The Problems With Video Game Voice Acting 251
The Guardian's Games blog explores the tendency of modern video games to suffer from poor voice acting, a flaw made all the more glaring by increasingly precise and impressive graphics. Quoting:
"Due to the interactive nature of games, actors can't be given a standard film script from which they're able to gauge the throughline of their character and a feel for the dramatic development of the narrative. Instead, lines of dialogue need to be isolated into chunks so they can be accessed and triggered within the game in line with the actions of each individual player. Consequently, the performer will usually be presented with a spreadsheet jammed with hundreds of single lines of dialogue, with little sense of context or interaction. ... But according to David Sobolov, one of the most experienced videogame voice actors in the world (just check out his website), the significant time pressures mean that close, in-depth direction is not always possible. 'Often, there's a need to record a great number of lines, so to keep the session moving, once we've established the tone of the character we're performing, the director will silently direct us using the spreadsheet on the screen by simply moving the cursor down the page to indicate if he/she liked what we did. Or they'll make up a code, like typing an 'x' to ask us to give them another take.' It sounds, in effect, like a sort of acting battery farm, a grinding, dehumanizing production line of disembodied phrases, delivered for hours on end. Hardly conducive to Oscar-winning performances."
The direction sounds like it needs work (Score:3, Funny)
Japan begs to differ (Score:2, Funny)
Then why do the Japanese manage to get it right in every single hentai game?
Re:How about just not having voice acting? (Score:3, Funny)
What is the problem with reading the sub-titles on the screen? I remember silent film characters "sounding" a lot better in my head before voice acting started. This is especially relevant for the teletubbies. I guess I don't mind in an action movie if the characters are voice acted so that it doesn't tear you away from the action but for the teletubbies and slower programs I'd much prefer to just read the script.
Re:How about fixing accents? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:How about fixing accents? (Score:5, Funny)
Or better even: claiming that someone is British and then letting them refer to someone's butt as her "fanny". That doesn't mean what you think it means, Americans.
It's where you might keep a pack of fags, right?
Re:How about fixing accents? (Score:5, Funny)
It's where you might keep a pack of fags, right?
If you're Bill Clinton.
Re:Like the games themselves (Score:4, Funny)
Re:How about fixing accents? (Score:5, Funny)
i checked the wikipedia entry for fanny (as Brit slang), which linked to vulva. i've forgotten which part was the vulva so i clicked.
That page is NSfW!
And not a bookmark.
Re:How about fixing accents? (Score:3, Funny)
i've forgotten which part was the vulva
Only on Slashdot...
Re:How about fixing accents? (Score:5, Funny)
Now now, to be fair... he could just be married.
Re:How about fixing accents? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Like the games themselves (Score:5, Funny)
Of course I also don't understand people who say "Babylon 5 has lousy acting"
With coaching even those with Asperger's can learn to read other human's emotions.
Re:How about fixing accents? (Score:1, Funny)
And apparently in Britain they say "case and point" rather than "case in point" like we do in the US.
Final Porn XIII (Score:4, Funny)
The wife keeps checking in on me playing FFXIII because Vanilla ;) sounds like she's constantly having sex... Worst acting ever.... or best depending on the mood...