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Everyone communicates. It’s something we need to do. Whether it’s a simple wave, a quick wink, or even a full-length conversation. We all do it. Cats, pigs, monkeys, even flowers (no they don’t talk, but they do attract bees to come to them by being colourful!). Not only is it real life beings that communicate, but also games characters do to. Some have no voice; some can speak fluent English. But exactly what thought goes into what accent a character speaks in, and how does this effect their characteristics?
Most non-fictional games really don’t need much thought or imagination on deciding how a character speaks. It’s all there for the producer. For instance, characters in games like Medal Of Honour will almost certainly take the voice of the real life counterpart they are based on. For example, you wouldn’t expect to walk up to a German soldier and here him say ‘Och ey the noo! Kill the wee laddy!’ now would you? And I’m sure developers never even dream of putting that in such games. It would make the game unrealistic and the creators would be laughed at so hard that all the hospital waiting lists would be taken up with people diagnosed with hysteria. So it’s pretty obvious then that a developer making a non-fictional game must get it right, and therefore has limitations on how they can develop the characters speech.
However, sometimes characters are not based on an individual. Take Max Payne. He wasn’t meant to be anyone we know, just a brand new character. So now the developer has a choice. Does the character have an accent that is stereo typical of his appearance, or something completely unexpected? Most likely a character like Max Payne would pick up the voice style of a typical American, but supposing he had an Irish accent. This would probably mean a whole new story line, including different characters and events. And imagine the designer at Rockstar really did want Max Payne to have an Irish accent. The Max Payne we all know could have been totally different!
Sometimes, well quite a lot of the times, games aren’t set in our world. Take Final Fantasy. None of the 10 games have been set in our universe, and I expect any additions in the future will follow this trend. So if these games aren’t set in our world then how come most of the characters speak exactly like us? Surely in order to get the real feel of fantasy then some fantastical new language or accent could have been conjured up? Well yes, maybe. But if we want to understand what they are saying then it does have to be some sort of English. However the new Final Fantasy 10 has a character that speaks with an American pronunciation. This may be due to the fact that the voice actors who did the voices were American, but that’s no excuse. Everyone can put on a voice, and maybe if the accents used in FF10 were altered to sound less recognized then maybe FF10 would have been an even greater fantastical experience.
Not all producers get it wrong though. The brilliant voices used in Jak and Daxter really captured the experience the game offered. Not only were they understandable but also they distinguished every character and clearly showed a step away from the everyday voices we hear all the time.
Quite clever things can be fashioned using accents. Take Metal Gear Solid 2. Almost every one favoured Solid Snake over the girly Raiden. Some say Hideo Kojima shouldn’t have used Raiden at all and just kept Snake. However it seems Raiden was manufactured so that the contrast could clearly be seen between the mighty Snake and the puny Raiden, hence showing the power of Snake. This doesn’t just show through appearance. Clearly Raiden had an almost feminine, ‘spoilt brat’ type voice. On the other hand Snake had a grisly, hard-guy tone. So here, a great method using the accents was used to show a comparison in characters. Clever.
Sometimes voices can get on your nerves. So wouldn’t it be good if you could choose your own? Well some games do give you this option. Take Worms Armageddon. This gave you the choice of all the accents under the sun. From ‘American Sports Dude’ to the very funny Welsh style voice. It had them all. Not only did this give variety, it also meant that the tone could be changed to something the gamer found funny rather than irritating. This was also the case in Ready 2 Rumble Round 2. Hopefully we will see more of this in future games so that the player can have the accent that suits their characteristic rather than some whinging American.. Who knows, there could even be an option to get your own voice in the game in the near future. Lets see shall we.
Thanks for reading.
Nath.
Most non-fictional games really don’t need much thought or imagination on deciding how a character speaks. It’s all there for the producer. For instance, characters in games like Medal Of Honour will almost certainly take the voice of the real life counterpart they are based on. For example, you wouldn’t expect to walk up to a German soldier and here him say ‘Och ey the noo! Kill the wee laddy!’ now would you? And I’m sure developers never even dream of putting that in such games. It would make the game unrealistic and the creators would be laughed at so hard that all the hospital waiting lists would be taken up with people diagnosed with hysteria. So it’s pretty obvious then that a developer making a non-fictional game must get it right, and therefore has limitations on how they can develop the characters speech.
However, sometimes characters are not based on an individual. Take Max Payne. He wasn’t meant to be anyone we know, just a brand new character. So now the developer has a choice. Does the character have an accent that is stereo typical of his appearance, or something completely unexpected? Most likely a character like Max Payne would pick up the voice style of a typical American, but supposing he had an Irish accent. This would probably mean a whole new story line, including different characters and events. And imagine the designer at Rockstar really did want Max Payne to have an Irish accent. The Max Payne we all know could have been totally different!
Sometimes, well quite a lot of the times, games aren’t set in our world. Take Final Fantasy. None of the 10 games have been set in our universe, and I expect any additions in the future will follow this trend. So if these games aren’t set in our world then how come most of the characters speak exactly like us? Surely in order to get the real feel of fantasy then some fantastical new language or accent could have been conjured up? Well yes, maybe. But if we want to understand what they are saying then it does have to be some sort of English. However the new Final Fantasy 10 has a character that speaks with an American pronunciation. This may be due to the fact that the voice actors who did the voices were American, but that’s no excuse. Everyone can put on a voice, and maybe if the accents used in FF10 were altered to sound less recognized then maybe FF10 would have been an even greater fantastical experience.
Not all producers get it wrong though. The brilliant voices used in Jak and Daxter really captured the experience the game offered. Not only were they understandable but also they distinguished every character and clearly showed a step away from the everyday voices we hear all the time.
Quite clever things can be fashioned using accents. Take Metal Gear Solid 2. Almost every one favoured Solid Snake over the girly Raiden. Some say Hideo Kojima shouldn’t have used Raiden at all and just kept Snake. However it seems Raiden was manufactured so that the contrast could clearly be seen between the mighty Snake and the puny Raiden, hence showing the power of Snake. This doesn’t just show through appearance. Clearly Raiden had an almost feminine, ‘spoilt brat’ type voice. On the other hand Snake had a grisly, hard-guy tone. So here, a great method using the accents was used to show a comparison in characters. Clever.
Sometimes voices can get on your nerves. So wouldn’t it be good if you could choose your own? Well some games do give you this option. Take Worms Armageddon. This gave you the choice of all the accents under the sun. From ‘American Sports Dude’ to the very funny Welsh style voice. It had them all. Not only did this give variety, it also meant that the tone could be changed to something the gamer found funny rather than irritating. This was also the case in Ready 2 Rumble Round 2. Hopefully we will see more of this in future games so that the player can have the accent that suits their characteristic rather than some whinging American.. Who knows, there could even be an option to get your own voice in the game in the near future. Lets see shall we.
Thanks for reading.
Nath.
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I got the game now. very good. Cant wait to play blitzball. I must say i was actually very impressed on how the characters in different towns speak. Like Wakka and the blitzball people speak a kinda cross between canadian and jamaican. So i think from what i see FF10 has done quite a good job on this subject.
No i didn't know that. And i haven't got the game yet so i can t say yet...sorry. Played the demo though :D
What do you think of the game?
Its my first FF and it has taken a little time to adjust - its quite regimented, isn't it? There isn't much scope for exploration. As for Tidus, did you know the person who does his voice also does Fry, in Futurama?
Its my first FF and it has taken a little time to adjust - its quite regimented, isn't it? There isn't much scope for exploration. As for Tidus, did you know the person who does his voice also does Fry, in Futurama?
Yer i was gonna say something about those people in FFX. U have to unlock some sort of translator to understand them? Not to sure i haven't got it yet. But good point. the thing i really would have like to have seen though in FF10 is maybe a new accent for Tidus rather than American cool guy.
Another good post...
Just got FFX today, and your point about why games being set in another world should speak like us is answered to a certain extent, as the Al Bhed (sp?) people speak another language. Its definitely a feature I'd like to see more of. Shenmue 2 had Japanese with subtitles, and I thought it worked great (though later I found out they did it because they couldn't be fussed to translate it!)
Just got FFX today, and your point about why games being set in another world should speak like us is answered to a certain extent, as the Al Bhed (sp?) people speak another language. Its definitely a feature I'd like to see more of. Shenmue 2 had Japanese with subtitles, and I thought it worked great (though later I found out they did it because they couldn't be fussed to translate it!)
If you were a games character Asher...I'd want your to speak like a goon...so everyone hates you...but i'm sure text base voices would do just aswell.
Natbuc is ho-lay...
Natbuc is gay...
see, this slang thing works.
Natbuc is gay...
see, this slang thing works.
MattHen wrote:
> ....hmmm not sure what it could suggest.......
>
> but anyway chosing the voice of a character could be interesting, you
> could chose a voice from what part of the country you come
> from....just imagine a brummy Snake, or Scottish Daxter!!
Hmm interesting.....i can imagine.... "Jak yeh wee laddy, get mah some anti weasel eco"
> ....hmmm not sure what it could suggest.......
>
> but anyway chosing the voice of a character could be interesting, you
> could chose a voice from what part of the country you come
> from....just imagine a brummy Snake, or Scottish Daxter!!
Hmm interesting.....i can imagine.... "Jak yeh wee laddy, get mah some anti weasel eco"
....hmmm not sure what it could suggest.......
but anyway chosing the voice of a character could be interesting, you could chose a voice from what part of the country you come from....just imagine a brummy Snake, or Scottish Daxter!!
but anyway chosing the voice of a character could be interesting, you could chose a voice from what part of the country you come from....just imagine a brummy Snake, or Scottish Daxter!!
yer so thats why if your gonna use voices you gotta do it well or give the gamer a choice of voices that thye want. However this has only been seen in comedy games...which may suggest something...
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