Would you buy a premium voice pack to liven up your fighting and idling?

[Zebulous.2934]

So, real-time strategy games often have an assistant to inform you if your resources are running low or if a unit has finished production.  In the past few years various content creators and minor celebrities have created voice packs where they replace all of the AI chatter in a game.  So even if the game is nagging you, at least it is nagging in a humorous or more pleasant voice.

 Gw2 could do something similar. 
Not with cutscenes.
Just your character's emotes, and battle grunts, boon notifications, Conditions notifications, pet notifications, ect.
You could hear "Zoom! Zoom!" instead of  "I'm faster than a centaur!"
or some such.
I would expect it to just be a basic replacer: select a voice pack, then select the race and gender and that package replaces the in game voiced notifications for that combination. 
use the same voice pack for all eight race-gender combinations, if you want. Pick a voice pack that sounds like a charr, and attach it to your asuras! 
Make your Norn into a dainty professor!

I fully expect the current voice talent to voice the story missions and the NPCs

[kharmin.7683]

I'd rather resources be spent elsewhere.

[Danikat.8537]

I usually can't have the sound on when I play and when I do I have all those random comments turned off. I realise that having more options to choose from might make it less annoying to deal with, but even so I can't see myself choosing to hear them if I have the option not to and that means it wouldn't be worthwhile getting more options, even if it didn't cost real money.

I can see the appeal for strategy games because it's usually not practical to play without the announcer, and if you have to hear it then it makes sense to pick one you like, but I don't need to hear my character commenting on the skills I'm using, so I'd rather keep them quiet.

[Omega.6801]

I'd rather have resources spent elsewhere.

[Ashen.2907]

The bias in  how the question was phrased encouraged me to say no.

[Farohna.6247]

Kind of takes away from the rpg element of mmorpg doesn't it?  You're in an imaginary world, not where you edit all the voices and mismatch.  I largely disable sounds as is, I don't like a ton of audio clutter.  I really would not be interested in having more commentary.  But interesting suggestion, didn't really know this was a thing.

[Goettel.4389]

You mean people actually play with unmuted (self) dialog? Huh..

[Randulf.7614]

I’m faster than a centaur and proud of it!!

[Sobx.1758]

Nope, I have 0 interest in that "premium" feature and I see it as a waste of resources.

[Zebulous.2934]

hrm so most folks are annoyed by the player character feedback, period.  They don't want different phrases or voices, they prefer no audible feedback.

[Wolfb.7025]

I'd rather have the voice actors fix the game code.

 

this thread comment section

[Randulf.7614]

7 minutes ago, Zebulous.2934 said:

hrm so most folks are annoyed by the player character feedback, period.  They don't want different phrases or voices, they prefer no audible feedback.

I don’t think that’s a takeaway at all based on responses. Most people prob don’t care or don’t have fault in the lines. It’s a small bit of flavour which blends into the background over time anyway and is barely noticed

Would I object to new lines? No, but I also don’t see any need for it. Do remember the audio team prob has queue of things needing the recording studio or then adding to the game and this would be extremely low priority.

Edited May 19, 2022 by Randulf.7614

[Zebulous.2934]

2 hours ago, Ashen.2907 said:

The bias in  how the question was phrased encouraged me to say no.

Why would my goal be impartiality?  Why would I make a suggestion if I did not want that suggestion to be implemented? 
I am trying to sell the idea to players and to Anet so I listed how the idea could benefit each party. 
I figure Anet would care about money. The pole is for Anet's benefit. They can see who would pay for a voice pack, who doesn't want it, and who would want it but not pay. 
The only other category is people who don't want the feature but who would buy it anyway, and that seems nonsensical. 

I would be more suspicious of someone who spoke against their own suggestion.  If I hated something I would pretend to like it so I could more easily sabotage it.

[Sobx.1758]

28 minutes ago, Zebulous.2934 said:

hrm so most folks are annoyed by the player character feedback, period.  They don't want different phrases or voices, they prefer no audible feedback.

Your conclusion seems disconnected from the responses you've received in this thread. People not needing additional voicelines doesn't mean "most folks are annoyed by the player character feedback, period" nor "they prefer no audible feedback". 😐

Edited May 19, 2022 by Sobx.1758

[Zebulous.2934]

5 minutes ago, Randulf.7614 said:

I don’t think that’s a takeaway at all based on responses. Most people prob don’t care or don’t have fault in the lines. It’s a small bit of flavour which blends into the background over time anyway and is barely noticed

Would I object to new lines? No, but I also don’t see any need for it. Do remember the audio team prob has queue of things needing the recording studio or then adding to the game and this would be extremely low priority.

 Ah, I meant that outside folks, content creators and minor celebrities, would talk to Anet and record the lines with their own equipment. Then Anet would vet the voice pack and notify the content creator if revisions were needed.  There would be no inhouse recording.  That is how the Starcraft2 announcer packs seem to have been handled.  (I have no information about how those content creators were compensated of course)

The vast amount of company resources being used are a proof listener and then expanded audio options.  (expanded audio options sounds pretty good all by itself imo)

[Zebulous.2934]

9 minutes ago, Sobx.1758 said:

Your conclusion seems kind of disconnected -or intentionally overblown- when compared to the responses you've received in this thread. People not needing additional voicelines doesn't mean "most folks are annoyed by the player character feedback, period" nor "they prefer no audible feedback". 😐

At the time I wrote that there were 4 comments of no interest and 3 who preferred to play with no sound because of the pc chatter or audio clutter. 

Three out of eight seems substantial. 

Though perhaps I should wait for more replies before responding.  Perhaps a larger sample size is in order.  

[Randulf.7614]

10 minutes ago, Zebulous.2934 said:

 Ah, I meant that outside folks, content creators and minor celebrities, would talk to Anet and record the lines with their own equipment. Then Anet would vet the voice pack and notify the content creator if revisions were needed.  There would be no inhouse recording.  That is how the Starcraft2 announcer packs seem to have been handled.  (I have no information about how those content creators were compensated of course)

The vast amount of company resources being used are a proof listener and then expanded audio options.  (expanded audio options sounds pretty good all by itself imo)

It needs to be with the VA assigned to that player character though. I can’t see Anet assigning different VAs to record new lines - even flavour ones - to outsiders, especially roles which the existing VAs get paid for and may object to having their voice and lines overwritten. It would also risk being jarring to have a different voice to players used to a voice in the story.

edit: 3/8 is def not substantial given the hundreds of thousands of players 

Edited May 19, 2022 by Randulf.7614

[Ashen.2907]

39 minutes ago, Zebulous.2934 said:

Why would my goal be impartiality?  Why would I make a suggestion if I did not want that suggestion to be implemented? 
I am trying to sell the idea to players and to Anet so I listed how the idea could benefit each party. 
I figure Anet would care about money. The pole is for Anet's benefit. They can see who would pay for a voice pack, who doesn't want it, and who would want it but not pay. 
The only other category is people who don't want the feature but who would buy it anyway, and that seems nonsensical. 

I would be more suspicious of someone who spoke against their own suggestion.  If I hated something I would pretend to like it so I could more easily sabotage it.

Your title was not a suggestion. A poll is not a suggestion. Your use of those two mechanisms was designed to manipulate others. If you want to make a suggestion or state a preference it is a simple enough process to do so without using manipulative tactics.

 

And a poll designed to manipulate participants and skew results does not benefit ANet.

Edited May 19, 2022 by Ashen.2907

[Zebulous.2934]

3 minutes ago, Randulf.7614 said:

It needs to be with the VA assigned to that player character though. I can’t see Anet assigning different VAs to record new lines - even flavour ones - to outsiders, especially roles which the existing VAs get paid for and may object to having their voice and lines overwritten. It would also risk being jarring to have a different voice to players used to a voice in the story.

errrr a male content creator records lines. If you like how he sounds you check the box you want it assigned to.
For example you check the box for female sylvari, now all of your female sylvari toons sound like that guy.  (maybe it is funny to you, or maybe you prefer all plant people to sound male.)
or maybe you find a voice pack by a woman with a pronounced Scandinavian accent so you select that pack and check the box for female Norn.
No, they don't have to be professional voice actors.  I would expect quite a few of them to be ridiculous and over the top.  (A popular twitch streamer records some lines, follows some rules, and then characters get a new voice while off camera as it were.)  Who knew that Charr actually spoke with a Cockney accent when the story camera wasn't focused on them?
 

The point is that it is voice variety, customization, that impacts your grinding experience not the story.  

[Sobx.1758]

22 minutes ago, Zebulous.2934 said:

At the time I wrote that there were 4 comments of no interest and 3 who preferred to play with no sound because of the pc chatter or audio clutter. 

Three out of eight seems substantial. 

Though perhaps I should wait for more replies before responding.  Perhaps a larger sample size is in order.  

Ok, if you want to count the comments, then it was 3 out of 8 comments that prefered playing with voice turned off. Still far from the conclusion you've came up with 😄

[Chichimec.9364]

47 minutes ago, Zebulous.2934 said:

hrm so most folks are annoyed by the player character feedback, period.  They don't want different phrases or voices, they prefer no audible feedback.

There is another reason for saying no, I wouldn't buy such a sound pack. I remember when such packs first became available for the system sounds on my Mac PowerBook. Apple was charging for their official sound packs but folks quickly made and shared their own versions. A lot of them were quite good, often funny, and were frequently better than the official Apple packs. I got a Star Trek sound pack and one using an Elvis impersonator, both as freeware, and alternated between them. For free, yeah, I'd do it. To buy though? No, that background chatter isn't  important enough for me to actually pay for it.

[Ronin.4501]

I like the idea, but it wouldn't work for several reasons (in my opinion at least):

1. As much as I would enjoy listening to some different quotes after almost 10 years (I guess I'm one of those players in the minority who actually keeps all the sounds on; I've always enjoyed the musical score), anything new would get just as stale after a few weeks/months.

2. In order to make it worthwhile for both Anet and the VAs, I suspect an add-on feature like this would cost more than most of us would be willing to spend.

3. Anet has a very bad track record of paying attention to suggestions/requests for the game here on the forums.  Unless it's a thread that's generating thousands of views and hundreds of responses, it seems to go unnoticed.  For Anet to implement something like this, it likely would need to be brought up by one of the popular streamers of GW2 (are there even that many left aside from Teapot?).

[Sobx.1758]

9 minutes ago, Zebulous.2934 said:

errrr a male content creator records lines. If you like how he sounds you check the box you want it assigned to.
For example you check the box for female sylvari, now all of your female sylvari toons sound like that guy.  (maybe it is funny to you, or maybe you prefer all plant people to sound male.)
or maybe you find a voice pack by a woman with a pronounced Scandinavian accent so you select that pack and check the box for female Norn.
No, they don't have to be professional voice actors.  I would expect quite a few of them to be ridiculous and over the top.  (A popular twitch streamer records some lines, follows some rules, and then characters get a new voice while off camera as it were.)  Who knew that Charr actually spoke with a Cockney accent when the story camera wasn't focused on them?
 

The point is that it is voice variety, customization, that impacts your grinding experience not the story.  

At that point just "grind it out" while having your favorite content creator talking in the background. Possibly more substance (depending on the "content creator" I guess 😅), hopefully less repetitive than x recorded lines and you still support whomever you want to support through watching their content.

Edited May 19, 2022 by Sobx.1758

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

The main problem I have with polls on this board is that we do not know who is using how many accounts. Every purchased account has full writing rights. I have already noticed a few people who use different accounts to write here. So the entire idea of 'let the community speak' is not very promising anymore. I've stopped running polls on this board for that very reason. It is nice for entertainment, but the data has 0 credibility.

Your idea is interesting. I always wanted to have a Norn say stuff like "I am six feet tall" or an Asura "I can outrun a centaur!" Or having more/other voice options.

A few years ago, there was the idea of having different style-sets for accounts. Like re-skins of animations in a certain-style. Similar to the different costume-options in regular games. This would also add a lot of variety to the game. But it would eat way too many resources to produce. Your voice-kit would definitely eat fewer resources than that. They could develop one, put it on the gemstore and check the demand. If people buy it, they can develop more. If not, it goes to the discontinued features stack.

Question for the insiders: Are voice actors payed with a monthly wage or per word/speech-count? I know translator fees are calculated depending on the length of the text.

I would like to have more options to customize my gameplay. Would I purchase a different voice-kit for a single character? Probably not. If the unlock was account-bound, I would probably do it. 

[Zebulous.2934]

7 minutes ago, Ashen.2907 said:

Your title was not a suggestion. A poll is not a suggestion. Your use of those two mechanisms was designes to manipulate others. If you want to make a simple suggestion or state a preference it is a simple enough process to do so without using manipulative tactics.

 

And a poll designed to manipulate participants and skew results does not benefit the company. It might benefit you however.

Hmmm on on hand I am requesting something.  On the other hand I am genuinely interested in how many other people want what I want, as well as how many people do not want what I want.  How would you have worded it?   The best revision I have so far is "Hey folks I would like voice packs in the game how many of you also want that?"  Then I would give some background on what voice packs are, and then I would list some benefits to entice folks who don't care one way or the other. 

I assume the folks who don't care are the majority, based on my personal experience.
 I would also have to appeal to Anet's need for money, because they are a business.  Player interest is nice, but direct profit would be better.  
Is that better or worse Ashen?  My tone of writing may be sound patronizing but that is how I phrase things when I am annoyed, but I genuinely do want to improve. If you can help me improve my ability to ask for things then I am willing to listen.