In a way, then, by giving each character in The Old Republic their own unique voice, they make sure that the personalities of these characters receive acknowledgment. It's probably a given that you'll be able to skip the full recitation of a character's dialogue, but you'll probably listen to each line at least the first time you'll hear them. Fortunately, from the feature video, it sounds as though there are some top-notch voice actors on-board, so at least the acting might turn out to be worth the listen. But that brings up another issue: parity.

One of the recurring criticisms I have with video games lately is their facial animation. A character might be emoting its heart out, with some of the richest and most nuanced voice acting ever heard, but if the facial expressions don't match up, it creates a weird frisson of Uncanny Valley-ness. The problem seems to lie mainly in the eyes; take notice the next time you speak with different people. Watch how subtle the movement of their eyes is, and how it affects your perception of what they're saying. The whole face moves, really, but in the feature video, all characters seem to have a thousand yard stare that's really off-putting.

And this makes me wonder: will other MMOs seek to compete with this feature? Can you imagine World of Warcraft suddenly dropping in full voice acting for every single one of its characters? Actually, I can ... quite easily. And given the "cartoony" quality of WoW's character animation, it might work quite well. It will probably never happen. Those who want to play WoW are already playing it, and are invested in it the way it is. It's evident how strongly the faithful feel about change of any kind, and this would be a major one. But other, smaller MMOs? They probably wouldn't be able to afford the monetary layout to have all of their content spoken aloud. So this is one area in which The Old Republic will corner the market. Is it a significant feature?

If it were the only reason to play The Old Republic, then no. But as an attractive element, full voice acting certainly intrigues. Will it enhance the user experience to hear every voice? Will it distract from the user's built-in expectation of character voices? What if the player's character is voiced? Would you be able to play a character whose voice you hated? Think of how much of your identity you invest into your avatar; it's likely that you've been ignoring imagining a voice, simply because the option was never there to begin with. Would it help immersion if you could choose a voice for your character? Or is voice in an MMO a bad idea altogether? Will you go into The Old Republic with that feature turned off? Will your universe be a silent one?