Zinc talks about how the opportunity cost of VOs is too high

[Tamgros]

http://www.videogamer.com/news/star_trek_online_dev_questions_fully_voice_acted_s w_tor.html

I agree with him for the most part. I just want to play the game! not listen to someone say something I wouldn't have said. :confused: Did that make sense?

Thoughts?

[TruthSeer]

In all honesty I could careless about voice overs. When ever they are in a game I usually put subtitles on since my music is usually to loud to hear them anyway.

[Kayos]

I'm not a fan of VO's either. I always just skip over them anyway.

[osena]

http://www.videogamer.com/news/star_trek_online_dev_questions_fully_voice_acted_s w_tor.html

I agree with him for the most part. I just want to play the game! not listen to someone say something I wouldn't have said. :confused: Did that make sense?

Thoughts?

I don't think any of people we know form the shows will be alive and geting all those people form TNG voyager and DS9 its going to cost them out the Nose shoot the guy that plays picard probly makes 100k just for doing abit part on American dad show as bullic

[mistharm]

I disagree with him on this. Voiceovers aren't all important or anything, but they add something special if done well. That's the key part though: They have to be done well. Voice acting, if done poorly (I'm looking at you CO...) detracts from the experience; while really well done voice acting adds a cinematic quality to the game.

That's something each development team has to decide for themselves though. If your budget is huge - why not go for the voice acting? If it's not very big, yeah, skip the VO's and go for more of the really important stuff. It just depends on your resources. I do think it adds a great level of polish when available though; and that's why I suspect Bioware is doing it. From everything I've read, Bioware is aiming for TOR to kind of bridge the gap between single player CRPGs and MMOs - and in that context it makes a great deal of sense to me.

That said, we'll have to see how it works out in the end. It could be a waste of cash if the gameplay and content aren't there - but if they are there, it adds something, especially that first time through. Obviously, wait and see is always the best policy, but I'm optimistic.

(I'm pretty excited about both STO and TOR to be honest, not to mention a few expansions coming for games I already play... this next year is gonna be great for being an MMO gamer I think. Or at least for me!)

*edit*

I want to add that, while I disagree with him on this in-general, that doesn't mean I feel STO needs a lot of VO work. A game can work fine without it. (LOTRO has a fairly sparce amount, COH has none, both are quite good imo) - It's just an additional layer of polish that, if you can afford it, is a nice thing to have.

[JacobFlowers]

To evaluate how much value VO would add to STO really depends on the content and mission types. If they are standard MMO 'quests' i.e. fetch this, escort this, kill 20 tribbles, etc etc... then no, I wouldn't care about VO. It wouldn't add to the immersion of the game, and I would only want to skip it so i could kill those darned tribbles that much faster.

If however STO had more Story driven content/missions, like what we had in Star Trek 25th anniversary, then on the contrary it might be pretty cool to have VO. If it's an interesting story, where paying attention to the details matters... then cool.

But if its the same old stuff, not worth it.

In the end though, it isn't something that polarizes me in anyway. I can do without and still be happy with STO provided it is a well made, innovative, and fabulous game. We shall see! :D

[marscentral]

VOs are great the first time you play a mission. The fifth or sixth time it can get pretty old.

[skrasis]

I don't mind not having any voice overs for MMOs usually. With that said I think I would have liked the bridge officers to be voiced. I think it would have given them more personality and add more to the immersion that its your bridge crew and they are responding to your orders.

[Loekii]

http://www.videogamer.com/news/star_trek_online_dev_questions_fully_voice_acted_s w_tor.html

I agree with him for the most part. I just want to play the game! not listen to someone say something I wouldn't have said. :confused: Did that make sense?

Thoughts?

While I dislike VO's like EQ2 (basically speaking the quest text), or SW:TORs Full Voice appraoch, i do like ambient VO's (like WoW).

I really found the 'silent NPCs' in CO to be off putting. It made the game feel 'broken' or if I was playing it with MUTE on.

Things I want to hear a VO SFX for:

Starting/Closing an interaction with an NPC (Like WoW).
Bridge officer pop up window
Alerts


Those things can be something as little as 'Greetings Captain', 'Weapons are disabled', 'Come again', 'Welcome to Quarks', etc.

[TruthSeer]

Another thing to think about in regards to VOs is the differences between the games. In SwtOR you can have companions similar to BOs but from what I have seen they are all scripted events and planned out companions. Which would seem to mean that there are a limited variety of companions which would be easier to do VO work for.

STO on the other hand seems to have this but also allows us to make our own and possibly through the Genesis System. Both of these allow for almost endless possibilities in regards what your BO will be like. This would be impossible to do well and we'd end up with probably 20 max voices.

[The_Padre]

How does Cryptic know what my player character and my created Bridge Officers sound like?

[Dext]

http://www.videogamer.com/news/star_trek_online_dev_questions_fully_voice_acted_s w_tor.html

I agree with him for the most part. I just want to play the game! not listen to someone say something I wouldn't have said. :confused: Did that make sense?

Thoughts?

I agree with him to a point. There are peopel like to that read the story an do not skip it unless it is an alt toon an I all ready did it before so I know what is going to happen But I all ways read it the first time throw.

[Loekii]

The thing is that CO was too quiet.

IIRC, there was no 'acknowledgment' sound when you interacted with an npc.

If you turned off the 'music' and background effects (sirens, and skidding tires), the game basically sounded like you had MUTED the sound when talking to NPCs.

[JacobFlowers]

The thing is that CO was too quiet.

IIRC, there was no 'acknowledgment' sound when you interacted with an npc.

If you turned off the 'music' and background effects (sirens, and skidding tires), the game basically sounded like you had MUTED the sound when talking to NPCs.

Oh wait... I'm afraid I may have misunderstood... is this 'VO' talk meaning that there will be absolutely no voice overs in the game?

[skrasis]

Oh wait... I'm afraid I may have misunderstood... is this 'VO' talk meaning that there will be absolutely no voice overs in the game?

Basically yes. There may be some voice overs perhaps with tutorial and some of the major story line missions but probably for the most part there will be no voice overs.

[Gideon]

I agree. The cost fo doing VO doewn't seem worth what you get out of it. I think his comments about people wanting to skip it or play without it are valid. It's going to be interesting to see how this works in groups and end-game content like raids. Either some members will be rushed through the cut scene/voice over or others will feel like they are forced to watch it or at least forced to wait while others do.

[Loekii]

Oh wait... I'm afraid I may have misunderstood... is this 'VO' talk meaning that there will be absolutely no voice overs in the game?

In my limited experience of Open beta for CO, there were very few VO's in the game.

No VOs when:

Talking to a NPC
Talking to a Quest NPC
Talking to an NPC Vendor


It was just silent -- again, felt awkward like the sound fx was broken or the game was on mute (coming from a WoW).

The only VO I recall experiencing:

Defender in the final fight sequence of the Tutorial
During Cinematics


So I would say 95% of the time, there was zero VO effect (not even sure if there was a 'death sound'), iirc. It was one thing that I really disliked about playing CO.

I am hoping STO is more like WoW, than like CO.

[elionbel]

I would love to do VoiceOver work :)

[Gideon]

In my limited experience of Open beta for CO, there were very few VO's in the game.

No VOs when:

Talking to a NPC
Talking to a Quest NPC
Talking to an NPC Vendor


It was just silent -- again, felt awkward like the sound fx was broken or the game was on mute (coming from a WoW).

The only VO I recall experiencing:

Defender in the final fight sequence of the Tutorial
During Cinematics


So I would say 95% of the time, there was zero VO effect (not even sure if there was a 'death sound'), iirc. It was one thing that I really disliked about playing CO.

I am hoping STO is more like WoW, than like CO.


This is the way it is and I agree that I'd like to see WoW levels of npc interaction in STO (and added to CO for that matter).

[The_Padre]

In my limited experience of Open beta for CO, there were very few VO's in the game.

No VOs when:

Talking to a NPC
Talking to a Quest NPC
Talking to an NPC Vendor


It was just silent -- again, felt awkward like the sound fx was broken or the game was on mute (coming from a WoW).

The only VO I recall experiencing:

Defender in the final fight sequence of the Tutorial
During Cinematics


So I would say 95% of the time, there was zero VO effect (not even sure if there was a 'death sound'), iirc. It was one thing that I really disliked about playing CO.

I am hoping STO is more like WoW, than like CO.


Actually NPC's like Ironclad in the tutorial, and named villain NPC's that you encounter out in the world did have some VO's.

[Admiral-Darren-Wright]

While I dislike VO's like EQ2 (basically speaking the quest text), or SW:TORs Full Voice appraoch, i do like ambient VO's (like WoW).

I really found the 'silent NPCs' in CO to be off putting. It made the game feel 'broken' or if I was playing it with MUTE on.

Things I want to hear a VO SFX for:

Starting/Closing an interaction with an NPC (Like WoW).
Bridge officer pop up window
Alerts


Those things can be something as little as 'Greetings Captain', 'Weapons are disabled', 'Come again', 'Welcome to Quarks', etc.


I agree with you here whole heartadley,

To not have any VO at all actually leaves the game wanting, And when i played CO it was one of the things that i really didnt like, its not the be all and end all but its a big factor, having the mute on while you play is not much fun and Bioware actually have done cinematic things in game pretty well with VO.

I do have to say tho this interview is a bad move, its almost like Zinc is worried about SWOR as he is trying to show its differences and also fault its direction. I dont think they have faulted ours and for that i dont think he should be faulting theres, from this they will come back perhaps with something and youll end up with a war of games, now that can help the players in a way the more competition the better the game tries to be and more content it gets, but i dont think its needed. And Zinc describes the VO as a huge endeavour, and actually its not at all, if he really looked into it and so far our BO's open silent screens with text in STO and the differences of silence and Voice is whats worrying him here with SWOR.

I do think there will be big differences with the ship to ship customisation and the BO's etc, and i am excited about STO, just dont think an interview playing down Bioware is needed.

[Drovaron]

Not bothered about Voice Over's is well, a simple "hello" or on the lines from that would do it for me with the NPC voicing.

Conan had it Voice Over's alittle (starting area and main questline) and would find myself skipping it all just to get back to the game.

Zinc's comment from the review is spot on, guess for most people.

[Phunix]

I'm in total agreement.
Putting voice-over in an ever-expanding MMO seems like a nightmare to me for several reasons.
If the new SW MMO is putting in VOs they may be shooting themselves in the foot, but perhaps they'll surprise me and put in something innovative who knows.

I can think of several reasons why written text would be better.
You can read faster than you can listen. An entire paragraph can get an immediate response while a spoken one can take a bit longer. (On the other hand typing is slower, but the fact is NPC text is quicker)
You can read something when things get nasty, better than trying to pick out what the H someone's saying over a bunch of combat-related noises.
Text is alot smaller, think of lag people! :p I can just imagine a crowded room where the server is wildly sending out audio packets, they better be running all those servers on SSDs!
Wouldn't it also call for limitations somehow?
Anyway, not a fan of too much voice ingame. :D

Of course, there are always exceptions where VO would be appropriate like if a ST VIP does a cutscene or even a live event.

[tenchi314]

Well I think that if your mission info/dialog is so inconsequential or derivative that people would rather just skip it than have to read/listen to it; then that's a bigger issue than if it's voiced or not. If you have a compelling story or character interaction then having Voice does add much to it. I also find that it reduces player eye fatigue when compared to having to read a series of lengthy text boxes or having them spoken to you.

Now it's not a make or break feature, but it's definitely not a negative imo; unless of course the words spoken were garbage to begin with. This being the case, as long as they give our BO's the occasional vocal feedback, it will probably be enough for this game.