What a strange, strange thread!
First we have Olaf getting a bit carried away and insisting: “Seriously, who ever cast and approved this voice needs to find a new job. Its that bad.”
Now, while I agree about the badness—what can you possibly know about who should get a new job? Was the person under incredible time and resource pressure and agreed to what ever he/she could get? Might they learn from this experience?
Never ever, suggest, even allusively that someone should be fired—you have no idea of the circumstances under which they made the decision they did.
But everyone420 makes even this somewhat over the top post seem like the height of wisdom. Apparently, anyone who cannot produce a better product should shut up, get over it, and accept what they have got.
Let me clue you in eo420, I run a business. The fact that my customers could not produce the products I sell them does not, believe it or not, make their opinions irrelevant! There is no faster way to be out of business in a hurry than to tell your customers that, since they can’t produce the product you are selling them, they should shut up.
Now personally, there is much I enjoy about Beyond Divinity. As a result, I am going to complain about what I don’t like, and not announce, which would be untrue, that I hate Larian; am going to return this game; or I will never buy a Larian product again. Instead I am going to explain something I don’t like—and frankly I don’t care how many tries they took at it—if it doesn’t make it for me, I am going to say so. Not in the hope of getting a third voiceover, but in the hope, that future games will devote more effort to the issue.
This may be shocking to you eo420, but in my business, it is results, and not effort that matters. I expect the same is true in computer gaming.
Now, buliwyf complains that a search would show that there were already many complaints of this kind. Sorry, completely irrelevant. If a company sets up a feedback forum, it is presumably because they want feedback. Further, I know in my business, it is the number of customers that have a complaint, and not the originality of the complaint that matters. If enough complain, then I realize that I have to respond, whatever my opinion.
Now, in a separate vein, I notice that some seem to think that it is odd to expect professional quality performances in game voiceovers. Well, it isn’t. Many game companies hire both well-known actors, and though less well known, highly successful, voiceover specialists with many first rate game and other voice work to their credit. Many games do not have the amateur hour feel of the DK voiceover.
Now I am not insisting my position cannot be disagreed with. I can understand people who say they though the voice was just fine. I can understand people who feel that quality voiceover isn’t where the resources should go.
However, only fanboys/fangirls insist that anyone who complains should shut up and get over it. Such comments virtually define the term fanboy in my opinion.
PS. This is a complaint about some posters. Larian is one of the most admirable firms in the business in terms of listening and responding to fans.
