Poll: Voiceovers, accents and archaic language

Story & Setting
#24

I voted for the 2nd one because it most closely matches my preferred choice of the three. I don’t think Shakespearean English is necessarily the best fit for this setting, and I do think in order for this game to be the most accessible to the most people, it ought to at least be in English with other options available.

At the same time, I think Dan has the right idea in mind in going for something fairly modern without being too modern. I don’t think it benefits from having a bunch of present-day slang, for example, so if there are chances for various words that were more common from the period to be inserted, that feels like a good middle ground.

As far as accents go, there are absolutely people who can be hired that do not have a specific regional accent (such as Texan, or further, Southern California surfer). Immersion is important, but whether it’s a slightly British accent, a slightly German or Czech one, or just English with no true accent, as long as it sounds decent I’m not going to care too much. We can find any game out there with lots of voice actors and gripe about one or two of them sounding off, but what matters more to me is how good the dialogue itself is and how well the lines are delivered. We have to remember that in the end, the people hired to voice specific characters end up hired because the game’s creators probably think they sound right for those characters.

6 Likes
#25

I think you should still have the relevant people speak Latin… when they would back then.

If we walk into a service in church let the relevant parts be in Latin and the same if someone is saying their Patrenostre and Ave Maria.

And any other persons who should be speaking an an language Henry can’t understand, do the same. use the real language. (sure that might mean the player understand it, but that would just be fun)

I also think HBOs TV series Deadwood did it well.

here is what Wiki have on it:
Use of profanity[edit]
From its debut, Deadwood drew attention for its extensive profanity. It is a deliberate anachronism on the part of the creator with a twofold intent. Milch explained in several interviews that the characters were originally intended to use period slang and swear words. Such words, however, were based heavily on the era’s deep religious roots and tended to be more blasphemous than scatological. Instead of being shockingly crude (in keeping with the tone of a frontier mining camp), the results sounded downright comical. As Geoffrey Nunberg put it “… if you put words like ‘goldarn’ into the mouths of the characters on ‘Deadwood’, they’d all wind up sounding like Yosemite Sam.”[8]
Instead, it was decided that the show would use current profanity in order for the words to have the same impact on modern audiences as the blasphemous ones did back in the 1870s. In early episodes, the character of Mr. Wu excessively uses “cocksucker,” his favorite derogatory term for those whom he dislikes. Wu is also fond of the Cantonese derogatory term “gweilo” which he applies to the camp’s white males.
The other intent in regard to the frequency of the swearing was to signal to the audience the lawlessness of the camp in much the same way that the original inhabitants used it to show that they were living outside the bounds of “civil society”.
The issue of the authenticity of Deadwood’s dialogue has even been alluded to in the show itself. Early in the second season, E.B. Farnum has fleeced Mr. Wolcott of $9,900, and Farnum tries to console the geologist:
EB: Some ancient Italian maxim fits our situation, whose particulars escape me.
Wolcott: Is the gist that I’m shit outta luck?
EB: Did they speak that way then?
The word “fuck” is said 43 times in the first hour of the show.[9] It has been reported that the series had a total count of 2,980 “fucks” and an average of 1.56 utterances of “fuck” per minute of footage.[10]

3 Likes
#26
2 Likes
#27

I guess I’d prefer modern English.
Just not with Czech accent. No way. That’s my accent and hearing it makes me cringe, haha.

4 Likes
#28

From what I’ve seen in the discussion about dubbing below the youtube video and elsewhere, the vast majority of complaints wasn’t about archaic/nonarchaic language, but about american accent. Almost all complaints I’ve seen were against american accent (and it seems that very often it was from Americans themselves), so your poll imo doesn’t solve the main issue/ source of the complaints.

I personaly don’t have a strong opinion about it because as a non-native speaker, I obviously don’t have such a sensitive sense for accents, but even I would prefer british accent more than american one. I think I’m not alone who considers british accent more “historical” and more fitting for a historical game. It’s partly irrational, but I think it has something to do with the fact that american english is basicaly a synonym for the mainstream most modern pop-culture, you can hear it everywhere, hence it can be little bit intrusive in a historical setting. On the opposite, british accent has this “gentleman” feel, it’s not so common (well, except for Britons xD) and hence it is more fitting for a historical game.

I don’t exactly know what you mean by “international english”. To my knowledge, there is no such thing, you will always have people with specific accents. So in relation to this, I have to strongly suggest to NOT MIX accents. If by internetional english you mean that there would be one guy with british accent, his neighbour with american accent, and his wife would be a Kiwi, then I think that big NO needs to be said to this, because it is the worst thing you can do. It would totaly ruin the immersion. It could possibly make sense to have different accents for different nationalities (i.e. czechs - british accent, germans - american…), but I personaly don’t like that idea, because it would be weird imo, especially for native speakers (“Wtf does this Aussi do here?? Ah, he is supposed to be an italian merchant…”), if you want to do something like that, then I would prefer the actual german/italian/etc accent, although i think even that would be bad.

So in my opinion, you should choose one accent and stick to it. For such a small map (small in a sense of real world) it would be stupid even to have different accents for different villages/region. And once you have to choose only one accent, I think the british accent is better than american one, and almost all people I have seen so far think so as well, so it shouldn’t be controversial at all.

To sum it up; more important than which accent you will eventually choose is to have only one accent for the whole game and no mixing. British accent according to most people, including myself, is more fitting for a historical setting. Use modern language with an archaic word here and there.

16 Likes
#29

BTW we will most likely have Czech voiceovers, so it should be possible to decide between English and Czech with subs. We will most likely have German and French as well.

22 Likes
Deutsche Let´s Plays von der Alpha
#30

After playing 0.3 I was a little concerned at how much of what I was hearing was something I could hear out on the street walking around, but after revisiting the old videos with the Shakespearean English I was confused.

Its like the TPV debate someone is going to feel left out and upset.

The way I see it most people are gamers v.s. historians yes there are those that one full historical reenactment but there’s allot of us backers who would be lost.

So I like the placeholders but I am curious at how much of the crass language would have been spoken and how often? sometimes it seems like curse words were being thrown simply because “we could”.

2 Likes
#31

It is a little bit Off-Topic, but now I want to ask,
is the spokesman for Henry already clear?
And it is still the same person/voice as in the publisher version?

1 Like
#32

I would prefer modern modern international english with some some archaic words/phrases here and here, since i fear it would be hard as a non english native to understand pure archaic language. I’d like a subtitle option for it and it may be nice to have a subtitle in archaic/shaskesperean english option as well as it may be fun as well as educative.

1 Like
#33

Modern English, with lots archaic phrases and words mixed in, in czech accent.

4 Likes
#34

I am American, and I beg of you to avoid putting my accent in this game. Please do anything else, just no American accent! Hearing my accent in this game mentally takes me out of 1400s Europe, and puts me in some role-playing village at the renaissance fair in West Virginia. It completely ruins the immersion for me. Please no American accent! Please!! I personally prefer to hear the accents of the specific country the story is taking place in. Dan… I love your accent! Use Dan’s accent! Anything but American. I also like when there is a mixture of accent and native language (think Ezio in Assassin’s Creed 2). Ezio would speak English with an Italian accent and then use real Italian words mixed in the dialogue (this is just an example, but something you might consider). For me, and all my American friends/family, if we hear American accents in a European setting, then its not a European setting. Americans don’t even speak real English, we just make things up as we go. Haha! If you fail me then at least I have the option of listening to Czech and reading English subtitles. Thanks guys!

24 Likes
#35

I say stay true to the native Czech or which ever language is meant to be spoken, according to the lore as the place it is set with the people there and all the realistic features according. That is nice and also having touches of realistic swearing and partly Shakespearean or just old English, would suit very well in my opinion.
What ever it comes out as, grammar and proper execution is critical. As this is most certainly a very important aspect of the game.
I do hope you get people involved with proper down-to-earth and gritty voices, or those who can put on such voices. Those who suit as such, and ones with a wide variety of skill at that. :speech_balloon:

2 Likes
#36

modern english just sounds really weird, I prefer either the local dialects or Shakespeare english at least. I’d even like Czech with subtitles.

3 Likes
#37

Ha Ha got it…
If you talk to a person who starts a animation or interact with object,
you can be a lucky guy and see the dialogues in the 1st person view :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
AND for me, it is very awesome and much better.
Not only for atmoshere, for performance too!
Last thing i want to say about the Dialogues, languages, etc. :blush:

#38

I prefer original (czech and german or latin - I mean, it is strong for story to use Henry speaks czech to some people and german or latin to others (not only Henry)) - old version of language is not necessary.
My second preference is author’s version in english (strong actor)

I do not like more language version, but average quality each

(I get it: majority czech voiceovers and supplementary german, latin is cheaper; both (original, english) can not have motioncapture; more language version is good for sales = it’s still Sophie’s Choice)

2 Likes
#39

I’d be very disappointed to see it in Czech only as that would remove me from any real immersion since I’m stuck looking down at the bottom of the screen listening to (what is to me) gibberish. English while keeping it a bit archaic sounds great.

I kinda liked the idea of shakespearian touch, but it might proboably come out a bit forced so the second option is for me.

#40

Same opinion here. That would be the most accurate option

#41

I chose the second option, though I would also prefer British accents - not a big thing, though.

1 Like
#42

Noice! :flushed:
Based on the fact it is to be a production for this era I would say modern international English with a smattering of period language or complete phrases, rather than the occasional word thrown in. I think you may get away with more archaic english for written, in-game elements than spoken language.

Personally as a native speaker I have no problem with accented English where it is obvious the speaker is German/Czech/Hungarian/not a native speaker, to the contrary I like hearing different accents; however, my French is very basic from lack of use and German is on a par with my Urdu (yeah it’s like that).

I’m not opposed to subtitled translations but how well would this be received by the playerbase at large? Where it appears to be mostly disliked.

#43

It isn’t available but thank you,
to avoid emotional interpretations fail, it is the best solution.
(And I hope it is understandable, what I mean.)
But this one stands alone again.
No one will be able to understand and is something that no one understands.
Sorry but i think the localization will be… bad, in some situations!

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