SWTOR

[Sky]

So if those figures are even close, and I play roughly 10 hours a week, how many months sub are they guaranteed to get outta me if I wanted to hear 90% of the dialog?

But to expand on what Sam is saying, there's also multiple choices for every dialog branch, voiced by multiple actors. So lots of redundancy in the system.

[Kail]

I see this as a reason why open betas are so important, actually. It gives the non-neckbeard a chance to log in and see the game and provide feedback. In my experience (from the player side) a very different group of people show up in open betas than do in closed betas... (snip...)  You need something approaching real world testing prior to a title entering the real world. I don't know how BioWare is running their closed beta tests, but WAR stands as a case where closed beta responses can be distorted because players aren't actually playing the full game, just concentrated sections.

To clarify, when people are saying "open beta" are they referring to a beta where registration is open (I.E. you can get in without preordering, or without being selected from a list of applicants, just download the client, make an account, and go) or a beta where the game is open (I.E. no level restrictions, no "we're testing Zone X today" or anything)?

[sam, an eggplant]

Open/closed refers to access restrictions. Those strictly time/content limited betas are a relatively recent innovation. They allow for more focused and in many ways more useful QA, but since testers don't get to progress through the game like normal players, they don't become invested in their characters, and that lack of incentive can lead to abnormal playstyles or just plain lack of interest.

Everquest1 allowed test server players to retain their characters and offered limited GM support. A close-knit community developed on the test server, and they got higher quality feedback because of it. I don't believe any MMO has followed in those footsteps since.

[Fordel]

DaoC tried, but no one gave a shit about Pendragon because it wasn't a 'real' server in terms of Relics and owning Albs.

[Zetor]

There was a fairly strong test server community in... SWG, of all places.  I think the test server had some 'advantages' over the others, such as multiple chara slots.

[luckton]

http://www.torocast.com/index.php/news/swtor-news/item/570-gems-from-the-last-day-of-e3-2011

TL:DR version:

- Companions are maxed at 5
- 3 Warzones at release
- Daily quests will be avail at end-game
- 1k people just got lottery picked into beta this week
- Grind elimination by taking the 'Kill 10 Rats' quests and just giving them to you as you enter an area automagically.
-- You automagically get rewarded once 10 rats die.
- Multiplayer dialogue really is just for fun on standard stuff.  Live or die choices however are based on majority rules.  If 3 people roll a total of 45 for the guy to live and the 4th dude rolls a 56 on his own for the guy to die, somebody's dying.
-- Your rolls, regardless of who actually wins and gets their dialogue heard, does affect your LS/DS alignment.
- 1-50 leveling experience is done.  It's all bug smashing and polishing from now to release.

[Lucas]

Since the game it's now "feature locked", shortly after release it's going to be interesting to follow how often they will shell out updates (I'm not considering bug hotfixes, of course), also considering that anything involving NPCs and dialogues will need voice-overs. I assume there is at least a small group already working on post-release content.

[cironian]

What seems most difficult to me from a production standpoint is keeping every single player voice artist available for post-release content. For new NPCs you can just hire anyone, but players might consider it a little strange if their voice changed from quest to quest. (How many different PC voices are there anyway?)

[luckton]

http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/tatooine-developer-walkthrough

Hi quality vid of the quest part of the Tatooine demo.  If you click the down arrow you can dl it in Hi-Def.

Just got done watching it.  Good stuff.

[luckton]

What seems most difficult to me from a production standpoint is keeping every single player voice artist available for post-release content. For new NPCs you can just hire anyone, but players might consider it a little strange if their voice changed from quest to quest. (How many different PC voices are there anyway?)

At least two for each race.  Since 90% of the races are going to speak 'bloody english', they may take the cheap way out as use the same male and female voices for a number of races.

[5150]

What seems most difficult to me from a production standpoint is keeping every single player voice artist available for post-release content. For new NPCs you can just hire anyone, but players might consider it a little strange if their voice changed from quest to quest. (How many different PC voices are there anyway?)

Like the DM's voice in DDO changing between the island and the mainland? - I actually found that really annoying!

[Lakov_Sanite]

So they are starting to open up the beta? this has a december release all over it.

[Mrbloodworth]

Wouldn't that be more like 10 DVDs?  Or do dual layer DVDs hold 8.6?  LOL either way.  40gig client...

One Blueray.

[Murgos]

At least two for each race. 

It's not voiced by race, it's voiced by primary class and gender.  Thus avoiding having the same line said 8 times by 8 different people.  I.e All female Sorcerers & Assassins have the same voice since they all say the same lines and all do mostly the same class quests regardless of race.

I haven't seen the list of VO actors though so I don't know if any of them double up on more than one class.  In one of the interviews though the Lead Story guy said that they had approximately 100,000 thousand lines of dialog per class and ~800,000 lines of voiced dialog total.

[luckton]

At least two for each race. 

It's not voiced by race, it's voiced by primary class and gender.  Thus avoiding having the same line said 8 times by 8 different people.  I.e All female Sorcerers & Assassins have the same voice since they all say the same lines and all do mostly the same class quests regardless of race.

I haven't seen the list of VO actors though so I don't know if any of them double up on more than one class.  In one of the interviews though the Lead Story guy said that they had approximately 100,000 thousand lines of dialog per class and ~800,000 lines of voiced dialog total.

I still say it's race-based.  To have a unique voice for each class compounded by each race/class pairing would be astronomically higher than the numbers they've posted.  I still say they went the cheap route by just having the same male and same female voice for each race and just having that actor/actress field all classes that the race can be.

[SnakeCharmer]

What?

You really should re-read what you wrote.

[Malakili]

- Grind elimination by taking the 'Kill 10 Rats' quests and just giving them to you as you enter an area automagically.
-- You automagically get rewarded once 10 rats die.

How is this grind elimination?  Its...grinding without having to talk to NPCs - which is actually closer to the "old" style grind that NPCs giving you quests in town somewhere.  I actually think its a fine choice to be honest, I just don't understand how it eliminates any grind, it just streamlines it.

[sam, an eggplant]

It doesn't eliminate the grind, it just helps out a bit with travel time. That particular innovation was introduced with WAR, as I recall. It's certainly not SWTOR's invention.

[Murgos]

  To have a unique voice for each class compounded by each race/class pairing would be astronomically higher than the numbers they've posted. 

That's not what I said.  Each class & gender pairing is the same voice.  Race doesn't matter.  Your way each race voice actor needs to duplicate the work of every other race voice actor for each class leading to massive duplication of effort for absolutely no gain.

Anyway, you're wrong.  Jennifer Hale (femshep) is credited as being the voice of the "Republic Trooper" on IMDB  and Stephen Blum is credited with "Bounty Hunter".

And

*Voice Actors*

Georg Zoeller: “We have one professional voice actor per class and gender. As seen in several videos, there are items that may modify the voice of a character (such as helmets or masks). The voice actors have been picked with great care since they have to deliver an enormous amount of content at highest quality – after all, they are with the player for hundreds of hours.”

[Merusk]

Roger Smith/ Spike/ New Starscream as the BH voice.  Looks like I know what I'm playing.

[luckton]

Roger Smith/ Spike/ New Starscream as the BH voice.  Looks like I know what I'm playing.

In other news, Kotaku hates ToR.  Mostly for the reasons everyone here has already stated, but in case you wanted to read 3 pages of that hate being explicitly described in the form of a preview.

[palmer_eldritch]

Roger Smith/ Spike/ New Starscream as the BH voice.  Looks like I know what I'm playing.

In other news, Kotaku hates ToR.  Mostly for the reasons everyone here has already stated, but in case you wanted to read 3 pages of that hate being explicitly described in the form of a preview.

I'd like to know how old the writer there is. He says:

after an hour of watching self-described sizzle reels of prerendered and in-game footage of casually pirouetting Jedi and environments so full of foxfire and crepitating tails of energy, I couldn't actually make myself actually play the game. This isn't the Star Wars I love. This is a cartoon fantasy of a world that once felt lived in, ancient and crumbling

Which is pretty much how I felt watching any of the prequels. But I grew up with the original films, which had a very different feel to the new ones. I'd guess the younger generation is used to a Star Wars universe where everything is shiny and new and bristling with CGI effects.

He also says he loved the original sandbox SWG, and I'm with him there but I don't think he and I are TOR's target audience.

[Nebu]

... but I don't think he and I are TOR's target audience.

I don't think any of us (f13 posters) are. 

[luckton]

... but I don't think he and I are TOR's target audience.

I don't think any of us (f13 posters) are. 

There's a smörgåsbord of people here from various walks of life, careers and backgrounds.  What exactly is f13 a target for? 

[Paelos]

I'm going to play it. Also, the reviewer had the stones to write a review about a demo that he didn't actually play.

Then, he said this,

I mean, whatever, right? This is just my gut take, not a review. There's no way I've played anywhere even approaching enough game time to make a judgement about that.

Yeah, you played none, champ. It's easy to hate on the game, and I think it has the potential to be god-awful as well because Bioware thinks MMOG players don't want to just blast through story, but at least take the 5 minutes to actually push the buttons before you shit on the internet.

[Cyrrex]

If this game pretty much plays out like that Tatooine trailer, then it is exactly what I was guessing this game would turn out to be.  It's KOTOR online with MMO conventions thrown in (complete with the same shoddy animation and combat that KOTOR had...an d it didn't hinder that game one damn bit).  It is going to sell MILLIONS of copies.  Stickiness and retention will probably have as much to do with how well alts play out with the storyline as does any question about the end game.

[Malakili]

What exactly is f13 a target for? 

Cynics.

[Draegan]

This will be the first MMO I buy on day one and not care about rushing to the level cap.  It will also be the first one where I play a ton of alts and not feel guilty about neglecting my "main".

[Cyrrex]

This will be the first MMO I buy on day one and not care about rushing to the level cap.  It will also be the first one where I play a ton of alts and not feel guilty about neglecting my "main".

Yeah, this....while I think there will be a lot of MMO players playing this game (duh), I don't think a lot of them will play it the same way they play their other MMOs.  I sure as shit won't. 

[Sky]

I will! Well, maybe not. I might actually group! But yeah, I think if you go into it with a 'traditional' mmo mindset, you're setting yourself up for disappointment.

As far as Neb's target audience comment, everything but raids and dailies speaks to me.

[Arrrgh]

What exactly is f13 a target for? 

Cynics.

I'd go with jaded.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cynic

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/jaded

[Malakili]

What exactly is f13 a target for? 

Cynics.

I'd go with jaded.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cynic

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/jaded

Well, the tagline is usefully cynical commentary, thats what I was referencing.

[Lucas]

I'm totally going to play it like a single-player game with a co-op feature...or something. pretending it's KOTOR 3 with  8 character classes to choose from. So I guess I'm part of the target audience.

[Fordel]

F13 is where old men yell at clouds.


 

[cironian]

I must assume the Kotaku guy is just trolling. While there are certainly some things one might criticise about SWTOR, saying it's not "Star Warsey" enough and then complaining at length about the fact that the Sand People look precisely like in ANH and that the bad guy is wearing a cape and weird headgear (how ridiculous! real star wars would never have such a thing!) just doesn't make any sense otherwise.