

Why voice-acting in games is bad - quoderat
http://www.brainygamer.com/the_brainy_gamer/2009/04/voice-for-change.html

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stcredzero
Another interesting thing to consider: why is Japanese voice acting so much
better than dubbing?

The answers:

    
    
        - The Japanese have a voice acting tradition going back 
          at least as far as the Bunraku puppet theater
        - Voice Acting for Anime is >highly< stylized.  There
          are various stereotypes that can be plugged into
          most Anime stories.  This allows the characters to 
          be put across very clearly.  
    

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunraku>

I wonder if the highly stylized use of archetypes from western culture would
improve voice acting in English versions of games? (This would require some
re-writing, as many games originate in Japan and other non-western cultures,
so the archetypes do not match up exactly.)

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sketerpot
I've got a couple of reasons that I think have more influence:

\- When voice acting isn't in your own language, you don't notice the flaws so
acutely.

\- A lot of anime dubs (especially older ones) were made by people who just
didn't care about quality. This seems to be changing.

~~~
stcredzero
I agree that the quality of dubbing has greatly increased. But there still
seems to be just that little bit of impedance mismatch. I think it's because
the archetypes don't match!

Japanese female archetypes are just weird to Americans, and often don't have
good analogues in our culture. When you have the tragically strong woman who
will never be desired by a man, in English dubbing, she often comes across as
the female badass that everybody wants, but is too afraid to try for.

Military types often don't match. Anime portrayals of Western-style Squad
leaders/Sergeants are Japanese caricatures that have become Japanese-
archetypal. The Japanese expect slightly different things from their
fictionalized Generals than Americans or the British. (Like the degree to
which they are allowed to display battle-lust, versus having to couch it in
terms of "their duty.")

I think that when "voice acting isn't in your own language" it's also often
the case that the archetypes aren't your own culture's. I think your first
point is just another part of the same cultural mismatch.

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patio11
Voice acting does not sell games. Pretty screenshots sell games. Companies
optimize accordingly.

(See also: Why do companies with engineering budgets in the hundreds of
millions of dollars come out with websites that look like they were designed
by an artistically talented 15 year old in flash in 1998?)

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adamc
I kept thinking of Oblivion while reading this story. Rings very true.

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modoc
The voice acting in the Riddick games is top notch.

