We have heard a great deal about the voice acting element of SWTOR. This dialogue, it's speculated, is one of the reasons why SWTOR is predicted to be such a 'big' game - because the sound files are going to be so huge.

But I must say that, from my own perspective, before Bioware began hitting the 'It Talks!' button, I never heard many gamers either on the mmorpg.com or other forums ever actually ask for 'more voice acting'. Less bugs, bigger landscapes, more crafting, fewer invisible barriers, more fps, less grinding and a lot of other, more conventional MMO wants, but never 'more voice acting'.

I remember when it was annoucned that Heather Graham and Christopher Lee were going to do voice-acting for EQ2. The reaction was, 'Nice, but who cares?'. And for a while in 2006, the first question in the EQ2 forums FAQ was 'How can I turn off voice-acting so I don't hear Brian Shorecling ever again?'.

My question is - is voice acting a big part of your personal MMO enjoyment?

Originally posted by storyless

We have heard a great deal about the voice acting element of SWTOR. This dialogue, it's speculated, is one of the reasons why SWTOR is predicted to be such a 'big' game - because the sound files are going to be so huge.

But I must say that, from my own perspective, before Bioware began hitting the 'It Talks!' button, I never heard many gamers either on the mmorpg.com or other forums ever actually ask for 'more voice acting'. Less bugs, bigger landscapes, more crafting, fewer invisible barriers, more fps, less grinding and a lot of other, more conventional MMO wants, but never 'more voice acting'.

I remember when it was annoucned that Heather Graham and Christopher Lee were going to do voice-acting for EQ2. The reaction was, 'Nice, but who cares?'. And for a while in 2006, the first question in the EQ2 forums FAQ was 'How can I turn off voice-acting so I don't hear Brian Shorecling ever again?'.

My question is - is voice acting a big part of your personal MMO enjoyment?

You can't get away from it because it's part of the cut scenes sounds like. Think KOTOR when you are standing there having dialog with the other NPC. Kinda plays like a movie (or cartoon) from the looks of it.

It's not gonna be like it was in EQ2 with a disembodied voice coming from the direction of the NPC.

Originally posted by tillamook

Originally posted by storyless

You can't get away from it because it's part of the cut scenes sounds like. Think KOTOR when you are standing there having dialog with the other NPC. Kinda plays like a movie (or cartoon) from the looks of it.

It's not gonna be like it was in EQ2 with a disembodied voice coming from the direction of the NPC.

That's not ncessarily a recommendation, I'd say. It also raises other questions:

Personally, I read faster than the actors will talk - will I be able to turn off voice-acting if I want? If I'm in the middle of a dialogue cut-scene when I am attacked by a PVP player, what happens?

I guess I'll have to wait for Bioware's favoured game commentators to describe a playable demo for those answers.

lol

Originally posted by storyless

We have heard a great deal about the voice acting element of SWTOR. This dialogue, it's speculated, is one of the reasons why SWTOR is predicted to be such a 'big' game - because the sound files are going to be so huge.

But I must say that, from my own perspective, before Bioware began hitting the 'It Talks!' button, I never heard many gamers either on the mmorpg.com or other forums ever actually ask for 'more voice acting'. Less bugs, bigger landscapes, more crafting, fewer invisible barriers, more fps, less grinding and a lot of other, more conventional MMO wants, but never 'more voice acting'.

I remember when it was annoucned that Heather Graham and Christopher Lee were going to do voice-acting for EQ2. The reaction was, 'Nice, but who cares?'. And for a while in 2006, the first question in the EQ2 forums FAQ was 'How can I turn off voice-acting so I don't hear Brian Shorecling ever again?'.

My question is - is voice acting a big part of your personal MMO enjoyment?

It sounds like (here comes speculation) to me that the voice acting is getting set up just the same as the KOTOR and Mass Effect games.  The first time through I actually listened to the voice acting but after that I never listened again. lol  It's all about immersion and telling the story.  It brings the text to life and is going to help just like it did with other Bioware games.  Now here's where I was cynical....this is an MMORPG and all MMO's have time sinks in them.  For some games it's crafting, for others it's gear acquisition or saving up money...I'm really hoping that Bioware isn't planning this as being a way of slowing folks down (i.e. time sink) and blowing through content.  If they are, they are really in for a huge shock with MMO players.  I don't know anyone personally that gets deep into leveling a character that still reads all the quest text and sits there pondering how what the NPC said is affecting the story.  **ck that shit, where are the 20 mobs I gotta kill and the crap I gotta loot to finish this stupid quest so I can go do 200 more quests just like it to reach my next level.   Yeah...sadly I'm one of those players. =(

I just gotta say one more thing, anyone ever played Dungeon runners or Chaos Wars? Bad VO can make or break a game.

www.youtube.com/watch

Originally posted by storyless

We have heard a great deal about the voice acting element of SWTOR. This dialogue, it's speculated, is one of the reasons why SWTOR is predicted to be such a 'big' game - because the sound files are going to be so huge.

But I must say that, from my own perspective, before Bioware began hitting the 'It Talks!' button, I never heard many gamers either on the mmorpg.com or other forums ever actually ask for 'more voice acting'. Less bugs, bigger landscapes, more crafting, fewer invisible barriers, more fps, less grinding and a lot of other, more conventional MMO wants, but never 'more voice acting'.

I remember when it was annoucned that Heather Graham and Christopher Lee were going to do voice-acting for EQ2. The reaction was, 'Nice, but who cares?'. And for a while in 2006, the first question in the EQ2 forums FAQ was 'How can I turn off voice-acting so I don't hear Brian Shorecling ever again?'.

My question is - is voice acting a big part of your personal MMO enjoyment?

This game is also aimed at Bioware fans who do not play MMORPGs currently. Voice acting has been a big part of recent Bioware titles and also other titles like The Witcher. It adds a lot to immersion. 

To be honest I really do not care what the more conventional MMO crowd wants. This genre has been stagnant for too long. It is time some companies add a little extra in terms of innovation or production values.

Originally posted by tillamook

I just gotta say one more thing, anyone ever played Dungeon runners or Chaos Wars? Bad VO can make or break a game.

www.youtube.com/watch

I agree. In EQ2, Heather Graham's voice as the Queen, angrily exiling me from Freeport had all the majesty and fire of a Valley Girl announcing a clean-up in Aisle 9.

 I don't care that much for voice acting. It's certainly nice when it's there, but it's not on my top list of must have features.

Perhaps because I'm not speaking English as my primary language.

Its not on the top of my list of features but it better than looking at mute npc's. It gives me better immersion into the game.

I like the voice acting. Much better than reading it.

This is an interesting question. Once upon a time, I would have felt this was nothing more than a value-add, not a must-have, at least for an MMO - for a contemporary single-player RPG, it becomes more important. But then I played the AoC trial. Tortage, being mostly voiced, was boring as hell yet more real to me. Once I beat that area and moved onto the rest of the world, the crushing weight of disconnection really hit. While I always felt like I was just playing a game, immersion took a nose-dive once I talked to my first quest-giver out in the real world, and it didn't have a voice. Not a huge deal by any stretch in a sandbox-style MMO, but in a linear MMO with much directed content, it really did feel like less of an experience without VOA. Considering where SW:TOR is supposed to be in terms of playstyle, VOA is practically necessary, as far as I'm concerned. Of course, it's not a substitute for bad gameplay, in any circumstance, but it can make up for some other deficiencies - as it did in my AoC experience.

Originally posted by Moirae

I like the voice acting. Much better than reading it.

Not 'better', dear. 'Easier'.

Originally posted by storyless

We have heard a great deal about the voice acting element of SWTOR. This dialogue, it's speculated, is one of the reasons why SWTOR is predicted to be such a 'big' game - because the sound files are going to be so huge.

But I must say that, from my own perspective, before Bioware began hitting the 'It Talks!' button, I never heard many gamers either on the mmorpg.com or other forums ever actually ask for 'more voice acting'. Less bugs, bigger landscapes, more crafting, fewer invisible barriers, more fps, less grinding and a lot of other, more conventional MMO wants, but never 'more voice acting'.

I remember when it was annoucned that Heather Graham and Christopher Lee were going to do voice-acting for EQ2. The reaction was, 'Nice, but who cares?'. And for a while in 2006, the first question in the EQ2 forums FAQ was 'How can I turn off voice-acting so I don't hear Brian Shorecling ever again?'.

My question is - is voice acting a big part of your personal MMO enjoyment?

You must not have seen the Age of Conan forums after that game came out. Numerous complaints that the voice acting pretty much ended after Tortage. Definite requests for more.

And yes, voice acting does make it more enjoyable for me. I makes the characters feel a bit more like people. 

Meh, I dont kno anyone who even plays with game sound on, so Voice Acting is just a waste of budget to me, but if people like it, it is what it is. I'll be reading subtitles while rocking out to my music during my game play anyways

Good voice acting draws you into a game.

Tortage in AoC was great.

There is no reason to not have them. It's not like you have to drop a load of money to upgrade your soundcard or anything. It's something that can add the awe factor to everyone's gameplay.

Originally posted by DragonShark

Originally posted by storyless

We have heard a great deal about the voice acting element of SWTOR. This dialogue, it's speculated, is one of the reasons why SWTOR is predicted to be such a 'big' game - because the sound files are going to be so huge.

But I must say that, from my own perspective, before Bioware began hitting the 'It Talks!' button, I never heard many gamers either on the mmorpg.com or other forums ever actually ask for 'more voice acting'. Less bugs, bigger landscapes, more crafting, fewer invisible barriers, more fps, less grinding and a lot of other, more conventional MMO wants, but never 'more voice acting'.

I remember when it was annoucned that Heather Graham and Christopher Lee were going to do voice-acting for EQ2. The reaction was, 'Nice, but who cares?'. And for a while in 2006, the first question in the EQ2 forums FAQ was 'How can I turn off voice-acting so I don't hear Brian Shorecling ever again?'.

My question is - is voice acting a big part of your personal MMO enjoyment?

You must not have seen the Age of Conan forums after that game came out. Numerous complaints that the voice acting pretty much ended after Tortage. Definite requests for more.

And yes, voice acting does make it more enjoyable for me. I makes the characters feel a bit more like people. 

No, admittedly, I have not played AoC. My only real experience of voice-acting in MMOs is EQ2 and WoW.
 

Originally posted by Kylrathin

This is an interesting question. Once upon a time, I would have felt this was nothing more than a value-add, not a must-have, at least for an MMO - for a contemporary single-player RPG, it becomes more important. But then I played the AoC trial. Tortage, being mostly voiced, was boring as hell yet more real to me. Once I beat that area and moved onto the rest of the world, the crushing weight of disconnection really hit. While I always felt like I was just playing a game, immersion took a nose-dive once I talked to my first quest-giver out in the real world, and it didn't have a voice. Not a huge deal by any stretch in a sandbox-style MMO, but in a linear MMO with much directed content, it really did feel like less of an experience without VOA. Considering where SW:TOR is supposed to be in terms of playstyle, VOA is practically necessary, as far as I'm concerned. Of course, it's not a substitute for bad gameplay, in any circumstance, but it can make up for some other deficiencies - as it did in my AoC experience.

You know, I never really thought about that with AoC but you are definitely right about that.  Tortage was interesting because the voice acting was there and I personally noticed a drop off in interest to the quests when it wasn't there.  My only issue I keep coming back to is actually listening to voice acting while using Ventrillo with my guild.  If someone is trying to talk to me in Vent while I'm listening to the quest (and if this happens a lot), I can see myself actually not wanting to listen to the voice acting.  

I think Bioware is doing the extreme voice acting deal because it's the easiest "upgrade" to do in comparison to other games. Sure it's time consuming but not hard by any means.

I plan on skipping through as much dialogue as I can, considering I don't really care much for stories. The only lore I ever got into was WoW and that was only because I played it for so long.

I would much prefer for Bioware to focus on game play and graphics more than voice acting.

People use addons to find quest location that is lined out with one line of text to either kill so and so so many times or collect  x amount of quest items needed.

Quest are full of text that spams the player just to end up giving a sub section drawing out directions to head in whatever direction to kill so and so so many time or collect x amount of quest items.

Finishing a quest to me without having to read one word of text is wins in my books and with voice acting it plunges into epic lore like no quest text ever could.

Yes, yes it's a very very big deal to me.