Voiceovers are nice and all but it's a novelty that is extremely expensive and likely will only be used once or twice for a given encounter by most people. If there are voiceovers better good voice actors can add a lot to the world. So if there were to be voice overs I would take text over hammed up or cheesy acting.
All that said, there won't be a great deal of it in Pantheon most likely. They've touched on it in streams a bit. And while they've said there may be some to a very limited extent, it won't be anything near fully voiced. I'm sure we'd all love to see voiced content, but it's an unrealistic goal for the moment given the ammount it would probably cost to add into an already limited development budget.
I think voiceovers are good, but you almost don't notice them these days if they are good and only notice them if they are bad. Perhaps not cost effective.
What I have liked in various MMOs is when the NPC has a few short phrases they say when you first start talking that gives you a flavour and feel for them, but doesn't require the whole of the quest text (or whatever) to be expensively recorded (especially when adding new stuff later).
As an aspiring voice actor, I would LOVE to do TONS of work on this game... I can do LOTS of impressions and I make stuff up as well... I would do it for a reasonable price as well..... Brad.....Aradune.... email me and we could discuss this at length.. I feel that if implemented properly that there could be another level of immersion installed by this and lets face it, THAT is what we want. I dont want every NPC to talk, and the ones that do to have a simple repeated dialog that gets annoying and monotonous. Trainers, quest givers.... especially those hidden and found ones, epic quests and bar keeps or bards within the ale house singing... because it makes sense... Vigilantee13@yahoo.com Brad... lets DOOOOO THIS!
Kipling said:Voiceover's for big quests or events is nice but in genrally text is fine. Seen as it seems that there will only be a few quests in Pantheon but they will be epic in nature it would be nice for these to be voiced though I'm not fussed either way.
That's really a good use for it honestly. If voices stay on the rare side you can use it to drum up tension. Keep it like that so when your group stumbles into something and they hear some loud echoing voice, you know something big is about to go down.
Voice overs and cut-scenes are very expensive...for a cut-scene of a minute and a half (looked this up) it costs $50,000. Remember that we aren't affiliated with a money bucks company like Blizzard, Activision or Electronic Arts. The most important things should be getting this game developped from the ground up first.
If used sparingly voice overs are fine but, I've had some bad experiences.
Most of us have likely played SWToR. Voice overs are way over done. They were fine for the first week or so of playing but it is soo slow to listen to. It gets old fast. After awhile I couldn't space bar through them fast enough.
Also, Gary Gygax, RIP...I have much respect for the man for all his accomplishments and how influential he was but, if you are going to get someone to do a voice over make sure their voice is right for the part. Gary's voice over in Delaras Tomb in DDO was horrible. I'm not one who usually notices if something is immersion breaking...it's just a game...but man his voice over narration really ruined the ambiance of the zone and broke immersion.
This has been discussed before:
Kilsin said: We have no plans for voice acting, we would rather spend time and energy on systems and mechanics, lore and graphics, animations and art etc. to immerse you in than spend it on voice acting, so unless something dramatically changes during development, it is unlikely you will see any voice acting in Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. :)
from this thread: https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/3685/voice-acting-in-pantheon
I am in agreememt with almost everyone else here. While voice acting can add a bit of flavor, it is about number 3,487 on my list of things I want from this game. If someone offers VR $50 million in investment funding, then I'd say go ahead. . . otherwise there are sooo many more things that much more important.
Bad voice acting is nothing but annoying. If the voice actors weren't over-acting 99% of the time, perhaps it wouldn't be so bad. Those "in-character" voices aren't nearly as awesome as perhaps the performer things they are. Crappy accents, fake crying, over-acted emotes...
Even top-notch voice actors get annoying if you hear the same text repeatedly. Hailing 6 different merchants and having them all greet you with the same voice... Long-winded monologues, when you've already read the text and just want to get on with it...
Unless Brad happens to be related to Clive Owen, Judy Dench or Morgan Freeman and is getting the family and friends discount, I'd say leave out voice acting.
philo said:If used sparingly voice overs are fine but, I've had some bad experiences.
Most of us have likely played SWToR. Voice overs are way over done. They were fine for the first week or so of playing but it is soo slow to listen to. It gets old fast. After awhile I couldn't space bar through them fast enough.
Also, Gary Gygax, RIP...I have much respect for the man for all his accomplishments and how influential he was but, if you are going to get someone to do a voice over make sure their voice is right for the part. Gary's voice over in Delaras Tomb in DDO was horrible. I'm not one who usually notices if something is immersion breaking...it's just a game...but man his voice over narration really ruined the ambiance of the zone and broke immersion.
This has been discussed before:
Kilsin said: We have no plans for voice acting, we would rather spend time and energy on systems and mechanics, lore and graphics, animations and art etc. to immerse you in than spend it on voice acting, so unless something dramatically changes during development, it is unlikely you will see any voice acting in Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. :)
from this thread: https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/3685/voice-acting-in-pantheon
Thank you, Philo!
Please continue the discussion in the already existing thread folks, I will go ahead and close this one now. :)