Is MMORPG Voiceover/voiceacting worth the cost?

Last week, Justin and I answered a podcast listener question about voiceover localization in MMORPGs, and I thought it dovetailed nicely with a question Massively OP reader loyheta sent us ages ago:

“Is voiceover/voiceacting worth the resources? For the price of Star Wars: The Old Republic’s VO budget, how much time and money could be focused on the world and additional content? How many text quests and how fleshed out can you make it and the quest compared to one voice acted quest? Do you guys feel that VOs are becoming a staple in larger-budgeted MMOs? I know they can add a lot of immersion, but is it truly worth it? Especially when most people listen to it once or not at all?”

I am largely indifferent to voiceovers, as I mentioned on the podcast, and would nearly always those resources go into paying for something else. SWTOR might be one of the very few games that really needs those voiceovers, but most MMOs aren’t really saying anything I need to hear that couldn’t be delivered by text in a way that wouldn’t break my immersions in the slightest.

But voiceacting has come a long way, and a lot of modern gamers don’t even remember what it was like to not have full voiceovers in everything. So I’m keen to hear your opinions too. Is MMORPG voiceover/voiceacting worth the cost?

TH