Voiceovers, being nothing new to the RPG genre, is a very nice add to SWTOR. I am really glad to see Bioware include their quest dialog wheel of choice with their voiceover expertise, included in their single-player rpg's, within SWTOR.
Is everyone and their mother still doing the same exact quests? Yes. Is everyone still 'the hero' in a world filled to the brim with heroes? Yes. This won't be escaped in a theme-park MMO. But what TOR is doing is improving the presentation to the point where disbelief can be suspended a bit more than usual.
So in the end, yes, I do agree that it adds to a new standard of quest mechanics, and it certainly adds a 'bit' more to personalizing the quest experience. However, it really doesn't 'change' questing from what I've seen and read, unless there are some very very realizable game-play consequences that affect your experience and appearance to yourself and the community at-large.
But as the article mentions, I conceptually believe that quest presentation and participation will seem improved with voiceovers, and fun in this coop game where your also waiting on what another party member might choose as a response, and the anticipation to see which player gets the better "roll" for response choice, as we've seen in some Bioware reveals. And this is something I really look forward to.
Reading a quest to kill 10 rats: same old, same old.
Voice actor telling me to kill 10 rats: A REVOLUTION!
The "kill 10 rats" are bonus side quests that do not need to be completed to finish the actual quests. So you might just be right when you said, "A REVOLUTION".
"If half of what you tell me is a lie, how can I believe any of it?"
It seems kind of funny to read BioWare is going to change questing forever by use of Voice Over... and then there is the mention of how it obviously influenced The Secret World to be fully voiced.
As opposed to Age of Conan was generally accepted to be really well down for Tortage and suck beyond that. Tortage oddly enough was a bunch of quests with Voice Over.. a lot of story.. and playing different classes showed the role each one played in that story.
*ponders*
Maybe one could write an article about how Funcom inspired BioWare to change questing forever.. by taking Tortage and expanding it into the entire game.
I don't like voice overs, and my reason is simple: you have to talk back. And when you start talking back, the devs start defining your character's personality instead of you. All of the sudden, you feel like everyone is playing the same character.
You take quest text (98% of the MMOs in th market have it) and add voice-over instead. This basically makes the game "average" with voices. If I remember correctly, every game is "average" in that aspect. SWTOR is taking "average" and sprinkling a little bit of sugar on top of it. Rift is an "average" great game because they use quest text. WoW is an "average" good game because they do the same.
Bioware has made it clear. You go with what works. They've taken whats standard in the MMO market and added a little more flavor to it. They are not looking to create a standard. They are not making VO's a requirement. Yes, you will find a guy talking about how rats are picking at Nem'ro the Hutts feet and they need some killin' (Just made this up, relax). The VO makes it more epic then it is, but the fact of the matter is, you're going to kill 10 rats. It may occupy more time listening to the VO but, as a beta tester, I guarantee you will enjoy it.
Oh, and if it matters, the games DOES make some changes as you make different choices. THAT it was I look forward to in rerolling.
Voice-over is awesome, but there are a couple of negative consequences:
Greatly increases the cost of development (in terms of time/resources). This means given a fixed budget, having VO means not having something other feature.
Lowers quality in other areas - once you record a VO, you are kind of locked to it. This means if you record a VO to kill ten rats, and later the developers say "this quest kinda sucks, lets completely change it" they can't. Because changing the quest also means re-recording the VO, and this gets expensive. Especially because most MMOs launch in at least 4 languages. So it lowers the total number of iterations allowed in the budget. Iterating on a feature is how you improve it.
Increases linearity, because with any sort of branching quest or story the cost rises exponentially.
So the thing is, if VO does become a standard feature that gamers demand to the point where producers in the MMO industry consider it a must-have feature, then MMOs in general will cost more money (which means we'll get less of them coming to market) and will have have less gameplay features than they to today.
All very good points but let's take a look more specifically at option number three as it stands now quests are extremely static they never change at all anyway so how would that become a negative effect. If BW chooses to offer branching paths it would still be exclusive to them everyone else has that one particular quest that you either take or you don't whether you do it or not has no bearing on the outcome of your gaming experience so I can't look upon this is really a negative
You're absolutely right - quests are static in MMOs. But I guess over the last 10 years I was hoping they would move in a more dynamic direction. If VO was a standard MMO feature (the kind that publishers don't let you launch without), this hope would die.
In terms of cost, text and quest implementation in the "standard RPG model" (quests being delivered via text) is relatively cheap in development terms. This is why RPGs even from developers of modest means can boast hundreds (or even thousands) of quests. It's cheap content.
If you want to make some sort of convoluted branching quest structure with outcomes that impact future quests and Player-NPC interaction in subtle ways, basically you have a lot of cases and then some human has to figure out "okay, if the Player had outcome A on quest X, and outcome Q on quest Y... on quest Z we hide dialog option R and replace it with dialog option S."
Planning is a bitch, but in terms of word count and logic it's not that bad. So we're looking at four tasks - a task for the guy who maps out the quest structure, a task for the guy implementing the dialog logic, and a task for the guy writing the dialog, and a task for the translator. But VO adds a huge price tag the pipeline, in addition to the overhead of just having VO. You need to hire actors, rent a sound studio, do recording sessions, etc, etc. If something changes or needs to be redone, gotta go re-hire the same actor for that NPC. Plus the actors for all the other languages you release in. This has an effect where to reduce risk, quests with VO end up being fairly simple/standard. There's no "well, we'll try out this experimental quest mechanic and if it doesnt work we'll change it in beta."
But I think as gamers, we want content mechanics that push the envelope.
Reading a quest to kill 10 rats: same old, same old.
Voice actor telling me to kill 10 rats: A REVOLUTION!
Not really, since for me I can read extremly fast, by the time the VA stops yapping i could have killed half my needed rats. Look at wow for example, some quests have a 2 page life story about why this npc needs you to go kill 5 rats in his corn field. Me? I just click npc hit accept quest and go, If I played swtor i'd probally just skip past most of the VA cuz honstly, it'll just make things take longer. Might listen to it a bit first to see if it sounds intersting, but after looking at Dragon Age 2 I don't expect much. People don't relize that while there are class storylines I bet probally all of them are bascally the same story in a slightly diffrent wrapper.
Again though I haven't played swtor yet, will give it a shot when their is a trial since to me, it looks no diff than your run of the mill World of warcraft clone just with a starwars skin to me. Would be nice to be pleasently surprized when I do try SWToR that it turns out to be diffrent but I am not expecting much at all. I am kinda wondering why bioware won't have a open beta, to me it sounds like they want to hide something from the general public that would lower sales, which it does, I was gonna buy rift till I tried its OB and relize it was bascally WoW in a new skin.. never bothered with it again after open beta, due to finding it boring ans the game just felt too much like "This is boring I have done this before in WoW/other mmo".
IMO the biggest flaw in SWToR is the fact that Bioware seems to be trying to make a single player game into a mmo. SWToR's VO sounds alot like Biowares single player rpgs, same sort of choices etc. This doesn't sound bad, but it can potentally backfire majorly especally later, new content will cost exponentally more to implement than just using text quests, due to having to hire and record VO's, which means less content overall, and I am sure for the VO's being such a big part of the game, the gameplay has probally suffered majorly in other area's for it. Combat looks like one area to me, the combat looks like the same generic crap we been doing in WoW, Rift, etc for years with nothing diffrent or really new to it, it almost feels like Bioware didn't even try to do anything special with combat (Yes I know about the cover system but thats more of a class skill since only certan classes can do it). Really wish I could get into the beta or that it'd have a open beta so I can try the game myself insted of going by videos, Videos of a game are usually alot diffrent than playing said game yourself, they can give off a much diffrent feel, but I am not willing to spend 60-80 bucks on a chance I may like the game, I'm done doing that in mmorpgs after Aion.
I do think Bioware needs a OB though because with the mass of people who pre-ordered they are probally gonna have massive server issues the first week or so due to lack of stress testing. Be better to have a OB to try to stress/crash the servers to find their limits, because a bad launch in a MMORPG can nip it in the bud, and not many mmo's ever recover from a bad launch. Key thing is to get all the major issues sorted out during the first 2-3 weeks during the included 1 month time, if they can do that (Anarchy Online did) they can usually recover, but if the same issues, bugs etc are around 2-3 months later, people won't stand for it and will just cancel and move on, People tend to be much more lenient when they haven't had to shell out monthly yet.
Being a pessimist is a win-win pattern of thinking. If you're a pessimist (I'll admit that I am!) you're either:
A. Proven right (if something bad happens)
or
B. Pleasantly surprised (if something good happens)
You are right in what you're saying, but I can't help thinking that MMOs are not mainly about story and characters, like single player RPGs are. Sure, it does matter and it's a useful addition, but it shouldn't be the main focus, like it clearly is for SW:TOR.
I'm very curious to see how this will turn out for them... I won't be playing it, but I'll sure keep a close eye on it to see the result of this little experiment.
http://titanfocus.info - news, predictions and place for discussions about Blizzard's upcoming next-gen MMO.
Reading a quest to kill 10 rats: same old, same old.
Voice actor telling me to kill 10 rats: A REVOLUTION!
Not really, since for me I can read extremly fast, by the time the VA stops yapping i could have killed half my needed rats. Look at wow for example, some quests have a 2 page life story about why this npc needs you to go kill 5 rats in his corn field. Me? I just click npc hit accept quest and go, If I played swtor i'd probally just skip past most of the VA cuz honstly, it'll just make things take longer. Might listen to it a bit first to see if it sounds intersting, but after looking at Dragon Age 2 I don't expect much. People don't relize that while there are class storylines I bet probally all of them are bascally the same story in a slightly diffrent wrapper.
Again though I haven't played swtor yet, will give it a shot when their is a trial since to me, it looks no diff than your run of the mill World of warcraft clone just with a starwars skin to me. Would be nice to be pleasently surprized when I do try SWToR that it turns out to be diffrent but I am not expecting much at all. I am kinda wondering why bioware won't have a open beta, to me it sounds like they want to hide something from the general public that would lower sales, which it does, I was gonna buy rift till I tried its OB and relize it was bascally WoW in a new skin.. never bothered with it again after open beta, due to finding it boring ans the game just felt too much like "This is boring I have done this before in WoW/other mmo".
No, the annoying part is that you maybe already killed 10 rats on your way to that npc. And the npc just ignores that and sends you back to do it again. In a revolutionising fully voiced over way of course
But that mainly sums up my main beef with kill x mobs quests. VO wont change that.
Reading a quest to kill 10 rats: same old, same old.
Voice actor telling me to kill 10 rats: A REVOLUTION!
Not really, since for me I can read extremly fast, by the time the VA stops yapping i could have killed half my needed rats. Look at wow for example, some quests have a 2 page life story about why this npc needs you to go kill 5 rats in his corn field. Me? I just click npc hit accept quest and go, If I played swtor i'd probally just skip past most of the VA cuz honstly, it'll just make things take longer. Might listen to it a bit first to see if it sounds intersting, but after looking at Dragon Age 2 I don't expect much. People don't relize that while there are class storylines I bet probally all of them are bascally the same story in a slightly diffrent wrapper.
Again though I haven't played swtor yet, will give it a shot when their is a trial since to me, it looks no diff than your run of the mill World of warcraft clone just with a starwars skin to me. Would be nice to be pleasently surprized when I do try SWToR that it turns out to be diffrent but I am not expecting much at all. I am kinda wondering why bioware won't have a open beta, to me it sounds like they want to hide something from the general public that would lower sales, which it does, I was gonna buy rift till I tried its OB and relize it was bascally WoW in a new skin.. never bothered with it again after open beta, due to finding it boring ans the game just felt too much like "This is boring I have done this before in WoW/other mmo".
No, the annoying part is that you maybe already killed 10 rats on your way to that npc. And the npc just ignores that and sends you back to do it again. In a revolutionising fully voiced over way of course
But that mainly sums up my main beef with kill x mobs quests. VO wont change that.
LOL Yeah I know that feeling happens in every mmorpg, One quest I did in some game I had to kill like 30 mobs to get to the npc (he was behind them all) then he gives me a quest to kill a bunch of those same mobs I just had to cut thru to get to him in the first place, that really gets old REALLY quickly. VO in this case just make it worse unless its skipable by say hitting space or something.
Being a pessimist is a win-win pattern of thinking. If you're a pessimist (I'll admit that I am!) you're either:
A. Proven right (if something bad happens)
or
B. Pleasantly surprised (if something good happens)
Personally I like the way Bioware is using voiceacting and dialigue choices to make me feel immersed in the game as opposed to read some text and go do it. My choices have effect and consequesnces. I have enjoyed Bioware games because of this. IMO its a good route that all MMO's should follow.
***Raises plunger in salute to Bioware implementation of storyline!***
Your choices have no effect or consequesnces. Haven't you watched the videos.
I saw one where the player had a choice to help a guy or not help a guy. The player chose NOT to help the guy. And npc said "but he could be helpfull later. Go help him."
Totall waste of time. Probably only one out a hundred times would it really matter what you choose. I cant believe some people haven't figured out yet they are not really effecting anything. It's no differant than a text quest and you declining to accept a quest. You didn't change anything by not accepting.
And does the article writer here not know that VO has been done before? Why did none of the ones before get creditted for changing the way questing is done?
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what
it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience
because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in
the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you
playing an MMORPG?"
I don't get it. I was issued a warning and most of my post was deleted, but I didn't say anything that isn't common knowledge and available in basically every gameplay video you can see on YouTube.
/boggle
No godless person can comprehend those minute distinctions in doctrine that provide true believers excuse for mayhem. -Glen Cook
Personally I like the way Bioware is using voiceacting and dialigue choices to make me feel immersed in the game as opposed to read some text and go do it. My choices have effect and consequesnces. I have enjoyed Bioware games because of this. IMO its a good route that all MMO's should follow.
***Raises plunger in salute to Bioware implementation of storyline!***
Your choices have no effect or consequesnces. Haven't you watched the videos.
I saw one where the player had a choice to help a guy or not help a guy. The player chose NOT to help the guy. And npc said "but he could be helpfull later. Go help him."
Totall waste of time. Probably only one out a hundred times would it really matter what you choose. I cant believe some people haven't figured out yet they are not really effecting anything. It's no differant than a text quest and you declining to accept a quest. You didn't change anything by not accepting.
And does the article writer here not know that VO has been done before? Why did none of the ones before get creditted for changing the way questing is done?
U mad bro? U seem a bit mad at least ...
I've seen plenty of clips where choice did matter a lot and governed a variation of options in how to go about reaching certain goals.
p.s. did you get the memo on alignment stats and rewards for going dark-, light and neutral side?
Personally I like the way Bioware is using voiceacting and dialigue choices to make me feel immersed in the game as opposed to read some text and go do it. My choices have effect and consequesnces. I have enjoyed Bioware games because of this. IMO its a good route that all MMO's should follow.
***Raises plunger in salute to Bioware implementation of storyline!***
Your choices have no effect or consequesnces. Haven't you watched the videos.
I saw one where the player had a choice to help a guy or not help a guy. The player chose NOT to help the guy. And npc said "but he could be helpfull later. Go help him."
Totall waste of time. Probably only one out a hundred times would it really matter what you choose. I cant believe some people haven't figured out yet they are not really effecting anything. It's no differant than a text quest and you declining to accept a quest. You didn't change anything by not accepting.
And does the article writer here not know that VO has been done before? Why did none of the ones before get creditted for changing the way questing is done?
Your statement is inaccurate. Some missions do and some dont. I have watched other videos where it does. I also know people who are in beta that contradict your above statement. Ill leave it at that.
All my opinions are just that..opinions. If you like my opinions..coolness.If you dont like my opinion....I really dont care. Playing: ESO, WOT, Smite, and Marvel Heroes
Personally I like the way Bioware is using voiceacting and dialigue choices to make me feel immersed in the game as opposed to read some text and go do it. My choices have effect and consequesnces. I have enjoyed Bioware games because of this. IMO its a good route that all MMO's should follow.
***Raises plunger in salute to Bioware implementation of storyline!***
Your choices have no effect or consequesnces. Haven't you watched the videos.
I saw one where the player had a choice to help a guy or not help a guy. The player chose NOT to help the guy. And npc said "but he could be helpfull later. Go help him."
Totall waste of time. Probably only one out a hundred times would it really matter what you choose. I cant believe some people haven't figured out yet they are not really effecting anything. It's no differant than a text quest and you declining to accept a quest. You didn't change anything by not accepting.
And does the article writer here not know that VO has been done before? Why did none of the ones before get creditted for changing the way questing is done?
Your statement is inaccurate. Some missions do and some dont. I have watched other videos where it does. I also know people who are in beta that contradict your above statement. Ill leave it at that.
*pats the rabbit*
That's a good rodent. And don't forget to call for me when that nasty weasel chases after you again, alright?
*nods* It is to be assumed that Voice Over and Story will be the biggest influence from SWTOR, no matter how the game will fare. All big MMOs will have lots of voice over and a certain focus on storytelling. I WISH also the "consequence" part would have an impact, like if you decide X, the outcome will be Y. That is IMVPO also a very important feature. I can make decisions, and they will have results. Though I don't think that particular thing will happen in many MMOs, because simply it is too big. Alas.
But overall the impact will be there, no matter how exactly TOR will go, and I don't think it can totally fail, anyway.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
*nods* It is to be assumed that Voice Over and Story will be the biggest influence from SWTOR, no matter how the game will fare. All big MMOs will have lots of voice over and a certain focus on storytelling. I WISH also the "consequence" part would have an impact, like if you decide X, the outcome will be Y. That is IMVPO also a very important feature. I can make decisions, and they will have results. Though I don't think that particular thing will happen in many MMOs, because simply it is too big. Alas.
But overall the impact will be there, no matter how exactly TOR will go, and I don't think it can totally fail, anyway.
i do think it will have some effect but.. i dont think Voice overs are really all that much of an issue.. mostly the issue with Voice overs is whether or not there will be text alongside it (not everyone can hear after all) and whether they can be skipped/fastforwarded.. but.. while i don't think the game will fail at all, i don't think its going to be the next big thing either, despite the Voice overs, this game will live or die by how well it handles combat etc. most players arent really all that cereberal about things..
*nods* It is to be assumed that Voice Over and Story will be the biggest influence from SWTOR, no matter how the game will fare. All big MMOs will have lots of voice over and a certain focus on storytelling. I WISH also the "consequence" part would have an impact, like if you decide X, the outcome will be Y. That is IMVPO also a very important feature. I can make decisions, and they will have results. Though I don't think that particular thing will happen in many MMOs, because simply it is too big. Alas.
But overall the impact will be there, no matter how exactly TOR will go, and I don't think it can totally fail, anyway.
i do think it will have some effect but.. i dont think Voice overs are really all that much of an issue.. mostly the issue with Voice overs is whether or not there will be text alongside it (not everyone can hear after all) and whether they can be skipped/fastforwarded.. but.. while i don't think the game will fail at all, i don't think its going to be the next big thing either, despite the Voice overs, this game will live or die by how well it handles combat etc. most players arent really all that cereberal about things..
which explains WoW a lot if you ask me
Could you imagine if they didn't include text for hearing impaired oh that would be a big blunder there.
It seems kind of funny to read BioWare is going to change questing forever by use of Voice Over... and then there is the mention of how it obviously influenced The Secret World to be fully voiced.
As opposed to Age of Conan was generally accepted to be really well down for Tortage and suck beyond that. Tortage oddly enough was a bunch of quests with Voice Over.. a lot of story.. and playing different classes showed the role each one played in that story.
*ponders*
Maybe one could write an article about how Funcom inspired BioWare to change questing forever.. by taking Tortage and expanding it into the entire game.
The problem with this is that Tortage and Funcom storytelling was/is grade school level of story telling and VO. Tortage just reads the text to you, nothing more. You don't get to make choices that change the reaction and future quests. Tortage was a very basic VO feature that people actually liked.
BW storytelling while questing will make Tortage look like a joke. But the problem is experience. Unless you are sitting in front of your computer and playing TOR. You have no idea what it is like. That is the difference between the article and those saying no way. Experience with the game.
How many people long for that "past, simpler, and better world," I wonder, without ever recognizing the truth that perhaps it was they who were simpler and better, and not the world about them? R.A.Salvatore
Comments
Voiceovers, being nothing new to the RPG genre, is a very nice add to SWTOR. I am really glad to see Bioware include their quest dialog wheel of choice with their voiceover expertise, included in their single-player rpg's, within SWTOR.
Is everyone and their mother still doing the same exact quests? Yes. Is everyone still 'the hero' in a world filled to the brim with heroes? Yes. This won't be escaped in a theme-park MMO. But what TOR is doing is improving the presentation to the point where disbelief can be suspended a bit more than usual.
So in the end, yes, I do agree that it adds to a new standard of quest mechanics, and it certainly adds a 'bit' more to personalizing the quest experience. However, it really doesn't 'change' questing from what I've seen and read, unless there are some very very realizable game-play consequences that affect your experience and appearance to yourself and the community at-large.
But as the article mentions, I conceptually believe that quest presentation and participation will seem improved with voiceovers, and fun in this coop game where your also waiting on what another party member might choose as a response, and the anticipation to see which player gets the better "roll" for response choice, as we've seen in some Bioware reveals. And this is something I really look forward to.
The "kill 10 rats" are bonus side quests that do not need to be completed to finish the actual quests. So you might just be right when you said, "A REVOLUTION".
"If half of what you tell me is a lie, how can I believe any of it?"
It seems kind of funny to read BioWare is going to change questing forever by use of Voice Over... and then there is the mention of how it obviously influenced The Secret World to be fully voiced.
As opposed to Age of Conan was generally accepted to be really well down for Tortage and suck beyond that. Tortage oddly enough was a bunch of quests with Voice Over.. a lot of story.. and playing different classes showed the role each one played in that story.
*ponders*
Maybe one could write an article about how Funcom inspired BioWare to change questing forever.. by taking Tortage and expanding it into the entire game.
I don't like voice overs, and my reason is simple: you have to talk back. And when you start talking back, the devs start defining your character's personality instead of you. All of the sudden, you feel like everyone is playing the same character.
So if im understanding this correctly:
You take quest text (98% of the MMOs in th market have it) and add voice-over instead. This basically makes the game "average" with voices. If I remember correctly, every game is "average" in that aspect. SWTOR is taking "average" and sprinkling a little bit of sugar on top of it. Rift is an "average" great game because they use quest text. WoW is an "average" good game because they do the same.
Bioware has made it clear. You go with what works. They've taken whats standard in the MMO market and added a little more flavor to it. They are not looking to create a standard. They are not making VO's a requirement. Yes, you will find a guy talking about how rats are picking at Nem'ro the Hutts feet and they need some killin' (Just made this up, relax). The VO makes it more epic then it is, but the fact of the matter is, you're going to kill 10 rats. It may occupy more time listening to the VO but, as a beta tester, I guarantee you will enjoy it.
Oh, and if it matters, the games DOES make some changes as you make different choices. THAT it was I look forward to in rerolling.
You're absolutely right - quests are static in MMOs. But I guess over the last 10 years I was hoping they would move in a more dynamic direction. If VO was a standard MMO feature (the kind that publishers don't let you launch without), this hope would die.
In terms of cost, text and quest implementation in the "standard RPG model" (quests being delivered via text) is relatively cheap in development terms. This is why RPGs even from developers of modest means can boast hundreds (or even thousands) of quests. It's cheap content.
If you want to make some sort of convoluted branching quest structure with outcomes that impact future quests and Player-NPC interaction in subtle ways, basically you have a lot of cases and then some human has to figure out "okay, if the Player had outcome A on quest X, and outcome Q on quest Y... on quest Z we hide dialog option R and replace it with dialog option S."
Planning is a bitch, but in terms of word count and logic it's not that bad. So we're looking at four tasks - a task for the guy who maps out the quest structure, a task for the guy implementing the dialog logic, and a task for the guy writing the dialog, and a task for the translator. But VO adds a huge price tag the pipeline, in addition to the overhead of just having VO. You need to hire actors, rent a sound studio, do recording sessions, etc, etc. If something changes or needs to be redone, gotta go re-hire the same actor for that NPC. Plus the actors for all the other languages you release in. This has an effect where to reduce risk, quests with VO end up being fairly simple/standard. There's no "well, we'll try out this experimental quest mechanic and if it doesnt work we'll change it in beta."
But I think as gamers, we want content mechanics that push the envelope.
Not really, since for me I can read extremly fast, by the time the VA stops yapping i could have killed half my needed rats. Look at wow for example, some quests have a 2 page life story about why this npc needs you to go kill 5 rats in his corn field. Me? I just click npc hit accept quest and go, If I played swtor i'd probally just skip past most of the VA cuz honstly, it'll just make things take longer. Might listen to it a bit first to see if it sounds intersting, but after looking at Dragon Age 2 I don't expect much. People don't relize that while there are class storylines I bet probally all of them are bascally the same story in a slightly diffrent wrapper.
Again though I haven't played swtor yet, will give it a shot when their is a trial since to me, it looks no diff than your run of the mill World of warcraft clone just with a starwars skin to me. Would be nice to be pleasently surprized when I do try SWToR that it turns out to be diffrent but I am not expecting much at all. I am kinda wondering why bioware won't have a open beta, to me it sounds like they want to hide something from the general public that would lower sales, which it does, I was gonna buy rift till I tried its OB and relize it was bascally WoW in a new skin.. never bothered with it again after open beta, due to finding it boring ans the game just felt too much like "This is boring I have done this before in WoW/other mmo".
IMO the biggest flaw in SWToR is the fact that Bioware seems to be trying to make a single player game into a mmo. SWToR's VO sounds alot like Biowares single player rpgs, same sort of choices etc. This doesn't sound bad, but it can potentally backfire majorly especally later, new content will cost exponentally more to implement than just using text quests, due to having to hire and record VO's, which means less content overall, and I am sure for the VO's being such a big part of the game, the gameplay has probally suffered majorly in other area's for it. Combat looks like one area to me, the combat looks like the same generic crap we been doing in WoW, Rift, etc for years with nothing diffrent or really new to it, it almost feels like Bioware didn't even try to do anything special with combat (Yes I know about the cover system but thats more of a class skill since only certan classes can do it). Really wish I could get into the beta or that it'd have a open beta so I can try the game myself insted of going by videos, Videos of a game are usually alot diffrent than playing said game yourself, they can give off a much diffrent feel, but I am not willing to spend 60-80 bucks on a chance I may like the game, I'm done doing that in mmorpgs after Aion.
I do think Bioware needs a OB though because with the mass of people who pre-ordered they are probally gonna have massive server issues the first week or so due to lack of stress testing. Be better to have a OB to try to stress/crash the servers to find their limits, because a bad launch in a MMORPG can nip it in the bud, and not many mmo's ever recover from a bad launch. Key thing is to get all the major issues sorted out during the first 2-3 weeks during the included 1 month time, if they can do that (Anarchy Online did) they can usually recover, but if the same issues, bugs etc are around 2-3 months later, people won't stand for it and will just cancel and move on, People tend to be much more lenient when they haven't had to shell out monthly yet.
Being a pessimist is a win-win pattern of thinking. If you're a pessimist (I'll admit that I am!) you're either:
A. Proven right (if something bad happens)
or
B. Pleasantly surprised (if something good happens)
Either way, you can't lose! Try it out sometime!
"... the best story in Star Wars since the Original Trilogy."
Finally, at the very end, something I can readily agree with. The rest, not so much.
You are right in what you're saying, but I can't help thinking that MMOs are not mainly about story and characters, like single player RPGs are. Sure, it does matter and it's a useful addition, but it shouldn't be the main focus, like it clearly is for SW:TOR.
I'm very curious to see how this will turn out for them... I won't be playing it, but I'll sure keep a close eye on it to see the result of this little experiment.
http://titanfocus.info - news, predictions and place for discussions about Blizzard's upcoming next-gen MMO.
No, the annoying part is that you maybe already killed 10 rats on your way to that npc. And the npc just ignores that and sends you back to do it again. In a revolutionising fully voiced over way of course
But that mainly sums up my main beef with kill x mobs quests. VO wont change that.
LOL Yeah I know that feeling happens in every mmorpg, One quest I did in some game I had to kill like 30 mobs to get to the npc (he was behind them all) then he gives me a quest to kill a bunch of those same mobs I just had to cut thru to get to him in the first place, that really gets old REALLY quickly. VO in this case just make it worse unless its skipable by say hitting space or something.
Being a pessimist is a win-win pattern of thinking. If you're a pessimist (I'll admit that I am!) you're either:
A. Proven right (if something bad happens)
or
B. Pleasantly surprised (if something good happens)
Either way, you can't lose! Try it out sometime!
Your choices have no effect or consequesnces. Haven't you watched the videos.
I saw one where the player had a choice to help a guy or not help a guy. The player chose NOT to help the guy. And npc said "but he could be helpfull later. Go help him."
Totall waste of time. Probably only one out a hundred times would it really matter what you choose. I cant believe some people haven't figured out yet they are not really effecting anything. It's no differant than a text quest and you declining to accept a quest. You didn't change anything by not accepting.
And does the article writer here not know that VO has been done before? Why did none of the ones before get creditted for changing the way questing is done?
I think players are getting two great games in swtor and gw2. We should be happy.
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
I agree but is Tera doing VO too and WildStar? I know TSW does not have PC VO which really blows.
Guild Wars 2's 50 minutes game play video:
http://n4g.com/news/592585/guild-wars-2-50-minutes-of-pure-gameplay
Everything We Know about GW2:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/287180/page/1
I don't get it. I was issued a warning and most of my post was deleted, but I didn't say anything that isn't common knowledge and available in basically every gameplay video you can see on YouTube.
/boggle
No godless person can comprehend those minute distinctions
in doctrine that provide true believers excuse for mayhem.
-Glen Cook
U mad bro? U seem a bit mad at least ...
I've seen plenty of clips where choice did matter a lot and governed a variation of options in how to go about reaching certain goals.
p.s. did you get the memo on alignment stats and rewards for going dark-, light and neutral side?
No consequences? Hmmff...
My brand new bloggity blog.
Your statement is inaccurate. Some missions do and some dont. I have watched other videos where it does. I also know people who are in beta that contradict your above statement. Ill leave it at that.
All my opinions are just that..opinions. If you like my opinions..coolness.If you dont like my opinion....I really dont care.
Playing: ESO, WOT, Smite, and Marvel Heroes
*pats the rabbit*
That's a good rodent. And don't forget to call for me when that nasty weasel chases after you again, alright?
Here's the Esseles bit with the dramatic airlock choice for those who haven't seen it: http://youtu.be/rLrsEx8YZj0?t=7m2s
D. Dickinson: "All of our heroes have chosen the Dark Side option ..." Lolol
My brand new bloggity blog.
*nods* It is to be assumed that Voice Over and Story will be the biggest influence from SWTOR, no matter how the game will fare. All big MMOs will have lots of voice over and a certain focus on storytelling. I WISH also the "consequence" part would have an impact, like if you decide X, the outcome will be Y. That is IMVPO also a very important feature. I can make decisions, and they will have results. Though I don't think that particular thing will happen in many MMOs, because simply it is too big. Alas.
But overall the impact will be there, no matter how exactly TOR will go, and I don't think it can totally fail, anyway.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
First off.....I agree with this article 100%.
Second off....Bioware's games have ALWAYS featured "consequence".
Draw your own conclusions from that.
i do think it will have some effect but.. i dont think Voice overs are really all that much of an issue.. mostly the issue with Voice overs is whether or not there will be text alongside it (not everyone can hear after all) and whether they can be skipped/fastforwarded.. but.. while i don't think the game will fail at all, i don't think its going to be the next big thing either, despite the Voice overs, this game will live or die by how well it handles combat etc. most players arent really all that cereberal about things..
which explains WoW a lot if you ask me
Could you imagine if they didn't include text for hearing impaired oh that would be a big blunder there.
Not really that excited about SWTORs way of delivering quests as I am about GW2 way of doing stuff in the mmo world
But can't wait to try the game finaly...
"Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life."
-------------------------------
The problem with this is that Tortage and Funcom storytelling was/is grade school level of story telling and VO. Tortage just reads the text to you, nothing more. You don't get to make choices that change the reaction and future quests. Tortage was a very basic VO feature that people actually liked.
BW storytelling while questing will make Tortage look like a joke. But the problem is experience. Unless you are sitting in front of your computer and playing TOR. You have no idea what it is like. That is the difference between the article and those saying no way. Experience with the game.
How many people long for that "past, simpler, and better world," I wonder, without ever recognizing the truth that perhaps it was they who were simpler and better, and not the world about them?
R.A.Salvatore