Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Cockney goblins... Why?

Imoen actually had a Mid-western/Californian accent.

For reference, I've already brought up how immersion destroying and disrespectful to the source material it is to have *every single accent* in the entire game be English-adjacency -> https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=686843&page=1

Additionally, I think this is the greatest example of how insulting it is to the Baldur's Gate series that you get 5 different accents within the first few *minutes* of the game in BG 2, which is more than you get across the entirety of BG 3 at the moment -> https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=708249&Searchpage=1&Main=92555&Words=%2Baccent&Search=true#Post708249

English posters got defensive without reading because they assumed I disliked English accents. As opposed to my actual point, which is that I hate the fact that there only exists *one* accent in the entire game, regardless of which accent that is.

Sigh.

People keep saying this.

Tell me, which game am I describing below?


I am a proud SHIELD DWARF, and a member of the CLERIC class. My god is HELM, deity of watchers and protectors. I bear a MACE and a SHIELD, as are common for my profession. I travel through the wilds of the SWORD COAST REGION of the WESTERN HEARTLANDS of the continent of FAERUN, on the planet of TORIL. I am on my way to the city of BALDUR'S GATE. By my side are a PRIESTESS OF SHAR, evil goddess of darkness and night; and a HUMAN WIZARD, practitioner of ARCANE MAGIC; as well as an ELVEN THIEF, who can OPEN LOCKS and DISARM TRAPS among other skulduggerous skills. Recently we have done battle with OGRES, PHASE SPIDERS, ETTERCAPS, GNOLLS, SKELETONS, WORGS, HOBGOBLINS, and other dangerous creatures, using our steel and our spellcraft. Our hearts are heavy, as we have heard dark tidings about the god BHAAL, Lord of Murder.

My ABILITIES are measured in STRENGTH, DEXTERITY, CONSTITUTION, INTELLIGENCE, WISDOM, and CHARISMA. My vitality is measured in HIT POINTS, and my defense in ARMOR CLASS. When perilous effects threaten me, I make a SAVING THROW to avoid them. I grow stronger in power by gaining EXPERIENCE POINTS, allowing me to increase in LEVEL. In addition to my weapon, I use my DIVINE MAGIC to cast SPELLS such as BLESS, COMMAND, CURE LIGHT WOUNDS, PROTECTION FROM EVIL, AID, and HOLD PERSON, among others. I PREPARE these spells ahead of time, and can only use a few PER DAY. I regain them by RESTING.

The rules which govern my reality are called DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS, and the name given to the universe I inhabit is FORGOTTEN REALMS.

I think part of the reason is that it seems there's always a huge controversy whenever a game, film or TV series features English accents and it becomes a bit easy to assume the worst after a while, whatever the intention. And even with BG3 being done by a European studio that has a history of using English VAs it's something that's come up a lot, often in less than positive terms. In mean in contrast to games/films/whatevs with an entirely American cast which seldom get any any attention.

Edit: and for me personally I think I've become sensitised to it having formerly endured years of daily accent snobbery: being a northerner living near London was not fun.

I think they should make a fantasy game where everyone has a Texas accent, but not make it country or western themed at all. Just act like that's the perfectly normal way people talk in a generic fantasy world.

Then maybe incorporate that knowledge and don't just use English accents when it makes no sense in the medium? You are literally missing the point I highlighted, which is that I don't care whether it's *all* English accents, or all Chinese, Arabian, American, Pacific Islander, whatever. Doesn't matter which it is, in a game as purposefully diverse as D&D in the Faerun universe, it is an insult to have *everyone* with the same accent. It is an insult to the first two games in the series that had more variation in accents in the first *five minutes* than this game does in 5 hours.

This is a very niche complaint. Almost every NPC in The Witcher is british and its just such a fantasy trope I didn't even notice. And no, I don't expect Larian to pay extra to get that authentic Baldurian or Sword Coastian accent, cuz there is none, that is your head canon. This is not the real world, and we have explored people from a very limited background (mostly come from the same region). Now when we meet people from other areas a variety of accents would be nice, but I don't think there is any accent established for the forgotten realms, this is an international game played all over the world.

Fun fact, the German version of Baldur's Gate 1 "suffered" greatly from not-so professional voice overs which introduced a variety of accents including austrian and swiss accents. Absolutely brilliant! Even though not fully intended. If you speak german and have never tried BG1 like that, give it a shot.
Certainly the most memorable voice over of all video games, for me.
Davaeron just kills it.

Nostalgia aside, that was a bit too much though.

Goblins in BG3 seem to be way more intelligent than in earlier DnD and it is a little off putting, though it could be explained by the absolute insisting on almost-coherrent sentences comming from their mouths.

An accent other than "official" it might be seen as offending, as it probably is.

Common would know more flavor/accents though and this could serve the game well. It's nice to be able to understand all spoken lines easily though, if this is something problematic with accents, nevermind.

I'm sure it's probably been said in this thread, but...

Larian is a european company. If you need english voice acting, the closest source is actually england.

The Gobbos in BG III easily have the most interesting individual character representation of any npc group in any rpg. It's quite amazing just how "alive" Goblin-Town feels. It's quite an accomplishment over rpgs of the past in my opinion. Each of the little devils has his or own traits and feels unique, it's quite amazing.

Have the goblins speak with a scouse accent and the Hobgoblins a Frew accent. Also I have to say its funny someone being offended over an English accent, guess it's a Brit thing.

A bit offensive? Jesus. People are way too delicate.

What if we've been wrong this entire time? What if the goblins sound natural and it's the English who are speaking in a goblin dialect?

If goblins spoke with a African American accent, would that be considered racism?

Developers need to control the accents of their voice actors. Although...

Would a ban on African Americans from voicing goblins be considered racist?

I think they were shooting for chav and landed on Cockney.

Boiling it all down, there's always going to be someone out there on the internet that is offended by something. For such a tiny place the Brits sure do have a lot weird accents.

Now I want larian to give some people in the game the thickest glaswegian patter and just be completely undecipherable.

I don't give a crap about the 'offense' of it. I care that it makes for a terrible game and complete lack of immersion. It's bad, and lazy Larian should feel bad about not getting their voice actors to help bring the world to life.

So Dulany, if that is the true reason, why do you feel that the english voice actors are incapable of doing different accents?

And before you answer, please explain how the voice of Astarion (the most british voice to exist ever), was hired and paid money to do a Russian accent for a Resident Evil game.

Few questions:

1. Did you play Baldur's Gate 1 & 2?

2. You are correct, there is no "Baldurian" or "Sword Coastian" accents. There are, however, very well established accents for the multitudes of races and cultures in Faerun (do you know what that is?). Calimshan = Arabian, Rasheman = Russian, and yes Dwarves = Scottish. The lists goes on. Do you recognize this?

3. Do you know that numerous NPCs and characters you meet in BG 3 do not originate from the area of the map? For example, Githyanki are from another plane of existence. Not even just from a town a few miles away, they exist in the functional equivalent of another dimension. Can you please explain why those creatures would have nearly the exact same accent as a small goblin tribe? Then we can work towards the Redcaps (creatures from the Fey realm), any race or culture from the Underdark that is canonically so different from the surface world it may as well be a different planet, or the Tieflings that escapes from Avernus (another completely different dimension from where we play in BG 3).

Please please please let us have Sazza as a party character. I fell in love with her immediately.

I love the goblins characterization here, it's a lot broader than in most games even when compared to say WoW's goblins they are positively well rounded in BG3 while still being recognisably goblins.