Why change the battle voices, and most of all, without any sort of preview function?

[hqdm]

Character voice is a large part of your identity or customization and this update forced a new one that isn't inline with the previous. My lala voice 1 I've used forever has mostly strong WAH, HYAA,YAHH sounds, but now it's interspersed with completely different battle voices that sound like someone ran a lowpass filter over a chihuahua. Squeaky muted yelps that're out of tone with the rest of her voice. So much so I want to fantasia, but there's no preview for the new battle voices, so there's no way to tell if whatever I change into is going to be equally terrible or not. Why "fix" something that doesn't need fixing? It's unfortunate this update was forced on us, but furthermore unacceptable that there's no way to preview the changes via fantasia/char creation.

[MsQi]

There was another topic on this. I haven't heard anything new myself.

EDIT:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...Thoughts/page9

[BlitzAceRush]

I got lucky, I actually like the new grunts more than the actual voice I chose. It feels like they wanted to update the system, couldn't get all the voice cast back as some of them would be from ARR days which they totally swapped out when HW came, but still wanted to do it anyway.
It feels like a band aid fix till they fully re-record them all, which I assume they would whenever they commit to the character customisation overhaul Yoshi talked about a ways back.

[Canadane]

Some of the voices date back to 1.0 actually.
Back when every race had 3 options, some shared with other races.

[dinnertime]

While I agree they shouldn't have changed the voices without constent, I welcome the change regardless. I like my character's voice but the constant yelling of "YAHHH" can get old. Same with my alts. The new soft and low grunting they added was a good and pretty realistic addition to them.

Sorry for the others that got a completely different voice on theirs, assuming they're not tone deaf.

[Gemina]

It is unfortunate if players don't like their updated battle voices, but they don't need our consent for such changes. However, it seems to have slipped the minds of several that we could never test out how our voices sound in battle in the first place. Yet, I get the impression from some posters that they somehow carefully made this selection for their character during the customization process. If you've simply grown accustomed to your character's voice and dislike change, then that's fine. That process will repeat itself. Having the additional variety in battle sounds isn't a bad thing in my book.

[hqdm]

It not a matter of needing player consent to update, that's silly. But because it is an attribute you cannot change without paying money (fantasia), and now it is changed forcefully without reversal. I don't know what else can be comparable. Maybe one day login and they've removed your favorite hairstyle (if hairstyle could not be changed for gil). Fully within their purview but leaves a poor taste. Maybe not a bad thing for you, but the new lala yelps are quite terrible. In the past, all previewable sounds conformed across the character, so perhaps not needed as uniformity existed (at least for lala, I don't know other race). The battle voices were the same as the emote ones. But forceful update that makes you sound like 3 different people rolled into one just feels cheap and unnecessary, especially when it is considered that the new ones are in a different tone entirely. The "character" is lost. I think variety would be okay if it was optional and not forced.

[Doozer]

I haven't even noticed any new sounds coming from my character.

[dinnertime]

Well not consent, that's the wrong word. They could've warned people beforehand, it just came out of nowhere. Yes I know, they can do whatever they want with the game, change things that didn't need "fixing" for people either to accept or complain.
Is it unfair? Sure, and it's fine to hate them, but I actually like the changes myself. There should be a way to preview the battle grunting in the character creation itself though, I agree.

[Hasrat]

You're calling it a fix that doesn't need fixing. It's not trying to fix anything. It's simply adding. And it'd be a silly argument to try and say they shouldn't ever add anything to the game.

Previews would be nice, sure. But, advance warning, on this particular subject, what would it accomplish? There's no way they would consider offering free fantasias or other compensation if players didn't like the applied changes, considering how minor the battle voice is. Being told ahead of time would not have changed the outcome for you at all.