Yes, I love it. If you want a larger part of the population to care about your backstory, that's a good way to start.
Of course, the actual dialogue needs to be worthwile as well.
TOR still had the most interesting level-up experience by far, but things like alien dialogue and big stretches of dialogue for simple fetch quests were a bit too much.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
Originally posted by jpnz Swtor is a financial success so in a business sense it is a good investment. Whether you like VO in mmos is a personal opinion.
Yeah I'm sure it had nothing to do with the IP, or appealing directly to the largest segment of the market by copying WoW.
VO is great . but just VO is not enough. They need scripted events like those in SP games. Just standing around talk talk talk is not very interesting.
Yes unless you're SoE. SoEMote allows them to record the VO and facial movements at the same time. It really makes talking to NPCs immersive and is a nice touch.
Other than that having staged voiceovers like SWTOR is nice but far too overdone. If it's smaller group of large quests sure but if it's every quest it becomes as skip-able as quest text.
MMO's never required voice acting to be fun before voice acting became a thing.
I personally don't think the investment-to-payoff ratio is at all in favor of voice acting - It just eats up too many resources for what it adds to MMO's. Those resources could be better spent improving game play, I think at least. Especially considering how lackluster, if not cringe-worthy, most voice acting turns out to be.
Waste of resources of course. A 2 week long story will not hold up if a game is to survive years. Content, ability to make your own content and story, and features to draw you in and keep you busy are far more important if you want your game to survive and prosper.
People are playing mmorpg's like they are console games and try to beat them fast as they can and move on to the next........ this can not happen in a mmorpg without losing mass populace. Need longevity in a mmorpg.
I think total voice overs are a waste of resources in a MMOPRG.
Like others have said they are fine in cutscenes and for one liners for NPCs but in general MMORPGs are so large in terms of NPCs compared to other game genres that the money is better spent elsewhere IMO.
In a full fledged mmo, they are a waste for the most part, for a lobby type mmo, its ok.
I would rather they spend the money on content and features myself, as I am a spacebar hitter on quests and such....Not a big fan of rails and quest hubs either though.
If in used in moderation then they are totally worth it.
GW2 personal story or any games main storyline I'd say is totally worth it as long as it's immersive.
Now in SWTOR's case, they went way overboard for every friggin quest. In instanced dungeons I thought it was very nice with the choices n whatnot (but I can see how after doing the dungeon for the 5th time it can get rather tedious) along with the class stories, but everything else was a waste.
Neverwinter I'm at a loss for as I don't see what they hoped to achieve. Your quest givers were all voiced and yet the instanced quests have very little and dungeon delves had damn near nothing. And yet vendors were voiced. Really I have not ideal what Cryptic was thinking.
It's generally a waste. A lot of game companies spend money hiring celebrity voice actors when lesser known voice actors often do as good of a job. Voice acting can easily become one of the biggest expenses in game production and I don't think the payoff is really worth it. There are some points in the game where voice acting can be interesting (for example during boss fights where reading text can be difficult) or to stress importance of certain situations as well as adding ambiance.
It's possible in the future we won't even need voice actors, when programs like Vocaloid can produce near human quality levels of voice.
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.
SWTOR did do it good I will agree. But I think despite what they claim they spent their money on, it was the voice acting and they blew it for the rest of the game!
....Being Banned from MMORPG's forums since 2010, for Trolling the Trolls!!!
Originally posted by drakaena A waste imo. I play virtual worlds to forge my own story, not watch a predetermined outcome.
This is really what a lot of the negative responses boil down to - people fear that it will become a creative vortex rather than opening up new directions for the industry to go. Once publishers are committed to spending a huge sum of money on voice acting as a basic feature, their attention has to then focus on how to best leverage that static recorded dialogue. It threatens to reduce variation in world expression even as it allows more vivid story expression.
Originally posted by jpnz Swtor is a financial success so in a business sense it is a good investment. Whether you like VO in mmos is a personal opinion.
To me, it's a waste of resources. Cut scenes and "story/epic quests" are not what I'm looking for in an MMO. I really don't care to play an MMO where I follow the same story as everyone else. Watching a cut scene is like watching a cartoon that happens to star my character, but I've got no control that results in something meaningful.
I'd tell devs to spend their money on adding a new zone, sub-system (fishing, gathering, gambling, etc.) and let us use the virtual world instead of watching a scripted scene.
I like voice acting in MMO's, but IMO SWTOR over did it. It should just be used for big epic quests and storylines. For simple quests just give the NPC's a simple line of dialogue for when you click on them. IMO voice acting is a great benefit when it's done for background chatter for cities and towns etc. It helps imerse you in the area.
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Yes, I love it. If you want a larger part of the population to care about your backstory, that's a good way to start.
Of course, the actual dialogue needs to be worthwile as well.
TOR still had the most interesting level-up experience by far, but things like alien dialogue and big stretches of dialogue for simple fetch quests were a bit too much.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
Survivor of the great MMORPG Famine of 2011
Yeah I'm sure it had nothing to do with the IP, or appealing directly to the largest segment of the market by copying WoW.
Survivor of the great MMORPG Famine of 2011
it have started to bother me hen there is only text, whiich is a new "issue" for me, never bothered me in the past *shrug*
but still it would be less of an issue if the MMOs had less quests, which is a personal wish, less and more indepth and longer to complete.
Other than that having staged voiceovers like SWTOR is nice but far too overdone. If it's smaller group of large quests sure but if it's every quest it becomes as skip-able as quest text.
MMO's never required voice acting to be fun before voice acting became a thing.
I personally don't think the investment-to-payoff ratio is at all in favor of voice acting - It just eats up too many resources for what it adds to MMO's. Those resources could be better spent improving game play, I think at least. Especially considering how lackluster, if not cringe-worthy, most voice acting turns out to be.
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
Waste of resources of course. A 2 week long story will not hold up if a game is to survive years. Content, ability to make your own content and story, and features to draw you in and keep you busy are far more important if you want your game to survive and prosper.
People are playing mmorpg's like they are console games and try to beat them fast as they can and move on to the next........ this can not happen in a mmorpg without losing mass populace. Need longevity in a mmorpg.
Yeah, thats why EA stock dropped and they fired half the dev team and the founders of the company quit. Success! Haha, in what universe?
I think total voice overs are a waste of resources in a MMOPRG.
Like others have said they are fine in cutscenes and for one liners for NPCs but in general MMORPGs are so large in terms of NPCs compared to other game genres that the money is better spent elsewhere IMO.
In a full fledged mmo, they are a waste for the most part, for a lobby type mmo, its ok.
I would rather they spend the money on content and features myself, as I am a spacebar hitter on quests and such....Not a big fan of rails and quest hubs either though.
If in used in moderation then they are totally worth it.
GW2 personal story or any games main storyline I'd say is totally worth it as long as it's immersive.
Now in SWTOR's case, they went way overboard for every friggin quest. In instanced dungeons I thought it was very nice with the choices n whatnot (but I can see how after doing the dungeon for the 5th time it can get rather tedious) along with the class stories, but everything else was a waste.
Neverwinter I'm at a loss for as I don't see what they hoped to achieve. Your quest givers were all voiced and yet the instanced quests have very little and dungeon delves had damn near nothing. And yet vendors were voiced. Really I have not ideal what Cryptic was thinking.
It's generally a waste. A lot of game companies spend money hiring celebrity voice actors when lesser known voice actors often do as good of a job. Voice acting can easily become one of the biggest expenses in game production and I don't think the payoff is really worth it. There are some points in the game where voice acting can be interesting (for example during boss fights where reading text can be difficult) or to stress importance of certain situations as well as adding ambiance.
It's possible in the future we won't even need voice actors, when programs like Vocaloid can produce near human quality levels of voice.
^ I agree 100% with ya here!
....Being Banned from MMORPG's forums since 2010, for Trolling the Trolls!!!
SWTOR did do it good I will agree. But I think despite what they claim they spent their money on, it was the voice acting and they blew it for the rest of the game!
....Being Banned from MMORPG's forums since 2010, for Trolling the Trolls!!!
This is really what a lot of the negative responses boil down to - people fear that it will become a creative vortex rather than opening up new directions for the industry to go. Once publishers are committed to spending a huge sum of money on voice acting as a basic feature, their attention has to then focus on how to best leverage that static recorded dialogue. It threatens to reduce variation in world expression even as it allows more vivid story expression.
Cutscenes have no place in an mmorpg, if you want cut scenes go play one of those hollywood inspired single player games.
So is justin Bieber, what's your point?
To me, it's a waste of resources. Cut scenes and "story/epic quests" are not what I'm looking for in an MMO. I really don't care to play an MMO where I follow the same story as everyone else. Watching a cut scene is like watching a cartoon that happens to star my character, but I've got no control that results in something meaningful.
I'd tell devs to spend their money on adding a new zone, sub-system (fishing, gathering, gambling, etc.) and let us use the virtual world instead of watching a scripted scene.