Going forward, let's hope EA/Bio learns from GW2 about the use of VO work

[davispunx]

The VO work for Diablo 3, SWTOR, GW2, ME3 is all the same people. The voice of female Shepard and Jack from ME is in like every single video game these days.

[kenn9530]

GW2 VOs are nothing special, i dont even really watch them anymore just skip them most of the time, having a skip feature like GW would be nice in ToR though for most quests after the first play through.

The VO work in ToR is much better than GW2, but VO after a while get tedious and you just want to play the game so most of the time you will be skipping.

[ptwonline]

Na thats why everyone mentioned quality because the OP did in his original post :P

Unfortunately they did it in the wrong context. I wasn't comparing the quality of the VO work between the two. I was comparing the usage between the two, and hoping that the future SWTOR VO/cinematics would be higher quality (or come out with content faster) compared to the original game by doing fewer of them.

I get the idea that it's supposed to help make it like a movie, but if they really wanted that then they need a LOT more of the dynamic, action-scene, story-reveal sorts of cutscenes. There are a few in the game, but they get absolutely dwarfed by the static coversations.

[noxnoctum]

I haven't played GW2, but I actually greatly enjoyed the voice work in TOR, and frankly it's what made the grinding actually bearable for me.

It's a shame they couldn't get away from a grind altogether, but the VA at least made it someone worth it.

But then again I played it as if it were a singleplayer game. (which suits me anyways)

[Kelimbror]

I get the idea that it's supposed to help make it like a movie, but if they really wanted that then they need a LOT more of the dynamic, action-scene, story-reveal sorts of cutscenes. There are a few in the game, but they get absolutely dwarfed by the static coversations.

You do realize you just rationalized the existence of Michael Bay right?

This is a cinematic MMO in the fact that all of the motivators for doing things and consequences of doing those things are acted out for you. An MMO is attempting to 'in real time' live out an entire story of a character. It would be the same if movies lasted for 10 hours instead of 2. Suddenly all these things that you never see on film (main characters eating, sleeping, using the bathroom) unless it is integral to the plot, are now stuffed into the story.

MMOs by definition have lots of fluff. Otherwise you would be leveling to 20 and the game would be over. Bioware though that adding dialogue and pretty lights to the fluff would make it more palatable. Whether you agree or disagree is a matter of personal opinion, but I have to agree with you that it is too much a lot of the time.

[TequilaFlavor]

SWTOR was pretty cool for having everything voiced over, but I know I'm not the only one who got tired of having voiceovers and conversation scenes even for essentially "kill 10 boars" missions and then dozens more relatively inconsequential ones just like it. it was just too much, especially on repeated playthroughs of each planet.

Anyone else old enough to have played Wing Commander when it came out? Remember when voiceovers, conversations, and cinematics were seen as a reward for progress and used to progress the main storyline? Thus they became significant and both the players and developers could focus more on them. By having them used so much in SWTOR foften for such trivial things, and by having them mostly just be static conversations, they lose their specialness and can even become tedious.

Let's hope they focus more on quality than quantity when it comes to production levels of voice and cinematic work, and save it for more critical things and in more dynamic ways than just conversations.

German VO in GW2 is comical at best, laughably bad at worst - and yes, it might be so bad in comparison, because we expect everything to have absolut top notch voiceacting in Germany, even the smallest 10 sec. commercial for a cheap product.

It's just a "tradition"/standard, if you will and our VO studios usually take their jobs very, very seriously.

That makes it all more glaring, how aweful the GW2 voiceacting is in places.

For example: There are long, awkward pauses in the middle of a sentence between words, where there definitely shouldn't be any.

I don't mean for dramatic effect or when there's a " , " or a " - ", just like . . . that in the . . . middle of a sentence.

And btw: Hearing an NPC repeat the same line 500x just because the area is overcrowded s*cks maj*r b*lls !

They really should have made it so only the player interacting with the NPC hears this lines, at least the less important/more repetitive ones.

[Stormcall]

At least in GW2, the dialogue isn't repeated.

...contrasted by a lot of being so bad it never should have been said once, much less repeated.

[WarpedAcorn]

...contrasted by a lot of being so bad it never should have been said once, much less repeated.

And a lot of it doesn't make any sense. For instance, if you choose the Human origin where you were raised on the streets, you obviously have ties to local gangs. And yet, you start off the game with the City Guard being friendly and trusting of you as well as being all noble and willing to help the City Guard with no obvious benefit to yourself whatsoever. Its stuff like that why I can't get into this game, because I need a narrative that makes sens to me. SWTOR does this, and the constant dialogue reinforces the tone of each zone/planet and helps you see where the locals are coming from.

[Crispin]

Honestly? VO needs to be reserved for big and special events, and not be used cus some guy forgot to buy toiletpaper.

I love cake, now and then, but if I had it 4 times I day i'd get pretty damn fed up with it fast, and I feel the same with VO's, I don't need a 4 minute conversation to kill 3 wolfs, and my spacebar will suffer for it.

[Vulgrym]

The VO work for Diablo 3, SWTOR, GW2, ME3 is all the same people. The voice of female Shepard and Jack from ME is in like every single video game these days.

They leverage the same talent, but the writing and dialog in SWTOR is far superior to what it was in GW2 (I played the Warrior lines in both). I'd have killed for a Darth Baras level of antagonist in the latter.

On the flipside, I agree with the OP in that my preference is to have only the main story advanced via VO/scenes.

[Blznsmri]

And a lot of it doesn't make any sense. For instance, if you choose the Human origin where you were raised on the streets, you obviously have ties to local gangs. And yet, you start off the game with the City Guard being friendly and trusting of you as well as being all noble and willing to help the City Guard with no obvious benefit to yourself whatsoever. Its stuff like that why I can't get into this game, because I need a narrative that makes sens to me. SWTOR does this, and the constant dialogue reinforces the tone of each zone/planet and helps you see where the locals are coming from.

They helped you because you're the "Hero of Shaemor"

[WarpedAcorn]

They helped you because you're the "Hero of Shaemor"

That just doesn't make sense to me. I meandered outside of the walls to seek my fortune, got caught up in a Centaur attack, and helped take some creepy death hands down along with other city guards and players. So now the head of the guards is my BFF? I just don't get it. Even the Human Noble storyline, which I am the farthest along in, has great potential to be all about intrigue in the court...something that is right out of Game of Thrones. Instead the cheesy dialogue and glossed over story elements have left me really not caring about what happens next in the story. I've put way more time into the PvP aspect of it because of this.

[Vexies]

I love GW2 and SWTOR and SWTOR stomps all over GW2 voice overs and cinematic hands down. Hopefully at least in this one area they keep doing what they are good at. Telling awesome stories and dishing out quality cinematic. SWTOR has nothing to learn from GW2 in this regard. You cant even compare the two. They are very different in GW2 and heavily stylized and not at all the focus of the game.

[ptwonline]

I love GW2 and SWTOR and SWTOR stomps all over GW2 voice overs and cinematic hands down. Hopefully at least in this one area they keep doing what they are good at. Telling awesome stories and dishing out quality cinematic. SWTOR has nothing to learn from GW2 in this regard. You cant even compare the two. They are very different in GW2 and heavily stylized and not at all the focus of the game.

The difference is that we won't get any new PvE content in a sufficient amount or a timely manner for SWTOR. That was my fear before the game launched: the production values by making everything with VO would take significantly longer, and so content would come out at a snail's pace unless they devoted large, multiple teams to be working on future content parallel to each other because of the lead times required. People finished the PvE content, things were too repetitive, no significant new content came out, and most of the players left.

I finished 4 class stories. I don't really want to play anymore because even though I really like the class stories and want to see the rest of them, having to go through so many quests that tend to mostly be dull and seeing so many VO scenes that really are for mostly mundane tasks is simply too tiresome. I'd rather they be made special instead of simply being made numerous.

Some of this issue will be alleviated when monthly sub fees are gone. But we may still have the issue of so much of the production time being spent on too many mundane quests and producing all the VO work they require.

[Edge-]

The difference is that we won't get any new PvE content in a sufficient amount or a timely manner for SWTOR.

If we can believe them (this time), there will be "major content updates" every 6 weaks after the transition.

Sauce: http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/09/11/bi...tent-schedule/

[Azuri]

If we can believe them (this time), there will be "major content updates" every 6 weaks after the transition.

Sauce: http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/09/11/bi...tent-schedule/

I seen this posted on another site as well. I'm breaking out my tinfoil hat out on this one and I'm thinking they've banked some content so they can live up to this for at least 6, 12 or 18 weeks. Comments like content is ready to go and stuff leads me to believe that the "illusion" of 6 week content maybe do-able for a short bursts to make the f2p look viable. This last 5 month drought of content already contradicts what they said at E3 "we will be launching content at unprecedented pace and will setting a standard for the industry". /tinfoil hat off

[Arlee]

This last 5 month drought of content already contradicts what they said at E3 "we will be launching content at unprecedented pace and will setting a standard for the industry". /tinfoil hat off

Yea.. and sadly they also said the same thing at PAX East... so history and stuff

[Redblade]

I seen this posted on another site as well. I'm breaking out my tinfoil hat out on this one and I'm thinking they've banked some content so they can live up to this for at least 6, 12 or 18 weeks. Comments like content is ready to go and stuff leads me to believe that the "illusion" of 6 week content maybe do-able for a short bursts to make the f2p look viable. This last 5 month drought of content already contradicts what they said at E3 "we will be launching content at unprecedented pace and will setting a standard for the industry". /tinfoil hat off

Don't think you have to use the tinfoil hat even, sounds like a very plausible prediction.

[Forsedar]

Yea.. and sadly they also said the same thing at PAX East... so history and stuff

I shall remain ignorant of the past! I just want to be hopeful

[moff]

again, I just cant listen to this PR talk anymore. I need to see things DONE.
new content every 6 weeks? please, are they trying to fool us or themselves, too?
lets be honest, we're all fans of the game here, but we can agree that not the best people in the MMO industry have worked on SWTOR up to a few months ago, and now after the transition, I doubt better people have taken their places. I am not saying the content will be bad, not at all. but every 6 weeks real new content like flashpoints/warzones/operations?

never, maybe new colored gear, new difficulties or new vanity stuff for the cartel store, sure. but real new content every 6 weeks? never. they cant pull that off even if they have some banked content.

---------- Post added 2012-09-11 at 10:12 PM ----------

edit: is james ohlen still on board by the way? havent heard from him lately. I just realized after a year that the jedi in the splash screen (an deceived cinematic) was modeled after him, lol