Your way of commenting sounds like a hysterical woman.
I myself am a Czech, but -sorry- i find Czech accent of English language quite repulsive and irrelevant for the game… From my point of view; if the game is to be dubbed English, the most appealing (and logical) accent would be British rural accent for peasantry and posh or formal accent for highborns.
If the game is going to be English-ised, those two accents would be the most suitable alternatives of the local language in the 15th century i guess.
I will leave you your clear opinion. Mine is that going through lengths to make game setting as realistic as possible then introducing British voice acting would be odd to say the least. My choice would be to have the game developers do the voice acting for the Czech characters.
I think; if we would struggle to get the most realism into the game, it should never be dubbed English. But IF it’s going to be dubbed in English, British accent is the closest one (considering that in 15th century there were not much other English accents than British). Just a though.
Nobody in Bohemia have spoken English back then, i believe.
You’ve heard how terrible the developers sound in the dev diaries already, and you want that quality of voice acting in the game?
ANYTHING but American.
2 Likes
No, but early 20th century Czech and German is surely possible without bankruptcy.
That’s what I’m trying to say all the time. Not too old, not too new. 
English will be there no matter what.
But players can toggle in menu, English or Authentic^^ (with subtitles of course). 
Here, watch this!
Omg!
Did you read the thread at all?
Did you read what Freix said?
English in Bohemia is UNREALISTIC!
Know why? Because they speak Czech there, that’s why!
So if they have to speak English then PROPER English!
Yeah, sure, and you obviously don’t know what LOGIC is!
But no problem, I just explained it to you.
You learn new things every day.
I’m definitely not against it. It is for sure that there will be also german dubbing and for 90% even czech dubbing (but probably some time after release - Dan’s words). And it’s definitely more fitting and more accurate concerning the game setting, yet not even close to the actual language they spoke those times and hence still unrealistic. I was just replying to the ridiculous claims about czenglish as a realistic language in the game.
And little footnote: I can’t speak german, so i don’t know it’s early 20th century version, but I know the czech one. It sounds quite funny to todays people, and no Czech would associate it with middle ages, more likely with political speeches from documents about WW 1 and 2. Kinda breake an immersion, so in my opinion this is no actual option.
[Cerberus] “English in Bohemia is unrealistic … because they speak Czech there. So if they have to speak English then proper English!”
Yes, very logical … whahaha
It’s not the different opinion, but the way it’s put forward I object to (“OMG! Did you read the thread at all?!”).
The video you link in your post shows someone who can’t speak English very well …
But what does that demonstrate? That all Czech people speak English like this? I can perfectly understand all the devs when they speak English and I find their accent charming and useful to create the right immersion in game.
Definitely not, no czech or any other funky accent. I would like some hictoric accent, though.
i prefer british accent.
What he’s trying to say, which I thought had already been made adamantly clear earlier in the thread, is that you can’t really make the language realistic, so you do a complete swap of languages; [old-Czech] = [English]. This swap has already been specified and is for all intents and purposes written in stone, I hope we can at least agree with this. Anyway, if every instance of old-Czech is to be replaced with English, it makes sense that the natives of the region would speak it fluently. Most foreign accents aren’t just minor regional differences, they’re legitimate difficulties actually speaking a language correctly, and it’s obvious - this is what a lot of people don’t want. All Czech accents I’ve heard to date fall in this category, they’re simply nowhere near sounding like a regional or class related difference within the English language, it sounds like what it is, someone who is not used to forming the words they’re forming and failing to do it properly.
I’m not saying there’s nothing to be said for a Czech accent (though in my mind it would have to be a very mild accent), but I think it would subtract from the experience rather than add to it. As an additional point, I believe that being well understood should be top priority, and I can tell you from personal experience that without exposure to the specific accent in question, it’s often very difficult to understand a foreign accent for quite a while before you get used to it. Being Norwegian and living in Britain I’ve had this problem many times as I was constantly exposed to various British accents growing up, but had for all intents and purposes never heard an Indian accent of English (which is extremely common here, especially when you call up a company) until I got here and it was completely and utterly incomprehensible to me for a very long time. That’s something that I’d very much want to avoid in a game!
In conclusion I think British English is the safer, more inclusive choice of accent that will allow everyone to understand what is being said without subtitles (which breaks immersion in my opinion, at least if they must be referred to constantly). I can understand the argument to want the Czech accent to better “place” it in your mind, though I don’t believe this would apply to most people as most of them wouldn’t automatically be able to place the accent anyway, but arguing that the Czech accent is somehow more “authentic” or “realistic” is utterly kidding yourselves.
Edit: Sorry, I didn’t realise this had gotten this long - I was simply trying to be clear, but somehow it ended up overly wordy.
1 Like
Gratitude for at least bothering to write something sensible. Where in my comments did you find me state that English with Czech or German accent is most realistic? I think it’s the most suitable choice and one that creates most immersive gameplay (with little playability impact). I mean English with a mild Czech accent, like the devs. This is a period in which even the next town’s folk spoke with a different tongue (most commoners did not travel far and different towns had different words to express the same thing). So to state that every Czech character in game should speak with the same English accent is nonsense. Therefore there should be a variety in accents. I hope for consencus on this one. It’s also part of gameplay … learn and adapt to new surroundings.
That bit wasn’t really aimed at you specifically, it’s just something that’s been prevalent earlier in the thread. For example:
Etc.
As for mild accents I’d just like to point out that your example of the devs is exactly why I’d be worried about this. To me, that’s not a mild accent, it’s legitimately difficult to understand on occasion. Yes, most of the time it’s OK, but there were multiple times I had to rewind and listen again to understand, and others have expressed the same. If you’re somehow used to hearing a Czech (or similar) accent, it’s considerably easier to decipher than if you haven’t, which makes it difficult to use any “non-standard” English accent without causing difficulties for at least part of your audience. This is incidentally why most cases of French/Russian/Scottish accents work as most people have heard them, although you’ll no doubt find some people who have difficulties with them as well.
I prefer old czech accent - for authentic experience.
Part of immersive gameplay is dealing with people who speak another tongue. Not something to be afraid of, but to regard as part of RPG challenge. The character you play chose to leave his home and explore the world he lives in, so embrace the challenge of language and accents. If you watch this series, you will see what I mean. They don’t speak Norse all the time.
In that case… we should have foregin languages and NO subtitles, don’t you think? Part of dealing with people speaking another tongue is communication issues, what if that viking couldn’t speak the britons’ language? Well, it would most likely have had the same outcome anyway, but…
And how many foreign languages are there in Bohemia? Czech is foregin to me, so Henry speaking Czech or with English with a Czech accent will be foreign, and I won’t really notice whenever other people are speaking in Czech in different dialects and accent. Only Czechs will notice that, and things like that don’t translate well into subtitles anyway, so it will only matter to Czechs.
Imagine a medieval game taking place in, I dunno, Gotland, Sweden (since I’m swedish). Would you guys want people to speak Swedish, Gutnish, and Danish? Would anyone here who can’t speak any Scandinavian language be able to tell them apart? Since Wisby in Gotland was an important town of the Hanseatic League, there would probably be German traders there, and you would be able to distingish at least them from the others. Personally, I wouldn’t want a game taking place on Gotland where the main character speaks Gutnish. Maybe mostly because it doesn’t sound too cool.
Gotta say another thing as well. Of course having everyone speak in Czech would be the most accurate option for the game. People speaking in their native languages according to their setting in films is awesome. But I don’t feel it works as well in games. I don’t know why. Maybe because I’ve never thought acting in foreign languages have been that good. Maybe because how you are the protagonist in such a game, and you make all the decisions and need to hear and understand what people say in certain situations, and memorize. But in films, you are watching other people doing that for you, you don’t really need to consentrate on the same things as in a game, you can read the subtitles much easier.
I got that. That’s why the protagonist and his people should speak English, but I prefer it to be English with slight Czech accent so that it sounds like Bohemia not England of 1403. Germans and Austrians should speak German though, as should the Czech lords when they speak among themselves (so they couldn’t be overheard by commoners).
Actually, I wouldn’t mind a game set in Gotland. As you can tell, I’m quite fond of Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Tales.
There are different English accents. If a person from one part of Northumbria goes to a different part of Northumbria, perhaps over the hill, they speak a bit differently. If he goes to southern England they’ll not be able to understand him unless he speaks southern English. In some cities today they can often tell what street someone’s from by the accent.
There can be a variety of accents without them being from whole different countries. Perhaps the voice actors for Henry’s neighbours could be from the same village as Henry’s voice actor, and the people from the town from another village nearby, for example, if diversity of accents is a good enough reason to justify visiting more than one village for voice actors.
About that video: When the Vikings first arrived in Britain, them and the Anglo-Saxons could still understand each other because the languages were still similar enough Germanic languages, although they had to simplify their speech to avoid saying things that the other didn’t.
There should indeed be diversity of accents, whether game language be Czech or English or German.
I’ll stop pounding my wish of English with Czech accent, but it still holds.
Actually the main character in that TV series learned old-English from a priest that speaks old-Norse.
They took him prisoner at Lindisfarne in S01E02.