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EverQuest Sequel Gives Voice To NPCs, Original Turns Five
Thanks to GameSpot for its feature discussing plans to give full-audio speech to non-player characters in PC MMORPG sequel EverQuest II. The article points out this is "a first for online role-playing games, which have previously only featured silent characters that interact with players by sending them text chat messages", and elsewhere, a Grimwell Online article mentions a new PC Gamer magazine article specifying "an expected 130 hours of speech across 70,000 lines of dialogue", and revealing that "EQ2 is a $25 million dollar project." This new information comes as EverQuest celebrates its fifth anniversary with a multitude of developer interviews on the official site, as well as the re-activation of all old accounts until April 15th.
The GameSpot article linked in the story was posted yesterday, not april 1st.
...They figure out a way to make it worthwhile to talk to NPCs in the first place. Sony's NPCs don't have anything interesting to say in text, and spending resources pumping grade-C voice acting out of my speakers isn't going to change that.
Everquest's quests are a joke, and their vendors are largely ignored. Adding voice is just throwing more money into development, in an attempt to make its competitors seem less up-to-date.
It'll be interesting to see if they are spending for the kind of voice talent that they managed for Lords of Everquest, or if they're just doing it half-assed to say they did it.
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
a first for online role-playing games, which have previously only featured silent characters that interact with players by sending them text chat messages" Excellent research there bosco, unfortunately it's wrong. Earth and Beyond had many NPC characters that spoke to players. The only problem was with a MMOG bringing the voice actors back in every few months to re-do changing lines gets expensive.
The was announced yesterday, and there's a movie at Gamespot
You'll have to be a member (free membership) to get it there, but it's mirrored at other places around the web, including a few fan sites (such as EQii.com).
I watched it yesterday -- it's quite excellent.