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Is it just me or does the male human voice acting sound absolutely terrible


Hallow.7368

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It straight up just sounds so out of place in the game. All the other characters can sound in place during the situation whether they're frightened or frustrated or confident, but the male voice actor just sounds the exact same emotion wise regardless of if it's just because he found out his sister was still alive or if it's because he's about to fight the god of war to save the planet. The female voice actor actually sounds like she put in the effort to match the emotional context of her dialogue, but am I crazy when I think that they could have found someone so much better to voice act one of the genders of what would likely be (and is) the most popular race?

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Sounds fine to me.Nolan North is a popular and respected voice talent.Before you start with the "find someone so much better" stuff do note that he also voiced Mordremoth, Palawa Joko and Rhoban in the game too.

The Commander is supposed to be sort of a bland stand in for the player to some degree which is why the writing in this game and lack of choice on our part often gets criticised.The Commander isn't a character like Taimi, Braham and Rytlock are.. they're us and that's a really hard thing to relate to when we have to follow a set in stone story like this where we don't get much in the way of a choices.. especially when in today's gaming industry there are such high and common demands for voice acting not to mention how every player has a different opinion or ideal of what/who their commander is.

This is also why certain elements of who/what the commander is are also never discussed in the game.. such as romantic relationships and sexuality etcCommander has to be bland so more people can relate to him/her.. so that people can fill in the blanks with their own traits that they want their character to have and this can vary heavily even between different character's a person makes.

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@"Teratus.2859" said:Sounds fine to me.Nolan North is a popular and respected voice talent.Before you start with the "find someone so much better" stuff do note that he also voiced Mordremoth, Palawa Joko and Rhoban in the game too.

The Commander is supposed to be sort of a bland stand in for the player to some degree which is why the writing in this game and lack of choice on our part often gets criticised.The Commander isn't a character like Taimi, Braham and Rytlock are.. they're us and that's a really hard thing to relate to when we have to follow a set in stone story like this where we don't get much in the way of a choices.. especially when in today's gaming industry there are such high and common demands for voice acting not to mention how every player has a different opinion or ideal of what/who their commander is.

This is also why certain elements of who/what the commander is are also never discussed in the game.. such as romantic relationships and sexuality etcCommander has to be bland so more people can relate to him/her.. so that people can fill in the blanks with their own traits that they want their character to have and this can vary heavily even between different character's a person makes.

Solution: Stop paying exorbitant prices for VA, save a ridiculous fortune and use it to make a better game.

How could people "relate" to a bland moron with no choices who follows blindly to what someone tells them to do regardless of their position/title, common sense, and even if the commander would say "that's a bad idea" it will be hand-waved as if the commander said nothing. The usual jargon by Taimi. If saying nothing leads to the same solution, why even bother opening your mouth? Spend that money somewhere else. Only slightly above a blank slate character that are in other games, but not by much, and only in the sense that they are more a character than just a weapon pointed at the next doomsday threat. Although they all wield the commander like a weapon regardless. I actually want to know how people can "relate" to that. Sound like the usual BS, like people "relate" to a genocidal villain as long as they have a sob story. Pfft...

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@Yggranya.5201 said:

@"Teratus.2859" said:Sounds fine to me.Nolan North is a popular and respected voice talent.Before you start with the "find someone so much better" stuff do note that he also voiced Mordremoth, Palawa Joko and Rhoban in the game too.

The Commander is supposed to be sort of a bland stand in for the player to some degree which is why the writing in this game and lack of choice on our part often gets criticised.The Commander isn't a character like Taimi, Braham and Rytlock are.. they're us and that's a really hard thing to relate to when we have to follow a set in stone story like this where we don't get much in the way of a choices.. especially when in today's gaming industry there are such high and common demands for voice acting not to mention how every player has a different opinion or ideal of what/who their commander is.

This is also why certain elements of who/what the commander is are also never discussed in the game.. such as romantic relationships and sexuality etcCommander has to be bland so more people can relate to him/her.. so that people can fill in the blanks with their own traits that they want their character to have and this can vary heavily even between different character's a person makes.

Solution: Stop paying exorbitant prices for VA, save a ridiculous fortune and use it to make a better game.

How could people "relate" to a bland moron with no choices who follows blindly to what someone tells them to do regardless of their position/title, common sense, and even if the commander would say "that's a bad idea" it will be hand-waved as if the commander said nothing. The usual jargon by Taimi. If saying nothing leads to the same solution, why even bother opening your mouth? Spend that money somewhere else. Only slightly above a blank slate character that are in other games, but not by much, and only in the sense that they are more a character than just a weapon pointed at the next doomsday threat. Although they all wield the commander like a weapon regardless. I actually want to know how people can "relate" to that. Sound like the usual BS, like people "relate" to a
genocidal
villain as long as they have a sob story. Pfft...

That was part of my point, people can't relate to such a character very well despite the PC being designed that way for that reason.. hence why so many criticise the way the Commander is written.

In RPG's your character tends to be either a representation of you to some degree and offers you choices so you can define your characters path and actions.Or it's a predefined character that becomes your avatar so you can act out and experience their story typically in a more linear way.

Gw2 started out trying to go more for the former and later became more the latter, hence our choices in the early game which were supposed to matter but they all ultimately became irrelevant about half way through the personal story once you got to the pact arc.

It probably would have been better had the commander been written as their own character with a predefined personality right from the start.

That said as a big fan of RPG's in general, specially the older ones.I would not have minded had the Commander not been voiced at all and communicated instead through text based dialogue that contained multiple choices and options.We had a fair bit of this in the early Gw2 story such as getting to choose Ferocious, Dignified and Charming options in conversations but again this was all completely irrelevant due to poor implementation.. probably why that whole system was completely scrapped later on.

The main thing I think we need to factor in is that the kind of character freedom that exists in some older more text reliant RPG's just isn't possible to incorporate in modern "voiced" MMORPG's very well due to their different nature's.. for one example, it is significantly easier and cheaper to convey a ton of information via a text box than it is via voiced dialogue.So the best you can get is the illusion of choice in these more modern games which Gw2 tried to do but for the most part failed at.

This is part of the problem with discarding the old and modernising everything.. something we see quite a lot in games these days, specially in "remakes".New and modern isn't always bad.. but it's not always good either, sometimes the oldies get it right and just need a bit of polish, not a total redesign.Guess you could say in Gw2's case they did do good, but they did some bad too.For example, there's good reason people still think this game could benefit from a traditional quest system.

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I really like the male human voice. I've played through LS a few times on alts and male human had the most nuance of expression in several notable scenes. Off the top of my head, his delivery in the jail cell in Istan and in the climax of the Crystal Dragon tugged my emotions far more than the others. He doesn't suit all my male human alts, especially not my hapless dimwit lazy ex-Seraph, but I find him a distinct character and a believable Commander.

So it may not be just you, but it's definitely not me :)

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Vast majority of the voice acting is Pokemon-level. The girls are quivering cutesies bootsies, or fierce! independent! woah-mans!, while the men all sound like a 14 year old trying to deepen his voice by tucking in his chin. Rytlock, human and norn are the worst offenders.

The weird guy sylvari aussie-ish voice is grating at first, but might well be the best because of how absurd it is.

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@Yggranya.5201 said:

@"Teratus.2859" said:Sounds fine to me.Nolan North is a popular and respected voice talent.Before you start with the "find someone so much better" stuff do note that he also voiced Mordremoth, Palawa Joko and Rhoban in the game too.

The Commander is supposed to be sort of a bland stand in for the player to some degree which is why the writing in this game and lack of choice on our part often gets criticised.The Commander isn't a character like Taimi, Braham and Rytlock are.. they're us and that's a really hard thing to relate to when we have to follow a set in stone story like this where we don't get much in the way of a choices.. especially when in today's gaming industry there are such high and common demands for voice acting not to mention how every player has a different opinion or ideal of what/who their commander is.

This is also why certain elements of who/what the commander is are also never discussed in the game.. such as romantic relationships and sexuality etcCommander has to be bland so more people can relate to him/her.. so that people can fill in the blanks with their own traits that they want their character to have and this can vary heavily even between different character's a person makes.

Solution: Stop paying exorbitant prices for VA, save a ridiculous fortune and use it to make a better game.

How could people "relate" to a bland moron with no choices who follows blindly to what someone tells them to do regardless of their position/title, common sense, and even if the commander would say "that's a bad idea" it will be hand-waved as if the commander said nothing. The usual jargon by Taimi. If saying nothing leads to the same solution, why even bother opening your mouth? Spend that money somewhere else. Only slightly above a blank slate character that are in other games, but not by much, and only in the sense that they are more a character than just a weapon pointed at the next doomsday threat. Although they all wield the commander like a weapon regardless. I actually want to know how people can "relate" to that. Sound like the usual BS, like people "relate" to a
genocidal
villain as long as they have a sob story. Pfft...

I believe we have recent pandemic caused occurrences which show that your point is not applicable to the entire player base and might even be harmful to the game as a whole. The desire to have VA added for episodes which had none was rather great and was expressed both on these forums as well as in game multiple times (people in LA asking about lacking VA, when it will get added, etc.). It was also very noticeable how much immersion went out the window during the time where we had no VA for eipsodes.

YOU might not see the value in voice acting, others certainly do. Just as YOU have certain opinions on other parts of the game quite a few others will likely disagree on.

As to how much money should be spent on VA: I recommend people play some games with actually bad VA, then come back to this game. It'll give you a lot of appreciation of the quality here. It might not be the best VA out there and some single player games have really been amazing, but as far as MMORPGs this one is among the top 3 if not even top 2.

As to the male human voice actor or most voice actors for that matter, I enjoy most of them. My favorite being the female Sylvari (how could I not,Jennifer Hale is amazing).

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I wasn’t a huge fan at first, but I’ve come to realise his voice suits my noble, posher human characters so now I’m happy enough with it.

The male sylvari one is the only VA that I personally don’t like the sound of. Something about the tone and cadence doesn’t fit for me

I think any criticism should steer clear of the talent of the VA tho. These are all professional actors with a high pedigree. Nolan North’s human pc may not be his best work, but he’s been well established in GW as well as other franchises and has been outstanding

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@"Teratus.2859" said:Sounds fine to me.Nolan North is a popular and respected voice talent.Before you start with the "find someone so much better" stuff do note that he also voiced Mordremoth, Palawa Joko and Rhoban in the game too.

The Commander is supposed to be sort of a bland stand in for the player to some degree which is why the writing in this game and lack of choice on our part often gets criticised.The Commander isn't a character like Taimi, Braham and Rytlock are.. they're us and that's a really hard thing to relate to when we have to follow a set in stone story like this where we don't get much in the way of a choices.. especially when in today's gaming industry there are such high and common demands for voice acting not to mention how every player has a different opinion or ideal of what/who their commander is.

This is also why certain elements of who/what the commander is are also never discussed in the game.. such as romantic relationships and sexuality etcCommander has to be bland so more people can relate to him/her.. so that people can fill in the blanks with their own traits that they want their character to have and this can vary heavily even between different character's a person makes.

The thing is though that I don't really care about how respected someone is if their work doesn't feel like a quality effort. The female human sounds absolutely amazing and isn't "bland" as you described the male to be. The male character sounds like a dad who's about to be finished telling a bedtime story and tuck little Jimmy into bed he doesn't sound like he's actually partaking in the story. Showing emotion that fits the context would be perfectly fine. He shouldn't sound like a robot when finding out his sister's alive or when he's about to fight the god of war to save the world albeit just a temporary fix. Regardless none of this shows his sexuality or who he's romantically involved with or any of that. I would be more understanding if all the race's voices were like this, but specifically, the female counterpart sounds perfect. Besides that the fact that the majority of characters made in this game are female despite the audience more than likely being overwhelmingly male throws being "relateable" completely out the window. If I wanted to relate to my character I wouldn't have made my elementalist female, but I did simply because the male voice acting is atrocious and the female voice actor makes the dialogue feel seamless.

Also, let me just tack on that those other characters sound amazing. So either he was uninspired for the male human or Anet did one heck of a job with his voice in an audio editor.

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@Randulf.7614 said:I wasn’t a huge fan at first, but I’ve come to realise his voice suits my noble, posher human characters so now I’m happy enough with it.

The male sylvari one is the only VA that I personally don’t like the sound of. Something about the tone and cadence doesn’t fit for me

I think any criticism should steer clear of the talent of the VA tho. These are all professional actors with a high pedigree. Nolan North’s human pc may not be his best work, but he’s been well established in GW as well as other franchises and has been outstanding

Personally, I've never heard of him before this game. However, I believe that just because someone has previous good works doesn't mean they shouldn't be criticized. If it's not his best work he should absolutely be made aware of this, in a way that's not toxic, so that he can improve. If he simply just wasn't inspired for the character then he's not completely to blame, but if you want to be respected as a VA imho you shouldn't be taking jobs that you just won't perform well for. The other part falls on Anet for paying for subpar work just for a name. To me, he barely even sounds like a noble. Faren sounds way more like a noble should sound. The voice just lacks character to me.

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@"Donutdude.9582" said:It is you. I have never had a problem with the voice of my male PC.

What an odd thing to be annoyed about.

I fail to see his this is an "odd thing to be annoyed about"It's very apparent that you enjoy the story considering that wiki page on your account you have linked, so how is it "odd" to be annoyed about poor voice acting ruining my immersion?

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It's not subpar, it's just not to your liking. There's a difference. He 's an extremely talented VA across a huge spectrum of voices (Nathan Drake/Uncharted, Assassins Creed, lots of Marvel/DC characters among his larger credits) who performed his role likely in the exact way as directed by Anet

Same as when people criticised Trahearne or my dislike for the Sylvari male PC. It's not bad work on their part, it's just not going to resonate with everyone. The male sylvari is particularly worse for me because it is utterly the opposite tone and feel for the character I created and it just jars. That doesn't mean the VA is bad though, but yes I symapthise in how it can ruin immersion

The problem with the PC VA is that Anet try to keep them as character-less as possible because everyone "hears" their character's voice differently. To some, it resonates perfectly, which is why people really like certain PC VA's more than others.

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i actually like the voice a lot, I enjoy playing him and listening to it.everyone has their own tastes, but it's definitely not a bad work, you might just not be into it. None of the voiceovers have an amazing emotion range because it's not needed in this game. NPCs are more or less constant in their emotions.

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I personally like the male human VA, and think the female human sounds absolutely horrible. Some people here have said the male sylvari VA sounds awful, while I think he's the best one in the entire game, bar none. Some people can't stand Trahearne's voice. To me, he sounds wonderful - actually rather soothing, in fact.

It all comes down to personal opinion. I think it's fascinating to see what other people like and dislike, and why. That said, I understand what you mean when it comes to immersion-breaking. The female charr and female norn VAs make me play those characters very rarely, because their bland, arrogant voices sound like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. Definitely not what I would imagine the Commander should sound like, and it jars me right out of the story (especially because I keep imagining my female norn/female charr to have different voices entirely) - but that's just my opinion. Others will disagree, and that's totally fine. :)

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It's simply a personal preference. Human males don't bother me but some of the others (such as male norn) come across as too hammy for my tastes, and the noises added to male charr bother me. Having seen and played things with genuinely bad voice acting, there's a huge difference in how it feels to not like something because you don't like it while it's still objectively good and not liking something because it's bad.

Also I laugh at the idea that video game VAs are expensive and I wish that was the case. Some of the bigger names definitely command a higher price but there's a reason why VAs either work as much as possible or work a day job unless they're one of the industry darlings. If you want overpaid VAs that give mediocre performances, just look at any big-name animated movie over the past two decades and how few of them cast people trained in voice acting.

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It's on purpose.A striking voice like Rytlock's, probably wouldn't suit all tastes.So the best option is a less annoying voice as possible, because what can be irritating for some is not for others.

Male voices had many pitches, is hardy find a "one solution to fit all sizes" without high cost.

On Dragon Age Inquisition, we have a choice between 2 voices types for male characters, but wow, record a entire game with 2 voices is costly i guess.

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@Cyninja.2954 said:

@"Teratus.2859" said:Sounds fine to me.Nolan North is a popular and respected voice talent.Before you start with the "find someone so much better" stuff do note that he also voiced Mordremoth, Palawa Joko and Rhoban in the game too.

The Commander is supposed to be sort of a bland stand in for the player to some degree which is why the writing in this game and lack of choice on our part often gets criticised.The Commander isn't a character like Taimi, Braham and Rytlock are.. they're us and that's a really hard thing to relate to when we have to follow a set in stone story like this where we don't get much in the way of a choices.. especially when in today's gaming industry there are such high and common demands for voice acting not to mention how every player has a different opinion or ideal of what/who their commander is.

This is also why certain elements of who/what the commander is are also never discussed in the game.. such as romantic relationships and sexuality etcCommander has to be bland so more people can relate to him/her.. so that people can fill in the blanks with their own traits that they want their character to have and this can vary heavily even between different character's a person makes.

Solution: Stop paying exorbitant prices for VA, save a ridiculous fortune and use it to make a better game.

How could people "relate" to a bland moron with no choices who follows blindly to what someone tells them to do regardless of their position/title, common sense, and even if the commander would say "that's a bad idea" it will be hand-waved as if the commander said nothing. The usual jargon by Taimi. If saying nothing leads to the same solution, why even bother opening your mouth? Spend that money somewhere else. Only slightly above a blank slate character that are in other games, but not by much, and only in the sense that they are more a character than just a weapon pointed at the next doomsday threat. Although they all wield the commander like a weapon regardless. I actually want to know how people can "relate" to that. Sound like the usual BS, like people "relate" to a
genocidal
villain as long as they have a sob story. Pfft...

I believe we have recent pandemic caused occurrences which show that your point is not applicable to the entire player base and might even be harmful to the game as a whole. The desire to have VA added for episodes which had none was rather great and was expressed both on these forums as well as in game multiple times (people in LA asking about lacking VA, when it will get added, etc.). It was also very noticeable how much immersion went out the window during the time where we had no VA for eipsodes.

YOU might not see the value in voice acting, others certainly do. Just as YOU have certain opinions on other parts of the game quite a few others will likely disagree on.

Was vocal about that myself too and refused to play new content until the VA was added.This was mostly because of how Gw2 is designed though.. the lack of Va without an appropriate substitute such as big text boxes etc wouldn't work for me.

Games can still be great without VA providing they're designed that way.. but a game that looses VA when it's supposed to have it will never feel the same, it'll always feel broken and incomplete.

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@Hallow.7368 said:

@"Teratus.2859" said:Sounds fine to me.Nolan North is a popular and respected voice talent.Before you start with the "find someone so much better" stuff do note that he also voiced Mordremoth, Palawa Joko and Rhoban in the game too.

The Commander is supposed to be sort of a bland stand in for the player to some degree which is why the writing in this game and lack of choice on our part often gets criticised.The Commander isn't a character like Taimi, Braham and Rytlock are.. they're us and that's a really hard thing to relate to when we have to follow a set in stone story like this where we don't get much in the way of a choices.. especially when in today's gaming industry there are such high and common demands for voice acting not to mention how every player has a different opinion or ideal of what/who their commander is.

This is also why certain elements of who/what the commander is are also never discussed in the game.. such as romantic relationships and sexuality etcCommander has to be bland so more people can relate to him/her.. so that people can fill in the blanks with their own traits that they want their character to have and this can vary heavily even between different character's a person makes.

The thing is though that I don't really care about how respected someone is if their work doesn't feel like a quality effort.

Keep in mind that a voice actor is still an "actor".. they don't really get to come into a studio and decide what a character will say or how they will feel in X situation.It's always directed by what the employer wants from the actor in this case Anet would be the ones asking the actor to provide a certain tone or try to convey a certain emotion.Voice Actors do have some freedom to play in those areas sure but ultimately if Anet say we want you to sound monotone or bland for whatever reason then that isn't the fault of the voice actor not giving a "quality effort" as you put it.This is exactly why I brought up those other characters this same voice actor has done in this same game.. it better shows what he's capable of as a voice talent with other material to work with.This is why i'd say the problem isn't with the voice acting.. it's with the writing and the character of the Commander.

The female human sounds absolutely amazing and isn't "bland" as you described the male to be. The male character sounds like a dad who's about to be finished telling a bedtime story and tuck little Jimmy into bed he doesn't sound like he's actually partaking in the story. Showing emotion that fits the context would be perfectly fine.

Honestly this is a matter of opinion, I happen to find the female human voice acting to be equally as bland as the male human is.Given the choice I'd say I prefer the male voice but only slightly.

Besides that the fact that the majority of characters made in this game are female despite the audience more than likely being overwhelmingly male throws being "relateable" completely out the window. If I wanted to relate to my character I wouldn't have made my elementalist female, but I did simply because the male voice acting is atrocious and the female voice actor makes the dialogue feel seamless.

Just because the genders are different doesn't mean you can't relate to a character.. there's plenty of reasons why some people choose to make characters with opposite gender or sexuality etc to their own.Hell i've got a good few female characters myself but mostly I play male ones.I don't relate to my characters though, I prefer to think of them as individuals and each is different from the other.. this I enforce through how I play them, their builds and their choices etc.

Others do relate to their characters and the gender barrier doesn't have to exist there.Though I'll certainly agree that a sizeable portion of guys who play females probably do it just because they'd rather look at a female instead of a male character.. and most people tend not to invest heavily into their characters like some others do.Plenty of people play games like this for the grind, or for the pvp or just for the gameplay.. but there are a lot who care about the story, the lore or simply RPing in this world as a character etc.Everyone's different and games like this tend to try catering to everyone.

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@"Hallow.7368" said:Besides that the fact that the majority of characters made in this game are female despite the audience more than likely being overwhelmingly male throws being "relateable" completely out the window.Gotta cite your source for this because that goes against every breakdown of video game demographics over the past decade, and anecdotal evidence doesn't count.

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Nah it's just you. The human male actually sounds like the commander with my warrior's shouts. SHAKE IT OFF!!FOR GREAT JUSTICE!!I AM GONNA DESTROY YOU ALL!!

He speaks those lines with a lot of energy as a commander and warrior should during combat. I guess you mean the common storyline dialogues for characters.Well, the commander is supposed to be calm and not easily triggered by things, when not in combat, so I personally like it. There is so much VA you can do when the lines themselves are bland.

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