Trade voice actors for people who can program.
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No. /10chars
Yeah, that sounds like a really good investment. Did you read my post explaining how VA works and how they pay for it?
Essentially what you are suggesting if they literally traded Voice actors for Programmers is that every -two years- they get someone in to do two -days- work. They only need the Voice Actors once per expansion you know, (Or once per patch if Blizzard have not written the whole expac in one go) they’re not lounging around Blizz the rest of the time. They come in, record their piece, then aren’t working at Blizz anymore.
I mean take Chris Metzen as an example, he still does the Voice Acting for Thrall, in fact he has -always- done the Voice Acting for Thrall, but he doesn’t actually -work- for Blizzard.
Seriously, trading Voice Actors for Programmers would be an idiotic move. “Hi guys, it’s me from two years ago, I’m in to program. So what are we doing?”
“Well, this is what we’re doing, here’s the information you need in this document”
“Cool, I’ll read it now”
next day
“OK, I think I’m up to speed with what you need programming, sadly, this is also the end of my contracted hours, so, bye, and I’ll see you in two years time!”
You can’t compare the two roles, is what I am saying.
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Imagine realising that VA is actually a measure of quality for WoW, because it’s subconsciously telling the player: “Blizzard has money to spare to hire VA and writers to act/write these lines of story.” The fact that YOU don’t like it, does not make it any less important for other players.
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It’s no surprise someone who has invested as much time in this game as you, would defend it
The quest flavor delivery has barely changed from Vanilla besides few more voicelines, animations and cutscenes. Even games from 90’s like Baldurs Gate has story delivery in much more modern fashion which is why I could never get invested in WoW’s story.
This is how it should have been done
blizzard will never beat EA when it comes to squandering money on voiced quests after all every single quest in swtor is voiced 
Imagine thinking quests are made in a programming language.
Imagine thinking that translation and voice acting isn’t a significant expense that impedes development.
This is the truth. There is no way they could afford to voice act it all. Bethesda tried and it was darn expensive and almost all NPC’s have the same voice.
WoW’s questing is fine in Threads of Fate. I really like it. I just don’t like these uber linear quests.
i disagree
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In the end quests are programmed, whether that’s in a low level programming language, or a high level scripting language, or even flow based programming.
[attach sound file] *click*
[wait for sound file to finish playing] *click*
Imagine thinking that they manually program attaching sounds and progress delays in quests when you can easily add a feature to your high level quest builder.
In the end they are not. The underlying systems are written in code, yes, but they only have to be written once for each type of quest. Most quests are set up in a …
… quest builder!
Now, if the vanilla crew could set up over 3,000 quests in a little over a year by non-programmers, I don’t think that’s the bottleneck in and of itself. Do you?
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I read every quest on my first run through, whether that is on testing or when it goes live. Whichever comes first.
I enjoy the cut scenes. Cut scenes are fab!
i love cutscenes but then you play ff 14 and see the same cutscene every week for over a half those that play would know what roulette i’m talking about 
Your point? Not spending time on voice actors won’t magically give you more time to develop the game.
My point is that creating voice lines take time, even if not for the quest designer or programmer, and that therefore limits the amount of quests that can be made and more time and money is spent on coordination.
Alternatively you “just” hire enough voice actors and managers to cover for the quest writers going wild, but finding all them is easier said than done, not to mention the insane levels of expense.
This is completely obvious. Blizzard could make more quests if they didn’t add so many voice lines but, as Daestra pointed out, they don’t actually add those voice lines anyway.
So my point to you is that your snide first post had nothing to do with what the OP was talking about, and what the OP was talking about isn’t actually reflective of what Blizzard is doing anyway. The whole thread is rather absurd, really.
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Ofc it takes time, but it’s not going to make development faster if it’s not done.
I do too but after a while on my second or third playthrough i start skipping stuff because i have seen it all before and it gets tedious.
Committing to voice all quests puts a cap on the amount of quests you can make due to having to add voices, and that takes longer. It’s really, really simple. Whatever extra quest development they would’ve had time for cannot be used as it wouldn’t be voiced.
Except Blizzard just goes ahead and adds all the unvoiced quests anyway, which is exactly why this thread is so weird.
i wish every quest would have voice over like in witcher and other rpg games. I am anoyed to read all the quest texts but love the voice acting party and cutscenes.
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