DEVS: Don't waste time with voice acting.

Like the title says, please, please please don't waste your time or resources by adding voice acting to the game.

It's such a gimick. I've played Starwars, and trust me people will skip over all your hard work and time just to get to the gameplay.

If you feel you must add VO to your game, keep it to the main story line only and to a minimum. Especially in scenarios when you are grouped up. Leave lenghty CS and VO to the solo experience. When we are grouped we are ready to roll, get us to the gameplay as quickly as possible.

I know some people will disagree with me. But I ask you this. Everytime you enter the Ifrit fight or the Darkhold, or Moogle King do you watch the CS at length? Everytime? Adding voice won't change that. You've seen/heard it once no need to see listen to it again.

Your concern is misplaced.

Adding resources into voice-acting does not immediately mean taking resources away from from somewhere else. Different people at Square Enix work on different things and so giving the audio-team work to do would not be making things any harder for say, the user interface team.

Financially, we're paying now, so there is an income stream.

And if you don't like the character voices, I see no reason why you wouldn't be able to turn them off in your audio configuration settings - in fact I think the option is already there.

I agree with no voice acting for random NPCs and lesser quests, just Main storyline they like already planned.

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Originally Posted by Catapult

Your concern is misplaced.

Adding resources into voice-acting does not immediately mean taking resources away from from somewhere else. Different people at Square Enix work on different things and so giving the audio-team work to do would not be making things any harder for say, the user interface team.

Financially, we're paying now, so there is an income stream.

And if you don't like the character voices, I see no reason why you wouldn't be able to turn them off in your audio configuration settings - in fact I think the option is already there.

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If you knew how much voice actors cost for QUALITY voice acting of any kind, and how much people expect...you'd understand the concern quite clearly.

Why do you think new gen games suffer in some depart? You don't have unlimited funds to go around to everything lol. This is why Skyrim is ugly as sin even on ultra, the design themselves are low quality because they spent a lot of money on other stuff.

Yes, I too dislike voice acting so please just don't even bother. I played other games so I know what this game needs and its not voice acting. I do things a certain way so obviously everyone else does, too. I don't care if you have the option to skip it - just really, please, don't add it.


srsly

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Originally Posted by Elexia

If you knew how much voice actors cost for QUALITY voice acting of any kind, and how much people expect...you'd understand the concern quite clearly.

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Do you know? If your going to use the comment to emply you do and he does not, as you did, you best explain it to A) to support your point. B) to prove your not just talking out your backside and misrepresenting facts about voice acting.

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Originally Posted by Elexia

If you knew how much voice actors cost for QUALITY voice acting of any kind, and how much people expect...you'd understand the concern quite clearly.

Why do you think new gen games suffer in some depart? You don't have unlimited funds to go around to everything lol. This is why Skyrim is ugly as sin even on ultra, the design themselves are low quality because they spent a lot of money on other stuff.

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Yes doesn't he know the already over used and terribly made landscaping 14 has doesn't need to take a hit?

I would like to see voice acting on cutscenes at least, not just sound effect and "AHHHH" "UHHHHH" "HIAAAAAA" *footsteps*

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Originally Posted by Coglin

Do you know? If your going to use the comment to emply you do and he does not, as you did, you best explain it to A) to support your point. B) to prove your not just talking out your backside and misrepresenting facts about voice acting.

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I do actually, it varies from company to company but if you're hiring people for long time work (Anime/Cartoon/MMORPG/Video Game) and not hiring small time people, you're going to be spending quite a few millions on VA alone if you not employing fresh out of school VAs or using internal VAs.

Even short time work (animated commercials) could be quite the commission. It's common knowledge anyone could obtain.

Fully voice acted cutscenes are a staple of the series now, they help tell the amazing story that they have painstakingly written.

I'm not saying they need to go out of their way to add voice acting to everything, but for what they have already planned, it would be appreciated.

It sounds to me that you just don't like Final Fantasy for the epic story and epic storytelling most of us really enjoy, that's fine, but don't ruin it for the rest of us.

:)

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Originally Posted by Elexia

I do actually, it varies from company to company but if you're hiring people for long time work (Anime/Cartoon/MMORPG/Video Game) and not hiring small time people, you're going to be spending quite a few millions on VA alone if you not employing fresh out of school VAs or using internal VAs.

Even short time work (animated commercials) could be quite the commission. It's common knowledge anyone could obtain.

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Alot of things are common knowledge anyone could obtain, but I asked you. So out of curiosity. What would be the average comission for say 10 different 2 minute cut scenes?

Yeah, it's not a waste of time but it could be costly which is why every company with MMOs that has voice acting they reuse samples over and over and not out of laziness.

I know on the Japanese side of things some of the top seiyuu make a good 7 million+ an episode for anime, it's not cheap to hire good voice acting -- This is why companies usually use people who are already on their payroll since they can't logically ask for more money to do the voice acting lol.

It does take resources to do this, just like it takes resources to produce music for your games.

I'd like as much voice acting as humanly possible. Just voicing my opinion. It would add more to the game. If it takes too much time ofcourse, don't do it, but if it takes too much time to do voice acting, then just cancel the game and start writing books SE.

I should add this:

FFXIV is a numbered Final Fantasy Title. It is not allowed to fail, as the v2.0 overhaul in development demonstrates. It will receive the funding it needs to cover all expenses deemed reasonable. If they are adding more voice-acting in v2.0, it will not come at the expense of the rest of the game - I trust Yoshi-P to have a grasp on what is and is not important in developing the feel of this game.

Wasn't the original intent that every important cutscene would have voice-overs? I remember it being one of the selling points when they announced the game.

At the very least they should use voice-overs for the main storylines. Not just a couple of the quests like it is now. I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed when they didn't do it for the Grand Company speeches.

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Originally Posted by Mug

Wasn't the original intent that every important cutscene would have voice-overs? I remember it being one of the selling points when they announced the game.

At the very least they should use voice-overs for the main storylines. Not just a couple of the quests like it is now. I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed when they didn't do it for the Grand Company speeches.

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I was disappointed to not hear the GC leaders too...and I remember them pushing the voice acting, which I've only seen like 2 or 3 cutscenes with anyway - one of them I think only had a couple of single word phrases and "Hmmm" or something...it's so insignificant I cannot even recall! :p

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Originally Posted by Babydoll

7 mil an episode?... I find that hard to believe...the Simpsons voice actors are apparently the highest paid in the world and make 400k per episode...

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Yen isn't exactly the same as USD.

I'm ok with partial voice acting for the most critical parts.

Most Hollywood movies are made for you to see it just once.
Of course, there are some people who gonna re-watch it many times or purchase disk to watch it later on. But in their view, they do their best and try to make it perfect for just "one time" that people will see it on the theater.

So, if they do the voice acting, and people at least just hear it once. Then it already worth their time!

(a few people spend a few hours to do the dub, but they got around 10k people watch over it for once. that is already worth it)

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Originally Posted by Elexia

I do actually, it varies from company to company but if you're hiring people for long time work (Anime/Cartoon/MMORPG/Video Game) and not hiring small time people, you're going to be spending quite a few millions on VA alone if you not employing fresh out of school VAs or using internal VAs.

Even short time work (animated commercials) could be quite the commission. It's common knowledge anyone could obtain.

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This is a joke right? I know a ton of the voice actors in Vancouver BC, and a few in LA (And what I mean this, is knowing there ph# emails and gone out for drinks with them). I've taken voice lesions from a few of them too, and I've voiced commercials. ADR pays the lest amount in Voice over's (Dubbing a show from Japanese in to English or another langue).

Now if we're talking about a animated show or movie with the talent of Bob Bergin, or Mark Hamill, then yes the cost goes up. But with other Voice actors like Michael Dangerfield, Kyle Herbert, Debbie Munro, ECT you still great voice over's at a lest of cost. Cost depending on how many lines they have to do, and at times how long there in the booth for.

So you're thought that adding Voice acting would cost millions is a joke by its self. Know what the hell you're talking about and about the industry before you go to type something again.

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Originally Posted by Jennestia

I know on the Japanese side of things some of the top seiyuu make a good 7 million+ an episode for anime, it's not cheap to hire good voice acting --

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Jennestia is right, that some Voice actors aren't cheap, but as I said before you can still get great voice actors with out having to pay for the names.

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Originally Posted by SniperRifle

I'd like as much voice acting as humanly possible. Just voicing my opinion. It would add more to the game. If it takes too much time ofcourse, don't do it, but if it takes too much time to do voice acting, then just cancel the game and start writing books SE.

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I fully agree with Sniper. Adding Voice overs to the game would add so much to it. I HATE having to read the crap storm there is for the main store lines, and the side storie lines. If I wanted to read a novel, I would go to my book shelf. Hearing a voice would add so much, then just having to read and seeing a mouth flaping.

Elexia was actually right -- It would cost millions because Yoshida stated they'll have VOs for all supported languages, and hiring talent for each localization isn't cheap -- Hiring someone who is multilingual is also pretty expensive. Considering we're talking about a Japanese developed game, it was pretty obvious she was referring to the cost in yen (SE is Japanese based.)

The cheapest I've seen top talent commissioned for in game/anime production was about ~$110k USD, which is already fairly cheap in regards to basically paying for name, given how long animes can become (how many episodes per seasons, if they're a major or minor role, etc.) Normally with video games though, they use in-house talent, which is cheaper than hiring actors (say, Samuel L Jackson) to do voice overs. I've even done VO work before joining in game development, I wouldn't be paid near as much as a hollywood actor would be paid, the same is true in Japan, an Idol/Popular Seiyuu/Actor/etc tend to be the most paid to do VO work.

i love voice acted cutcenes, i don't like to reed 3 pages to do a quest so i skip it, if you don't like it fine, but some of us do

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Originally Posted by Katt

Now if we're talking about a animated show or movie with the talent of Mark Hamill, then yes the cost goes up.

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You had me till you got to this part........then ya lost me.

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Originally Posted by Catapult

Your concern is misplaced.

Adding resources into voice-acting does not immediately mean taking resources away from from somewhere else. Different people at Square Enix work on different things and so giving the audio-team work to do would not be making things any harder for say, the user interface team.

Financially, we're paying now, so there is an income stream.

And if you don't like the character voices, I see no reason why you wouldn't be able to turn them off in your audio configuration settings - in fact I think the option is already there.

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^ pretty much, this

I think they are referring more towards the actual gameplay...

tired of hearing the same "ow", "ough", "Hahahahh wooooo", etc.

I hope they also add more than 3 voices per character.

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Originally Posted by Elexia

I do actually, it varies from company to company but if you're hiring people for long time work (Anime/Cartoon/MMORPG/Video Game) and not hiring small time people, you're going to be spending quite a few millions on VA alone if you not employing fresh out of school VAs or using internal VAs.

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Square Enix does do alot of Anime work as well, I'm sure that finding the VA's on payroll is a issue, more or less the time it takes to do it properly.

I disagree, I think there should be just as much voice acting as FFXIII. It really adds to the experience.

If they add voices in 4 different languages an option to choose your voice language separate from your game language is a MUST.

Actually, I would love the option to enable the Japanese voices (with the subtitles still in english of course)

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Originally Posted by Coglin

You had me till you got to this part........then ya lost me.

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He's mostly knowen for the voice as the voice as the Joker for the Batman animated cartoon, and the movies

I am for voice acting for sure as long as it is talented. Talent doesn't always means you have to pay through the nose in this regard.

Voice acting in japanese with english subtitles please and don't forget the monsters :D
Spriggan: konoyaro!

As a player, I think FFXIV has style in spades already with regards to their cutscenes. I do not think there really needs to be another layer of polish on an already excellent level of quality for the cutscenes. If they are going to put voice-acting in for the cutscenes, why not just use voice-acting for the REALLY BIG ones? Examples like Futures Perfect (lvl 46 main-quest for those readers that aren't there yet) are the kind of plot-points where it would pay off best, if it's to go in at all, to put that extra razzmatazz in there to wow people. Properly placed and well executed voice acting in major cutscenes can let you skimp on it in the lesser ones while co-opting the player's imagination to fill in the voices while reading the dialogue.

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Originally Posted by Jashynvald

As a player, I think FFXIV has style in spades already with regards to their cutscenes.

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Is monotonous, overly wordy, stilted/wooden writing and delivery considered stylish? If thats the case it does indeed deliver in spades...

Primary cutscene voice acting, I can get behind.

Bioware-esque VOICE ACT EVERYTHING however? I'd rather not. Setting aside cost issues, it also reduces the flexibility available. If everything has to be voice acted, it substantially reduces the availability of enormous dialogue trees, chains and options and so forth.

So.. yeah, I'd vote nay on full voice. Besides, that isn't a positive unless the voice actors are really good. Trapped in a game with inescapable dodgy voicing? Ew.

I atleast want voice acting for the cutescenes.

i agree with not making all VO but i think the main stories would be awesome with VO fully. it's the only parts anyone usually reads and watches. it's the parts that are usually more then just a few npc bodies talking.it's the rpg story part of the mmo. at least in ffxi and ffxiv.

other then that op is correct i don't read or listen to any of the VO in swtor. i skip it all. fact i started skiping the main story too cause i just not attached to the game it's just something i'm playing while i wait for a mmo i'm excited about to launch... and ffxiv to hit 2.0. a fetch quest is a fetch quest a kill quest is a kill quest, i don't want to slow down my leveling and progress to know why i'm killing it. in a rpg this is all welcome, i loooooove fallout3 and NV ...i watch and read every little word in that game, but it's offline.

ffxi did it perfect, they seperate the grind with the story. i can grind all day long without ruining my story. then when i want to ..i can do my story and read it all and enjoy it. not seperating it is the main issue i guess to me lol. but the VO comes hand to hand with this. add VO to stuff that doesn't belong to the grind. after all you skip those stupid boxes in wow and other clones then why would you want to watch someone talk them out to you with a simple(but best done in mmo) npc talking to each other.

though on a last note ...this game already failed once. SE is trying to make a success out of it. not go bankrupt.. i doubt they would even consider paying to VO a game already in a middle of a failure. ...maybe there next final fantasy mmo can the one that gets VO's and feels like a fully live rpg again.

Voice Acting in battles, please. everytime we use a WS/Spell ^^

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Originally Posted by Felis

Voice Acting in battles, please. everytime we use a WS/Spell ^^

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this would be awesome if we can record our own voices and say what we want to each move and spell. always thought this could be fun in a fighter game like street fighter too. probably take alot of resources to add something like that though and it don't really add or change the game play much content wise. but still would be funny.

Main scenario cutscenes should be voiceacted, while NPCs should remain silent, just like in any of the recent numbered FF titles.

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Originally Posted by Yumi_Hibiki

If they add voices in 4 different languages an option to choose your voice language separate from your game language is a MUST.

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Agreed. I can see hordes of people switching audio to JP... just because lol
Though the English voiceacting I saw so far was much better than most of English anime dubs I heard.