SWTOR

[Lucas]

Well, quite an interesting update just went up on the official website. It's a documentary about the game voiceovers, but we can also get a glimpse of the UI (including  radial dialogs like in Mass Effect) and other stuff.

http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/video-documentary-3

[Lun]

Well, quite an interesting update just went up on the official website. It's a documentary about the game voiceovers, but we can also get a glimpse of the UI (including  radial dialogs like in Mass Effect) and other stuff.

http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/video-documentary-3

I keep seeing TOR devs bragging with voiceovers, and i keep asking myself "who gives a fuck about voiceovers"?

[Senses]

I agree.  If I were someone actively awaiting this title I would be really dissapointed about all the hoopla involving voiceovers.  I could understand if this was just one bullet point in the middle of a long list of exciting features this game will contain, but it seems 100pct of the information that anyone even knows about this game.  Just the other day in Lotro general chat someone chimed in how they couldn't wait for SWTOR oh and btw did you hear they had over 100 voice actors???   This is not something that a mmorpger should give a shit about.

[Ingmar]

/shrug

I like it, and the video made me feel pretty good about the prospects for it in general. A lot of the Star Wars-iness of Star Wars, IMO, is tied up in how the people sound, whether its the poncy English accents of the Imperial Officers, Vader's breathing, whatever. Whatever else it may or may not add, that stuff is important to the license I think.

[Lun]

I'm seeing this as: more money/time spent on voiceover actors/directors means less money/time spent on more important stuff like PvP/class balance/content etc. Or did money start growing on trees over at EA HQ?

[Soln]

way too filmic IMO.  way too RPG. 

[Senses]

Don't get me wrong, its an interesting part of the pie, but you don't get people excited about buying Pie by telling them you spent 100 extra man hours on designing the box its coming in.  To me voice acting is not an intregal part of the game and so no matter how good it is it will never be a reason to like or dislike an mmorpg.

[Cadaverine]

Eh, as long as the game itself is reasonably fun, and I can turn the VO off, I could care less about their latest bullet point.  I much prefer the company of the voices in my head, anyway.

The graphics did look a bit clunky in the video, though.  And I see the hunchback running animation made it over intact from KotOR. 

[tmp]

I agree.  If I were someone actively awaiting this title I would be really dissapointed about all the hoopla involving voiceovers.  I could understand if this was just one bullet point in the middle of a long list of exciting features this game will contain, but it seems 100pct of the information that anyone even knows about this game.

Well, this is one of the few things that's supposed to make them stand out from MMO crowd rather than just a bullet point, so small wonder really they're showing it off.

Besides, what are they supposed to talk about at this stage of development instead; PvP class balance? I'm sure Paul Barnett will be more than willing to cover that one for them when the time comes.

[Ashamanchill]

I'm sure Paul Barnett will be more than willing to cover that one for them when the time comes.

Oh god no!

[Oban]

So rather than being able to type whatever I want in game or say whatever I want in Vent... I get a wheel that allows me to choose 2-3 things to say? 

Or did I misunderstand the comments about Players interacting with other Players using voice overs?

[Fordel]

You use the wheel to interact with NPC's, but each player will have their own options in each 'scene' or whatever.


Players talking to other players will happen like in every other MMO, with mostly Text Chat with some VoiceOver Emotes.


That's my take.

[Hawkbit]

To me, it really looks like playing Mass Effect with multiple player characters around you.  I like the art style in motion now.  I also like the VO work, gives it a cinematic feel. 

That movie actually made me excited for this title for the first time.  It looks like it's going to be casual gamer heaven. 

What remains to be seen and will ultimately be life or death to this game:

1.  Perpetually immersive content, maybe even monthly story updates
2.  Allowing players to enjoy VO work if they wish and to coexist with those that don't want VO. 

There's significant potential for this to be #2 MMO in NA, if executed properly.   

[HaemishM]

The gameplay screens are really disappointing. Not unexpected, but really does look like every other fucking MMOG out there with maybe a bit more actiony combat. All this talk about VO's just makes me think it's doomed to be a severe disappointment because Bioware is clearly NOT GETTING IT. MMOG's are not about the story you give us, they are the story you let us make.

Or at least they should be.

[Trippy]

I agree.  If I were someone actively awaiting this title I would be really dissapointed about all the hoopla involving voiceovers.  I could understand if this was just one bullet point in the middle of a long list of exciting features this game will contain, but it seems 100pct of the information that anyone even knows about this game.

Well, this is one of the few things that's supposed to make them stand out from MMO crowd rather than just a bullet point, so small wonder really they're showing it off.

Yeah and that worked so well for EQ II

[Ghambit]

The gameplay screens are really disappointing. Not unexpected, but really does look like every other fucking MMOG out there with maybe a bit more actiony combat. All this talk about VO's just makes me think it's doomed to be a severe disappointment because Bioware is clearly NOT GETTING IT. MMOG's are not about the story you give us, they are the story you let us make.

Or at least they should be.

You nailed it.  But, the game's still gonna make money hands-over-fist and everyone here knows it.  It'll bleed dollars down the road, but all the bills will have been paid (including the suits' margins) and they can of course pull the plug or draft expansions.

What blew my mind about the textual blog on the site:

The entire game ‘script’ contains approximately 40+ novels worth of content.

That's just insane... categorically insane.  But, as we discussed earlier, the only way for them to pull off this story-based VO stuff was for it to be ridiculously expansive at the expense of the MM in MMO.  Judging by just about every trailer I've seen so far, aint much massively-multiplayer goin' on in this game... so players "making the world" is somewhat irrelevant.

[ajax34i]

Players talking to other players will happen like in every other MMO, with mostly Text Chat with some VoiceOver Emotes.

It doesn't make sense to allow text chat in a game otherwise so infused with voice.  I'm guessing they'll have integrated voice chat only, and the quality will suck so people will use Vent.  You'll get a chance to see if your buddies enunciate as well as them voice actors.

[Lantyssa]

way too filmic IMO.  way too RPG. 

Huh.  An RPG in my MMORPG.

(Not directed specifically at Soln here, more the "oh noes, we're not getting the same damn MMO we've played ten times and claim to not want but actually do" vibe I'm getting:)

I think I said it pages ago, but I really don't care if MMO players hate this game.  The modern crop wouldn't know a good RPG if it auto-attacked them to death.  I'm disappointed the update wasn't something more substantion, however I'm even more hopeful about this being an enjoyable game now.

[Senses]

I'm not saying VO is bad.  I'm saying, take any MMORPG you have ever hated, disliked, or generally not felt like playing for more than a week, then add 40 novels worth of dialogue and voice acting, do you like any of them any better now?  I honestly don't see what group of people they are selling the VO to, because I don't feel its the average MMO player.  Maybe its purely for the Star Wars people?

[UnSub]

Is SWOR going to release a video trailer for every aspect of this game? Really?

"Here's a video on our voice actors. Now here's some footage of our design team. The intern will get a 5 minute monologue about how great SWOR will be. And finally a documentary on the cleaning staff at Bioware - they are very important after all."

This game is going to be KOTOR with some multiplayer functionality. Expecting anything else is going to leave people disappointed.

[Margalis]

As revealed during E3, Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ will be a fully voiced massively multiplayer online roleplaying game. Watch our third Video Documentary where we explore how voice-over conversations deliver a deeper level of immersion and connection to the story and characters. Every playable character and every non-playable character in the game will be brought to life by voice actors - resulting in several thousand speaking roles and hundreds of thousands of recorded lines of dialogue!

VOICE ACTING IN GAMES! AMAZING!

This is going to be the best TurboDuo RPG ever.

[rk47]

Commander Shepard. With dual light sabers. 

[Koyasha]

The gameplay screens are really disappointing. Not unexpected, but really does look like every other fucking MMOG out there with maybe a bit more actiony combat. All this talk about VO's just makes me think it's doomed to be a severe disappointment because Bioware is clearly NOT GETTING IT. MMOG's are not about the story you give us, they are the story you let us make.

Or at least they should be.

Affecting other players is considered unacceptable in today's games, but affecting other players is the only way we can make meaningful, interesting story.  Without being allowed to affect other players, the only story we can make is either play-acting inane shit that is both poorly thought out and usually really poorly acted, and generally doesn't quite mesh with the world anyway, or real drama based almost entirely on stuff like loot, asshole behavior and so on.  In EQ, WoW, and so on, there's no story created by the players.  We go around, do the quests presented to us, make friends, and sometimes get into fights or squabbles with fellow players, but it's not really part of the setting.  We might remember some raids or some of our friends and the things we did together, but not in the in-game story sense.

Being able to directly affect each other does give more opening for player-created story.  EVE is a good example.  There's an actual story in that game that results from the actions of players, which is partly metagame and yet the way the game is set up turns those actions into the story of the game.  But it's still not what players expect when they hear the idea of player-created story.  So, either way the concept is going to be off.  Given the options, a directed, well-written story given to you with some controlled options for other players to affect your story, is probably the best choice at the moment.  Which sounds like what they're trying to accomplish, I hope.

[DLRiley]

Some things shall go the way of the dodo bird. This game will feature at least a few of those things.

[Surlyboi]

Some things shall go the way of the dodo bird. This game will feature at least a few of those things.

Do you just type shit at random because you like to see your words in print? Or does that shit actually make sense in your head?

[Fabricated]

The funniest part of them jerking off over the amount of voiceacting SWTOR is going too have is that a majority of the people who play the game aren't going to give 3/5ths of a shit about it.

"Why is this faggot talking? What do I click so I can go kill stuff and collect loot?"

[tmp]

The funniest part of them jerking off over the amount of voiceacting SWTOR is going too have is that a majority of the people who play the game aren't going to give 3/5ths of a shit about it.

"Why is this faggot talking? What do I click so I can go kill stuff and collect loot?"

Well, for that alleged majority a clone of Progress Quest with "click to continue" popup every 3 seconds would be the greatest MMO ever.

[PalmTrees]

Combat looked very disappointing. Generic-looking stormtrooper guy with a big sword (so stupid) taking a bunch of light saber hits to kill. Bleh.

And the vo actor being the same guy that did Spike in Cowboy Bepbop and a 1000 other things. Tired of hearing the same damn voice overs. It can be hard listen to them and think about their characters instead of: oh that guy again, are there only like 3 guys working in the vo industry?.

The clips had a very single player game feel to them, really interested to see how it's gonna work in a multi-player environment.

[DLRiley]

Stormtroopers with swords 

[Surlyboi]

The funniest part of them jerking off over the amount of voiceacting SWTOR is going too have is that a majority of the people who play the game aren't going to give 3/5ths of a shit about it.

"Why is this faggot talking? What do I click so I can go kill stuff and collect loot?"

That's more an indication of a problem with the playerbase than it is of the game.

[Hindenburg]

"Why is this faggot talking? What do I click so I can go kill stuff and collect loot?"

That's more an indication of a problem with the playerbase than it is of the game.

Game's job to make the players interested, yada yada yada.

[Ghambit]

It bears repeating:
"They'd better force players to do the cutscenes and listen to the VO"  or else all their countless millions spent on just the writing will have been for naught.

The two ways to do this are:
a) Not be able to click through a scene
b) Make it so your game basically has nothing to offer BUT cutscenes and VO

I'm really hoping they pick the former and the latter is irrelevent.

[sam, an eggplant]

So far, from all the videos and whatnot, I'm getting KOTOR3. Which is awesome, and I'm really excited about that. I loved KOTOR and unlike some crazies in this thread I'm a huge proponent of adding real story and actual characters to MMOs. Been saying it for years. Groovy.

I'm just looking forward to a video where they talk about how it's a MMO. None of the above pertains to or would benefit from other players or a persistent world.

So you're a bounty hunter, and you have your companions, and you're playing through a storyline custom-tailored for you, with varied decision nodes and resources predicated on previous choices taken, and you're in the jungles of naboo, having hunted down the slaver Hubba the Hutt who killed your parents across the galaxy (step fouteen in chapter seven of a long quest chain) and... wait, why is a jedi suddenly over there? If it's instanced, the game just broke character, and it's no longer a story about you. If it's persistent, you're patiently waiting at the zoneline to join the Hubba group. (Hubba also happens to drop a flowing black silk sash.)

Maybe they'll structure it like AoC's destiny quests. Solo, instanced, and cool for the main questline, standard MMO garbage for everything else? I'm waiting to hear their solution.

[tmp]

So you're a bounty hunter, and you have your companions, and you're playing through a storyline custom-tailored for you, with varied decision nodes and resources predicated on previous choices taken, and you're in the jungles of naboo, having hunted down the slaver Hubba the Hutt who killed your parents across the galaxy (step fouteen in chapter seven of a long quest chain) and... wait, why is a jedi suddenly over there?

I'm guessing they're basing it on something like... you're playing the "custom" storyline of a farmer boy who's recently bought this really broken droid and --long story short-- you're now in a famous hive of scumm and villainy with older companion and looking for a smuggler to take you across the Galaxy. At the same time another player is going through their "custom" storyline where they, a smuggler who had caused local Hutt some trouble in the earlier part of the story, get to shoot some bounty hunter looking for score to settle and are then approached by what's apparently a farmer boy with a   looking for a lift. Etc.

[Surlyboi]

"Why is this faggot talking? What do I click so I can go kill stuff and collect loot?"

That's more an indication of a problem with the playerbase than it is of the game.

Game's job to make the players interested, yada yada yada.

Fuck that. If the players are Chuck Norris joke spouting asshats, I'm not going to go out of my way to interest them.