Accents in Games 2

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Hopefully this won't go against the unspoken rules of conduct, since this is a topic I created a long time ago. It was the most popular of any topic I've made, so I thought I'd give it another shot.

What is your stance on accents used in games? Is it important that they be 'accurate' (not that too many would be qualified to judge that), or more important that they not sound silly or overdone? Do you ever find it detracts from the game, or makes it more authentic?

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

Well, as long as I can understand what they are saying just before the use of subtitles, then anything is quite alright with me.

 

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

I think if it's a big-budget game where they can afford to hire any actor they want, the accents should be accurate. If they can't afford to hire someone who naturally has that accent or who can imitate it perfectly, they should either cut it (if it's not important to the character) or just do their best with what they have. As long as it doesn't sound silly.

One funny thing, though, is the definition of "accent." Everybody has one. In Guild Wars 2, most of the characters have standard American accents, and some people are freaking out over how American they sound...But I'd personally prefer the fantasy genre to move away from the pseudo-British accent it loves so much. It makes just as little sense as any other accent.

The decision to give residents of...whatever the planet was in FFXIII (can't be bothered to look it up) an Australian accent was kind of a neat one. It upset a lot of people, though, because they said the characters have never been to Australia so they shouldn't speak like that. But none of the other characters have been to America, so why should they speak like Americans?

Reminds me of this one time when my friend started freaking out that Sean Connery played the Greek Agamemnon in Time Bandits and had a Scottish accent. He wouldn't have said a thing if he'd had any kind of English accent. Anyway...

(Edited so I wouldn't be quoted by 50 million people.)

 

[Thaluikhain]

Reminds me of this one time when my friend started freaking out that Sean Connery played the Greek Agamemnon in Time Bandits and had a Scottish accent. He wouldn't have said a thing if he'd had a British accent. Anyway...

Um...is not Scotland part of Britain?

 

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

Reminds me of this one time when my friend started freaking out that Sean Connery played the Greek Agamemnon in Time Bandits and had a Scottish accent. He wouldn't have said a thing if he'd had a British accent. Anyway...

Um...is not Scotland part of Britain?

Oh, you know what I meant. It was a slip-up.

 

[Speakercone]

In small budget games I don't mind it so much. Indie devs do what they can with what they have and it's understandable that they don't necessarily have accent-appropriate voice talent.

If, on the other hand, you're someone like EA working on a project with a $100million plus budget, there's no excuse. Choice example is in ME2's Kasumi DLC where the bad guy from the loyalty mission has the worst South African accent I've ever heard. If you can afford to hire Martin Sheen, you can afford an actual South African.

Also, Americans trying to do British accents are always rather cringe-worthy. Even if they get the accent spot on, they usually can't help a few americanisms. Hint: no one in Britain has ever said "light it up like the 4th of July" unless they were taking the piss.

 

[Speakercone]

Accidental double-post. my bad.

 

[Jakub324]

Mercenaries 2 is an example of accents gone wrong. I played for perhaps an hour and in that time, I heard Irish, Swedish, American AND Australian accents. That is trying way to hard to include everyone.
However, Halo Reach contained American, English and French accents, and those were just in your squad. I don't know why, but that felt right, unlike Mercenaries' attempt.

 

[Koshok]

I would prefer any accent in a game to be genuine, or at least a very good imitation, if you must. Most of the time, it seems like the characters have accents just to have accents. Quite frankly, if every character in a game has the voice actor's native accent, that's fine with me.

But if you want everyone to have English accents and it isn't crucial to the story, don't give me some over dramatic American that doesn't sound right. Most of the time when I notice a bogus accent, it's not particularly necessary in the first place.

 

[Zhukov]

Choice example is in ME2's Kasumi DLC where the bad guy from the loyalty mission has the worst South African accent I've ever heard. If you can afford to hire Martin Sheen, you can afford an actual South African.

Waitwaitwait... Donovan Hock was supposed to be South African!?

Yeesh.

I thought he was Lebanese.

 

[Chrinik]

I think it´s okay, I remember one part in Brothers in Arms hells highway, where an Irish or Scottish tank commander talked to Baker and his men about how he´s gonna help him get through this "shithole"...he has such a strong accent that all the main characters are confused as to what he want´s from them, and shrug when he rolls off...
They also had a british guy in there who always kept shouting "You´re a lucky yank, Baker." and always had his british accent...it worked, because it FINALY showed that there weren´t only americans in the DDay invasion, and it was also quite pleasing to listen too, aswell as a good vehicle for jokes like the scene I mentioned above, which lightened the mood somewhat after a particulary gruesome firefight.
Also of course, that guy in Reach, with his scottish accent.

Now going to my native language, german, there isn´t any variety at all...all voice actors speak pretty much perfect high-german if they aren´t a joke character or in a comedy point and click game anyway, and it´s quite unnerving.
Sure, you wanna make it understandable for the general audience, but the original game, let´s say GTA4, also has Mexicans, Italians, Slavic, American, English, Asian, Texan, Deep-south, NewYork and what ever characters in it, all with their own accents.
And then the german dub would throw it all away (note that GTA games, and I guess most Rockstar games don´t get dubbed, just subbed, that´s why it´s hypothetical)...

But a game magazine said on this issue that in "Baldur´s Gate" you could make a bloke who talked in a heavy-saxon accent, which would be quite nice, actually.

I still remember the RE 4 merchant with his "whot´re you boyin?" accent...RE games also only get subbed BTW...

So, I´m all for it...and I think in RPGs, you should be able to give your character an accent of your choosing during dialog...it would require recording all the lines in the suitable accent, and maybe even with different people for different styles of voices, but it would be nice to hear...
"Oi mate, oi´m gettin nothin´ outta thays longsword mate...troi sellin it?"

 

[Ordinaryundone]

I like accents, even goofy ones. They can make characters more memorable. Like the Merchant from RE4, or Atlas and his kelly green brogue from Bioshock. They weren't particularly unique or outstanding characters, but their accents added a lot despite being somewhat silly.

 

[skywolfblue]

I don't have a problem with absurdly incorrect accents. Though it tends to make the effect more comedic then serious, so if they were going for serious they should probably make the accent at least reasonably close.

For example, TF2 and World of Warcraft had some awesome over-exaggerated silly accents, and the game was better because of it.

 

[Dylan Hentchel]

The best use for accents is to section NPCs, this requires a game to put importance to origin, it also requires consistency in accent.

Example: The people from the north are at war with the people from the south, you encounter in the south an army general with a northern accent, it is subtle but definitely northern. If you inquire enough you find out that he although he was born in the north he supports the views of the south.

Naturally it can be used to build flavor and immersion, but the above is the most powerful way to use it. Also, it can be really helpful to build city flavor, if a city has many different accents, it sets up for a very open society in the area. Whereas if everyone is using the same accent of the same language, it implies the city is less tolerant to diversity.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

Mercenaries 2 is an example of accents gone wrong. I played for perhaps an hour and in that time, I heard Irish, Swedish, American AND Australian accents. That is trying way to hard to include everyone.

The thing I found most grating about that is they took a dignified Chinese officer and made him the worst Asian stereotype.

 

[ChupathingyX]

The thing I found most grating about that is they took a dignified Chinese officer and made him the worst Asian stereotype.

Which is strange because in the first Mercenaries game, Col. Peng was voiced by James Hong, who did not voice him in a stereotypical manner at all, and was actually very calm and intelligent.

Not only did Peng's voice actor change in Mercenaries 2, but even his physique changed between games, maybe he did some exercises but I was quite surprised at how much he had changed between games.

The same thing happened with Fiona Taylor; her voice actor too, changed for the worst.

The three main mercenaries were all fine though, all of their voice actors matched their in game accents fine.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

Not only did Peng's voice actor change in Mercenaries 2, but even his physique changed between games, maybe he did some exercises but I was quite surprised at how much he had changed between games.

The same thing happened with Fiona Taylor; her voice actor too, changed for the worst.

If you want a bad example of character swapping, check out the Condemned series. It's almost impossible to link any of the characters from the first game to their sequel appearance without hearing their names.

 

[octafish]

Game developers, if you want your characters to be Australians, please hire Australians to do the voices. Just get some backpackers, they will work cheap. That said don't try and add accents (even completely accurate accents) where they don't fit. Did anyone else see the Australian version of the latest SOCOM Sony game? Hilarious!

 

[Danceofmasks]

Game developers, if you want your characters to be Australians, please hire Australians to do the voices. Just get some backpackers, they will work cheap. That said don't try and add accents (even completely accurate accents) where they don't fit. Did anyone else see the Australian version of the latest SOCOM Sony game? Hilarious!

Well, fair enough .. although even when they do, sometimes it's still a bit off.
Miranda from ME2 pronounces a fair few words in a manner no australian would .. unless they've lived abroad so long they've forgotten how we pronounce them over here.

 

[ChupathingyX]

Game developers, if you want your characters to be Australians, please hire Australians to do the voices. Just get some backpackers, they will work cheap. That said don't try and add accents (even completely accurate accents) where they don't fit. Did anyone else see the Australian version of the latest SOCOM Sony game? Hilarious!

Or even better, being aware of the fact that not all Australians talk like that and have the same accent.