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f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  The Gaming Graveyard  |  Everquest 2  |  Topic: EQII goes for voiceovers. 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
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Author Topic: EQII goes for voiceovers.  (Read 11887 times)
Jon Carver
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on: April 01, 2004, 08:58:48 AM

Just saw a voiceover trailer for EQ II.  They not only have, according to the press release, 130 hours of recorded dialog, it's also lipsynced.  Genuine effort to take things to a new level.  There are links to different sizes of the trailer, as well as the full press release here: http://www.eqii.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=13188
Kenrick
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Reply #1 on: April 01, 2004, 09:15:17 AM

Yeah, I read about this earlier this week in the new issue of PC Gamer.  Certainly adds a whole new dimension to gameplay.  The article I read also mentioned SOE might even try to get a few celebrity voiceovers in the future.  So if that NPC blacksmith sounds like Patrick Stewart, it might be Patrick Stewart. :)
Alkiera
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Reply #2 on: April 01, 2004, 09:52:33 AM

Quote
Genuine effort to take things to a new level.

Quote
Certainly adds a whole new dimension


As I stated, perhaps more amusingly, in the other thread, It'll also take adding new diminsions to the pakaging, to fit that many CD's into one of those now-standard tiny game boxes.  Tho this does seem to explain the poll in EQ a while back about how people felt about shipping games on DVD-ROM.  My 80gig harddrive is nearly full as it is, gonna have to make it grind exp some so it can gain a few levels, if I find myself somehow wanting to play EQ2.  8)

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Alkiera

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Jon Carver
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Reply #3 on: April 01, 2004, 09:57:42 AM

Quote from: Alkiera
Quote
Genuine effort to take things to a new level.

Quote
Certainly adds a whole new dimension


As I stated, perhaps more amusingly, in the other thread, It'll also take adding new diminsions to the pakaging, to fit that many CD's into one of those now-standard tiny game boxes.  Tho this does seem to explain the poll in EQ a while back about how people felt about shipping games on DVD-ROM.  My 80gig harddrive is nearly full as it is, gonna have to make it grind exp some so it can gain a few levels, if I find myself somehow wanting to play EQ2.  8)

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Alkiera


The technology exists today to do an acceptable job of streaming the voice over audio.
Alkiera
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Reply #4 on: April 01, 2004, 10:02:50 AM

Quote from: Jon Carver
The technology exists today to do an acceptable job of streaming the voice over audio.


Of course it does.  If you check that other thread, tho, they state that they explicitly plan on having it stored client-side...  Admittedly, according to an article on gamespy or some such, but it sounds like an SOE kinda thing.

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Alkiera

"[I could] become the world's preeminent MMO class action attorney.  I could be the lawyer EVEN AMBULANCE CHASERS LAUGH AT. " --Triforcer

Welcome to the internet. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used as evidence against you in a character assassination on Slashdot.
Rodent
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Reply #5 on: April 01, 2004, 10:07:21 AM

Quote from: Alkiera

Of course it does.  If you check that other thread, tho, they state that they explicitly plan on having it stored client-side...  Admittedly, according to an article on gamespy or some such, but it sounds like an SOE kinda thing.

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Alkiera


Ofcourse they'd leave them clientside, noone would want the serverload of streaming the speech to the clients. It'd be stupid and expensive.

Wait... Maby EA would want to stream it.

Wiiiiii!
Faust
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Reply #6 on: April 01, 2004, 11:15:53 AM

Oh thank GAWD they have voice stuff... cause I was worried that EQ2 would just be a redo of the same boring shit that EQ is with shiney new graphics.

NOW I understand that EQ2 will be a redo of the same boring shit that EQ is with shiney new graphics AND voice overs.  WHEW!

Kin Rha
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Reply #7 on: April 01, 2004, 02:55:12 PM

This is a patently stupid idea.

GG, SOE!
Evil Elvis
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Reply #8 on: April 01, 2004, 03:21:40 PM

Eh.

As long as they still give you info via chat, it won't affect gameplay much.  I personally wouldn't want to have to turn the volume up in my game when I wanted to do a quest, or have to listen to a voiceover again because I missed a word at the end.

However, you have to wonder how secure it will be.  I'm under the assumption that the quest strings in most other mmorpg is piped to you directly from the game server.  If the .mp3's are going to be stored on your HD, how long do they think it will take before someone cracks their data files, giving them instant access to these quest messages the second they install a patch / expansion.
ajax34i
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Reply #9 on: April 01, 2004, 04:12:17 PM

Eh, figuring out the vioce messages for the quest givers / NPC's may be useful, but, honestly, Allakhazam and others will have quest databases out instantly, with pictures, maps, tips, everything, so it's kinda moot.

We should review how good the voice-acting is, not whether a game should have it or not.

And I hope they do a lot of tongue-in-cheek things like "No lewtz for joo!", orcs screaming like little girls when you hit them, barely-dressed hottie female NPC's with man-voices that hit on male players, ogres farting when they bend to pick up loot...  Rather than the cheezy stuff I've seen in that video they put out.
Alluvian
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Reply #10 on: April 01, 2004, 06:30:02 PM

I find it an interesting and surely expensive gamble.  It may enhance or detract from immersion as can be said of all voice acting in games.  There is a large gap between good and bad.

Definately going to be a deterrent and not a boon for non-english speeking players though.  I don't think I would like a game that had all dialog spoken in japaneese with english subtitles, I would feel somewhat left out.
kaid
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Reply #11 on: April 02, 2004, 07:07:10 AM

Ha alluvian they have been doing that for years with fighting games! Actually quite a few of the ps2 rpg games are like this and panzer dragoon well who the hell knows what they were speaking in panzer dragoon.

Still it does make it a more anglo centric game but frankly eq and eq2 appeal more to north americans than they do towards the asian folks so they are playing to their main audiance.



kaid
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Reply #12 on: April 02, 2004, 07:32:04 AM

Well, in fighting games I don't consider the speach to be important to the game at all.  If there are other rpgs with full speach like this than it would be directly comparable.  And in that regard is not that new I suppose.  

Only have to go back as far as Deus Ex 2 now that I think about it.  Did they re-record all the voice in that game for localized copies?  Anyone know?  With the sheer volume of voice in EQ2 I have my doubts they will be localizing it.  And if they do, the voiceactors will probably be even worse for the localizations to save on cash.

Panzer dragoon oorta was a nonsense madeup language.  It meant nothing to nobody, heh.  I suppose that is an easy, if baffling, way to be fair to everyone...
Evil Elvis
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Reply #13 on: April 02, 2004, 08:12:39 AM

Quote from: ajax34i
Eh, figuring out the vioce messages for the quest givers / NPC's may be useful, but, honestly, Allakhazam and others will have quest databases out instantly, with pictures, maps, tips, everything, so it's kinda moot.

Would you still think that if it was a one-time only quest, or if the first person to complete it got something better/special?
Alrindel
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Reply #14 on: April 02, 2004, 08:15:28 AM

Quote from: Alluvian
Only have to go back as far as Deus Ex 2 now that I think about it.  Did they re-record all the voice in that game for localized copies?  Anyone know?  With the sheer volume of voice in EQ2 I have my doubts they will be localizing it.

In France at least, Deus Ex 2 did not have localized voice-overs, it used the english voices with subtitles.  Having said that, plenty of games do fully localized versions including the voice acting (forcing me to order them from the UK if I want the original version).  KOTOR and the Simpsons Hit & Run were the last two that I recall.

Whether EQ2 will be fully localized including the voice is an interesting question, though.  My first reaction was that it certainly would be, since budget isn't really a problem.  But then comes the problem with keeping the translations current as new quests and NPCs are patched in later... so I dunno.
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Reply #15 on: April 03, 2004, 07:31:12 AM

Quote from: Evil Elvis

Would you still think that if it was a one-time only quest, or if the first person to complete it got something better/special?


If by one time only, you 'each character does it once' then that's how 99% of MMOG quests work, and I don't see why it makes any difference.

If by one time only, you mean 'only one character does it ever' then clearly that will never happen, and the cost of recording voices for content only to be seen by *one* player would clearly not be acceptable.

Similarly, I can't imagine a 'first to complete get a bonus' style gizmo working. Apart from anything else the wailing and gnashing of teeth generated by West Coast guilds at the disadvantage they have over east coast or European guilds on patch day would put a stop to that quick sharp (see: moaning about post patch respawns in EQ1)

The only example of anything like this I can think of in a live MMOG is The Sleeper. And I don't imagine for a minute SOE would record live voice for anything as transient or with as small an audience as the The Sleeper had.

PvE questing isn't really a competitive thing, so if someone really wants to dig around his hard drive to get the same advantage normal people get by reading allakazam, then it gets a big /shrug from me.

"People will not assume that what they read on the internet is trustworthy or that it carries any particular ­assurance or accuracy" - Lord Leveson
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kuro
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Reply #16 on: April 03, 2004, 08:20:24 AM

Sounds like a decent feature to me. It ought to be fairly simple to be able to toggle it off and on, ignore players, etc,  so those that are annoyed by it don't have to deal with it.

If you look at NWN and the sound bytes that players could trigger with phrases like "follow me", "need heal", "stop", "yes", "no" etc. were pretty cool for communicating with your group.  NWN also allowed you choose from different voices when you created your character.  It was a cool feature that let you further customize your character.

FPS like counterstrike and even RTS have used similar features to allow players to quickly communicate by pressing a few hotkeys.  I'd imagine all mmorpgs will follow suit and add some voice sound bytes just to stay competitive.
Evil Elvis
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Reply #17 on: April 03, 2004, 11:25:15 AM

Quote from: eldaec
Quote from: Evil Elvis

Would you still think that if it was a one-time only quest, or if the first person to complete it got something better/special?

A bunch of stuff proven wrong


Allow me to present  Exhibit A.

As far as the cost of making an mp3 for a one time only quest... they're the ones who said they'd make an mp3 for all npc's, not me.  If they DID do quests that rewarded the first person to do them, then they'd make an mp3 for it.
eldaec
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Reply #18 on: April 03, 2004, 12:06:30 PM

Never played AC, are you telling me quests in AC can only be completed by one player?

Sounds dumb, but maybe I'm misunderstanding you?

Closest thing to what your describing that I'd ever read about AC was various story events which, I understood, generally speaking many people take part in, therefore taking us back to spoiler sites?

Non-MMOG Devs and artists bitch regularly about how 80% of the audience don't ever get to see the big finish on single player games (Something, incidentally, that MMOG devs need to start considering when planning their XP grind). Maybe this is getting a bit off the topic, but I really don't see pre-scripted events that only 1 player, or even 1 group of players ever see really taking off in any game genre.

I'm more than happy someone is trying speech in MMOGs. Speech means the typical player (me included) will listen to more more of the words before they get bored and just start hitting the words in [brackets], prior to going off to the kill the orange lizard mob at /loc 34632,376345 simply because allakazam tells me to. I would like to be aware of and feel involved in the story, but I aint going to wade through a novella in my chat window just to do so.

It might or might not work in this implementation, but hey even if not, you never know, other devs might watch, learn and improve on it (I know, I crack myself up).

"People will not assume that what they read on the internet is trustworthy or that it carries any particular ­assurance or accuracy" - Lord Leveson
"Hyperbole is a cancer" - Lakov Sanite
Evil Elvis
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Reply #19 on: April 03, 2004, 03:14:43 PM

Yes, AC had some one-time only quests, and a few quests where the first person to complete a quest got something unique/better.

Nexus armor was a one-per-server item.

Defeat of Bael'zharon was one time only, and gave 7 (or 11? Some low number) of unique (trophy) items per server.

First person to complete shendolain/fendolain/cunaulain quests received better items.

First person to aquire a virindi robe (forget it's exact name) on each server received a better version.

There may be a few more here or there, but that's most of them in AC.  They really don't do it any longer.  One big reason is from people cheating or hacking to be first.  Another reason was from people complaning that they never were able to experience the quests.

There's also the prestige for true adventurers who are the first ones to complete a quest or figure something out.  This is a big thing for questers, and isn't something that should be ignored.

AC has turned into a game where people don't explore or quest.  They hack apart the dat files to get clues, and check landblocks to see if something has been added or changed.  It would be a shame for any new mmorpg's not to learn from this.
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