Larian Studios
Posted By: Isaac Springsong Only British Accents - 10/10/20 06:14 AM
Okay so I already included this in the master suggestion, and I know it's probably one of the biggest 'asks' in terms of feedback....


But seriously, is *EVERY SINGLE* voice in the game a British accent?

Random Boblin the Goblin guard? British accent.

Tiefling child that I just saved from a goblin attack? Also British accent.

Pissed off Human adventurer? Hellllloo Rob Stark levels of British accent.

Old swamp hag? As British as the queen herself.

Hobgoblin War Boss? Supes British.

My gruff Dwarven Ranger, toughened from a life living on the lands....only 2 voices available and both British.

Even the narrator is literally just Malady aka British supreme herself from DoS 2.

In fact the only voiced character I've found that doesn't seem to be that way is Gale. That's it. Maybe one other NPC from the Druid grove.

Now compare that to the first 1 minute of BG II gameplay. You have Irenicus, Minsc, and Jaheira. All crazy different accents. A few seconds later we have a genie with another new accent. Then a wretched creature trapped in a vat, another totally new accent. Imoen with her mid-western style. Lilarcor the sword that won't shut up with the mocking gruffness.

Am I the only one bothered by this? It completely destroys whatever immersion I have at the time when every single creature has the same mannerisms of speech. The same contractions, shortened words, etc. For a AAA game studio it literally sounds like they just had the same 2-3 voice actors doing all of the work for literally every voice line. Someone like Matt Mercer has more range of accents displayed in a single game of D&D than the entirety of what Larian Studios can afford? Is this something we could please, please address? It's not like Corona stops people from recording high quality voice work remotely.
Posted By: Raflamir Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 06:18 AM
I thought that was weird too. It seems like every goblin, elf, ogre, human and the rest grew up on the same block.
Posted By: Skallewag Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 07:38 AM
Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves!
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.

When Britain first, at heaven's command,
Arose from out the azure main,
This was the charter of the land,
And Guardian Angels sang this strain:

The nations not so blest as thee
Must, in their turn, to tyrants fall,
While thou shalt flourish great and free:
The dread and envy of them all.

Still more majestic shalt thou rise,
More dreadful from each foreign stroke,
As the loud blast that tears the skies
Serves but to root thy native oak.

Thee haughty tyrants ne'er shall tame;
All their attempts to bend thee down
Will but arouse thy generous flame,
But work their woe and thy renown.

To thee belongs the rural reign;
Thy cities shall with commerce shine;
All thine shall be the subject main,
And every shore it circles, thine.

The Muses, still with freedom found,
Shall to thy happy coasts repair.
Blest isle! with matchless beauty crowned,
And manly hearts to guard the fair.

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves!
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves!

laugh
Posted By: 6511619849465461 Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 07:48 AM
What do you mean, "accent"? It is English, actual English language. What would you prefer, American accent? Yeah, nah. And what accent would you prefer for goblin? Does skin colour important with choosing of the accent? Does race affects the accent? What else do you want, CEO of forced diversity? Stop pushing your political dirt in the world that has no relation to this world.
Posted By: Nyanko Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 07:49 AM
What's wrong with british accent exactly?
Posted By: Viandosaure Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 07:53 AM
I absolutely loved it this way, I think it suits a DnD universe much better and hope it will stay this way.
Posted By: Isaac Springsong Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 08:01 AM
Absolutely nothing wrong with some characters having a British accent/stylized speech.

Absolutely everything wrong with every single race, from every single location in the entire world and other planes of existence, sounding almost exactly the same. Visual differences are paramount, but audible is not to be lazily forgotten.

Anyone who's played BG, when they read "GO FOR THE EYES BOO" has their brain automatically impart the voice and tenor used by Minsc. Voices are as integral to the BG cRPG experience as nearly anything else. Having every voice almost entirely the same breaks immersion, feels unrealistic given the massive diversity of visual differences and backgrounds for the characters and races, and ultimately, is just boring.


To turn the question, why do people want there to only be 1 accent in a game that literally has dozens of different races and physical locations represented?
Posted By: Labayu Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 08:07 AM
It is well known that, like the ancient Romans, all people of Faerûn spoke English with a British accent.
Posted By: Gothfather Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 08:17 AM
Have you seen the location of Belgium on the map? have you seen the location of Ireland on the map? Are you aware of the fact that corona virus limited international travel in 2020. Are you aware that as of sept 2 larian said they finally finished recording all the voiced lines for EA? Given the state of the world is it really unreasonable that the access to English speakers was limited to those with a "British" accent?
Posted By: Isaac Springsong Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 08:22 AM
Originally Posted by Gothfather
Have you seen the location of Belgium on the map? have you seen the location of Ireland on the map? Are you aware of the fact that corona virus limited international travel in 2020. Are you aware that as of sept 2 larian said they finally finished recording all the voiced lines for EA? Given the state of the world is it really unreasonable that the access to English speakers was limited to those with an "English" accent?


20 years ago, absolutely that would be an excuse and I wouldn't even have brought it up.

In a world where high quality recording devices can readily be shipped around the world, even in Corona virus impacted areas, and the internet exists....yeah, not a valid excuse. All the more so because there isn't even an Irish accent in the game. Nor Belgian.
Posted By: SeanNorm Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 08:33 AM
Originally Posted by Chaotic Good
What do you mean, "accent"?


It is a British accent. UK English and US English are factually both English. You just sound like pompous twit with your entire comment, but that's to be expected of a pom.

Originally Posted by Nyanko
What's wrong with british accent exactly?


Did they say there was a problem with the british accent? No. Wonder why you were so quick to leap to being offended then?
Posted By: SeanNorm Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 08:34 AM
Originally Posted by Viandosaure
I absolutely loved it this way, I think it suits a DnD universe much better and hope it will stay this way.


Why though? Can you even give a reason beyond 'just because'?
Posted By: greenman19 Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 08:35 AM
I'm sure one of them even had a Welsh accent :o
Posted By: Rouoko Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 08:36 AM
I don't feel british accent in any of main character voice.
Posted By: Riandor Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 08:36 AM
Originally Posted by Isaac Springsong
Originally Posted by Gothfather
Have you seen the location of Belgium on the map? have you seen the location of Ireland on the map? Are you aware of the fact that corona virus limited international travel in 2020. Are you aware that as of sept 2 larian said they finally finished recording all the voiced lines for EA? Given the state of the world is it really unreasonable that the access to English speakers was limited to those with an "English" accent?


20 years ago, absolutely that would be an excuse and I wouldn't even have brought it up.

In a world where high quality recording devices can readily be shipped around the world, even in Corona virus impacted areas, and the internet exists....yeah, not a valid excuse. All the more so because there isn't even an Irish accent in the game. Nor Belgian.


Yet...

Maybe let’s revisit this again later into EA. Not saying the OP shouldn’t bring it up, I am British and even I don't just want the same accent, but on the flip side you do want similarity for regions, but yeah aren’t the Githyanki from a different plane (fuzzy memory), shouldn’t their accent be different?

You do have to be cautious that you don’t fall into stereotypes though, dwarves with Scottish accents, characters with certain skin color having voices matching real world locations for example.
Posted By: Labayu Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 08:41 AM
Originally Posted by Isaac Springsong
In a world where high quality recording devices can readily be shipped around the world, even in Corona virus impacted areas, and the internet exists....yeah, not a valid excuse.
In addition to the equipment, you need a treated room, or at least a booth.

Can Belgians even hear the difference between an American and British accent? I mean, I've been told there are all sorts of regional accents in Germany, but Germans speaking German just sound like Germans to me.

Posted By: Gothfather Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 08:45 AM
Originally Posted by Isaac Springsong
Originally Posted by Gothfather
Have you seen the location of Belgium on the map? have you seen the location of Ireland on the map? Are you aware of the fact that corona virus limited international travel in 2020. Are you aware that as of sept 2 larian said they finally finished recording all the voiced lines for EA? Given the state of the world is it really unreasonable that the access to English speakers was limited to those with an "English" accent?


20 years ago, absolutely that would be an excuse and I wouldn't even have brought it up.

In a world where high quality recording devices can readily be shipped around the world, even in Corona virus impacted areas, and the internet exists....yeah, not a valid excuse. All the more so because there isn't even an Irish accent in the game. Nor Belgian.


What are you smoking? What tech do you imagine that you can turn someone's apartment/house in to a recording studio? You do know that professional voice acting isn't recording over the phone right? You can't use zoom or skype. Voice acting is recorded in a recording studio.

Ireland is the studio they do motion capture so it may very well be the same studio that they also do the sound recording maybe not, it could be done in Belgium their main studio. I wasn't pointing to Ireland because they speak English but because it is a studio that is close to a huge talent pool of voice actors in Britain just like how Belgium is close to Britain and I wasn't sure which of these two studios would likely be the one which did the voice acting recording, so pointed to both.

look you seem woefully uniformed and are responding on emotion. You can't do what you think they can without a recoding studio and if they don't own the studio they have to rent one they have limited time to record and It is a lot easier to move people around in Europe during the covid crisis than flying in an actor over the ocean during 2020. If you can't accept that covid has forced some compromise with development then you are being unreasonable.
Posted By: Isaac Springsong Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 08:49 AM
Originally Posted by Riandor
Originally Posted by Isaac Springsong
Originally Posted by Gothfather
Have you seen the location of Belgium on the map? have you seen the location of Ireland on the map? Are you aware of the fact that corona virus limited international travel in 2020. Are you aware that as of sept 2 larian said they finally finished recording all the voiced lines for EA? Given the state of the world is it really unreasonable that the access to English speakers was limited to those with an "English" accent?


20 years ago, absolutely that would be an excuse and I wouldn't even have brought it up.

In a world where high quality recording devices can readily be shipped around the world, even in Corona virus impacted areas, and the internet exists....yeah, not a valid excuse. All the more so because there isn't even an Irish accent in the game. Nor Belgian.


Yet...

Maybe let’s revisit this again later into EA. Not saying the OP shouldn’t bring it up, I am British and even I don't just want the same accent, but on the flip side you do want similarity for regions, but yeah aren’t the Githyanki from a different plane (fuzzy memory), shouldn’t their accent be different?

You do have to be cautious that you don’t fall into stereotypes though, dwarves with Scottish accents, characters with certain skin color having voices matching real world locations for example.


That's my worry though, is that Voice Over work is probably the greatest investment of time and effort besides the actual programming of the game. What we are seeing is all of Act 1, as the voice over work exists right now. Delaying until later makes it that much less likely that Larian will invest the time and effort to record new voices, because it takes time.

We know they are willing to redo voice over work, just look at how they removed the passive voice for the narrator.

Voice over work artists are talented people. While I hate to reference it, just look at Critical Role and all the different accents that are capable from just 1 artist. You don't even have to have characters/races be stereotyped to one accent (Dwarves being Scottish as you noted), just give them instructions to not use the exact same shortened phrases, tones, enunciation, etc. (all the factors that are typically defined as an 'accent') for each voice like there is now.
Posted By: Isaac Springsong Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 09:03 AM
Originally Posted by Gothfather
Originally Posted by Isaac Springsong
Originally Posted by Gothfather
*snip*


*snip*


What are you smoking? *snip*

look you seem woefully uniformed and are responding on emotion. *snip*


You insult and then accuse of responding on emotion. Pick one or the other bud, can't have both.

Corona causes compromises? Correct, voice over work was absolutely one of them especially back in March/April.

However, where you are wrong, is that yes, you can setup high quality recording studios in your home, if you are so inclined. Many voice over artists have literally done exactly that (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/n...g-remote-set-ups-working-at-home-1289235). That article is from April 10th, around 5 months of work time before voice recording finished. I'm kind of surprised you didn't know that, given how quick you are to insult my knowledge on the subject.

Alternatively, and hear me out on this since you seem to want to get all emotional on us, Larian could have them record the lines as a studio near the voice actor and transmit the data via the internet. You know, like they did even before Corona virus? Recording studios in Los Angeles reopened all the way back in May/June, months of lead time to record lines.

Trying to argue that technical limitations is why every single voiced line is a British accent is just wrong.

*edit*

Forgot to add. The biggest reason you're wrong (that British accents had to be used due to technical limitations imposed by Corona) is that the voice over artists they used are incredibly talented people. If Larian had instructed Neil Newbon (the voice of the nearly painfully British Astarion) to give him a French accent instead, I am 100% confident he could have done it. Or hell, make it a Russian accent like he got paid to do for Resident Evil 3 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYwN1yDKvYE). You are insulting the voice over artist by implying they couldn't have done other accents.
Posted By: Gothfather Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 09:11 AM
Originally Posted by Isaac Springsong
Originally Posted by Riandor
Originally Posted by Isaac Springsong
Originally Posted by Gothfather
Have you seen the location of Belgium on the map? have you seen the location of Ireland on the map? Are you aware of the fact that corona virus limited international travel in 2020. Are you aware that as of sept 2 larian said they finally finished recording all the voiced lines for EA? Given the state of the world is it really unreasonable that the access to English speakers was limited to those with an "English" accent?


20 years ago, absolutely that would be an excuse and I wouldn't even have brought it up.

In a world where high quality recording devices can readily be shipped around the world, even in Corona virus impacted areas, and the internet exists....yeah, not a valid excuse. All the more so because there isn't even an Irish accent in the game. Nor Belgian.


Yet...

Maybe let’s revisit this again later into EA. Not saying the OP shouldn’t bring it up, I am British and even I don't just want the same accent, but on the flip side you do want similarity for regions, but yeah aren’t the Githyanki from a different plane (fuzzy memory), shouldn’t their accent be different?

You do have to be cautious that you don’t fall into stereotypes though, dwarves with Scottish accents, characters with certain skin color having voices matching real world locations for example.


That's my worry though, is that Voice Over work is probably the greatest investment of time and effort besides the actual programming of the game. What we are seeing is all of Act 1, as the voice over work exists right now. Delaying until later makes it that much less likely that Larian will invest the time and effort to record new voices, because it takes time.

We know they are willing to redo voice over work, just look at how they removed the passive voice for the narrator.

Voice over work artists are talented people. While I hate to reference it, just look at Critical Role and all the different accents that are capable from just 1 artist. You don't even have to have characters/races be stereotyped to one accent (Dwarves being Scottish as you noted), just give them instructions to not use the exact same shortened phrases, tones, enunciation, etc. (all the factors that are typically defined as an 'accent') for each voice like there is now.


look to get the game to early access they had to start recording this summer. That limited their talent pool based on location and the fact that covid hurts travel. And moving someone from the USA to ireland or belgium might require a 14 day quarantine period to do recording. That is what it takes to move US actors to start shooting here in BC, Canada. (So not talking out of my ass here) That is a huge expense for a company to bring in talent. It is likely that moving someone from the UK is a lot easier. So they had to commit to the talent pool they have not the talent pool they likely would have used without covid. This talent pool is now mostly fixed, so we have to accept it. EA is for roughly a year so they will be recording later acts soonish as well and given that they looks to be no lift of covid restriction we can expect that most of the English speaking talent is going to be from Europe so you can guess the accent. is it ideal? No but how about being a little understanding as to the why. if larian was an Australian developer you would have to get use to a lot of Ausie accents luckily its not. (sorry not sorry Ausies)
Posted By: Isaac Springsong Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 09:18 AM
Originally Posted by Gothfather
Originally Posted by Isaac Springsong
[quote=Riandor][quote=Isaac Springsong][quote=Gothfather] *snip*


look to get the game to early access they had to start recording this summer. That limited their talent pool based on location and the fact that covid hurts travel. And moving someone from the USA to ireland or belgium might require a 14 day quarantine period to do recording. That is what it takes to move US actors to start shooting here in BC, Canada. (So not talking out of my ass here) That is a huge expense for a company to bring in talent. It is likely that moving someone from the UK is a lot easier. So they had to commit to the talent pool they have not the talent pool they likely would have used without covid. This talent pool is now mostly fixed, so we have to accept it. EA is for roughly a year so they will be recording later acts soonish as well and given that they looks to be no lift of covid restriction we can expect that most of the English speaking talent is going to be from Europe so you can guess the accent. is it ideal? No but how about being a little understanding as to the why. if larian was an Australian developer you would have to get use to a lot of Ausie accents luckily its not. (sorry not sorry Ausies)



See my response above, your points are not valid. Mocap requires physical presence, voice over work does not. Voice Over studios have been open in Los Angeles alone for 4+ months. More than enough time for relatively small roles like a halfling trader, or a goblin guard, or really any character with less than 3-4 lines.

And why do you think that the voice actors that were used wouldn't have been capable of different accents?

There isn't understanding because you aren't describing actual problems. You are inflating issues that don't exist to excuse something that doesn't need to exist (all voice over work is in a British accent).
Posted By: Raflamir Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 09:32 AM
I think some people are missing the point, especially Chaotic Good.
On the little island the current accents are coming from, there are plenty of accents, some wildly different from each other. Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure Faerun is a lot bigger than England and as far as I know, no interdimensional aliens live in England. Everyone sounding more or less the same just doesn't make sense.

Pillars of Eternity 2 did this well. Not everyone liked all of the accents, myself included, but you had a real good idea where everyone was from based on their accent. Some characters even going so far as to use accents not their own, and you could comment on that. It adds a lot. As it is now, it's like everyone grew up very near each other and interacted with each other daily.
Posted By: Isaac Springsong Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 09:37 AM
Originally Posted by Raflamir
I think some people are missing the point, especially Chaotic Good.
On the little island the current accents are coming from, there are plenty of accents, some wildly different from each other. Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure Faerun is a lot bigger than England and as far as I know, no interdimensional aliens live in England. Everyone sounding more or less the same just doesn't make sense.

Pillars of Eternity 2 did this well. Not everyone liked all of the accents, myself included, but you had a real good idea where everyone was from based on their accent. Some characters even going so far as to use accents not their own, and you could comment on that. It adds a lot. As it is now, it's like everyone grew up very near each other and interacted with each other daily.


Very, very roughly, Faerun is about twice the size of the continental United States/EU. The United States has roughly 20 accents, Europe *at least* twice that number.
Posted By: Riandor Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 09:41 AM
Again...
Just because there are fewer diverse accents currently, does not mean that others haven’t already been recorded (just not mastered or reserved for characters later in the game) or planned?!

And whilst it is possible to do recording work in a home studio, it means differences in recording which have to be ironed out by Larian. No two studios are the same and Larian may simply want to control that process in house! That’s surely not that hard a concept to grasp?

As someone who’s wife has done professional voice acting and narration I have some insight into the process.

As I previously said, there is nothing wrong with the topic per say, it’s just this thread is getting perilously close to being toxic for no good reason.
Posted By: Isaac Springsong Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 09:56 AM
Originally Posted by Riandor
Again...
Just because there are fewer diverse accents currently, does not mean that others haven’t already been recorded (just not mastered or reserved for characters later in the game) or planned?!

And whilst it is possible to do recording work in a home studio, it means differences in recording which have to be ironed out by Larian. No two studios are the same and Larian may simply want to control that process in house! That’s surely not that hard a concept to grasp?

As someone who’s wife has done professional voice acting and narration I have some insight into the process.

As I previously said, there is nothing wrong with the topic per say, it’s just this thread is getting perilously close to being toxic for no good reason.


For the sake of brevity, let's say that is all correct.

Why not have the voice actors they did use, who have documented and proven capability to do non-British accents, do exactly that again?

I sincerely doubt they have a mountain of voice over work for all of the voiced parts in Act 1 that they are just sitting on. As someone who also has friends in the business, I have insight into it as well though it shouldn't really matter as the work is fairly well known these days. The technical limitations don't really exist since voice over studios are open around the world, albeit nationally dependent.

But like I said, even if Larian only wanted to do VO work in-house....that still doesn't explain why literally every single line of dialogue except for like 2 characters all share the same accent. The actors they used are capable of different accents.
Posted By: Gothfather Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 10:18 AM
Originally Posted by Isaac Springsong
Originally Posted by Gothfather
Originally Posted by Isaac Springsong
Originally Posted by Gothfather
*snip*


*snip*


What are you smoking? *snip*

look you seem woefully uniformed and are responding on emotion. *snip*


You insult and then accuse of responding on emotion. Pick one or the other bud, can't have both.

Corona causes compromises? Correct, voice over work was absolutely one of them especially back in March/April.

However, where you are wrong, is that yes, you can setup high quality recording studios in your home, if you are so inclined. Many voice over artists have literally done exactly that (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/n...g-remote-set-ups-working-at-home-1289235). That article is from April 10th, around 5 months of work time before voice recording finished. I'm kind of surprised you didn't know that, given how quick you are to insult my knowledge on the subject.

Alternatively, and hear me out on this since you seem to want to get all emotional on us, Larian could have them record the lines as a studio near the voice actor and transmit the data via the internet. You know, like they did even before Corona virus? Recording studios in Los Angeles reopened all the way back in May/June, months of lead time to record lines.

Trying to argue that technical limitations is why every single voiced line is a British accent is just wrong.

*edit*

Forgot to add. The biggest reason you're wrong (that British accents had to be used due to technical limitations imposed by Corona) is that the voice over artists they used are incredibly talented people. If Larian had instructed Neil Newbon (the voice of the nearly painfully British Astarion) to give him a French accent instead, I am 100% confident he could have done it. Or hell, make it a Russian accent like he got paid to do for Resident Evil 3 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYwN1yDKvYE). You are insulting the voice over artist by implying they couldn't have done other accents.


grow up. The cost of renting out multiple studios so that you can be happy with the voice acting is height of self entitlement. Did you read the article most of the people talking are talking about experiments not actual up and running set ups. And why haven't i seen and developers praising how they have all their sound recoding being done from home? because after this article was written they realized the variance between one recording from one actor was to different from the recording from another actor. This is why you get all actors going to the same recording studio using the same equipment.

look at these quotes from the article and see why you don't hear about this wonderful new "craze" 5 months later..

"With high-end performances, we have to record them in very isolating conditions in recording studios and in motion capture stages,"

"He explains that, most of the time, all the recording equipment and the environments have to match between actors, because they are stitched together to form conversations in games that need to sound like they're in the same space."

"Generally speaking what LaMarr has realized is, "If you have a good mic, then you need a good environment, because a mediocre mic doesn't pick up as much around you," he explains. "If you have a $2,000 mic, you need a $10,000 studio. But if you have a $200 mic, you just need sheets in your closet." He has a recording booth with an office attached to it, which has occasionally caused problems when his computer has made noise, and a client has wanted to pick up his feed from Zoom. There are various kinks. "The biggest problem with [working from] home is that, even in lockdown, neighbors are still having their gardeners come," LaMarr laughs. "There's absolutely no control you can have over that."

"There’s certain games I’ve worked on now where, even the microphones need to be different," Burch says, getting into the nitty-gritty that can be easy to overlook. "For example, if you’re on a motion capture game, the mic placement and type of mic is different than a pure video game. So there are some projects that are thinking about sending a lapel mic, or, [I'm considering if] I need to upgrade. With games, people are always tweaking technology to see how they can get the best performance. You want it to sound consistent with what you’ve already recorded."


You seeing a trend? This article isn't so much a celebration of success but an account of people trying to make the transition and running into problems, but firmly believing they can succeed. And yet is there a follow up how great the gaming industry has made the transition? i have not seen it. All the talk I hear is of developers still using recording studios and thankful when restrictions lifted to allow such work again in some countries.

But sure one article in the Hollywood reporter is 100% enough evidence that the industry could magically turn multiple different recording setups from home into a professional sounding game in a few months so that all the voice actors in the USA could be called upon to make baldur's gate 3. Yeah that seems plausible. i mean that is obviously the way larian should have done it right? i mean why use a motion capture studio / recording studio so you can record in a controlled environment, when you can try to get multiple recordings from multiple different set ups where they don't have complete control of environmental sounds and try to make them all sound like the conversation is happening in the same location? You could just get a bunch of actors near your location and use their talent and control all the variables from a studio. Yeah but why do it the easy way?

Don't you think the only the best actors would be able to do all these wonderful accents you want? And are you aware that the virus screwed up larian's schedule for recording? Don't you think the best talent would be tightly booked so that delays could push the talent you want to be unavailable because they made other commitments? Does that seem reasonable to you?

Wouldn't all these factors create a situation where maybe just maybe they went with the options that got early access up and running with decent Voice acting as fast as possible vs the best possible results but added a further 6 month delay to the game? I don't know seem plausible to me.

unlike you i am willing to accept compromises to the development of the game because of corona virus. And unlike you i don't view the Hollywood reporter as a reliable source of news. And i especially don't take one data point as evidence of a complete and radical change in the industry when i am not hearing any collaborating evidence. maybe i am wrong and your view is right and larian are just idiots who could have created this perfect version of the game you wanted but they just decided not to. I mean that is obviously more likely you are right, then larian did the best they could during a crisis, they could not for see and maybe things are not as good as they could have been without the crisis but.. no you're right larian were just idiots and... or no! they did it to spite you it was all a plan to screw you over with the nasty British accent. yeah that's got to be the real reason rolleyes
Posted By: Riandor Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 10:33 AM
Originally Posted by Isaac Springsong
Originally Posted by Riandor
Again...
Just because there are fewer diverse accents currently, does not mean that others haven’t already been recorded (just not mastered or reserved for characters later in the game) or planned?!

And whilst it is possible to do recording work in a home studio, it means differences in recording which have to be ironed out by Larian. No two studios are the same and Larian may simply want to control that process in house! That’s surely not that hard a concept to grasp?

As someone who’s wife has done professional voice acting and narration I have some insight into the process.

As I previously said, there is nothing wrong with the topic per say, it’s just this thread is getting perilously close to being toxic for no good reason.


For the sake of brevity, let's say that is all correct.

Why not have the voice actors they did use, who have documented and proven capability to do non-British accents, do exactly that again?

I sincerely doubt they have a mountain of voice over work for all of the voiced parts in Act 1 that they are just sitting on. As someone who also has friends in the business, I have insight into it as well though it shouldn't really matter as the work is fairly well known these days. The technical limitations don't really exist since voice over studios are open around the world, albeit nationally dependent.

But like I said, even if Larian only wanted to do VO work in-house....that still doesn't explain why literally every single line of dialogue except for like 2 characters all share the same accent. The actors they used are capable of different accents.

We only have 1 act so far, let’s see how it goes eh!

And for full disclosure I have only seen odd videos so far, I’ve yet to play myself (hopefully next week).
Posted By: QuietCountryCafe Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 10:33 AM
I'd really love to see more diversity in the voices.

Didn't even think about it until this thread - fridge logic in full effect.
Posted By: Gothfather Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 10:35 AM
Originally Posted by Isaac Springsong
Originally Posted by Gothfather
Originally Posted by Isaac Springsong
[quote=Riandor][quote=Isaac Springsong][quote=Gothfather] *snip*


look to get the game to early access they had to start recording this summer. That limited their talent pool based on location and the fact that covid hurts travel. And moving someone from the USA to ireland or belgium might require a 14 day quarantine period to do recording. That is what it takes to move US actors to start shooting here in BC, Canada. (So not talking out of my ass here) That is a huge expense for a company to bring in talent. It is likely that moving someone from the UK is a lot easier. So they had to commit to the talent pool they have not the talent pool they likely would have used without covid. This talent pool is now mostly fixed, so we have to accept it. EA is for roughly a year so they will be recording later acts soonish as well and given that they looks to be no lift of covid restriction we can expect that most of the English speaking talent is going to be from Europe so you can guess the accent. is it ideal? No but how about being a little understanding as to the why. if larian was an Australian developer you would have to get use to a lot of Ausie accents luckily its not. (sorry not sorry Ausies)



See my response above, your points are not valid. Mocap requires physical presence, voice over work does not. Voice Over studios have been open in Los Angeles alone for 4+ months. More than enough time for relatively small roles like a halfling trader, or a goblin guard, or really any character with less than 3-4 lines.

And why do you think that the voice actors that were used wouldn't have been capable of different accents?

There isn't understanding because you aren't describing actual problems. You are inflating issues that don't exist to excuse something that doesn't need to exist (all voice over work is in a British accent).


See now I know you are full of crap. The article you sited literaly said... "With high-end performances, we have to record them in very isolating conditions in recording studios and in motion capture stages," but according to you nope you don't need to do that at all because one article 5 months ago said the industry is making the attempt of transitioning.

Yep it is true larian is doing this just to spike you. I mean it is obvious you are being targeted. how could we all be blind to it. The irony here is i can hear different British accents but you keep trying to make it sound like every character sounds the same. Like Larian only used one british accent. i can assure you that the goblins do not sound like the Tieflings or Astarion but maybe they sound all the same to you.
Posted By: Riandor Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 11:20 AM
We haven’t even got all of the origin characters yet and likely not all of the locations are complete either.

Like I said, this thread needs to chill and just see how the game develops, whilst having already stated we are wondering if there will be other accents.

The silly debates over where one can do VO and where one can’t should stay out of the thread.
Posted By: 0Muttley0 Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 11:23 AM
Originally Posted by greenman19
I'm sure one of them even had a Welsh accent :o


Yeah!

I need to hear this. There arent enough Welsh accents in games. (Play The Unwritten Tales)

Also others may have pointed out...
What is this 'British' accent?

The UK has a very large and diverse amount of accents varying upon region. So as someone who lives in the
UK the voices sound varied.


Also: Gale's voice definitely comes from the UK too.
Posted By: Rhovaniel Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 11:40 AM
There are definitely non-British accents in the game. The witch woman for example has an Irish accent. And there is also a lot of variety in the accents (since Britain itself has huge accent variety). For the MC voices for example, you can clearly tell they have accents that are typically associated with different (human) races.

In PoE, I always thought Eder's American accent just didn't fit.
Posted By: 6511619849465461 Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 03:56 PM
Originally Posted by SeanNorm
Originally Posted by Chaotic Good
What do you mean, "accent"?

It is a British accent. UK English and US English are factually both English. You just sound like pompous twit with your entire comment, but that's to be expected of a pom.


Well, interesting, what do we have here, an aggressive adversary of common sense? Marvelous. You sound like a salty offended by everything little pompous american blabbermouth, while I express my disagreement with adding diversity politics to the game that has no relation to this world.
Indeed, UK English is factually English, while colonial American English is an accent. Like any other accent. Now, seethe.

Go on, little american, keep defending the political diversity trash your friend Isaac (original poster) wants in game, based on race and skin colour. Yet, who cares.
My suggestion for you is to convert to metric system and use proper English.

Good day, sir.

P.S. Long live the Queen.
[Linked Image]

I am just fng with you, dude XD Who cares about this, really.

Posted By: Isaac Springsong Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 05:13 PM
Well it's pretty clear at least two people in this discussion unfortunately have unresolved issues with regard to their insecurity of their national identify. So reported, ignored, and moving along as is suggested.
Posted By: Uncle Lester Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 05:20 PM
I have no problem whatsoever with British accents. I wouldn't mind English accents from all over the world, but I'm not a huge fan of mapping real-life countries on fantasy ones. I didn't like how in Dragon Age there was a France rip-off with heavy French accents and Italy rip-off with heavy Italian accents. I know Forgotten Realms are largely based on the real world, but it doesn't need to be further reaffirmed with accents. Besides, there is a lot of diversity just among British accents (as already seen in the game). There isn't one British accent, not to mention other European English accents.

I wonder if people would be as bothered if all the characters spoke like Americans.
Posted By: Isaac Springsong Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 05:22 PM
Originally Posted by 0Muttley0
Originally Posted by greenman19
I'm sure one of them even had a Welsh accent :o


Yeah!

I need to hear this. There arent enough Welsh accents in games. (Play The Unwritten Tales)

Also others may have pointed out...
What is this 'British' accent?

The UK has a very large and diverse amount of accents varying upon region. So as someone who lives in the
UK the voices sound varied.


Also: Gale's voice definitely comes from the UK too.


Using the same shortened versions of words, similar tones, substituting various phrases/words for things like insults (bloody, bollocks, etc.). And you actually make a fantastic argument for there being more than just British accents in the game. Even within a typical Accent there are numerous dialects that can add even greater diversity. For example, if all Tieflings are going to have a British accent, you can then introduce various other dialects for different characters (Welsh, Cockney, etc). The Tiefling merchant can sound similar, but still distinct from the rapscallion child, who can sound different from the more sinister servants of a certain devil.

While certainly a trope, Dwarves sounding Scottish can have the same diversity even within the Accent itself. I don't know enough about linguistics, but I'm willing to bet the overwhelming amount of accents you could pick from could have tremendous diversity within them, providing for an even more immersive experience!
Posted By: Cowoline Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 05:32 PM
If the accent is so important to you, play Dragon Age, Plenty of Dwarves and Qunari to give you as much American accent as you want. It's a medieval like setting - the British accents fits within that. And as much as I love him, I'm just glad to play a game and NOT run into Troy Baker - just saying laugh
Posted By: Isaac Springsong Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 05:38 PM
Originally Posted by Uncle Lester
I have no problem whatsoever with British accents. I wouldn't mind English accents from all over the world, but I'm not a huge fan of mapping real-life countries on fantasy ones. I didn't like how in Dragon Age there was a France rip-off with heavy French accents and Italy rip-off with heavy Italian accents. I know Forgotten Realms are largely based on the real world, but it doesn't need to be further reaffirmed with accents. Besides, there is a lot of diversity just among British accents (as already seen in the game). There isn't one British accent, not to mention other European English accents.

I wonder if people would be as bothered if all the characters spoke like Americans.


For what it's worth, I would 100% be just as bothered if American accented Goblins sounded basically the same as American accented Tieflings, etc.

There is, undoubtedly, mapping of real life accents to fantasy areas in Faerun. Scottish Dwarves, Arabian Calimshan, Latin American for the shining city of Amn, Rasheman are Russian (aka Minsc) etc. But if Larian wants to divert from that, I'd be more than happy to see what they come up with. But to my original point, that doesn't exist when the same underlying accent is used by *everyone*. When creatures from another plane of existence have the same basic tone as a band of isolated goblins, or Drow from miles beneath the surface, etc.

I don't particularly care *which* other accents they use, I just want to see the same diversity of voice acting that was present in BG 1 and BG 2. Seriously, there are more diverse accents in the first 1 minute of gameplay in BG 2 than is in the entire EA. There is no excuse for that when even the voice actors that were used can have more diversity than was presented in 1/3 of the game.

For example, Neil Newbon (the guy who voices Astarion) has been paid to do a good Russian accent before (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYwN1yDKvYE). It doesn't matter if suddenly new accents pop up in Act 2, that the fact that 1/3 of the game, that covers an immensely diversity set of races and backgrounds, all sound like they grew up on the same block.
Posted By: Isaac Springsong Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 05:43 PM
Originally Posted by Cowoline
If the accent is so important to you, play Dragon Age, Plenty of Dwarves and Qunari to give you as much American accent as you want. It's a medieval like setting - the British accents fits within that. And as much as I love him, I'm just glad to play a game and NOT run into Troy Baker - just saying laugh


Haha yeah Troy does get around....

But why do you assume I want American accents? When I've literally listed a half-dozen other accents that would be fantastic to hear? The only one I've mentioned is Imoen (from BG 1 and BG 2) which is Mid-Western, and that was to demonstrate the diversity of voice acting in the games that spawned BG 3.

BG 1 and BG 2 were medieval settings as well. So was Neverwinter Nights and Icewind Dale. All set in the literal world of Faerun, which is where most of BG 3 is based (Avernus section excluded so far). Medieval does not = British. No doubt it has been heavily represented and *should* be heavily represented in the setting. But there's a difference between it happening often, and it being the *only* accent when you have a dozen+ races, some from other planes of existence (Githyanki for example).

Races and characters have tremendous visual diversity. What I'm asking for is audible diversity as well. Which was exactly what BG 1 and BG 2 had as well.
Posted By: swampslug Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 08:25 PM
I'm only part of the way through the act at the moment but of the people we can talk to we have the following groups:

The tieflings: they are all fleeing from Elturel following the events of the Descent into Avernus adventure module. Since they are from the same place it makes sense that they have similar accents to each other
The druids: a group of individuals presumably local to the area
The goblins: another group that is presumably local to the area
The party members: Gale is from Waterdeep, Lae'zel is githyanki (although would have grown up on the material plane), the rest appear to be from the Baldur's Gate area.

From interactions with the tieflings we can assume that the area in act 1 is somewhere along the 200-250 mile stretch of the Chionthar river between Elturel and Baldur's Gate. Accents generally vary by region and language. Common is a trade language, with Chondathan being the language of the region. I would therefore expect most people from the area (which is in the middle of nowhere) to have similar accents belonging to one group of accents, i.e. all British or all American accents. I would not expect to hear a wide variety of accents without good reason (and I don't think that "not human" is in general a good reason). I therefore wouldn't be surprised if we hear a greater range of accents when in Baldur's Gate, which is a major trading centre along the Sword Coast.
Posted By: Isaac Springsong Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 08:34 PM
Originally Posted by swampslug
I'm only part of the way through the act at the moment but of the people we can talk to we have the following groups:

The tieflings: they are all fleeing from Elturel following the events of the Descent into Avernus adventure module. Since they are from the same place it makes sense that they have similar accents to each other
The druids: a group of individuals presumably local to the area
The goblins: another group that is presumably local to the area
The party members: Gale is from Waterdeep, Lae'zel is githyanki (although would have grown up on the material plane), the rest appear to be from the Baldur's Gate area.

From interactions with the tieflings we can assume that the area in act 1 is somewhere along the 200-250 mile stretch of the Chionthar river between Elturel and Baldur's Gate. Accents generally vary by region and language. Common is a trade language, with Chondathan being the language of the region. I would therefore expect most people from the area (which is in the middle of nowhere) to have similar accents belonging to one group of accents, i.e. all British or all American accents. I would not expect to hear a wide variety of accents without good reason (and I don't think that "not human" is in general a good reason). I therefore wouldn't be surprised if we hear a greater range of accents when in Baldur's Gate, which is a major trading centre along the Sword Coast.


All fair points, except you have a multitude of different races. Which are dramatically more diverse than different ethnicities of Humans. That is why it makes no sense for Goblins, Drow, Hobgoblins, Tieflings, etc. to all sound the same. Drow exist miles beneath the surface, in what might as well be the other side of the planet. Moreover, Lae'zel did not grow up on the material plane, based on her available dialogue. Your arguments are fantastic for why they all would speak the same Language (Common) but not why they would all share the same accent.

We have a multitude of examples of varied accents even among similar locales in D&D, namely BG 1 and BG 2. It makes no sense why that also isn't the same for BG 3.
Posted By: Some_Twerp753 Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 08:34 PM
I say with 100% seriousness, I would love a dwarf with a jamacan accent. I'd like more player voices too, but I'm not especially bothered with the voices being used already, I like them all.
Posted By: Uncle Lester Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 10:16 PM
Originally Posted by Isaac Springsong
All fair points, except you have a multitude of different races. Which are dramatically more diverse than different ethnicities of Humans. That is why it makes no sense for Goblins, Drow, Hobgoblins, Tieflings, etc. to all sound the same. Drow exist miles beneath the surface, in what might as well be the other side of the planet. Moreover, Lae'zel did not grow up on the material plane, based on her available dialogue. Your arguments are fantastic for why they all would speak the same Language (Common) but not why they would all share the same accent.

We have a multitude of examples of varied accents even among similar locales in D&D, namely BG 1 and BG 2. It makes no sense why that also isn't the same for BG 3.


I would argue they will have different accents when speaking in their native non-Common languages and similar Common accent, for Common-speaking people use it as lingua franca and likely learn it from each other - so I'd expect Common to be a sort of a more or less unified mix of various influences in terms of the accent. Just as in real life people who learn a second language in early childhood commonly have an accent from where/whom they've learned that language, not from their first language.

And in BG3 they DO have different accents and most certainly don't sound the same. I can tell even despite not being British. Goblins in particular, whom you've described as sounding the same as everyone else, have distinct Cockney accent. Someone said there's a character with a Welsh accent. They are different, but realistically different, not exaggeratedly different. I think it's very appropriate for the circumstances, as swampslug described it. Also in real life, different places have different language variance. Some have a plethora of dialects and some are quite unified with differences between regions and social circles being minute.
Posted By: swampslug Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 10:55 PM
Originally Posted by Isaac Springsong
All fair points, except you have a multitude of different races. Which are dramatically more diverse than different ethnicities of Humans. That is why it makes no sense for Goblins, Drow, Hobgoblins, Tieflings, etc. to all sound the same. Drow exist miles beneath the surface, in what might as well be the other side of the planet. Moreover, Lae'zel did not grow up on the material plane, based on her available dialogue. Your arguments are fantastic for why they all would speak the same Language (Common) but not why they would all share the same accent.

We have a multitude of examples of varied accents even among similar locales in D&D, namely BG 1 and BG 2. It makes no sense why that also isn't the same for BG 3.


The Forgotten Realms has regional languages, the 3rd edition Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting describes Common as a trade language used to communicate simple ideas between peoples of different nations. Most people living in the human dominated areas of the southern Sword Coast region would therefore speak Chondathan as a primary language, with Illuskan spoken north of Waterdeep. We are also talking about characters that originate in an area roughly 250 miles east to west. This is the equivalent of London to Middlesborough in the UK or New York to Washington DC in the US. If you listen to people from these areas talk you would hear differences in accents but it would be relatively easy to identify that there are two groups of speakers: one British, the other American.

I haven't progressed into the Underdark yet and I didn't speak to the drow cleric so I don't know what they sound like, but I would expect them to have a different accent. I believe Chris Perkins at Wizards of the Coast has all his drow speak in bad French accents. The goblins and tieflings, being native to the region I would expect have similar accents to the humans in the area, which they do, but they aren't the same accents.
As to Lae'zel, Githyanki grow up in creches on other planes because there is no time in the Astral Sea. They need to spend their youth on other planes where time exists in order to grow up and mature into adults. If she reveals more specifics about her youth then I haven't got that far so I can only assume she grew up on the material plane.

BG 1 and 2 had a variety of accents because many of the companions were not from the Sword Coast region: Dynaheir and Minsc are from Rashemen far to the northeast of Faerun, Jaheira is from Tethyr, which is at least 1000 miles south of Baldur's Gate and Branwen is from the Moonshaes to name a few.
Posted By: Plunkett Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 11:00 PM
I’m just praying they don’t bring in some trash American accents to appease people.
Posted By: mithril Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 11:13 PM
Voice acting becomes even more important in a game without a lot of descriptive text. Many of the characters in the game exhibit cultural aspects from a different region than America. I wonder if other others will notice that or get a feeling NPCs are generally different than other games.
Posted By: Loki the Cat Re: Only British Accents - 10/10/20 11:23 PM
They don't have "British" accents, they have "Faerun" accents, like everyone in this world should have.

Stop trying to bring RL nonsense into a game.
Posted By: 6511619849465461 Re: Only British Accents - 11/10/20 06:32 AM
Originally Posted by Isaac Springsong
Well it's pretty clear at least two people in this discussion unfortunately have unresolved issues with regard to their insecurity of their national identify. So reported, ignored, and moving along as is suggested.

Well, "it's pretty clear" that you can't fckng read. Maybe read the whole post, CEO of "I want this goblin talking in a different accent"? Curb your diversity policies, twitter warrior.

Originally Posted by Loki the Cat
They don't have "British" accents, they have "Faerun" accents, like everyone in this world should have.

Stop trying to bring RL nonsense into a game.


That's what I am talking about, indeed.
Posted By: Ayath The Loafer Re: Only British Accents - 11/10/20 08:29 AM
I agree.
Some of the brutes should have an American accent. Mid west. Texas. Rocky mountain Hillbilly.
Posted By: rotsix Re: Only British Accents - 11/10/20 08:42 AM
I would like the diversity in voices of bg2.

Ethel (npc in druids grove) is definitely an Irish accent but from my playthrough so far there are a lot of similar sounding voices where only the chosen words add character.

My wife pointed out that it sounded like a theatrical stage actor doing the voice.

I'd move from calling them british accents to british theater accents to show how specific the voices are.

NPCs look very different but they all sound very similar.

Ghithyanki lady soundd good though.

Posted By: Zress Re: Only British Accents - 11/10/20 08:44 AM
Agree with this post 100%. It felt amazing hearing the voices of NPCs in the first games, because it hinted that they came from some far away land, a different culture. Everyone in BG3 sound like some snobbish nobles in a tea party.
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