was interested about the game being voice acted and when playing it through Beta it felt great, however after playing it for a bit longer and also having more guild members playing it together i feel it gets in the way of the MMO being social.
For example, in my old guild in Aion, Ventrilo was usually filled with constant chatter about social lifes, talking about stuff in game, and generally was good to have a natter every evening. Flash forward to my time in SWTOR and it's full of people either muting everyone so they can here storylines, moving into their own channels in small groups to be able to listen to the storylines, and with pretty much all quests VO, its constantly like this.
I personally think it should of been just the main class quests - i don't really care why i'm to kill 10 rats which is told to me in 5 minutes of pointless banter with the NPC, only to then complete the quest with another 5 minutes of pointless banter about how much good it's done to the planet and their race, when actually i can't see any difference!
If this game was a single player RPG, the VO would be great - as an MMO, i still think the traditional text in box does a lot more.
I think what bothers me about it too is that even though the quests are the same in all of these games it tends to get amplified with the tedious vo. For instance, I'm on one planet and an Imperial guy requests me to use this thingamabob to uncloak hidden enemies so I can gather their parts for the Empire to make their own cloaking device. Then on the next planet I have someone requesting the same thing to get parts for them. Only difference is instead of Republic players this time it is Mandalorians. Then on another planet I once again have some Imperial asking me to gather these cloaking devices this time from droids being used by bandits.
I mean it wouldn't be so bad if I had a dialogue option where my character said:
"Hey asshole, how many times do I have to gather these things? Wtf? You guys talk to each other or do you just keep losing them? No wonder you guys can never get anything done."
Alas, I cannot though so...
Is it different than the other games? No...but when you have a rehashed, generic cinematic explaining it for the hundredth time it just makes it seem more tedious. Especially when it is someone speaking the same alien languages they recycle in many of these. I mean some of these have to make you wonder why they even bothered.
Would have been much better to reserve these for the main story lines for the planets, fps, and class quests. Then use the other resources to either make those even more inspiring or use them elsewhere. Not to mention it would make those portions stand out more in significance.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
For the most part, i've stopped the VO and just hit spacebar for everything and read the quest lines if need be. The only decision point that means anything ingame is the kill/save or refuse quest option. That's it. All other choices are meaningless.
For me, the spacebar has become my friend in this game.
Main storyline? Yes. Some key non-class story lines? Sure. Simple fed-ex and "kill X Rebel Scum" quests? Probably not.
In fact, I'd probably trade all VO except for the main storyline, if that had allowed them to make the main story lines branching stories, rather than completely linear. It would have enhanced the game by making choices matter, as well as adding depth to replayability.
Making matters worse is that not only is everything linear, but much of the VO content is the same no matter what class you play, so if you do roll a same faction alt, most players will quickly become conditioned to hit the space bar when VO pops up, because they've already expereinced most of it before.
Walls of Text are definitely on the outs and judicious use of VO seems like a key part of transitioning to alternative ways of conveying quests and quest like content, but TOR=VOOK!
I get in and out of moods about it. I spacebar sometimes, and other times I don't. There have been times where I've just gone /rolleyes spacebar spacebar spacebar repeatedly - but that's usually during a long play session where I seem to have passed my capacity for cut-scenes.
I never spacebar my class story (on any of my characters) but yeah, I do it for side quests and world quests I've already played through. Balmorra gets heavy spacebar from me, as does Taris because they're my least favourite planets and I want to get off them as quickly as possible.
Other times I like to chill while playing and just soak up the conversations...like I said, it's a mood thing. I always make time to listen to Captain Bryn's rant outside Grathan's Estate, for example, just cause I still enjoy it.
I think if we couldn't spacebar I'd have been ready to throttle someone fairly early into the game, since I was a good little tester and paid attention to all the VO annd cutscenes in testing. Once the option to skip is there, I'm ok with the fully-voiced thing.
I'm wondering what you guys are going to do for entertainment when virtual reality hits the gaming scene. Everything will be graphics and voice based. Text based gaming should have died long ago, it's amazing that it has held on this long. I love reading my novels, but I want my computer games to be more interactive than reading a text box.
I'm wondering what you guys are going to do for entertainment when virtual reality hits the gaming scene. Everything will be graphics and voice based. Text based gaming should have died long ago, it's amazing that it has held on this long. I love reading my novels, but I want my computer games to be more interactive than reading a text box.
You're assuming a lot. I don't think a single person in this thread doesn't like vo or cinematics. No one is saying they want their mmos to be simply text based. Least no poster's comments that I read.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
The voice acting was cool the first time, but at this point I just space bar through them, They should have only done the voice acting for the class quests and maybe the main storyline for each planet, they would have saved alot of money and time that could have been used on other parts of the game.
I still really love the voiceovers but it can get a bit tiresome getting 5 mins of dialog for a side quest.
I reckon if they had full VO for the class quests and the main storyline for each planet, plus some canned VO greetings for when you initially talk to one of the side quest givers that doesnt have full VO that would work just as well.
Cluck Cluck, Gibber Gibber, My Old Mans A Mushroom
I like the voice acting and I think the dialog choices add alot to the game.
You would need to give me fairly decent estimates of what they could have delivered instead and it would need to be pretty good to convince me it was a bad idea.
I never thought it was a good idea. VO is great when it is used in the proper situations. It should mean something more than this guy telling me I need to go kill 10 rats. When you get it on every quest it is not unique or special and eventually you stop caring and just space bar through it.
I want my computer games to be more interactive than reading a text box.
not to be nitpicky, but you do realize that in TOR you're still reading a text box with your dialogue choices for every single quest. So instead of reading what the NPC was saying, you're reading what you're saying.
"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 like the voice acting and I think the dialog choices add alot to the game.
You would need to give me fairly decent estimates of what they could have delivered instead and it would need to be pretty good to convince me it was a bad idea.
Why would anyone need to? You either like it or you don't. Why would someone need to prove to you where those resources went to? I suppose you could say it would be to add some items that they're currently working on adding now if anything. Not that I see why that should matter.
Aren't you the same person complaining the replayability of this game is awful? You don't think some of those resources could have been used to refine that?
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
I liked the idea of it. I like it in single player games quite a bit, but in this it only works for the first day or two of play time. After that you start to realise "Hey this storyline for this quest is awesome, but wait, 5 minutes of a cutscene telling me about this crazy stuff to just randomly tell me he needs 4 things killed?" It ended up going on and on like that for me, I can't have a huge awesome storyline to just have to go kill 4 things or collect 5 things.
I think it's a cool feature,but I could definitely live without it.Id much rather have that large sum of Money go to other areas of the game rather than voice actors...that's for sure.Edit: sorry op,couldnt resist haha
I never thought it was a good idea. VO is great when it is used in the proper situations. It should mean something more than this guy telling me I need to go kill 10 rats. When you get it on every quest it is not unique or special and eventually you stop caring and just space bar through it.
This.
I find it very smoke & mirrorish... instead of reading crap you're listening to crap. But it still amounts to the same kill 5 rats. Had the story been more "dynamic" and your responses truly mattered then it would have been a nice touch to add dramatic flair. As it stands I find it really annoying to listen to mediocre copy being read to me and I don't understand how so many people finds it "adds something." (though I wish I did cause then I could maybe make myself play TOR instead of random F2P game/beta of the moment)
Originally posted by bfpiercelk Problem is, who wants to pay more than $60 for the package and $15 a month? Developing all of that "stuff" into a stable release would cost as much as all of those MMO's combined, likely more, you realize...
Hrm.. i don't really want to get into a game of made-up statistics that we can't actually verify, but i'm fairly sure that TOR's voiceovers alone cost more than the developement of about 10 other MMOs put together, most of which had much better (non-story-related) gameplay features. So yes, while it IS expensive, it's not out of realm of reason for a major developer given that the money is spent in on the right things.
No offense, but this sounds like rubbish to me. People, get realistic for once, please, this is utter insanity. What, are we now gonna say that all MMO's that use extensive voiceovers are now costing 10 other MMO's put together? Will TSW's budget now be gauged 100-150 million dollars bc they're using it? GW2's budget 200+ million dollars bc its voicework that could fill 60 feature length films? Christ... -_-
Sorry, but I cannot take anyone seriously who believes in such numbers.
As for which MMO's had the better story, tastes differ, I found LotrO's storytelling rubbish outside of the Book quests, and the Book quests on the level of AoC's Destiny Quests and TOR's class storylines, certainly not above.
To each their own, but I'm going along with the devs of TOR, GW2 and TSW who all believed in extensive voice over work in MMO's and found it useful enough to invest resources to fill those MMO's up with many, many hours of voice work.
As for which MMO's had the better story, tastes differ, I found LotrO's storytelling rubbish outside of the Book quests, and the Book quests on the level of AoC's Destiny Quests and TOR's class storylines, certainly not above.
Pretty sure that the book quests are what people are referring to. Not gathering pies in Hobbiton.
Gotta say though. I started new toons in that game all the time and ran those book quests. Can't say I feel the same way about running through the story lines in this game again.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
As for which MMO's had the better story, tastes differ, I found LotrO's storytelling rubbish outside of the Book quests, and the Book quests on the level of AoC's Destiny Quests and TOR's class storylines, certainly not above.
Pretty sure that the book quests are what people are referring to. Not gathering pies in Hobbiton.
Gotta say though. I started new toons in that game all the time and ran those book quests. Can't say I feel the same way about running through the story lines in this game again.
I feel exactly the opposite, after the first couple of times the Book quests lost most of their appeal to me and it got auto pilot work for me. At least you have different dialogue choices, however small their impact they might be, and classes that bring diversity to the quest leveling process. Different people, different preferences and things that is fun to them, I guess >.>
At least you have different dialogue choices, however small their impact they might be, and classes that bring diversity to the quest leveling process. Different people, different preferences and things that is fun to them, I guess >.>
That is the crux of it. From what I have seen ouside the class choices and obviously the faction you play the dialogue choice make little if any impact to the core story line outside a different cut scene. So really boils down to the strength of the story being woven.
Which frankly while it is mildly entertaining once besides a few bright spots doesn't seem worth repeating to me. Outside of the fps there is only one planet's story line I can say I would like going through again (Taris - Imp side). Even pending on your faction choice many of them end up centering on the same main focal point far as the planet's story.
That's great that you really enjoy it in this game but frankly doesn't seem any better to me than what Rings offered personally. To be honest far as twists go seems worse really in relation to the main story arc.
There are very few nemisis types or twists in this game that I have seen or are worth of any note whatsoever.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
As for which MMO's had the better story, tastes differ, I found LotrO's storytelling rubbish outside of the Book quests, and the Book quests on the level of AoC's Destiny Quests and TOR's class storylines, certainly not above.
Pretty sure that the book quests are what people are referring to. Not gathering pies in Hobbiton.
Gotta say though. I started new toons in that game all the time and ran those book quests. Can't say I feel the same way about running through the story lines in this game again.
Not wanting to derail the thread, but those "gathering pies in Hobbiton" type quests in LOTRO were inspired. One of the things that most MMOs lack is any sense of place, but LOTRO absolutely nailed it with the Shire and it's down to those kinds of quests. MMOs need more of those, even if they're only optional fluff.
Anyway, coming back to the OP - Yes, I still think full voice is a good idea.
What the videogame world really needs is an advanced speech synthesis system, capable of rendering text into actor quality dialogue in any number of voices. The company that cracks this will make millions off licencing the technology.
Comments
I swear to God I've been saying the same thing so yes I do agree with you.
Luckily atleast the next two AAA MMOs are attempting to combine most of these elements into one MMO.
And it's obvious who they are and who's attempting these.
Whether or not they fail or succeed is the question but I like devs mindsets on that take.
It's pushing those limits.
I might get banned for this. - Rizel Star.
I'm not afraid to tell trolls what they [need] to hear, even if that means for me to have an forced absence afterwards.
P2P LOGIC = If it's P2P it means longevity, overall better game, and THE BEST SUPPORT EVER!!!!!(Which has been rinsed and repeated about a thousand times)
Common Sense Logic = P2P logic is no better than F2P Logic.
I was interested about the game being voice acted and when playing it through Beta it felt great, however after playing it for a bit longer and also having more guild members playing it together i feel it gets in the way of the MMO being social.
For example, in my old guild in Aion, Ventrilo was usually filled with constant chatter about social lifes, talking about stuff in game, and generally was good to have a natter every evening. Flash forward to my time in SWTOR and it's full of people either muting everyone so they can here storylines, moving into their own channels in small groups to be able to listen to the storylines, and with pretty much all quests VO, its constantly like this.
I personally think it should of been just the main class quests - i don't really care why i'm to kill 10 rats which is told to me in 5 minutes of pointless banter with the NPC, only to then complete the quest with another 5 minutes of pointless banter about how much good it's done to the planet and their race, when actually i can't see any difference!
If this game was a single player RPG, the VO would be great - as an MMO, i still think the traditional text in box does a lot more.
For me, some things are far better left... the way they were. I can't stand voices in mmorpg's and no mmo has come along to give me a reason to change my opinion.
Give me an incredibly detailed, open world full of ambience (dynamic weather, dark nights, ambient sound, etc... ), and my imagination will fill in the voices better than any actor ever could.
There's a reason why the most immersive experiences for me in these games is still back with the old MUDs and first 6 or 7 mmorpgs pre 2001 (M59, UO, EQ1, AC1, AO, DAoC, etc...)
For single player games, I am all for 100% voiced. For mmorpg's though, no thanks.
Edit - I don't mind, and often enjoy, the passing comment from an NPC in audible voice, where everyone around can hear it... it's specificaly the voiced quest dialouge that I am referring to when I say I hate it.
I think what bothers me about it too is that even though the quests are the same in all of these games it tends to get amplified with the tedious vo. For instance, I'm on one planet and an Imperial guy requests me to use this thingamabob to uncloak hidden enemies so I can gather their parts for the Empire to make their own cloaking device. Then on the next planet I have someone requesting the same thing to get parts for them. Only difference is instead of Republic players this time it is Mandalorians. Then on another planet I once again have some Imperial asking me to gather these cloaking devices this time from droids being used by bandits.
I mean it wouldn't be so bad if I had a dialogue option where my character said:
"Hey asshole, how many times do I have to gather these things? Wtf? You guys talk to each other or do you just keep losing them? No wonder you guys can never get anything done."
Alas, I cannot though so...
Is it different than the other games? No...but when you have a rehashed, generic cinematic explaining it for the hundredth time it just makes it seem more tedious. Especially when it is someone speaking the same alien languages they recycle in many of these. I mean some of these have to make you wonder why they even bothered.
Would have been much better to reserve these for the main story lines for the planets, fps, and class quests. Then use the other resources to either make those even more inspiring or use them elsewhere. Not to mention it would make those portions stand out more in significance.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
For the most part, i've stopped the VO and just hit spacebar for everything and read the quest lines if need be. The only decision point that means anything ingame is the kill/save or refuse quest option. That's it. All other choices are meaningless.
For me, the spacebar has become my friend in this game.
TOR=VOOK (Voice Over Over-Kill)
Main storyline? Yes. Some key non-class story lines? Sure. Simple fed-ex and "kill X Rebel Scum" quests? Probably not.
In fact, I'd probably trade all VO except for the main storyline, if that had allowed them to make the main story lines branching stories, rather than completely linear. It would have enhanced the game by making choices matter, as well as adding depth to replayability.
Making matters worse is that not only is everything linear, but much of the VO content is the same no matter what class you play, so if you do roll a same faction alt, most players will quickly become conditioned to hit the space bar when VO pops up, because they've already expereinced most of it before.
Walls of Text are definitely on the outs and judicious use of VO seems like a key part of transitioning to alternative ways of conveying quests and quest like content, but TOR=VOOK!
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
I get in and out of moods about it. I spacebar sometimes, and other times I don't. There have been times where I've just gone /rolleyes spacebar spacebar spacebar repeatedly - but that's usually during a long play session where I seem to have passed my capacity for cut-scenes.
I never spacebar my class story (on any of my characters) but yeah, I do it for side quests and world quests I've already played through. Balmorra gets heavy spacebar from me, as does Taris because they're my least favourite planets and I want to get off them as quickly as possible.
Other times I like to chill while playing and just soak up the conversations...like I said, it's a mood thing. I always make time to listen to Captain Bryn's rant outside Grathan's Estate, for example, just cause I still enjoy it.
I think if we couldn't spacebar I'd have been ready to throttle someone fairly early into the game, since I was a good little tester and paid attention to all the VO annd cutscenes in testing. Once the option to skip is there, I'm ok with the fully-voiced thing.
I'm wondering what you guys are going to do for entertainment when virtual reality hits the gaming scene. Everything will be graphics and voice based. Text based gaming should have died long ago, it's amazing that it has held on this long. I love reading my novels, but I want my computer games to be more interactive than reading a text box.
You're assuming a lot. I don't think a single person in this thread doesn't like vo or cinematics. No one is saying they want their mmos to be simply text based. Least no poster's comments that I read.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
The voice acting was cool the first time, but at this point I just space bar through them, They should have only done the voice acting for the class quests and maybe the main storyline for each planet, they would have saved alot of money and time that could have been used on other parts of the game.
I still really love the voiceovers but it can get a bit tiresome getting 5 mins of dialog for a side quest.
I reckon if they had full VO for the class quests and the main storyline for each planet, plus some canned VO greetings for when you initially talk to one of the side quest givers that doesnt have full VO that would work just as well.
Cluck Cluck, Gibber Gibber, My Old Mans A Mushroom
I like the voice acting and I think the dialog choices add alot to the game.
You would need to give me fairly decent estimates of what they could have delivered instead and it would need to be pretty good to convince me it was a bad idea.
I never thought it was a good idea. VO is great when it is used in the proper situations. It should mean something more than this guy telling me I need to go kill 10 rats. When you get it on every quest it is not unique or special and eventually you stop caring and just space bar through it.
not to be nitpicky, but you do realize that in TOR you're still reading a text box with your dialogue choices for every single quest. So instead of reading what the NPC was saying, you're reading what you're saying.
"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
Why would anyone need to? You either like it or you don't. Why would someone need to prove to you where those resources went to? I suppose you could say it would be to add some items that they're currently working on adding now if anything. Not that I see why that should matter.
Aren't you the same person complaining the replayability of this game is awful? You don't think some of those resources could have been used to refine that?
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
I liked the idea of it. I like it in single player games quite a bit, but in this it only works for the first day or two of play time. After that you start to realise "Hey this storyline for this quest is awesome, but wait, 5 minutes of a cutscene telling me about this crazy stuff to just randomly tell me he needs 4 things killed?" It ended up going on and on like that for me, I can't have a huge awesome storyline to just have to go kill 4 things or collect 5 things.
Anyone who has spent any kind of time at endgame wil tell you that voice acting wasn't worth it.
This.
I find it very smoke & mirrorish... instead of reading crap you're listening to crap. But it still amounts to the same kill 5 rats. Had the story been more "dynamic" and your responses truly mattered then it would have been a nice touch to add dramatic flair. As it stands I find it really annoying to listen to mediocre copy being read to me and I don't understand how so many people finds it "adds something." (though I wish I did cause then I could maybe make myself play TOR instead of random F2P game/beta of the moment)
*edit, can't spell to save my life
Hrm.. i don't really want to get into a game of made-up statistics that we can't actually verify, but i'm fairly sure that TOR's voiceovers alone cost more than the developement of about 10 other MMOs put together, most of which had much better (non-story-related) gameplay features. So yes, while it IS expensive, it's not out of realm of reason for a major developer given that the money is spent in on the right things.
No offense, but this sounds like rubbish to me. People, get realistic for once, please, this is utter insanity. What, are we now gonna say that all MMO's that use extensive voiceovers are now costing 10 other MMO's put together? Will TSW's budget now be gauged 100-150 million dollars bc they're using it? GW2's budget 200+ million dollars bc its voicework that could fill 60 feature length films? Christ... -_-
Sorry, but I cannot take anyone seriously who believes in such numbers.
As for which MMO's had the better story, tastes differ, I found LotrO's storytelling rubbish outside of the Book quests, and the Book quests on the level of AoC's Destiny Quests and TOR's class storylines, certainly not above.To each their own, but I'm going along with the devs of TOR, GW2 and TSW who all believed in extensive voice over work in MMO's and found it useful enough to invest resources to fill those MMO's up with many, many hours of voice work.
Pretty sure that the book quests are what people are referring to. Not gathering pies in Hobbiton.
Gotta say though. I started new toons in that game all the time and ran those book quests. Can't say I feel the same way about running through the story lines in this game again.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
Pretty sure that the book quests are what people are referring to. Not gathering pies in Hobbiton.
Gotta say though. I started new toons in that game all the time and ran those book quests. Can't say I feel the same way about running through the story lines in this game again.
I feel exactly the opposite, after the first couple of times the Book quests lost most of their appeal to me and it got auto pilot work for me. At least you have different dialogue choices, however small their impact they might be, and classes that bring diversity to the quest leveling process. Different people, different preferences and things that is fun to them, I guess >.>That is the crux of it. From what I have seen ouside the class choices and obviously the faction you play the dialogue choice make little if any impact to the core story line outside a different cut scene. So really boils down to the strength of the story being woven.
Which frankly while it is mildly entertaining once besides a few bright spots doesn't seem worth repeating to me. Outside of the fps there is only one planet's story line I can say I would like going through again (Taris - Imp side). Even pending on your faction choice many of them end up centering on the same main focal point far as the planet's story.
That's great that you really enjoy it in this game but frankly doesn't seem any better to me than what Rings offered personally. To be honest far as twists go seems worse really in relation to the main story arc.
There are very few nemisis types or twists in this game that I have seen or are worth of any note whatsoever.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
Not wanting to derail the thread, but those "gathering pies in Hobbiton" type quests in LOTRO were inspired. One of the things that most MMOs lack is any sense of place, but LOTRO absolutely nailed it with the Shire and it's down to those kinds of quests. MMOs need more of those, even if they're only optional fluff.
Anyway, coming back to the OP - Yes, I still think full voice is a good idea.
What the videogame world really needs is an advanced speech synthesis system, capable of rendering text into actor quality dialogue in any number of voices. The company that cracks this will make millions off licencing the technology.