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Do you want full voice acting? Ideas in here! (please read devs as well)

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
I'm not really too gung ho on voice acting myself, but a lot of people seem to want this, so...

Cryptic can't pay for voice acting, or they can but don't see a good return on investment. I agree that they have much higher priorities.

Now, lets kill a few birds with one stone. The community wants voice acting, therefore I say let the community provide the voice acting for Cryptic. Trekkies make their own fan espisodes after all, so its not as if they aren't up for it.

Basically, somone in Cryptic or in high standing on the forums would need to coordinate things. People interest in lending their voices would be given lines to read, and assigned parts based on how they did those lines. Depending on the legality, Cryptic could make this official, semi-official, or just provide the basic tools and say "go ahead with it"

As far as killing birds, this gets voice acting into the game, is pretty close to free for Cryptic, and most important of all creates a massive amount of community involvement that benefits everyone involved.

Of course, there are little details like what happens when Cryptic changes someone's dialog and the lines need to be rerecorded (probably some kind of version number for each dialog part needs to be added and the voice acting only plays if the version numbers match), but this thread isn't here to flesh out every minor detail as much as it is to gauge interest in the idea.

So, what do you guys (and devs) think?
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    I'd rather see professional voice actors. I'm a VOA myself, but I've never had any formal training. Work in online projects doesn't count in my book. Your average Joe isn't going to be able to deliver any truly-convincing voice work to make adding VOs worth it. If we're going to get VOs, I'd rather wait until the team had the time and resources to do it right - that being with a professional group of voice actors providing the voices.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    I'd rather see professional voice actors. I'm a VOA myself, but I've never had any formal training. Work in online projects doesn't count in my book. Your average Joe isn't going to be able to deliver any truly-convincing voice work to make adding VOs worth it. If we're going to get VOs, I'd rather wait until the team had the time and resources to do it right - that being with a professional group of VAOs providing the voices.

    I don't think that they're ever going to do full VOs on there own. As far as volunteer VOs go, I've heard some really bad ones, and some really good ones. BTRL (freespace 2 mod) has amazing voice acting, and the voice acting for Star Control 2 (3D0) was done by the devs!

    Now, with any luck you get someone with some discretion to manage the project, but worst case the VOs would be optional. We don't really lose anything here.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    I think voice acting is critical to this game's future. It's not even the fact that SWTOR will be filled with it, it is more that Star Trek as a license demands it. We've experienced it mostly through the TV series, and some with books. It was extremely difficult to find that blank moving face in front of you each time you get a mission or your bridge officers message you. I see they are putting it in for bridge officers, but they really need voice acting from former ST and new faces.

    Again, Cryptic feels like they can make this game all alone, and it is killing them and the game itself. They must reach out to the greater ST community and tap into people like Leeta and other former actors to really make this game shine.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    I'd rather see professional voice actors.....

    I tend to agree.

    "Star" actors are not 'required' either in my eyes and can actually hinder the moment sometimes
    ( I feel this way about Quinto in the tutorial...boring monotone, just doesn't "catch" you in the very first part of the game experience ...he's a screen actor, not a voiceover actor.)
    ( on the flip side, Patrick Stewart and Mark Hammel are also' trained' as great voice actors as well as being screen actors)

    'professional voice actors' can make the game Great, and immersive as hell.

    I think using 'untrained' voice actors would be a mistake.... there is an "Art" to it, where some excel and others flop...

    you need to have complete control of your voice, because that is ALL you have to make the character work..... there is no "look" to these actors...audio is the only tool they have.

    :cool:
    .
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    hurleybird wrote: »
    I'm not really too gung ho on voice acting myself, but a lot of people seem to want this, so...

    Cryptic can't pay for voice acting, or they can but don't see a good return on investment. I agree that they have much higher priorities.

    Now, lets kill a few birds with one stone. The community wants voice acting, therefore I say let the community provide the voice acting for Cryptic. Trekkies make their own fan espisodes after all, so its not as if they aren't up for it.

    Basically, somone in Cryptic or in high standing on the forums would need to coordinate things. People interest in lending their voices would be given lines to read, and assigned parts based on how they did those lines. Depending on the legality, Cryptic could make this official, semi-official, or just provide the basic tools and say "go ahead with it"

    As far as killing birds, this gets voice acting into the game, is pretty close to free for Cryptic, and most important of all creates a massive amount of community involvement that benefits everyone involved.

    Of course, there are little details like what happens when Cryptic changes someone's dialog and the lines need to be rerecorded (probably some kind of version number for each dialog part needs to be added and the voice acting only plays if the version numbers match), but this thread isn't here to flesh out every minor detail as much as it is to gauge interest in the idea.

    So, what do you guys (and devs) think?

    I seriously doubt it will happen. This concept was already tried back in 2002 with Earth and Beyond. The problem with it was every time the devs wanted to edit or change something in the quests story line they had to have the voice actor make new recordings and or edit others. In the end they cut the voice acting out in favor of text. The voice acting that Leonard Nimoy does is much more realistic. You don't have to change or edit any of it for a sector. The full voice acting that Bioware is trying to revive is probably not going to work unless they want to constantly waste time recording and forking over money.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    i rather see they use money and time on developing story line then paying some actors for some voice, they could actually make some Voicework cutsceenes but full voice games are just bad , it takes away from the immersion esepcially if you have to set a voice to your own character...
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    hurleybird wrote: »
    I don't think that they're ever going to do full VOs on there own. As far as volunteer VOs go, I've heard some really bad ones, and some really good ones. BTRL (freespace 2 mod) has amazing voice acting, and the voice acting for Star Control 2 (3D0) was done by the devs!

    Now, with any luck you get someone with some discretion to manage the project, but worst case the VOs would be optional. We don't really lose anything here.

    Dude the guy doing the voice acting on Freespace 2 mod is terrible. You can tell he is about 18 years old with his whiny voice. Sounds nothing like a seasoned Admiral/General. Take it from someone who was in the service.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    I seriously doubt it will happen. This concept was already tried back in 2002 with Earth and Beyond. The problem with it was every time the devs wanted to edit or change something in the quests story line they had to have the voice actor make new recordings and or edit others. In the end they cut the voice acting out in favor of text. The voice acting that Leonard Nimoy does is much more realistic. You don't have to change or edit any of it for a sector. The full voice acting that Bioware is trying to revive is probably not going to work unless they want to constantly waste time recording and forking over money.

    TOR has a team capable of doing this - that's the difference. STO doesn't. I think what the OP is suggesting is that since STO doesn't have a dedicated voice over team, they should "outsource" to the community to lend voice talent. My problem with that idea is that the community will never be able to deliver the kind of talent that a dedicated team with professional voice actors could, so it isn't worth spending the time or resources on such a project. I'd rather they work on other areas.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    speaking of devs doing voiceovers....

    didnt Roper do 'Foxbat' in CO ?

    that was an awesome job I thought... Foxbat was funny as hell.

    .
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    speaking of devs doing voiceovers....

    didnt Roper do 'Foxbat' in CO ?

    that was an awesome job I thought... Foxbat was funny as hell.

    .

    Probably. FlyingLab Software did something similar with Pirates of of the Burning Sea, I think - lending developer voices to the game. If that's true, they were very convincing.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    Yes bill roper did foxbat in CO and i loved that as well eaven thou i have issues with Bill hes still funny as hell :D
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    Of course, I'd love to see full-voice acting.

    However, it's a logistic/legal nightmare.

    You have:
    • Conversion and recompression of fan-submitted materials (to get optimal compression rate).
    • Quality Control (most players don't have EPIC microphones)
    • Ensuring the full file is appropriate
    • May prevent getting SAG actors/actresses from getting on board later (since virtually all of us are non-SAG)
    • Legal Department would have to draft numerous disclaimers and ensure we sign away all voice rights

    It's a headache and I haven't gotten into all of it. :o
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    Cryptic could always hold a contest (a good marketing idea) where they put a short script up on the website and people can submit their own VO. Cryptic can then choose a certain number of them to have their voices be in Star Trek. They then send the winners all of the VO scripts and have them submit a VO for each script. That way Cryptic has some choices on which scripts to use since each person would be better at some of the scripts rather than others. They could then give away some Cryptic Points or some signed posters or something as compensation. Would be a great way to get the community involved and spread the word about STO.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    Cryptic could always hold a contest (a good marketing idea) where they put a short script up on the website and people can submit their own VO. Cryptic can then choose a certain number of them to have their voices be in Star Trek. They then send the winners all of the VO scripts and have them submit a VO for each script. That way Cryptic has some choices on which scripts to use since each person would be better at some of the scripts rather than others. They could then give away some Cryptic Points or some signed posters or something as compensation. Would be a great way to get the community involved and spread the word about STO.

    I suggested something similar regarding ship designs and missions and was told it was a infeasible.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    I would be happy to do the death sounds, I am actually very good at them.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    I don't care about voice acting in mmorpg.
    Waste of time & resources.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    hurleybird wrote: »
    So, what do you guys (and devs) think?

    Voice acting has never been important to me in in computer games but if they do decided to add more, I'd want it to be done to a good quality, bad quality would be much worse then none. Because of that I'd prefer professional Voice Actors.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    I think in a way the need for voice acting in games is counter intuitive. Games with worse writing need voice acting more than games with good writting. Case in point, the writting in Planescape Torment was so rich and descriptive that the few spoken parts detracted from the overall game. On the other hand, in a game with poor writting, such as Oblivion, the voice helps to disguise how poor the writing is. Unfortunately, STO is much closer to the later than the former, but so are most games these days.

    I said originally that I just wanted to gauge interest instead of go into details, but when I have some time I might respond to some of the potential roadblocks Darren has pointed out.
    Dude the guy doing the voice acting on Freespace 2 mod is terrible. You can tell he is about 18 years old with his whiny voice. Sounds nothing like a seasoned Admiral/General. Take it from someone who was in the service.

    Not denying that a lot of FS2 mods have ****** voice acting, but BTRL pretty much nailed it. Even then, I felt most of the time voice acting helped, but of course that is a space sim where you can't really take the time to read stuff while dogfighting.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    Of course, I'd love to see full-voice acting.

    However, it's a logistic/legal nightmare.

    Well, I said originally I didn't want to get into this, but lets do some brainstorming!

    Conversion and recompression of fan-submitted materials (to get optimal compression rate).

    Solution: batch processing via whomever decides to head the project. This is the easiest thing on your list.
    Quality Control (most players don't have EPIC microphones).

    Solution: It is what it is. Obviously with everything else being equal, the person/s is in charge will use the submissions that sound the best. Over the course of the project as people get more involved they may start to purchase better gear.
    Ensuring the full file is appropriate

    Goes without saying.

    [*]May prevent getting SAG actors/actresses from getting on board later (since virtually all of us are non-SAG)[/QUOTE]

    SAG?
    Legal Department would have to draft numerous disclaimers and ensure we sign away all voice rights

    Use an online submission form for all files that includes an agreement to waive rights. If any legal issues somehow slip past this, just stop using that file and have someone elsse so it.
    It's a headache and I haven't gotten into all of it. :o

    No, you haven't ;)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    I don't want voice acting. It took six months just to open a new sector, and you want Leonard Nimoy to keep getting up and going to a studio? That guy just got sucked through a hole in space time, not to mention that he died once and mind melded with a whale!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    I would definitely approve of this!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    I don't need/want VOs for all the text in the game, but I think some voices for our BOs would add SO much to that feature. That's one area where I do think it'd be worth the investment to get some professional actors in to do the job.

    When I order a full spread of torpedoes, you better believe I want my BOFF to come back with an "Aye Aye!"
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    I wonder if the Devs could open the UI to allow mods and invite the community to create 'voice packs'? We could download them and pick/choose the ones that actually sound decent for our individual Bridge Officers.

    A couple well-done voices would go a long way to lending the STO universe life, and enhance the game overall. The actors don't need to be famous... just skilled at voice work.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    I really dont care about VO's for player characters or BO's..

    I just want a little Treklike life breathed into the NPC's.

    They are so sterile and bland as it is, same dialog box, blah blah.

    Voiceovers for mission important NPC's is what this game needs...and it would bring a lot of needed life.

    .... also enemy chatter or taunts would be fun for story-arc missions....make the enemy that much more menacing, or not just another "pew pew, thud...loot" situation that a lot of missions feel like now.

    Give us NPC's to remember...not fire and forget.
    .
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    Darkjedi wrote: »
    I wonder if the Devs could open the UI to allow mods and invite the community to create 'voice packs'?

    That's petty much the idea behind this thread :D
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    I seriously doubt it will happen. This concept was already tried back in 2002 with Earth and Beyond. The problem with it was every time the devs wanted to edit or change something in the quests story line they had to have the voice actor make new recordings and or edit others. In the end they cut the voice acting out in favor of text.

    Well, I think a lot of that has to do with how you define the project. By no means would you want this to be the official voice acting for the game, it would need to be defined as a completely seperate fan-project with semi-official support from Cyrptic.

    The way I'm thinking to best avoid the text-speech mismatch is to a have a version number attached to each text and speech file. The speech file only plays if both versions match. When/if Cryptic changes the dialog text, they increment the version number, and the onus is then on the people in the fan project to adapt to the changes. In this way, the devs don't end up with one hand tied behind their back when editing older content. Of course, this could lead to weird gaps where some lines aren't spoken, but as long as people understand that this is a seperate fan project, and not the official VO for the game, they'll realize that stuff is par for the course.

    If somone goes missing and can't update the voice acting to the changed lines, then it would be up to the people in charge of the fan project to get a hold of him, or get a new actor to record the lines. It kinda sucks, but again it is what it is.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    Now, lets kill a few birds with one stone. The community wants voice acting, therefore I say let the community provide the voice acting for Cryptic. Trekkies make their own fan espisodes after all, so its not as if they aren't up for it.

    That is a very interesting idea. I support you're idea on two grounds; fans have the technology, and I'm positive they could meet or excel the current standards of quality.

    I think Cryptic should consider generic voice usage. Male character = male voice, female character = female voice, alien character = alien voice. Three recording sessions and its done.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    Klingorion wrote: »
    That is a very interesting idea. I support you're idea on two grounds; fans have the technology, and I'm positive they could meet or excel the current standards of quality.

    I think Cryptic should consider generic voice usage. Male character = male voice, female character = female voice, alien character = alien voice. Three recording sessions and its done.

    well i think that would be good as a start a generic voice for man woman and alien but eventual they will have to expand to have kilink voices and Vulcan romm cardassians and most importantly Borg, i mean come on when i see that cube i want to be told and believe that resistance is futile. and that my technological and biological distinctiveness will be added to theres. how hard could it be to add that one line in
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    Only do voiceovers if Admiral Quinn can be the guy who does Scruffy the Janitor from Futurama.
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