DEVS: Don't waste time with voice acting.

[ChiefCurrahee]

VO doesn't equal immersion.
VO isn't content
VO doesn't mean 20xx.

VO is frosting on the cake. EXPENSIVE frosting.

Voices have to be recorded, edited, and synchronized with each CS, in four languages. Will the devs go the extra mile and create lip-sync for each CS effectively having to do each CS four times? NO. will people complain? YES!

I would rather see the money they earmarked for VO to go to some other aspect of the game. If they set aside.... a million for VO, how far would that $1,000,000 go if they spent it on content creation? Probably pretty far.

I'm not against VO in games. I'm just saying it's not a needed device to drive the plot further.

SE: Don't feel that you need to use VO to compete.

Write strong stories. Write engaging scenarios. Leave the VO to the most important plot points and don't over use it for every aspect of dialogue.



@ Sarchy_Warchy

maturity nor age have anything to do with it. I'm almost positive I have both on you.
Impatience; maybe you go me there. However, if you are in a CS for the 10th time, What does having VO bring to the table that text doesn't. Chances are you'll skip the CS on your 2nd or 3rd play through.

What I really wanted to say in my original post, was this: SE please don't look toward SWTOR and implement VO in a similar fashion. Your hard work and money will go to waste. Look to your FF franchise and only do VO work for the main story.
If CS are used during group play, like leading into a boss battle please don't make them long and complex. Get us pumped, but get us to the grp content quickly. Leave the lengthy epic CS for after the boss battle, between events or leading into larger events. Leave them for solo type game play. So that we may enjoy the story you've created and not feel rushed due to four to seven other players chomping at the bit to see some action.

[Mushy]

Any time it goes into that mode of ingame cutscene(which is amazing.) all of those moments should be voice acted. The visual quality and localization is great in this game. We just need voice acting, in those moments - please PLEASE!

[SnickleWhiskers]

I just came in here to up my post count this time because I have no clue what's even going on in this thread anymore.

[Seif]

What an important op ruined by selfish and childish name calling. I hope at least something about the topic goes through to devs because at least for me the existence of voice acting has ruined many perfectly good games.

FFX, MGS, Resident Evils, Mass Effect, Every Tales of game, eternal sonata, lylat wars and so on.

DO A BARREL ROLL!

[Jennestia]

What an important op ruined by selfish and childish name calling. I hope at least something about the topic goes through to devs because at least for me the existence of voice acting has ruined many perfectly good games.

FFX, MGS, Resident Evils, Mass Effect, Every Tales of game, eternal sonata, lylat wars and so on.

DO A BARREL ROLL!

I don't know, MGS and Trusty Bell had good voice work given the story, I never played the english versions of them though, but if I recall David Hayter I believe his name was did Snake's voice which couldn't have been all that bad.

[SnickleWhiskers]

David Hayter.

Did an amazing job.

DO A BARREL ROLL!

USE THE BRAKES!

[syntaxlies]

What an important op ruined by selfish and childish name calling. I hope at least something about the topic goes through to devs because at least for me the existence of voice acting has ruined many perfectly good games.

FFX, MGS, Resident Evils, Mass Effect, Every Tales of game, eternal sonata, lylat wars and so on.

DO A BARREL ROLL!

wouldnt it be more fair to just ask for the voice acting to be able to be toggled of that way people who lie it can still here it?

[Zanfire]

im sure they will only do the main story CSs....but why argue over it...ask for the option to turn it off (or use the mute if its that bad)

i dont understand why you would rather take it away from people, instead of asking for an option that would make both sides happy.

seriously....some people on these forums seem crazy.

[Alhanelem]

OP: How does voice acting waste any of the developer's time? It's not like the developers themselves are doing the voice acting... They hire other people to do it. Since the voice system already exists, all they have to do is swap the english voice files for the other language ones when that language is selected. Anybody could do that in about 5 minutes.

Maybe *you* don't care if the game has voice acting in other languages than your own, but the people who speak in those other languages might care.

"keep it only to the main storyline or keep it to a minimum." They're already doing that... It's only used in major cutcenes. It's not like they're making every NPC in the game talk- That's impossible to do as the hard disk space that would be required (especially with how much the average NPC has to say in this game) for just ONE language would be way too much.

I hope at least something about the topic goes through to devs because at least for me the existence of voice acting has ruined many perfectly good games.

Good voice acting has also greatly enhanced many games. The elder scrolls and dragon age games especially. NWN was pretty good too, more obscurely, FFCC Ring of Fates had really good voice acting (a bit obnoxious to the untrained ear, but appropriate for the style of the game and the characters). Yes, I know a few games have had voice acting that was done really badly (sometimes notoriously so, e.e. all your base are belong to us) but voice acting doesn't have to ruin a game.

And honestly, FFXIV's voice acting, where it does exist, is pretty good IMO.

[Vackashken]

And honestly, FFXIV's voice acting, where it does exist, is pretty good IMO.

Agreed. Rewatch the games intro. They did a superb job.