First of all - if you're like me and you've always thought that wasting most of the game's budget on voice was a terrible idea, then you need not reply, i already know your opinion :) 

What I'm curious about is the updated opinions of the folks that - prior to the game's launch - thought it was going to be a game-changer and the greatest thing since leia's slave outfit.  

I'm seeing more and more people - people who're avid fans of the game - admit that really, having every single dialogue voiced gets to be a bit of a drag (at best) or downright annoying (at worst).

So, to you that were excited the voicing, are you still excited about it?  Are you looking forward to LISTENING to 200 more "kill 10 rats" quests with generic dialogue that is fully voiced?   Or would you rather see the dialogue scaled back to the more important & interesting areas of the game, parts that actually have interesting story and characters whose names you might actually remember?  

Absolutely. Voice aciting has become a "must have" from 2011 onward. MMORPGs usually have an aspect of RPG to them. I don't know many people that would play any RPG that didn't have fully voiced quests. Singleplayer RPGs crossed the bridge from text to voice overs almost a decade ago. It's about time MMORPGs caught up. Does it increase the expense of RPGs and MMORPGs? Yes. Is it worth it? YES!

Some people may skip the voice over to get the quest quicker in both RPGs and MMORPGs. But having a believable voiced character there if you want to hear it makes all the difference.

for class quests ,  planet stories and flashpoints the first time through i liked it.  There were too many quests where it was a waste of time however.

I would rather have the voice acted dialogue any day. Especially with the ability to skip it with the space bar if I have done it before.

Its not annoying at all for me. Some of the acting, dialogue and choices during your story is fantastic and just like ME2 or Dragon I would not skip it at all the first, and often the second time around.

Like I've said before, VA is just window dressing and nothing relevant gameplay-wise, but I think the problem lies with abysmal fan fiction level of writing present in TOR that we're somehow still supposed to take seriously. This was personally my reason why I skipped through a good deal of the its voiced dialog, something I would never do in, let's say, Legacy of Kain games despite them being verbose like hell. Why? Mainly because they actually feature GOOD writing.

Originally posted by Methos12

 I think the problem lies with abysmal fan fiction level of writing present in TOR that we're somehow still supposed to take seriously. This was personally my reason why I skipped through a good deal of the its voiced dialog, something I would never do in, let's say, Legacy of Kain games despite them being verbose like hell. Why? Mainly because they actually feature GOOD writing.

I'm with you on this.  To me, it's the quality of the writing that's more important.  On average, I find that I'd rather READ a LoTRO quest than LISTEN to a TOR quest, just because the former will actually be well-written and make sense within the world.   Of course the voiceovers in LoTRO were awesome also and worth listening to because they were so few and far between, so if TOR's were better written, I'd probably support having more of them.

SWTOR isn't 100% voiced though. at least 70% of the game is not cutscenes, and only ~5% of the VO is outside of those cutscenes.

Originally posted by fony

SWTOR isn't 100% voiced though. at least 70% of the game is not cutscenes, and only ~5% of the VO is outside of those cutscenes.

I'm not sure what your point is.   Are you just looking to have me correct the percentage in the post's title?  Because if you are, it was meant metaphorically and I think most people understand what I mean without further clarification.

Yes, loved VO and would love more in further games.

No, but that isn't what TOR has.  It has 100% cut scenes, which is different.  EQII had 100% voice overs and it didn't make me care anymore than not reading the text.  But the cut scenes in SWTOR make me want to keep playing to see what happens next.  So 100% voice overs no, 100% cut scenes, yes.

Originally posted by niceguy3978

No, but that isn't what TOR has.  It has 100% cut scenes, which is different.  EQII had 100% voice overs and it didn't make me care anymore than not reading the text.  But the cut scenes in SWTOR make me want to keep playing to see what happens next.  So 100% voice overs no, 100% cut scenes, yes.

So as long as future quests have 100% cut scenes with NPCs, it doesn't matter to you if they're voiced or text/subtitles?

Originally posted by Methos12

Like I've said before, VA is just window dressing and nothing relevant gameplay-wise, but I think the problem lies with abysmal fan fiction level of writing present in TOR that we're somehow still supposed to take seriously. This was personally my reason why I skipped through a good deal of the its voiced dialog, something I would never do in, let's say, Legacy of Kain games despite them being verbose like hell. Why? Mainly because they actually feature GOOD writing.

I disagree here. The voice acting is gameplay. If it wasn't part of the gameplay then I would probably have skipped most of it. If you are playing an MMORPG with your character in mind then the things that they say are actually a little important to you. There's also the light side and dark side points that can alter your appearance and gear appearance. And third the social points gained in dialogue give the character access to items, gear, and customizations. These are some parts of gameplay that people may or may not be interested in but it's still gameplay. I don't think SWTOR would be as fun for me without those parts of gameplay.

Its like black and white. People saw white, ergo almost no voice-over, then came SWToR: voice-over everywhere. Black.

Some people might like a greyzone. I personally dont, because voice-over on every NPC feels more natural. Just dont do it like Skyrim, tell in the press you have 70 unique voices and then ingame you come across only like.. 10? Very bad idea. Get variety in it!

My son got mad at me because while he enjoys eve, he wanted a game that both of us could play together.  So we downloaded the rift light to give it a try.  I couldn't do it.  I couldn't just click on the quest givers and move on, and the quests weren't interesting enough to read.  I have been spoiled now and I don't think there's any going back for me.  I tried playing wow on the wife's account also during some TOR downtime and had the same problem.

Originally posted by arieste

Originally posted by Methos12

 I think the problem lies with abysmal fan fiction level of writing present in TOR that we're somehow still supposed to take seriously. This was personally my reason why I skipped through a good deal of the its voiced dialog, something I would never do in, let's say, Legacy of Kain games despite them being verbose like hell. Why? Mainly because they actually feature GOOD writing.

I'm with you on this.  To me, it's the quality of the writing that's more important.  On average, I find that I'd rather READ a LoTRO quest than LISTEN to a TOR quest, just because the former will actually be well-written and make sense within the world.   Of course the voiceovers in LoTRO were awesome also and worth listening to because they were so few and far between, so if TOR's were better written, I'd probably support having more of them.

That's a problem I have as well with this game. Most of the stories/quests are so god darn awful, it's not even funny.

the Jedi Consular storyline is just plain boring. The Jedi Knight storyline is so-so, while the Trooper storyline is so far the most engaging on Republic side.

I don't like playing Empire, but I've heard the storylines on Empire side seem to be of much higher quality, hence probably why we are suffering from such a huge faction imbalance. :-(

It's just another example of EA/Bioware more interested in boasting with incredible number of hours of voice acting to use as Marketing tool, but then dropped the ball on actual quality writing. :-/

Originally posted by arieste

Originally posted by niceguy3978

No, but that isn't what TOR has.  It has 100% cut scenes, which is different.  EQII had 100% voice overs and it didn't make me care anymore than not reading the text.  But the cut scenes in SWTOR make me want to keep playing to see what happens next.  So 100% voice overs no, 100% cut scenes, yes.

So as long as future quests have 100% cut scenes with NPCs, it doesn't matter to you if they're voiced or text/subtitles?

Oh, it matters, a lot.  I was just pointing out that its not just VO.  Everybody says the high point for the game is the VO but as I said EQII had this and it didn't enhance the game at all for me, I would still collect the quest and just walk away while they were still talking, so it is more than that.  

Sometimes I get frustrated because I feel quest givers can get wordy. I think they like the sound of their own voices.

Originally posted by arieste

Originally posted by fony

SWTOR isn't 100% voiced though. at least 70% of the game is not cutscenes, and only ~5% of the VO is outside of those cutscenes.

I'm not sure what your point is.   Are you just looking to have me correct the percentage in the post's title?  Because if you are, it was meant metaphorically and I think most people understand what I mean without further clarification.

the point was it's not 100% voiced.

anyway VO is a good thing, much better than quest text. Bioware needs to put voiced content into the game as well, not just the cinematics.

Like someone else said: Voice acting should be the new standard for questing.  I was on the fence going in but I found it to be very immersive and enjoyable.

Originally posted by MattNe

Sometimes I get frustrated because I feel quest givers can get wordy. I think they like the sound of their own voices.

that's a design flaw of the game itself, the VO is still good. they should probably shorten the fetch quest conversations in the future.