These games are cash cows, the better a foundation you put in place the stronger a position you are to fight off the competition in the future.
Even SWTOR that is widely seen as a complete failure is making great profits, they have optional sub and a successful cash shop. They know what they're doing, these games are long term investments and they pay off incredibly well, even the "failures".
Originally posted by JJ82o race or fa "... voice overs, which is completely wasted in MMOs."
Perhaps a complete waste for YOU. There are a great deal many of us that enjoy these games and include the RPG at the end for a reason.
I can understand that certain players are RUSH RUSH RUSH spacebar/skip happy players with no regard to the actual story or even why they are on the quests they are doing.. I understand, but it's depressing that many gamers have regressed, or even started out this way, when originally all you HAD was the story, which was always text-based, and we would have loved voice-overs.
And to the argument that they spent upwards of $20m on voice actors because they are such known individuals.. As someone already stated, each actor is only in the studio for a day or two. This did not cost them a huge amount per actor.
And finally, do "you" *really* think that they can't record and digitize the audio themselves in-house? You really think they had to pay for studio time and different workers to accomplish the voice acting? I see that as improbable or highly unlikely, or at the most completely ridiculous.
*sigh* ... All that said, I will be enjoying the voice acting, as it will help me immerse myself into what has shaped up to be quite a game.
I think in general the trouble with 'notable' actors for voice acting is that most notable screen actors are memorable because of their looks or the strength of their physical performance, not their expertise at broadcasting character through their voice.
Obviously there are exceptions, Malcolm McDowell is an extraordinary actor who can do amazing voice work, and John Cleese is a character actor whose voice is signature.
I think the biggest problem comes from actors like Cleese however. He doesn't bring much to a character aside from the familiarity of his voice, because honestly he's not a terribly gifted actor, and so when you hear Sir Whatsisname in Coldharbour it's immersion breaking. You're no longer thinking "I gotta get out of Cold Harbour", you're thinking "what's John Cleese doing here?"
Voice acting is something that was going to happen because this is an Elder Scrolls game.
Full circle......
No, because of how many things expected from an online TES game that isn't going to be in this game, changes made "BECAUSE WE HAD TO" due to it being an MMO. Changes were made to the core TES game, for an MMO that did not need to happen because other MMOs did them, yet this SRPG element that is a complete waste of time for an MMO is being kept!
You cant expect people to believe that design changes had to be made to make it into an MMO(when MMOs have already shown it to be wrong) and then try to tell us that we HAVE TO have voice-overs because the SRPG had them.
MMOs are long term games where the leveling is a small part of the game, and voice-overs are for THAT. its more than doubling the work for a small part of the game.
Unless of course you want to argue that TESO has little long term value, then we would be on the same page because that is exactly what voice-overs are for, part of the game done once with no real replay ability factor.
You are perfectly welcome to your opinion. In this case your opinion happens to be wrong. When at least half the target audience for the game is comprised of Elder Scrolls players, many of the things they expect to be there will be there. Like voice acting.
...snip...
Well I am a huge TES fan, and I have zero excitement for ESO. A lot of people share that opinion. ESO can never be a true TES game because immature players break the immersion that makes TES great. Also because they are making a lot of sacrifices to core TES values for the sake of multiplayer and PvP. ESO has a bit of an identity crisis. If they want to be the best gritty open world PvP game, focus on that. If they want to be the best TES game, focus on that. Trying to make everyone happy just ends up making it mediocre for everyone, and we don't really need another mediocre MMO.
The thing which makes VO really problematic for MMO's when compared to SPRPG's is that MMO's don't have a definite end point when the story is over, all the content has been completed and they are put on the shelf never to be played again by most players.
MMO's are ONGOING stories which are expected (at least in the Themepark model) to have regular and continous content updates for the players to consume. The reason why VO's become problematic for that, especialy from notable actors is that they can significantly increase both the production cost and production time for those content updates....and once a game starts down that path it's going to become a very stark and noticable contrast if it provides significant VO for one portion of it's game and it's completely absent from others (like content updates) so it's not like you can simply cut it off from the rest of your game. IMO, most people won't really notice or mind if it's not there from the beggining....but once you provide it from one portion, you can't really hold it back from the rest, people will notice that due to the contrast. So it becomes a trap that you have to keep providing every time you update or expand the game or provide new content for it. That generaly doesn't work for the schedule you need to keep pumping out content if you want to keep most people around and interested in playing the MMO from month to month....and with the sub model, that's absolutely what they need for success...retention from month to month.
The braggin about the big-shot names for the VOs is nothing more than marketing pyrotechnics to fish among the weak of mind. Once again we see what modern marketing-fueled videogame companies are about: create the illusion of a good product through the use of bellls and whistles instead of just creating a good product. Short-termish antics directed to the guts and the impulse-driven behaviour instead of the rationale. Presentation over substance. Throw pyrotechnics and divert attention when you have nothing else to show and what you want is a quick buck.
Speaking of such, as of now the only selling factors Firor & Co. have talked about are just the bullet-pointed collection of common places every mainstream themepark MMO (i'll omit 'RPG' as is a misnomer in these cases) that's been published in the last 10 years "brags about": central story, story driven (this the linear story they want you to follow, puke), solo/casual friendly (puke), END-Game Based (puke), compartment for PvP, compartments for PvE (puke at the PVE/PVP compartmentalization), level brackets (puke), power creep (puke). Oh, and Voice Overs with celebrities (chore of Bieber's-fans-minded say "Oooh!!" "Aaaah!!")!!!
They had the budget and the inspiration of a solid-track franchise to have created a great, long-termish MMORPG with a huge functional scope. Instead they made (yet) another piece of McDonalds-like, use-and-throw timewaster that'll be as rapidly exhausted as rapidly forgotten.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.
Total Voice Overs will be an option among MMORPGs when we have the technology to implement them in a fast and cost-effective way, perhaps through the use of digitalization or some technology of the sort.
Nowadays, they only mean a cost of opportunity that an MMORPG should not face. It makes the worlds rigid, less interactive, much more difficult (from both costs and time perspectives) to update. They only fit in these ultracasual, supereasy, simple, use-and-throw, pseudoMMOs that have become so popular among the Not-RPG natives (and the soccer mums, and the wannabe yuppies with low-income that always say "i'm so busy", pfffffff...).
Kind Regards!!
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.
Voice acting is something that was going to happen because this is an Elder Scrolls game.
Full circle......
No, because of how many things expected from an online TES game that isn't going to be in this game, changes made "BECAUSE WE HAD TO" due to it being an MMO. Changes were made to the core TES game, for an MMO that did not need to happen because other MMOs did them, yet this SRPG element that is a complete waste of time for an MMO is being kept!
You cant expect people to believe that design changes had to be made to make it into an MMO(when MMOs have already shown it to be wrong) and then try to tell us that we HAVE TO have voice-overs because the SRPG had them.
MMOs are long term games where the leveling is a small part of the game, and voice-overs are for THAT. its more than doubling the work for a small part of the game.
Unless of course you want to argue that TESO has little long term value, then we would be on the same page because that is exactly what voice-overs are for, part of the game done once with no real replay ability factor.
You are perfectly welcome to your opinion. In this case your opinion happens to be wrong. When at least half the target audience for the game is comprised of Elder Scrolls players, many of the things they expect to be there will be there. Like voice acting.
...snip...
Well I am a huge TES fan, and I have zero excitement for ESO. A lot of people share that opinion. ESO can never be a true TES game because immature players break the immersion that makes TES great. Also because they are making a lot of sacrifices to core TES values for the sake of multiplayer and PvP. ESO has a bit of an identity crisis. If they want to be the best gritty open world PvP game, focus on that. If they want to be the best TES game, focus on that. Trying to make everyone happy just ends up making it mediocre for everyone, and we don't really need another mediocre MMO.
Yes. See my post on developers making compromises. They don't seem to do this very well. Instead of blending things together, they seem to do some of one, some of another, and neither one very well.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
"The Secret World" heard that, and would like to suggest that you do some research on these things before making claims about them... Everything in that game is voice acted. Including incidental, side NPCs.
Well, not everything. The player character is a mute. But you are mostly correct.
Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me.
Wow, your numbers are WAY off! Lol! "The average entry level salary of a sound engineer is just under 100k dollars a year" ...bhahahaha, in your dreams!
You should have called me out with the "making double that" part, would have taken about 10 seconds longer to pull up a link to people working at big studios with experienced people.........
I know for 100% fact you are wrong. And I 100% know how those surveys work.
I know for 99.99% fact that people that say they know for 100% fact something even when presented with contradictory information that they are 120% full of it.
Did you look at the real industry salary surveys I recommended for you? You will see I am correct. And also because I personally have a 100% inside perspective I know I am 100% correct.
Wow, your numbers are WAY off! Lol! "The average entry level salary of a sound engineer is just under 100k dollars a year" ...bhahahaha, in your dreams!
You should have called me out with the "making double that" part, would have taken about 10 seconds longer to pull up a link to people working at big studios with experienced people.........
I know for 100% fact you are wrong. And I 100% know how those surveys work.
I know for 99.99% fact that people that say they know for 100% fact something even when presented with contradictory information that they are 120% full of it.
Did you look at the real industry salary surveys I recommended for you? You will see I am correct. And also because I personally have a 100% inside perspective I know I am 100% correct.
lol
JJ will be sure to look up Google for a counter to your expertise, too.
For me, voice-acting is something I do not need to make a game enjoyable. Writing is much more important for me than some famous voice reading it. Depending on the type of game, I would prefer if games (read: MMO) do not budget for the cost of voice-acting beyond NPC greetings and goodbyes (just short, simple acknowledgement of the player interacting with them), at least not until they decide to create more engaging worlds and have story-lines that acknowledge the existence of other players.
A game such as a MMO, playing through a fully voice acted story might be enticing and even interesting; however, doing so more than once can become a pain as it was in Swtor. Having to stop and enter a separate interaction screen with the NPC broke my action, it slowed the pacing of the game down and caused me to feel isolated from the world at large. You also have to think about future content being developed. Companies would need to keep the same voice actors on hand in order to maintain consistency with certain NPCs. Full voice-overs adds extra time and money to future content, which slows down release of future content and also further dissuades developers from creating content that the majority of the player base might not experience.
You also have to consider player interaction with the NPCs. What are the players dialogue choices? How many do you have? If a MMO is going to be fully voiced over then give me a reasonable amount of decisions to make with the NPCs (not just Accept Quest Button). Voice-overs were supposed to bring a new level of interaction with NPCs yet most often such design is wasted on me since I can read much faster than they speak and once you get to the end of their dialogue dump there is no meaningful response besides accepting the quest or hitting escape to avoid the quest.
I would prefer for a game that is built around large communities (like MMOs) to embolden its design around systems that enhance multiplayer ideals instead of giving me two different experiences that do not co-exist as naturally as I would like. If a developer must have voice-overs for their MMO I would ask them not to implement them in such a way as to make them painful to run through more than once or twice and to also give the player more than one type of response towards quests if you want them to be engaging.
To put it another way... the budget to pay for voice actors - as with everything else the game would need - was sorted out, reviewed and approved before the game even began production.
Thank you!
I don't know how many times one has to say this but people don't seem to listen.
They think there is this pot of money and that from this pot of money they just "pay as they go".
Additionally, I have a budget at work that I must spend. Last year I had saved thousands of dollars only to be told that I must spend thousands more dollars or else I would lose that money for the next year.
They have budgeted, as you say, every aspect of the game and they must spend those dollars.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
To put it another way... the budget to pay for voice actors - as with everything else the game would need - was sorted out, reviewed and approved before the game even began production.
I don't know how many times one has to say this but people don't seem to listen.
They think there is this pot of money and that from this pot of money they just "pay as they go".
Sure, the money was budgeted beforehand to ensure they had what they needed to potentially complete the product; however, I believe that one of the points being made by some who are dis-interested in full voice-overs is that the budget could have allocated additional money towards another part of the game instead of allocating it towards the voice-acting. Pointing out the flawed argument in those who do not understand how budgets work does little to discredit the position in my previous sentence.
Now, you could argue whether they would have received the same overall budget if voice-acting was not part of the game, meaning cutting voice-acting would not have ensured more money being budgeted to other areas, and that would be a viable discussion. Since we are unable to know exactly if that could be true, and we are unsure if the development team had to cut out other content to make room for voice-acting in the budget, such discussion will remain fruitless in the end.
Seriously, if they allocated all resources and time to some peoples perceived "end-game" you would all still be dissatisfied. Admit it. There is Never enough. So instead of blowing through all the content at break neck speed within 2 weeks it takes you 4 weeks. Hooray!!
I'm an MMO player and I love all aspects of the end game as much as the next, but I'm also an RPG'er and enjoy the journey and creation put forth through out the entire game - not just leading up to 'end-game.'
I applaud the resources they're allocating to making the game that much more interesting and alive. The little things they add to push that immersion is what I like about these devs.
Some of you serious act like an MMORPG ends the moment it is released.
I dunno. Some of these actors are really good but... we're talking ES npc's here. These are npcs that make wooden stumps look vibrant and lifelike. Maybe the acting will finally lead to some elder scrolls npc's who don't suck ass but I think this will wind up being like putting a nice bow on a turd.
Have you ever thought of you thinking the game is heavy foccused on end-game just because you have that type of playstyle to focus on end-game?
No, its based on endgame because they took an IP that is open world, with no race of faction locks and created a game with racial and faction locks, closed off faction lands with a PvP area in its center that everyone is fighting over.
The entire game is based off the idea of end game PvP. From start to the very finish. It is not designed like a TES game. It takes you from level 1 and funnels you to a center at max level. Even the idea of being able to "unlock" another faction land to play in takes place AT MAX LEVEL.
There is no part of TESO that is not based off the game being END GAME FOCUSED. from the story on up. This is not a single player game, its an MMO. and every single MMO is created to make content a one time thing, the story just being something to funnel you to the same point, end game.
Now if the game was made by people actually TRYING to make a TES MMO, it wouldn't have been designed in such a way to make content a one time thing. everything would level with you making the entire world always VIABLE CONTENT. It would be more Sandbox than Themepark, not almost all Themepark with next to no Sandbox. Instead we have a game holding our hand all the way to the end, PvP with some end game group PvE.
So yeah, voice-overs are a waste of time and resources being used on stuff players are going to blow through instead of being used to make that end-game much more diverse, so we get to watch yet another company scramble and try to keep up with players.
Did you know that it all depends on what type of player someone is. I bet many ES fans play the game not for it's PVP but might eventually still get into it. Those type of pllayers are not focussed on end-game and will play the largest part of the game which we already know as a fact is the biggest part of the gameworld.
I really don't believe the majority of players into TESO will be cramped up into just one area Cyrodil.
And this is just based on the type of playstyle I have.
Extraordinary article. It offers numerous reasons why 'notable voice acting' does NOT make sense then offers 'Yet, when budgeting for a game, these things are taken into account early' pretty much as the sole reason that it makes sense. Beggars belief.
Comments
These games are cash cows, the better a foundation you put in place the stronger a position you are to fight off the competition in the future.
Even SWTOR that is widely seen as a complete failure is making great profits, they have optional sub and a successful cash shop. They know what they're doing, these games are long term investments and they pay off incredibly well, even the "failures".
http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/loadFeature/8169/2013s-Free-to-Play-Top-10-.html
Phew! I almost thought they did a SWTOR!
... oh wait!
New players can get a welcome package and old/returning players can also get a welcome back package and 7 days free subscription time! Just click here to use my referral invitation
Perhaps a complete waste for YOU. There are a great deal many of us that enjoy these games and include the RPG at the end for a reason.
I can understand that certain players are RUSH RUSH RUSH spacebar/skip happy players with no regard to the actual story or even why they are on the quests they are doing.. I understand, but it's depressing that many gamers have regressed, or even started out this way, when originally all you HAD was the story, which was always text-based, and we would have loved voice-overs.
And to the argument that they spent upwards of $20m on voice actors because they are such known individuals.. As someone already stated, each actor is only in the studio for a day or two. This did not cost them a huge amount per actor.
And finally, do "you" *really* think that they can't record and digitize the audio themselves in-house? You really think they had to pay for studio time and different workers to accomplish the voice acting? I see that as improbable or highly unlikely, or at the most completely ridiculous.
*sigh* ... All that said, I will be enjoying the voice acting, as it will help me immerse myself into what has shaped up to be quite a game.
Just another opinion for the fire.
I think in general the trouble with 'notable' actors for voice acting is that most notable screen actors are memorable because of their looks or the strength of their physical performance, not their expertise at broadcasting character through their voice.
Obviously there are exceptions, Malcolm McDowell is an extraordinary actor who can do amazing voice work, and John Cleese is a character actor whose voice is signature.
I think the biggest problem comes from actors like Cleese however. He doesn't bring much to a character aside from the familiarity of his voice, because honestly he's not a terribly gifted actor, and so when you hear Sir Whatsisname in Coldharbour it's immersion breaking. You're no longer thinking "I gotta get out of Cold Harbour", you're thinking "what's John Cleese doing here?"
Well I am a huge TES fan, and I have zero excitement for ESO. A lot of people share that opinion. ESO can never be a true TES game because immature players break the immersion that makes TES great. Also because they are making a lot of sacrifices to core TES values for the sake of multiplayer and PvP. ESO has a bit of an identity crisis. If they want to be the best gritty open world PvP game, focus on that. If they want to be the best TES game, focus on that. Trying to make everyone happy just ends up making it mediocre for everyone, and we don't really need another mediocre MMO.
The thing which makes VO really problematic for MMO's when compared to SPRPG's is that MMO's don't have a definite end point when the story is over, all the content has been completed and they are put on the shelf never to be played again by most players.
MMO's are ONGOING stories which are expected (at least in the Themepark model) to have regular and continous content updates for the players to consume. The reason why VO's become problematic for that, especialy from notable actors is that they can significantly increase both the production cost and production time for those content updates....and once a game starts down that path it's going to become a very stark and noticable contrast if it provides significant VO for one portion of it's game and it's completely absent from others (like content updates) so it's not like you can simply cut it off from the rest of your game. IMO, most people won't really notice or mind if it's not there from the beggining....but once you provide it from one portion, you can't really hold it back from the rest, people will notice that due to the contrast. So it becomes a trap that you have to keep providing every time you update or expand the game or provide new content for it. That generaly doesn't work for the schedule you need to keep pumping out content if you want to keep most people around and interested in playing the MMO from month to month....and with the sub model, that's absolutely what they need for success...retention from month to month.
The braggin about the big-shot names for the VOs is nothing more than marketing pyrotechnics to fish among the weak of mind. Once again we see what modern marketing-fueled videogame companies are about: create the illusion of a good product through the use of bellls and whistles instead of just creating a good product. Short-termish antics directed to the guts and the impulse-driven behaviour instead of the rationale. Presentation over substance. Throw pyrotechnics and divert attention when you have nothing else to show and what you want is a quick buck.
Speaking of such, as of now the only selling factors Firor & Co. have talked about are just the bullet-pointed collection of common places every mainstream themepark MMO (i'll omit 'RPG' as is a misnomer in these cases) that's been published in the last 10 years "brags about": central story, story driven (this the linear story they want you to follow, puke), solo/casual friendly (puke), END-Game Based (puke), compartment for PvP, compartments for PvE (puke at the PVE/PVP compartmentalization), level brackets (puke), power creep (puke). Oh, and Voice Overs with celebrities (chore of Bieber's-fans-minded say "Oooh!!" "Aaaah!!")!!!
They had the budget and the inspiration of a solid-track franchise to have created a great, long-termish MMORPG with a huge functional scope. Instead they made (yet) another piece of McDonalds-like, use-and-throw timewaster that'll be as rapidly exhausted as rapidly forgotten.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.
Total Voice Overs will be an option among MMORPGs when we have the technology to implement them in a fast and cost-effective way, perhaps through the use of digitalization or some technology of the sort.
Nowadays, they only mean a cost of opportunity that an MMORPG should not face. It makes the worlds rigid, less interactive, much more difficult (from both costs and time perspectives) to update. They only fit in these ultracasual, supereasy, simple, use-and-throw, pseudoMMOs that have become so popular among the Not-RPG natives (and the soccer mums, and the wannabe yuppies with low-income that always say "i'm so busy", pfffffff...).
Kind Regards!!
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.
Yes. See my post on developers making compromises. They don't seem to do this very well. Instead of blending things together, they seem to do some of one, some of another, and neither one very well.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Well, not everything. The player character is a mute. But you are mostly correct.
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
Welcome to MMObitch.com, where no one is happy with anything, and can find something to complain about everything.
I just don't understand why the creators of checkers make me start on one side or the other, why can't I start in the middle?
Why does volleyball need a net? I think it would be better without one.
Why do they pay football sportscasters so much? Can't they spend that money on more content?
WHINE, WHINE, WHINE LOL
Did you look at the real industry salary surveys I recommended for you? You will see I am correct. And also because I personally have a 100% inside perspective I know I am 100% correct.
lol
JJ will be sure to look up Google for a counter to your expertise, too.
Watch.
.:| Kevyne@Shandris - Armory |:. - When WoW was #1 - .:| I AM A HOLY PALADIN - Guild Theme |:.
For me, voice-acting is something I do not need to make a game enjoyable. Writing is much more important for me than some famous voice reading it. Depending on the type of game, I would prefer if games (read: MMO) do not budget for the cost of voice-acting beyond NPC greetings and goodbyes (just short, simple acknowledgement of the player interacting with them), at least not until they decide to create more engaging worlds and have story-lines that acknowledge the existence of other players.
A game such as a MMO, playing through a fully voice acted story might be enticing and even interesting; however, doing so more than once can become a pain as it was in Swtor. Having to stop and enter a separate interaction screen with the NPC broke my action, it slowed the pacing of the game down and caused me to feel isolated from the world at large. You also have to think about future content being developed. Companies would need to keep the same voice actors on hand in order to maintain consistency with certain NPCs. Full voice-overs adds extra time and money to future content, which slows down release of future content and also further dissuades developers from creating content that the majority of the player base might not experience.
You also have to consider player interaction with the NPCs. What are the players dialogue choices? How many do you have? If a MMO is going to be fully voiced over then give me a reasonable amount of decisions to make with the NPCs (not just Accept Quest Button). Voice-overs were supposed to bring a new level of interaction with NPCs yet most often such design is wasted on me since I can read much faster than they speak and once you get to the end of their dialogue dump there is no meaningful response besides accepting the quest or hitting escape to avoid the quest.
I would prefer for a game that is built around large communities (like MMOs) to embolden its design around systems that enhance multiplayer ideals instead of giving me two different experiences that do not co-exist as naturally as I would like. If a developer must have voice-overs for their MMO I would ask them not to implement them in such a way as to make them painful to run through more than once or twice and to also give the player more than one type of response towards quests if you want them to be engaging.
Thank you!
I don't know how many times one has to say this but people don't seem to listen.
They think there is this pot of money and that from this pot of money they just "pay as they go".
Additionally, I have a budget at work that I must spend. Last year I had saved thousands of dollars only to be told that I must spend thousands more dollars or else I would lose that money for the next year.
They have budgeted, as you say, every aspect of the game and they must spend those dollars.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Sure, the money was budgeted beforehand to ensure they had what they needed to potentially complete the product; however, I believe that one of the points being made by some who are dis-interested in full voice-overs is that the budget could have allocated additional money towards another part of the game instead of allocating it towards the voice-acting. Pointing out the flawed argument in those who do not understand how budgets work does little to discredit the position in my previous sentence.
Now, you could argue whether they would have received the same overall budget if voice-acting was not part of the game, meaning cutting voice-acting would not have ensured more money being budgeted to other areas, and that would be a viable discussion. Since we are unable to know exactly if that could be true, and we are unsure if the development team had to cut out other content to make room for voice-acting in the budget, such discussion will remain fruitless in the end.
Seriously, if they allocated all resources and time to some peoples perceived "end-game" you would all still be dissatisfied. Admit it. There is Never enough. So instead of blowing through all the content at break neck speed within 2 weeks it takes you 4 weeks. Hooray!!
I'm an MMO player and I love all aspects of the end game as much as the next, but I'm also an RPG'er and enjoy the journey and creation put forth through out the entire game - not just leading up to 'end-game.'
I applaud the resources they're allocating to making the game that much more interesting and alive. The little things they add to push that immersion is what I like about these devs.
Some of you serious act like an MMORPG ends the moment it is released.
Did you know that it all depends on what type of player someone is. I bet many ES fans play the game not for it's PVP but might eventually still get into it. Those type of pllayers are not focussed on end-game and will play the largest part of the game which we already know as a fact is the biggest part of the gameworld.
I really don't believe the majority of players into TESO will be cramped up into just one area Cyrodil.
And this is just based on the type of playstyle I have.
Even just her voice? Because that's all we would be getting.