[Feedback] Wuk Lamat's English Voice

[RabendaShin]

I still find it quite weird that many people are so attached to the concept of "representation" and so on. This is a game based on a fantasy world, nothing is real, and we should treat it as such. If there is a "representation", cool, it's like an easter egg or something, but shouldn't be forced on the devs or to be expected or something. Also, by the "representation" logic, shouldn't Japanese or German VA be from South American ancestry as well? How long should and what length that ancestry be? Should the rule "One-drop rule" be considered? In my opinion, forcing something to represent something is kinda weirdly offensive and racist to me, like, imagine if there's a location "representing" Southeast Asia and all NPCs speak in broken English with an accent those Hollywood actors used to do when playing an Asian character in 40s or 70s.

I think that was the main point a post before tried to make. They’re trying to be as non-racist as possible, thereby appearing even more racist than they would have been had they not even attempted it. It’s a fine balance they needed to strike and they completely missed in Dawntrail, despite their boasting.

I’ll admit I found some of the English voices in Ilsabard already worrisome. I don’t recall particularly offensive accents used in Doma, though I’m sure examples can be found.

[Eyrilona]

How so ‘entitled’? What I meant is: the people who stated they felt their hispanic/latino culture/heritage insulted by the voiced performance for Wuk Lamat have more grounds to make an objective complaint to the development team than I ever would, a European with Asian roots.

Their issue with the representation is more valid than mine could ever be, even moreso when representation is a main talking point from the localisation team. I find their claims disingenous.

The agitators among the people who complain about that have done their homework poorly though. The claims I have seen are that this is 'a white person faking a Brazil Portuguese accent badly'. Well, there is the thing. You know why it doesn't sound like a Brazil Portuguese accent? Because it isn't supposed to sound like that accent. The VA they hired is Puerto Rican. The language of Puerto Rico is a variant Spanish, not Portuguese, and it has a local dialect and accent all of its own that is indeed different from how people would speak in the countries complaining.

[Petroglyph]

The agitators among the people who complain about that have done their homework poorly though. The claims I have seen are that this is 'a white person faking a Brazil Portuguese accent badly'. Well, there is the thing. You know why it doesn't sound like a Brazil Portuguese accent? Because it isn't supposed to sound like that accent. The VA they hired is Puerto Rican. The language of Puerto Rico is a variant Spanish, not Portuguese, and it has a local dialect and accent all of its own that is indeed different from how people would speak in the countries complaining.

hey so I said so on an earlier page but before DT self identified as white. On her own website she describes herself as being "From an old Kentucky home", has mentioned her southern accent as a hurdle, and said that she's "Puerto Rican on her dad's side". And I apologize if my tone is calloused, it's just that being latina myself and having chicano, chilean, and PR friends... I know what these accents sound like, and I'm sorry but yes Sena's accent is both fake and just bad. Sena is not Puerto Rican, she's an American with PR heritage. At-closest, her dad... the accent sounds closer to mockery than it does loving imitation, to me at least. :/

her ethnicity, race, or other identies shouldn't be part of this discussion, but if it's going to be used to defend her performance, it's at least good to be accurate.

[Eyrilona]

hey so I said so on an earlier page but before DT self identified as white. On her own website she describes herself as being "From an old Kentucky home", has mentioned her southern accent as a hurdle, and said that she's "Puerto Rican on her dad's side". And I apologize if my tone is calloused, it's just that being latina myself and having chicano, chilean, and PR friends... I know what these accents sound like, and I'm sorry but yes Sena's accent is both fake and just bad. Sena is not Puerto Rican, she's an American with PR heritage. At-closest, her dad... the acvent sounds closer to mockery than it does loving imitation, to me at least. :/

That is fair, but the complaint should then at least be that she does a bad fake Puerto Rican, not a bad fake Portuguese. I am not saying there is not a legitimate concern, but people complaining about the wrong thing wasn't helping.

[Magikazam]

I mean, Imo Wuk is far from being the first char that just sound weird cause of the fake accent, but the issue with her VA IMO is mostly that she seem to have trouble showing emotion while using that accent? Like she look more happy than sad when at the start of the xpac her taco bag get stomped.

[RabendaShin]

That is fair, but the complaint should then at least be that she does a bad fake Puerto Rican, not a bad fake Portuguese. I am not saying there is not a legitimate concern, but people complaining about the wrong thing wasn't helping.

I mean, I can only assume that for a native English speaker a hispanic/latino accent can be received as being such? Much like how one can say “Scandinavian” or “Asian” accented English, rather than specifically mentioning Swedish or Chinese - it’s a broad stroke. My spoken English is often received as being American, despite my first language being Germanic in origin.

[Petroglyph]

That is fair, but the complaint should then at least be that she does a bad fake Puerto Rican, not a bad fake Portuguese. I am not saying there is not a legitimate concern, but people complaining about the wrong thing wasn't helping.

It's totally fair to be miffed by a misrepresented argument, no sweat ^^

[Eyrilona]

I mean, I can only assume that for a native English speaker a hispanic/latino accent can be received as being such? Much like how one can say “Scandinavian” or “Asian” accented English, rather than specifically mentioning Swedish or Chinese - it’s a broad stroke. My spoken English is often received as being American, despite my first language being Germanic in origin.

No disagreement, but that is kind of beside the point of where the complaints were coming from. To an English native speaker it may be a broad stroke which accent something is particularly, but they also are not the ones that have strong feelings about Latin representation. If on the other hand Brazilian Portuguese speakers believe that this representation is supposed to be them, that the VA is trying to mimic their accent, when actually it is not, then it is going to be received much worse because to a native Portuguese speaker the difference between their native language and a Puerto Rican accent --done well or not-- is going to be much more noticeable than it is to the hypothetical native English speaker.

[SwadTheFrog]

The agitators among the people who complain about that have done their homework poorly though. The claims I have seen are that this is 'a white person faking a Brazil Portuguese accent badly'. Well, there is the thing. You know why it doesn't sound like a Brazil Portuguese accent? Because it isn't supposed to sound like that accent. The VA they hired is Puerto Rican. The language of Puerto Rico is a variant Spanish, not Portuguese, and it has a local dialect and accent all of its own that is indeed different from how people would speak in the countries complaining.

Hey, Bro. Person that said exactly that here. THAT'S THE POINT. The VA not only does NOT have a Puerto Rican accent, they're making up a completely random one that vaguely sounds like Brazilllian portuguese...if it was spoken in a VERY racist affectation similar to how you might imagine someone very racist voicing, say, a chinese character. Think South Park, but played 100% straight. /That/ is the point being made. It does not work one way or the other, and it is genuinely offensive.

And given that I'm south american and fluent in both Spanish, aswell as Brazillian Portuguese.../please/, tell me I haven't done my homework.

[WinterKipu]

I can't really say I'm current with that sort of thing. This is the only time I've looked into someone associated with this game, and only because Wuk's uncanny pitch in the English dub raised my suspicions. I've never heard the English dub for Koana. From what I can gather, however, his work isn't the subject of much praise. Guys like Luis and "Sena" exhibit of path of undeserved, abrasive narcissism that will not be profitable, or otherwise beneficial, to Square Enix going forward. I also imagine the one(s) responsible for bringing them aboard will be facing a great deal of scrutiny.

Hopefully they will, but since most of the devs don't speak a lot of english, I'm concerned they will rely on the localization team, which is the problem.