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Voice Acting in MMORPG's good or wasted resources?
Vermillion_Raventhal
Member EpicPosts: 4,198
I will start off by saying that I don't know how much it cost to do quality voice acting in a game let alone an MMORPG.
Does it lend well to the experience of MMORPG's or is something that you just skip to get to the damn point and get the experience?
Do you think it's wasted on most people who don't care whats on text or being said by NPC because their only looking to level?
Comments
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
It wasn't bad in SWTOR, but honestly after the first couple days I would just skip them. I would rather they used the resources for something more tangible.
Lets see your Battle Stations /r/battlestations
Battle Station
I like some random NPC talk when i walk around towns and cities, and cinematics and cut scenes should ofcourse be voiced.
As for things like quests, i really don't care, I'll probably skip over / not even hear it anyway.
Even in neverwinter where the quest dialog continues as you walk away, i cant remember a single word any of the quest givers said.
I tend to enjoy little snippits of voice work well as part of the ambient sound design of a game.
However, verbalizing quest text doesn't make me any less inclined to want to skip them.
I like listening to nicely told stories, but I'm not personally a fan of story-centric games.
When we get back from where we are going, we will return to where we were. I know people there!
personally i think its a complete waste of time and resources.
i would rather the money be put towards more content and things to do in the game.
I think voiceovers are a fantastic idea for main story quests (including raid cutscenes and the like) but not really all that appropriate for every little 'kill ten rats' type of quest. Especially if you can't hire a decent cast of unique voice actors for the various NPCs. For example, it seemed like every 3rd or 4th quest giver in SWTOR was voiced by Jim Cummings. It really ruins whatever mood the VO is trying to add very quickly when all the NPCs sound identical. Having the PC re-use the same lines over and over again doesn't help either.
It's a sad day indeed when a family is too afraid of reprisals to publicly thank somebody for saving their lives.
+1
What if large-budget publishers are actually looking for bottomless pits to throw money into in order to set a standard that independant publishers can't compete with?
I like when a quest giver explains the quest but doesn't force you to stand there with a dialog box open. You can walk away and still listen to them explain the quest.
SWTOR went a bit overboard and the way the quests worked you often just ended up skipping it anyway to get the the choice.
only the developers can answer this question. They know the exact costs; we can only speculate. The better question is which MMOs do it best? And for which do they add the most?
for me, DCUO has the best voice actors and writing. It's at times very funny and witty and other times serious and comic-dramatic. And it has that subtle dark humor. And pretty much the ENTIRE game is voiceovered. very well done. not to mention the extremely well done cutscenes and cinematics. that game just oozes vibe and comicbook theme flavor.
SWOTR is good as well and GW2, while i thought the game was extremely bland and boring and the personal story a complete "meh" of cliches, the voice actors seem good and there is a good amount of NPC chatter.
Neverwinter however... lol. baaaad voice acting. so bad, and not even campy bad - distracting bad.
Though I do like voiced dialogue and cut scenes, I will say that so far every MMO that has featured a large amount of voice acting has definitely wasted resources.
It's one of those things that you incorporate as a cherry on top, not as a main feature. It's expensive and requires lots of manpower to accomplish. Focus on the game first, then if there isn't any way to keep improving the game, go ahead and add voice overs.
I become far more immersed in a game if there are good voice overs, particularly for main characters I interact with consistently. An example of this Diablo's Deckard Cain who voice totally compelled me to help and follow his instructions when playing the original Diablo.
Getting the voice right is very important though. If his voice had sounded like that of one of the Goblins in WoW it would have irritated the you know what out of me.
A game with quality voice overs can only add another layer to it's immersion if done well.
And I do believe that GW2 has been quite successful.
So, you can have voice acting in MMOs and not have it be reserved entirely for story cut scenes.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
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