world of warcraft Classic now has something not yet present in the modern version of Blizzard’s MMORPG: full NPC voice acting.
Those who play WoW or have done so in the past are probably all too familiar with reading huge walls of quest text, with voice acting typically reserved for faction leaders, raid bosses, or individual lines of dialogue when interacting with NPCs. minors. Although more recent expansions such as Dragonflight feature more cutscenes and dialogue than in the early days of WoW, the vast majority of the game’s NPCs and quests are voiceless.
That’s where the fan made a plugin called Narration come into play Created by Evan Pierce (going by MrThinger), the free VoiceOver plugin for WoW Classic adds “high-quality AI-generated voices for NPCs,” and it’s a bit of a game changer. The addon takes into account the race and gender of the quest-granting NPC when generating voices, and overall makes for a more immersive, text-less version of Blizzard’s old-school MMO. Players can even replay NPC dialogue via the quest log, allowing users to hear their next objective while on the move without the need to scan paragraphs of text to find out where to go or what to collect.
The plugin is currently only available for the basic version of WoW Classic, but at Pierce’s kofi page, it seems that a version for the game’s The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King expansions could be a possibility in the future. Pierce is seeking a fundraising goal of $2,000 (which is currently 35% funded) to expand the project. Pierce writes that the add-on could also be ported to the current retail version of the game, although the retail port would only support voice lines from the original version of WoW, The Burning Crusade, and Wrath of the Lich King.
AI voiceover has been a hot topic in the games industry in recent months, with concerns that the technology could replace voice actors who make their living breathing life into iconic video game characters. In the case of the VoiceOver plugin, it seems extremely unlikely that Blizzard will go back and add full voice acting to a nearly 20-year-old game, making the fan project a fun novelty that doesn’t step on your toes. Real voice actors looking for work.
WoW Classic is experiencing a boom in popularity thanks to the rise of a Fan-made “Hardcore” gameplay which has permanent death. The popularity of the Hardcore style of gameplay has led to speculation that Blizzard might be making a debut soon. Hardcore WoW Classic Official Serversan idea that is supported by evidence from a recent build of the WoW public test realm.
When it comes to the modern version of WoW, Blizzard has kept the flow of new content going for Dragonflight as part of its 2023 content roadmap. Dragonflight’s next big update, Embers of Neltharionwill introduce a new underground area, raid and will include the the long awaited arrival of cross faction guilds When the 2nd of May arrives
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