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Do you prefer voice or text in your MMO?
mgilbrtsn
Member EpicPosts: 3,430
The reason I ask, is that I've started playing FFXIV and dabbling in WoW. I've played many games with voice and some are definitely better than others. However, playing FFXIV, I'm finding that I'm not missing the voice as much as I thought I would. It's kind of refreshing to not hear bad accents and dialogue ala WoW. In addition, I can read the text as quickly or slowly as I want and move on from there.
Your thoughts.
I self identify as a monkey.
Comments
Voice. There's nothing more immersion breaking than running up to a character to find them all mute, holding a piece of paper for you to read.
I don't mind reading. I read a lot of lore stuff in ESO, SWTOR. I also read what skills do and instructions in games but when it comes to a visual media product, voice > text.
I prefer talkie movies over silent for the same reason.
Text 100%. I will never play another MMO full of voice overs after Swtor. I wanted to pull my hair out waiting for NPC's telling the back story on why I am killing 10 rats. I much prefer to read the text. I am the type of person that reads all the quests.
TSW did VO's well because only a few quests had VO's. But still prefer text
Text , believe or not , i don't prefer voice in MMO , because i die when listen NPC's long story instead of read it.
Then i get slow down and miss a mission boss because i watch the cut-scene and listen what NPC saying .
I don't know many time i get **** *** by MMO with voice over .
i would say voice but then i know i will miss text. To fix that i would have both text AND voice on all main storylines, then have only text on all side quests.
Also have fully voiced NPC random comments as you play (like GW2 where you hear random people talking about their own stuff and whats going on in the world), that is immersive too IMO.
Voice ... if i want to read, i read novels. VIDEO games should not ask the player to read lots of text.
In fact, not only i prefer voice, i prefer in-game scripted events to tell the story.
Lol, gonna make that pitch ongoing.
I self identify as a monkey.
if i want to hear voices i talk to friends and family. There, your reasoning is easily refuted.
But yes, If the text dialog is long and boring then its not going to hold my interest, not even fully voiced.
I self identify as a monkey.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
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I want both and then want to decide. I want it all. Heck, I'm paying for it.
For many gamers I suspect it's really whatever their game-of-the-moment has. This mind trick allows them to get around their own petty "If you hate it so much, go play something else!" argument.
My first PC games were text adventures, and most of the games I played until KotOR were predominantly text-based. I'm a big fan of the old Infinity Engine games, including Planescape:Torment, which has so much text it's basically an interactive novel. I played WoW for thousands of hours and unlike most people actually read the quest text.
BUT... I personally would prefer interactions with NPCs be voiced. Modern games and computers can support it. The only major barrier is cost, which I accept as a valid reason for not having voice in one's game. For games with large budgets, if not having voice truly means more quality content and gameplay features -- and doesn't just use that as an excuse -- I would definitely support that decision. On the other hand, I think good voice work (among other things) adds character to the characters and makes them feel less like glorified quest boards.
Discarding SWTOR's interactive conversations, which have certain demands on conversation flow, my ideal game would offer a text window that mirrors what the NPC says and allows one to turn on, turn off, pause, and replay the voice component of a chunk of text. And if you want to turn off the voice or text options completely in the game options, go for it! Given a theoretically unlimited budget, allowing players to experience the game either way is ideal IMO. While group play could cause conflict with the propensity of modern players to want to rush through everything whether it's text or voiced, a logging system could allow players to at least be able to go back and listen to and reread the dialogue, even if they can no longer influence it.
Yea, I agree with the option for both.
I remember back in old E and B, the first tutorial missions were all voiced in interesting ways. I thought this was pretty cool and had never seen it before.
Once I got beyond those missions the voice acting stopped, and it really felt like something was missing. Much more fun to be congratulated for doing a mission by an enthusiastic voice, rather than just a texted "good job!"
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I'm the opposite of you. I disliked that some parts of FFXIV were text only, while others were suddenly voiced. I prefer voiced as a whole though.
Playing TSW and SWTOR so much has left me spoiled. Though for things like in-game lore, text is just fine.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
Your friends and family don't tell you fantasy stories, do they? Also, you prefer to READ text off a movie, instead of having spoken dialogue too?
Hit "escape" and the voice over can be skipped. This function is not special to text.
For me the medium is not that important, if the writing (and in voice's case the voice actors as well) is good, then I'm good with both way. Though I used to switch on subtitles in voice-acted games...
what can I say, I'm a reader.
There's one rule of thumb with voice, preferably don't switch it on and off for less important NPC's. As HL illustrated it in one of my favourite HL vids (Neverwinter) http://youtu.be/zNDgBiKmsF4?t=6m42s it can be pretty silly
Fully voiced, much more immersive... For me there is no way back..
however, i dont mind subtitles...
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)