85 réponses à ce sujet

[Orian Tabris]

I don't know why, but for some bizarre reason, some members of the BSN seem to believe that the accents some characters have are "forced" or "fake". I remember reading someone actually believed Merrill's voice had a forced Welsh accent, even though it says on her wiki page that she is voiced by Eve Myles in DAII. Eve Myles being, a Welsh actor 9perhaps) best known for her role as Gwen Cooper on a show called Torchwood. If you look her up on Wikipedia, you'll see she is actually Welsh. And some people believe that the Dalish in Merrill's former clan had fake Irish accents too. There's also the Orlesians and their French accents, which people foolhardily believe to be faked.

Is it just me, or do people actually believe that BioWare would hire actors to do cheap imitation accents? Because it seems that people either don't know the difference between true accents and fake ones, or purely just want something to complain about. Please, someone correct or explain this to me.

You could do a long-winded thread about why people here don't want to be forced to listen to Orlesians doing French accents, though the clear-cut reason is that some Americans have this thing about hating the French and their accents. As someone who isn't American and has never lived in America, I find that very puzzling, but that's not the point of this little inquisitive rant, o' mine.

[MKDAWUSS]

If they're short of genuine speakers, all they need to do is head to some local TV station in whatever country they need speakers for. Seriously - VO work is what local news anchors do in their spare time.

[blueumi]

well I never knew people thought that odd

I love that anders and alistair are english voiced because i'm from the uk and most games are all american not that there is anything wrong with that it's just nice to hear

[RaenImrahl]

No need to make this into an American/French thing.  I think the key in DA3 is for the Orleasian (sp?) accents to be credible and not over-the-top.  Most of the Orleasian characters in the first two games were extreme ones-- very villainous villains and the like-- so I think their accents were extreme.  If, in DA3, we're in Orleasian territory... then I would hope we'd encounter a wider spectrum of accents.

As to the Merilll complaint, I think part of the issue is that folks in North America may not be very familiar with a Welsh accent.  A few people I know thought Merill was affecting a very bad Irish accent.  I guess Wales hasn't exported its accent as much as Ireland has.

MKDAWUSS wrote...

If they're short of genuine speakers, all they need to do is head to some local TV station in whatever country they need speakers for. Seriously - VO work is what local news anchors do in their spare time.

I'm teaching two broadcast performance classes this semseter, so this made me smile!

[LadyWench]

Huh, I didn't know this was a pet peeve in the games. I've always loved the variety of voices. Sure, some of them sound more muddled than others, but that's how people sound in real life, LOL.

My friend moved here to America from Australia when she was 18, been here years now and some people ask if she's got an Irish or British accent. So, yeah, OP, I'm going to go with people just don't recognize legitimate foreign accents very well. XD

[Blackrising]

I guess I have an advantage here, since english is not my native language, so I probably couldn't tell a fake accent from a real one in most cases.

What annoys me though are clearly over the top accents. Like Isolde.
Or, an even better example: Grünfeld Bach, a vampire hunter from the game Vampires: The Masquerade Bloodlines. He was supposed to sound like he had a german accent. Maybe I'm sensitive to it because I'm german, but goddammit, was that accent horrible. And wrong. And horrible. No German on earth is that bad at pronouncing english words.

[KiwiQuiche]

Uuuugh, I really hope I don't have to listen to that godawful Orlesian accent the whole damn game.

[Han Shot First]

People on the BSN for some odd reason seem to be very bad with accents. Besides not being able to discern which accents or fake and which ones are the real accents of a character's voice actor, they also quite often get the nation of origin wrong.

See Javik and all those threads about him sounding Jamaican.

Modifié par Han Shot First, 20 septembre 2012 - 05:14 .

[thats1evildude]

People in general are bad with accents, as about half the entries on Reality is Unrealistic will tell you.

[NUM13ER]

All too often in American media foreign accents are portrayed by actors (be it live action or voice) born outside of that country. This seems to have had the negative result of real accents being considered fake or forced. Worse still as a consequence people will hire people to fake it so it's sounds like all the other ones before hand.

As stated in the OP anyone remotely familiar with an actual Welsh accent is never going to think Merril's is fake but I think most Americans don't watch nearly as much foreign media (even if it's in English) as other nations do.

Modifié par NUM13ER, 20 septembre 2012 - 05:28 .

[Han Shot First]

NUM13ER wrote...


As stated in the OP anyone remotely familiar with an actual Welsh accent is never going to think Merril's is fake but I think most Americans don't watch nearly as much foreign media (even if it's in English) as other nations do.

I think part of the problem also is that a great number of people live outside of major urban areas, and don't get exposed to a lot of foreigners. In major U.S. cities if you work near any of the downtown or touristy areas you'll hear plenty of foreign accents. I probably get asked at least once a week for directions from someone who is visiting the U.S. from abroad.

[Plaintiff]

I find it hilarious that people cry foul over Leliana and Merrill's accents (both of which are totally genuine), but nobody ever makes a fuss about Zevran's sounding fake, even though it actually is.

[David Gaider]

Plaintiff wrote...
I find it hilarious that people cry foul over Leliana and Merrill's accents (both of which are totally genuine), but nobody ever makes a fuss about Zevran's sounding fake, even though it actually is.

Yes, it's interesting. We tend to use genuine accents whenever we can, though that's not always possible-- it's sometimes difficult to find someone with the needed accent who has both the voice we want (as in the sound of it, not just the accent), the acting ability we like and who is available. This is getting easier as we develop relationships with certain studios overseas-- for instance, it used to be a pain to record in England, but now it's actually our default and almost easier than recording in L.A.

As for the Orlesian accents, as I've said before if we have a game where a greater volume of Orlesian accents are necessary then we'll simply change our approach. We can have more varieties in the regional accents we use, as well as their intensity, since there's no need to highlight an Orlesian in such an instance as being somehow unique.

Does this mean there will be less people complaining about all the "fake" accents? Nah. Sometimes people have strange ideas about how an accent is supposed to sound. If it doesn't sound like they think it should, they think it's fake. It may very well be (chances are it's not), but that's also not necessarily a bad thing except in the minds of people who probably aren't expressing themselves very well. You don't need a justification for not liking how someone sounds, after all, regardless of how authentic their accent may or may not be.

Modifié par David Gaider, 20 septembre 2012 - 04:56 .

[Masha Potato]

Plaintiff wrote...

I find it hilarious that people cry foul over Leliana and Merrill's accents (both of which are totally genuine), but nobody ever makes a fuss about Zevran's sounding fake, even though it actually is.

nobody cares because it's just a part of hi suave

[berelinde]

People don't complain about Zevran's accent because the voice is sexy no matter what he says. The guy could read the dictionary and it would be hot.

Apologies for putting it so bluntly. It is intended as a compliment.

[Gabey5]

David Gaider wrote...

Plaintiff wrote...
I find it hilarious that people cry foul over Leliana and Merrill's accents (both of which are totally genuine), but nobody ever makes a fuss about Zevran's sounding fake, even though it actually is.

Yes, it's interesting. We tend to use genuine accents whenever we can, though that's not always possible-- it's sometimes difficult to find someone with the needed accent who has both the voice we want (as in the sound of it, not just the accent), the acting ability we like and who is available. This is getting easier as we develop relationships with certain studios overseas-- for instance, it used to be a pain to record in England, but now it's actually our default and almost easier than recording in L.A.

As for the Orlesian accents, as I've said before if we have a game where a greater volume of Orlesian accents are necessary then we'll simply change our approach. We can have more varieties in the regional accents we use, as well as their intensity, since there's no need to highlight an Orlesian in such an instance as being somehow unique.

Does this mean there will be less people complaining about all the "fake" accents? Nah. Sometimes people have strange ideas about how an accent is supposed to sound. If it doesn't sound like they think it should, they think it's fake. It may very well be (chances are it's not), but that's also not necessarily a bad thing except in the minds of people who probably aren't expressing themselves very well. You don't need a justification for not liking how someone sounds, after all, regardless of how authentic their accent may or may not be.

I think people ae confusing fake accents with heavy or aristorctatic ones, that come across as exagerated.  Having regional accents with less intensity seems like a good move.

Lastly Zevran had a great voice actor. Went well with his character

Modifié par Gabey5, 20 septembre 2012 - 05:03 .

[Sarquindi]

We're not as exposed to Welsh accents here, in the states. Not a lot of Welsh films are released here, and we see very few Welsh actors. The only two I can think of, off the top of my head, is one in Life of Brian and the other was a voice in Walk on the Wild Side (the BBC show). If I had not already spoken to Welsh people in the past, I probably would not have known that was the accent. I have never noticed any fake accents in Dragon Age, though... except for Zevran's. I never knew this was an issue.

[David Gaider]

Gabey5 wrote...
I think people ae confusing fake accents with heavy or aristorctatic ones, that come across as exagerated.  Having regional accents with less intensity seems like a good move.

Lastly Zevran had a great voice actor. Went well with his character

Yep. I didn't realize until I met Jon Curry that he was a tall, Nordic-looking man-- it was amusing, considering Zevran's appearance. Zevran was one of those situations where we turned down a number of actors with more authentic accents because they didn't have the sound we wanted.

As for the oft-maligned Isolde, her voice had the aristocratic quality we wanted-- not to mention the actress had stage training and could turn in the emotional performance we needed. The scene where she pleads for Connor's life still chokes me up when I hear it.

So, in both these cases, going for authenticity over other considerations wouldn't have given us what we wanted. Though it is a consideration even so, regardless of the fact that authenticity is something many people don't really appreciate like they seem to think they do.

[Galactus_the_Devourer]

Awww, but I loved the cheesy accents. It's one of those silly things that makes the game fun. (and the orlesian ones aren't even the only ones)

[Hateuprising]

i wonder how ppl would feel about a cajun accent in the game? an accent like gambit's in xmen the animated series(and yes i know the VA was not cajun, he is from toronto btw).

[Brockololly]

The only voice actor/characters that I kind of cringed when they spoke were Marjolaine and the Orlesian Noble bad guy in Mark of the Assassin. Not necessarily from their accent but maybe more that they ended up as somewhat villainous characters, which combined with the French accent just came across as comical.


That is one thing that bugs me with accents in World War 2 movies for instance when you have Germans speaking english with a german accent but they're supposed to be speaking german. I'm more than ok with just the actual foreign language being spoken with subtitles. Is that a possibility for Dragon Age? Just have Orlesians speak Orlesian, Tevinter speak Tevinter and so forth? Of course you'd have the problem of needing to make a language, unless you just went with French being Orlesian since thats what it seems like already.