Star Wars: The Old Republic's voice acting process detailed

Posted Jul 11th 2009 8:30PM by Griffin McElroy

We've spoken before about how BioWare's upcoming MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic, will be the wordiest video game in the history of mankind, but a recent article on the game's official site has given even further detail into the process behind the title's verbosification. If you've ever been interested in voice acting, it's definitely worth a read, as we're fairly certain the game will go down in VO history for its unrivaled ambition.

If the process behind the game's voice work does nothing for you, perhaps a few more numeric comparisons will float your boat -- the script, which is the size of "40+ novels" (or 10 KOTOR's!) is being voiced by over 100 voice actors in five cities, who, by the end of the project, will have performed over 1,000 four-hour recording sessions. That is a great deal of talking.

[Via Big Download]

Tags: bioware, lucasarts, mmo, mmorpg, pc, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, vo, voice-acting

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Nate @ Jul 11th 2009 8:35PM

Sounds Awesome. Plenty of things to explore with that much dialogue.

Rayonic @ Jul 12th 2009 2:39AM

Unfortunately, your typical MMO player will be like:

(click) (click) (click) (click) (click) (click) (Accept Quest)

Then later on forums they'll complain about a lack of story.

Nate @ Jul 12th 2009 3:10AM

Well maybe with the quest being talked aloud, people will be more likely to listen. People have a problem reading online, especially tiny text sometimes seen in MMOs. It becomes harder and harder to read depending on your eye strength

Glenn @ Jul 15th 2009 6:35AM

That's what I loved about the first 20 levels or so of Age of Conan. The voice-over quests made it so much more interesting and involving. I tell ya, this is gonna be sweeeeet.

The Dark Wayne @ Jul 11th 2009 8:51PM

Wow, i really didnt believe that bioware would succesfully put story in an MMO, but crap with 40 novels worth how couldnt they?

Omega2k3 @ Jul 12th 2009 5:06AM

If you've played MxO, AoC, or FFXI, you'd see some successful story integration. WoW has deep lore, too, but they incorporated it in a way that makes it totally boring, even if you are truly interested.

I'm glad that BioWare is making a valiant effort to make the game into a cinematic experience. I haven't read on whether or not they use cutscenes for quests/storyline quests, but if they do, I will literally jizz right now, because that may mean that we could eventually get 7-9 in MMO form.
...
But only if it has the same Star Wars magic that BioWare seems to inject directly into their SW games.

...
Fuck George Lucas.

The Dark Wayne @ Jul 12th 2009 2:14PM

I love WoW's lore, that's why i was so worried about this. They have such an incredible wealth of backstory and characters, and yet they hardly touch on them as little more than references or flashbacks. Sure we meet Muradin and Arthas and stuff in WotlK but BC completely forgot about Turaylon and Alleria, and reading bland text descriptions after gathering 20 pig intestines or listening to some oddly placed voice acting after fighting a boss wasnt so hot either.

Das Boot @ Jul 11th 2009 9:18PM

Words, WORDS, TOO MANY MOTHERFUCKING WORDS!!

But really now, I loved KotOR and will have to give this a try when it comes out.
I'm not much of an MMO player, but there's a first time for (mostly) everything.

LaughingTarget @ Jul 11th 2009 9:18PM

They are making what amounts to 8 separate single player games. I'm not surprised how big it is. I'm mostly shocked at how much they're putting into this, I'm definitely buying it.

time @ Jul 11th 2009 9:39PM

I really want this game.

tmacairjordan87 @ Jul 11th 2009 10:07PM

That just means content patches will take even longer than most games to come out cause they'll have to record more dialog. And I thought Blizzard took forever on their patches :\

D @ Jul 12th 2009 6:39PM

Not necessarily. Since VO work will be done along side the content creation, it might actually be one of the first things finished.

Azerael @ Jul 11th 2009 10:10PM

Too bad it's a shitehouse MMO.

Cancel it and make KOTOR3, I don't want dumbass little kids in my game.

freaparn @ Jul 11th 2009 10:46PM

Irony... palpable.

The Baron @ Jul 12th 2009 7:43AM

This is KOTOR 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. Just turn off the chat if you hate people so much.

smcn @ Jul 12th 2009 10:15PM

Funny, I've played WoW since beta and have only encountered one actual "kid", and in fact he was better than most players I've met.

t_m @ Jul 11th 2009 10:12PM

PRESS SPACEBAR TO SKIP

Uncontrol @ Jul 11th 2009 11:15PM

I don't really like Star Wars or MMOs, but damn if I'm not intrigued.

time @ Jul 11th 2009 11:45PM

I hear they're going to have voice actors hired full time to act out public chat.

koheed @ Jul 12th 2009 12:21AM

40+ novels, or roughly 2x as long as The Stand.

Richie @ Jul 12th 2009 12:51AM

Or about half of any book by Ayn Rand.

Batzarro @ Jul 12th 2009 12:30AM

Hopefully not too much of that is different versions of the same dialogue adjusted to choices.(i.e. You are a fine man. You are a fine woman. You are a fine droid...)

The Dark Wayne @ Jul 12th 2009 12:44AM

well considering dialogue is choice based like the original KOTORs, even ignoring the scope of the story it's still 4x as much as something without varying responses would be

Sweetjohnnycage @ Jul 12th 2009 1:02AM

The game looks like it's going to be a lot of fun. They just need to make a GOOD USB lightsaber for us to use to play. Lightsaber fighting, still, to this day hasn't been recreated at home. The best experience was the Star Wars Arcade Game. I will definitely buy this game though. I wonder what Jedi subclasses they'll have, or if you can be anything but a Jedi. Maybe a bounty hunter class on the Sith side?

Omega2k3 @ Jul 12th 2009 5:21AM

Yo dawg, I heard you like information, so we put a ton of that shit on swtor.com so you can read while you learn.

SuckItTrebek @ Jul 12th 2009 1:21PM

People will be whining about this forever. It will not happen, it is not technically feasible ANY time in the future. Putting aside the technical complexity of simply making that device that would track your movements so accurately, consider the integration:the models would have to be able to follow your every movement at any point in their animation cycles, and what happens when your lightsaber collides with something? Sure, in game it might stop, but what if YOU continue to swing your arm in the motion? How do you and the software reconcile that? Suppose another player strikes your blade with his/hers forcefully, but you choose not to acknowledge that it has been pushed back?

Etc etc etc. Sorry, it's just not ever going to happen, no matter how many advertisements Nintendo puts out suggesting that technology can work otherwise.

koheed @ Jul 12th 2009 1:44AM

Sadly, Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead are next in my reading queue. I must be a glutton for punishment.

The Baron @ Jul 12th 2009 10:16AM

I'm on page 450ish of 1000+

I've been reading it for 6 months.

Blank-Mage @ Jul 12th 2009 1:46AM

*Mist rolls in*

"THOUSANDS of years ago.... "

devilsei @ Jul 12th 2009 3:03AM

Eh, its all talk until they back it up.
Remember Molyeneax? Remember the hype about Fable 2 and how you would never hear the same piece of dialogue twice, and everyone would sound different? Yeah I do. And I also remember hearing the same generic male voice from what had to be 80% of the male npcs, all saying the same thing.

I will admit though, that if what I've heard is true, some of the VAs they have gotten for the characters (mainly the PC Bounty Hunter male) has me rather interested, and thus a little more hopeful and trusting towards this (note I said a little... :P)

freaparn @ Jul 12th 2009 12:53PM

And I also remember hearing the same generic male voice from what had to be 80% of the male npcs, all saying the same thing.

"I don't think that's going to fit in there"?

The Dark Wayne @ Jul 12th 2009 2:19PM

petey boy is also a notorious hype master, and bioware is, err, not.

devilsei @ Jul 12th 2009 2:46PM

True, but when you are working on something "Star Wars", the hype generates itself :P

Einhanderkiller @ Jul 12th 2009 3:40AM

I wonder how many DVDs this game is going to ship on.

Maximun2k10 @ Jul 12th 2009 7:01AM

Blu-ray only... ;)

The Baron @ Jul 12th 2009 10:17AM

They'd be idiots to make it Blu Ray exclusive considering how it's meant to run on most PC's. But I worry that with so many voice files it'll easily beat the 12GB of WoW.

D @ Jul 12th 2009 6:53PM

@The Baron

Wasn't Age of Conan over 20 gigs? Yeah... =)

mattimus @ Jul 12th 2009 4:05AM

boner

Mr Khan @ Jul 12th 2009 10:59AM

i'm very interested to see how they change canon with this. It seems that its set between the Fall of the Sith Empire and the Great Sith War, and relies on a 1,400-year-old survivor of the old Sith Empire, and with all that story, they better be able to flesh out pretty much every world of significance.

The Dark Wayne @ Jul 12th 2009 2:18PM

they've already been doing it with the jedi archives. They have a Kel Dor jedi archive keeper nameed Gnost doral (voiced by Lance Henrikssen) he's been going over everything from the sacking of coruscant, the rise of the true sith empire, the return of the Mandalorians, the smugglers who broke the mandalorian blockade, and they aren't even close to done yet, and then there's still that comic going on which admittedly is pretty shitty but still, it's got Bastilla's descendant in it!

Mr Khan @ Jul 12th 2009 8:40PM

So this guy is the mysterious True Sith alluded to by the Jedi Exile?

The Dark Wayne @ Jul 13th 2009 3:03AM

sorta, yeah, sorry for not replying earlier, you probably wont even see this. This guy was one of the last Sith Lords from The Great Hyperspace War, which was the war that resulted when two republic explorers stumbled upon Korriban where ages ago exiled Dark Jedi had found the sith species, turned them into slaves/interbred with them and gave birth to the Sith Empire. The sith by then had completely forgotten about the Republic, and when learning of it again went off to conquer it, but they were defeated largely due to their own infighting. This guy, whether he was a sith lord like ludo kreesh or naga sadow or just some loser we dont know but he was able to keep himself alive and come back. IMO the "True Sith" moniker doesnt really mean anything, as the Sith were originally just a primitive barbaric species, and the "New Sith" were started by Freedon Nadd who learned everything he did from a "True Sith"

Deck @ Jul 12th 2009 10:05PM

40+ novels? 10 Kotors? OMG MADNESS! I ABSOLUTELY CAN NOT WAIT!

matsilva @ Jul 16th 2009 5:43PM

This game is gonna be so friggin epic!

Also gonna be a jedi/sith fest

This game is also giving a lot of actors work :P

btw check out http://swmmorp.com | A swtor fansite