I agree!
I’d definetly love to see some old english!
Let’s face it…a guy who purchases this game already isn’t the average gamer (in a good way), so it wouldn’t be frightened by the presence of a harder version of the current english language.
Using old english would create a much deeper immersion and also be a challenge for the gamer, to understand every character
Yes, because the reason for me to play story-based games is to decipher what the eff is that guy trying to say 
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Old English would be nice for immersion, and would really make a difference with other games.
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I strongly support old English. It creates atmosphere.
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The sample dialogue just didn’t sound very good, and even Dan says as much. But, it’s just placeholder stuff. Shakespearean or otherwise, all that matters is that it sounds like it flows realistically without coming off as forced.
Ok, then let’s use this
As someone suggested in the other language thread
Not that old but also not that recent.
Better to understand since closer to modern English but still archaic enough. 
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In this case, it’s about 600 years. Besides, Bohemian population speaking poorly written and voiced old english - and I’m yet to see a videogame which would pull the archaic english feel well, by the way - feels wrong regardless.
I just don’t understand the argument about perceieved authenticity. The english using a bunch of archaisms might sound like a cool idea, but there are only minimal practical benefits to it, and a LOT of potential downfalls.
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Actual Shakespearean English is also fine (though completely the wrong period), but again, they’d have to put in the work to get it right. I’ve heard Early Modern English dialogue written by people who did enough research to make it sound authentic, and it doesn’t sound like the dialogue in the video. I’m not opposed but I don’t really think it’s worth the extra effort
Ok, you say Early Modern English now would be too far from what was shown in the video. Then maybe use Early Modern English sprinkled with some Middle English words here and there (in the vein of Modern English with “thou”, “thy”, etc.) to keep a more archaic vibe. Would also feel more natural because I don’t think there was some guy pulling a lever and all of a sudden all people were speaking another form of English. 
So this would reflect that it’s a language in transition.
Of course, I thought of other words than “thou”, “thy”, etc. taken from Middle English. The example in brackets was to show how it’s done most of the time, just to get the idea of the concept.
What’s confusing about Chaucer is not the spoken language but the pre-Johnson totally-crazy spelling*. Besides at the turn of the fifteenth century we are on the cusp of the court document reforms of Henry V which combined regional English into one unified language of court and marked the birth of modern English and the end of Middle.
*Seriously just spell it normally and it becomes a lot more understandable even if you can’t get the occasional word
"When that April with his showers sweet
The drought of March has pierced to the root
and bathed every vein in sweet liquor
of which “vertu”(first word that has no easy translation) engenders(a real word!) the flower"
Chaucer isn’t really that hard to understand once you get past the fact that there was no homogenised English spelling before ~1750…
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I liked the sound of the talking in the stream cause it had some extinct words mixed in with some modern ones. I don’t think it was overdone at all.
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I too liked the sound and the feel of the spoken words in the livestream. It did feel right for the setting.
The very idea that people noticed the feel of the placeholder language tells that it drew their attention.
I see that some of it is bad, but in my humble opinion it is just people nitpicking at the non-professional voice acting (which was not that bad. I do not want to get even started on AAA games with voice acting which is 10 scales lower than this one).
Anything which brings in an ‘older’ feel to the game would be a plus. Don’t start nitpicking at every corner, since there are so many other things which just CAN’T be done the way they felt/looked like in that age (appart from language). And not only for the lack of programming skills but for the sheer lack of accurate historical data. Hell, even today people around the world do not know what is going on in the countries different than their own (even neighboring ones), and would swallow whatever the “educated” people tell them in the news, analysis and such.
Damn I went off on a tangent.
Anyway I loved the introduction of the old-sounding English, and even though not perfect they DID say it is just a placeholder. I suppose it could be done in a more consistent way, even if the langauge itself is invented for the purpose and does not precisely fit 15. c. spoken English (this is where I can get back to the fact that we just DON’T really KNOW how people actually spoke back then).
In conclustion, whatever is decided in the end, I do hope we do not go with a clean contemporary English, since that would, I fear, spoil the feel of the game era/age.
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I’ll agree for English Ex-Pats in Prague their voice acting was surprisingly very good, not quite to industry standard but non the less very good indeed.
I do feel that the ‘Old-English’ style of speaking would be a nice touch to the game it may not hold with it’s local in Bohemia but none the less we are selling this game to a international community and English is an International language. Not that Czech or West Slavic isn’t a nice language it’s just not a commonly spoken global language there are about 10 to 15 mill speakers of it atm.
Im not going to use english voice in the game so its not my problem, but thinking about what the english dubbing in this game theoreticaly is, will maybe help.
In my opinion the englisch dubbing is a translation for the english speaking people in front of the pc, who are unable to understand the language the people in the game actually speaking (old czech/german). So it is a translation for people who speak 21th century english.
Would you also use old english for the dubbing of a realistic medieval rpg which plays in japan? If not, why use it for bohemia?
Your whole post seems to read “If you did not want to make Czech language support, why give any understandable support for the rest of the world as well”
This is the really not the best comparison you could have put up.
Multitude of reasons, so many they cannot be all named but let me give you just one:
Japan is an eastern culture nation/country, completely separated from the west, historically and linguistically (although in all honesty I would not mind a Japanese medeival voiced game with subtitles probably). Whereas the languages in these areas were so influenced by one another that it is not difficult to get the feel of the time by using a language majority of players can relate to and understand (ie. English). Shifting it backwards in time a bit (however unprecisely), can help in bringing in the feel of the times past.
As for the dubbing you got it all in reverse:
“Dubbing is a post-production process in which additional or supplementary recording occurs after the original recording stage.”
This game will be made in English originally, so any other language would be a dubbing of it, not the other way around.
So the people in the game will actually speak English, and other languages would be made as a dubbing for people who cannot understand it.
P.S. I live in Czech republic, and I am of Slavic origin so I am not defending English because I do not speak other langauges, to be clear. It is just a fact of life that English is more widespread and used than Slavic languages (and much easier to learn, at that).
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Don’t thou them as thous thee!
Whatever that meant…
I still think that the comparison with japan is valid. But ok … What about an Reconquista rpg? Would you give the christian knights old english voice?
The direction of dubbing is still matter of discussion. (At least I hope so)
I am aware of the fact “that English is more widespread and used”. Therefore I would suggest to make the dubbing in English. It is more widespread, used and much easier to learn then old english…
If the reason for English to be chosen as the prime game language is that it “is more widespread and used” then why not use Chinese? There are much more native speakers of Chinese than English 
Anyway I would stand for the Authentic approach, with characters speaking Czech, German (if not medieval dialects, then their modern standard versions) and Latin. The ‘Shakespearean version’ could be a good idea as for the atmosphere, but again, rather for native English speakers only.
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