voice acting = sells boxes = makes money, maybe not to FF purist, but for the majority or people.
Yeah that's understandable, but it doesn't justify that the lack of content would be based on voice acting lol. I think voice acting would be great, even if it was mostly the main story and specific scenes. Especially since we only go through these missions once, unlike swtor.
I honestly think that since subs have started, Lindblum hasn't had that big of a hit. There are a ton of people in Ul'dah doing stuff, and everywhere's else. It'll take time to get that money back, but I don't think voice acting would be detrimental to content lol
Voice acting doesn't make an MMO. You'll find this to be the case in the coming months with SWTOR crashes and burns like every single other 'WoW killer' before it.
Lets see...EQ2, Age of Conan, Rift, Aion, the list goes on and on.
At the end of the day, the voice acting and the graphics will get players, but it's gameplay that will keep the players. 100 million spend on voice acting can be spent far more wisely on other things that will make the game more fun.
I remember buying DRIVER 2 many moons ago that mentions on foot missions, yet I bet no one bought the game because of that but rather because DRIVER 1 was so amazing they were craving a Driver 2. The back of the box/case is almost always just listing features, not the selling point.
I agree though, no one buys a video game for voice acting, they buy a video game for gameplay. Why get a video game when you can buy a DVD/Netflix and have all the voice acting you want for 70-200+ minutes?
Definitely. Not just any run on the mill quest cs though. Those that only cut to the character saying a few lines and send you off your way can stay text. More elaborate CS from quest, GC, and main storyline will definitely have a nice touch with VA's. I feel more attached to characters with matching voices :3
Yup and in SWTOR's case, the gameplay is really fun. It's funny to go into a cutscene and listen to your friends responses if they get the highest roll of the dice. I doubt he's played swtor to begin with.
I don't like reading long walls of text, and when an NPC reads it out for me.. it just makes everything better. You can still read it if you don't want to hear it...
First Case Scenario:
Don't have Voice Acting, keep 5'000 players playing your game because they're having fun.
Second Case Scenario:
Have Voice Acting, get 40'000 players and keep 5'000 because the other 35'000 grew boring of the game.
Believe me, Voice Acting Gets the people, but what you're aiming for at the first time is to actually do something that Keeps the people playing the game. Once you get that you can make Voice Acting =)
SWTOR has done a good job on balancing these two. I'm not playing though because trying it is not my MMO, but that's really another story.
why are you assuming that voice acting mean they wont be able to add anything else to the game?
3rd case
have voice acting people enjoy the cut scene inbetween enjoying all the content that will be available at relaunch.
why would you add the VA after people did the quest?
How can it be a promo push to say "hey, look, we're doing the same thing the competition is doing!"?
They need to advertise what makes the game unique. No one's going to care how much you clone something when the original is readily available. You need to show off why you're different and better.
No, no, no!
In the game development Voice Acting should be something to do at last, checking your budget and things, but mainly focusing on the gameplay.
I'm not saying that Voice Acting will not give the game anything, I'm just saying to focus on the mechanics of the game, and then think about VA, if there's place for it and if the budget can permit it.
I'd like to play a game that's both Fun and with an entertaining VA, but I can't play a game which is very good at VA but sucks on gameplay.
Got my point? I would focus on something that keeps the players first, rather than on something that gets the players. More like building a house starting from the structure and not from the furniture.
I think a misconception we have, myself included, is we'd like to think we know SE work with their budget and how the XIV team work. I would think this isn't a one man show so we shouldn't go with the logic if X time goes into VA's that means X time is taken away from game development when the opposite is probably true. The sound team probably needs something to do with the allowed budget they have currently. Would it be better if the sound team get moved to another game and they use that budget to hire new intern for coffees? :P Of course this is still an assumption of mine as well.
Point is we do not know how their budget work nor should we want to know. If they plan on adding it we should give them the benefit of the doubt that their budget meets what it requires. Let's not jump to the conclusion that adding X feature will have detriment to Y feature. Until there is absolute proof at least :P
Of course SWTOR/Skyrim style of VA's is a bit too excessive, imo, and I don't think they're doing that anyways. They mentioned that in "important" events/cs VA's should be there.
Hi All,
There are definitely pros and cons to all sides presented in this thread.
On a high level, I would disagree that the current voice acting was great (for Gridania's opening movie - the English Dub voice acting was laughable and amateurish at best). :(
Bad or mediocre Voice Acting can ruin an otherwise great moment that has spectacular Camera Work and key Plot / Story Points. (e.g., English Dub of Vanille in Final Fantasy XIII (yikes!).)
But spectacular Voice Acting can really elevate major story elements and add gravitas and emotional attachment when done right (see, Nolan North (Nathan Drake (UNCHARTED 2, 3), Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf (THE LORD OF THE RINGS (Movies)).
Personally, I'd love to see an Audio Language Option like with Anime (Original Japanese with English Subtitles, or English Dub).
Another key point people bring up is that "yes" currently, the walls of text on some of these quests are pushing some players to just hit "X / Enter" and skip through all of it as fast as possible... that's another problem.
If Square took the time to create a Cinematic Camera System (driven programmatically), or just took the time to add custom Cameras to key Quests, that would probably add to the interest level and call attention to the fact that there's more going on that might warrant you (the player) to not just hit "X" and skip everything.
I love RPGs and enjoy good stories, and good writing, but even for me, currently most quests feel more like tasks and FedEx / Fetch Quests and it makes me inadvertently want to just mash the Enter key to skip through at times.
I think for a new player (for 2.0 and PS3 Launch), by making sure there are enough elements to entice and hold a player's attention, it could establish a better "culture" and appreciation of the importance of Quests and Sub-Missions. This can be done with things suggested in this thread like great custom Cameras, custom Music, and full, *great quality* Voice Acting.
If a new player starting the game encountered their Main Missions and even starter Quests around Gridania, LL, and Uldah to be full of interesting writing, story elements, good camera work and great voice acting, I think it would certainly be a benefit to the game experience overall.
As to whether all that work and money (affecting the overall budget) would be better spent elsewhere is something that can be argued forever. There will always be people who enjoy gameplay more than anything and could care less about Story and Cutscenes (I know people who skip every single Cutscene in *any* game they play). And there will always be people who care deeply about the Story and want to bask and enjoy well made Cinematics in their RPGs and MMORPGs.
Is full voice acting a big seller for a video game? Idk. And I don't think I could find a reliable source to say it is.
Would someone rather play a full voice acting game over one without, if the two games were equal in every other aspect? Yes.
Game needs voice acting. It hurts no one. reading does hurt a lot of people. because no one reads it. More people wil listen to the story then read.
Voices yes please
PLEASE HAVE VOICE ACTING ON MAJOR QUESTS!
The opening Cutscene was the shit, hearing everyone talk, it felt really lively. this last year has been nothing but blah blah blah wall O' text.
Voice acting... Yes, please. If people want to skip it after the first time that's their decision but I know I would love to say "Hold on I'm in a bad ass cutscene you just skipped."
I like voice acting in storyline type events but probably don't care for it for everything.
Reading off the wall-o-text for every little sidequest would make me unhappy...
Voice acting for main story quests would be nice. It is completely un-necessary for side quests and everything else though. Kind of how it looks like they were trying to do from the get go, then seemingly gave up on it....
You bring up a good point. Voice acted dialogue does not equal lengthy cutscenes. I am in favor of lengthy cutscenes, and social lengthy cutscenes like in SWTOR, but Blizzard takes a different approach, making voice acting part of the gameplay experience while still giving you freedom of movement. Square-Enix can choose from among the different approaches, but they need to add more voice acting regardless of which path they choose.
So far as you are concerned music is also a waste of resources, yet if the game was sold to you without any sound at all wouldn't you feel like it wasn't worth the purchase price?
It's true, there is a surprising emotional investment in the quests and decisions in SWTOR because of the voice acting. I think it's a very surprising and welcome development to MMO gaming, and one that shouldn't be left out of FFXIV's future.
The only way out of this hole is for SE to open up the wallet. They ****ed themselves hard already by years of incompetence and now they're paying for it quite literally. And if they want the kind of money this business can provide, they're going to have to pay a lot more than they already have.
That's right, it is starting to become a standard. Does anyone think Blizzard's next game is simply going to throw around the quest text boxes of World of Warcraft? I don't think so. FFXIV is quickly aging in a changing field of other games. It is only going to seem even more dated at the 2.0 relaunch. It's not going to be good enough to be the game it should have been in 2010 once 2013 hits.
The voice talent procured for FFXIV is outstanding though.
If you want raids, mega monsters, and stuff that is hard you should want voice acting. Because attracting the kind of masses of people that will pay subscriptions to FFXIV ensures a big, quality dev team that can build the kind of content you want. I know it may seem counter-intuitive, but if what you want is a small, sh*tty team that can barely push out 2 level 50 dungeons a year (does that seem familiar to anyone? lol) then you are on the right track by not requesting the kind of production value brought to the table by voice acting.
What a great point. The pirate speak in this game is so amazing. (thanks fernehalwes & crew again). To hear it fully voiced would be a treat unlike any other.
Off-topic, this is a really cool suggestion buried in your post. Imagine if you could select a "voice" from among several auto-translate voices, to be displayed to Japanese, French, and German players when you auto-translated in voice chat. Or imagine if you doing a mission in La Noscea, and heard your French Miqo'te teammate say in a French Accent, "Attack this one first!". Would be very cool. Needs it's own discussion thread really.
Renshi you are misbehaving! You know the dev team needs to focus on making a great game and voice acting BOTH at the same time. Also, I did play Xenoblade (still playing). What did the old gem crafting man say in the Japanese version? :O
Actually they can funnel money from other completed projects into FFXIV, which is what they have been and will continue to be doing. They have a large war chest and it's time it was put to good use. They can't expect millions of copies of a game to be sold if they put something out through text boxes. Would FFXIII have sold so many copies if it was text-based? Yeah right. Also don't forget FFXIV did turn revenue, $40 million already not counting whatever hundred thousand they made this month off of people like you. lol
I dunno if an old man going like "HARMMMMNNNN!!" is Voice Acting, but still... It makes me laugh each time I hear it =D
Lemme check if I can find a link, I'll link it in this post...
I'm uploading it rite now, hold your seat tight =)
That's right, they're just being creative. I think it's really hilarious. They succeeded in creating a really great atmosphere of the pirates and what they care about. You don't see it everywhere, for instance in the regality of the Gridanian dialogue. That should clue you in to their level of talent, which is arguably the best in the field right now.
Great post kiara, especially about the camera angles and ideas for making voice acting more accessible to everyone. The dev team should take notice.
It's important to distinguish good voice talent and good voice directing/work from voice actors you like. For instance, Papalymo's voice is very high pitched, British, and comical-sounding, but it's not amateurish. The voice recordings are fully inflected and consistent, which is an indication of solid voice directing and a solid performance by solid talent. Just because you don't like the sound of it doesn't make it bad, it just means you don't like it. You have to learn to see what's there. I appreciate all of the voice acting in FFXIV because I'm not so hung up on likes and dislikes. To be sure, there is such a thing as amateurish voice recordings. If you listen to WoW's voice acting, most of the time it sounds like a random member of the dev team recording an on-the-fly voice over, not the work of professionals that is well executed. So there is a difference, but I challenge you to point out voice work in FFXIV that is truly amateurish or bad on a technical level.
Haha, I love the simplicity of your post.
You don't give enough credit to the talent that has been lined up for this game. You should visit the localization forum and take a look around. I'd like to share this post with you that clears up some misconceptions about the localization of FFXIV.
Lamar Burton imo.
Ok, here you go!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxPk1Srm1Bw
I dont care about voice acting in a MMORPG. I learned reading in school.
All the cries for voice "acting," so frequent nowadays, seem to me to be pure and unabated SW;tOR envy. However, I find the voice acting in that game to be mostly dreadful... almost embarrassing at moments. But even when it's done well, for this sort of game, voice acting is basically fluff. Let's stick to the essentials and don't burden my HDD with unnecessary material, especially if the astronomical amount of time and resources needed to deploy it consumes prime (and badly needed) budget and timeline assets.
I find the type of live interaction SE has decided to pursue, with GMs often impersonating NPCs, much more innovative, unique and groundbreaking than the stale mimicry that passes for acting in games these days. And yes, I'm including in this assessment some of the familiar voices we luckily hear infrequently in American localizations of this and other FF games.
R
Great example, much like Fus Ro Dah started its own meme.
People can google image "Time is money friend!" and get a picture of a Troll from WoW, or even "For the Horde!". Who hasn't heard that before?
It's something so simple and it goes light years further.
Check out all the TOR envy up in my post.:confused: