Is this a good or bad thing for someone to say?

[rpgmakerxp]

So, in my game there's people of various cultures and you can tell immediately by how they look(unique sprites/homes/area) The issue is that I  researched videos, audio, etc. to understand how these people speak when attempting to speak English.


I then translated the English spoken by these characters in the videogame to model as if they had real accents.  I was trying to model how the people of the cultures the characters represent really talk in real life


I've been told by people who played the game, that for some characters the "accents" made it difficult to understand what they are saying.


If I remove it I feel the game would be less realistic and less immersive, but it would help players progress through the game easier...

 

[HexMozart88]

Well, the thing you always want when you make a game is to make it as understandable as you can. So, while I find it a neat idea, I think the best way to handle this is to perhaps either put a bunch of waits in the dialogue to make it look like they're having a hard time speaking, or get a text script to make it italicized. 

 

[Shaz]

Which is better?


To have a game that's more realistic and more immersive but gives a bad player experience?


Or to have a game that's a little lacking in those areas but gives a good player experience?


And DOES having the "accents" make it more realistic and immersive?  You might think so, but if the player has to stop playing long enough to read the dialogue several times and try to decipher what the character is saying, there goes your immersion, and probably your realism too.  I would say your method is not achieving the goal you're aiming for, but it's actually having the opposite effect.


It all comes down to the experience you're giving your player.  If they are all complaining about it, then get rid of it, or find another way to do it.

 

[rpgmakerxp]

Well, the thing you always want when you make a game is to make it as understandable as you can. So, while I find it a neat idea, I think the best way to handle this is to perhaps either put a bunch of waits in the dialogue to make it look like they're having a hard time speaking, or get a text script to make it italicized. 

If it's italicized what exactly does that mean though?


"His Majesty is aboot tae make an announcement tae youse all. Simmer doon an' listen noo." -DQIV quote


"His Majesty is aboot tae make an announcement tae youse all. Simmer doon an'listen noo."


I'm trying to see the difference, but not sure.

 

[HexMozart88]

No, I mean like, speaking normally, but with italics so it looks a little sloppier. 

 

[rpgmakerxp]

Which is better?


To have a game that's more realistic and more immersive but gives a bad player experience?


Or to have a game that's a little lacking in those areas but gives a good player experience?


And DOES having the "accents" make it more realistic and immersive?  You might think so, but if the player has to stop playing long enough to read the dialogue several times and try to decipher what the character is saying, then I would say your method is not achieving the goal you're aiming for, but it's actually having the opposite effect.

Well, all I know is when I've met/talked to people in real life with these accents I sometimes had a hard time understanding them as well, so I figured that was proving it being realistic/immersive, but comments like yours are making me think otherwise.


oops double post accident, my previous comment was submitted while shaz made a comment and appeared underneath, then I responded to shaz? and ugh nevermind. >_<

 

[Shaz]

When you've met/talked to people in real life with these accents, and you had a hard time understanding them, didn't you wish they were easier to understand?  Did you appreciate that having difficulty understanding them made things realistic and immersive because it better represented the global variety?  Because you're asking your players to.


You don't HAVE to include things in your game just because they exist in real life, in order to add realism and immersion.  Especially when it makes playing your game less fun.  Because if you add things that make it 'unpleasant' to play, people will stop playing.

 

[rpgmakerxp]

When you've met/talked to people in real life with these accents, and you had a hard time understanding them, didn't you wish they were easier to understand?  Did you appreciate that having difficulty understanding them made things realistic and immersive because it better represented the global variety?  Because you're asking your players to.


You don't HAVE to include things in your game just because they exist in real life, in order to add realism and immersion.  Especially when it makes playing your game less fun.  Because if you add things that make it 'unpleasant' to play, people will stop playing.

This is true, but I have a hard time imagining a town like say representing "India" and then everyone there speaks perfect English. I don't know, I guess it's just something that bothers me.  Although, I see your point...perhaps there's a middle ground that can be reached.  Thanks for the input so far though.

 

[bgillisp]

You could explain it though. Maybe everyone in your world uses a magical translation spell, and therefore everything they 'hear' is already translated? Or maybe someone in the group knows the language, and what you 'see' on screen is the translated version. You could even put a few translation errors in there just to make it feel more realistic.


"Uh...he wants to know if you've seen his pet brick."


"Brick?"


"Wait a second...oh! Pet Dog! I always did confuse tyhuli and tyhali in Orcish!"

 

[Shaz]

That's exactly it.  Maybe what you're doing is just "too much".  Maybe you can ease up on it a little.  It's hard to convey accents in writing.  Maybe you need to leave it to the player to add the accent as they're reading.  If it's obvious what nationality the character is.


Although when I play games, I imagine characters talking in my own accent, and I don't feel there's any loss of realism or immersion because I don't give them the accent intended by the developer.

 

[rpgmakerxp]

You could explain it though. Maybe everyone in your world uses a magical translation spell, and therefore everything they 'hear' is already translated? Or maybe someone in the group knows the language, and what you 'see' on screen is the translated version. You could even put a few translation errors in there just to make it feel more realistic.


"Uh...he wants to know if you've seen his pet brick."


"Brick?"


"Wait a second...oh! Pet Dog! I always did confuse tyhuli and tyhali in Orcish!"

I actually have this already.


And not sure how to double respond, but as for Shaz's comment, you're probably right since I've researched the specific foods, clothing, homes, culture of various peoples from


the same time period. Everything I make from character design, sprites, to dialogue, I'm trying to keep it to the "real world" counterpart.

 

[Leon Kennedy]

I like the idea, even if its tough to know what they are saying its pretty realistic imo as ive played mmo's with ppl of other countries and wow sometimes when we would be on teamspeak they would be speaking english but i just couldnt comprehend somethings haha

 

[HexMozart88]

@Shaz same here. I picture them speaking with my voice, and I can very simply tell you that it does not sound remotely weird when I picture an elf with my weird accent.

 

[rpgmakerxp]

I like the idea, even if its tough to know what they are saying its pretty realistic imo as ive played mmo's with ppl of other countries and wow sometimes when we would be on teamspeak they would be speaking english but i just couldnt comprehend somethings haha

Thanks, yeah I've had some people also say they liked it a lot.  I don't know, I guess once I'm done, and get more people play testing we'll see.

 

[Wavelength]

Your players/playtesters are right.  Go very lightly on accents in written form - these characters, even if they speak with a strong accent, wouldn't write words like "tae" (to) and "doon" (down).


If you're getting the character's background, culture and ethnicity across in other ways, then anyone who has ever met a person of this ethnicity (etc.) will already have the sound of that person's voice (and accent) in their mind's ear, and anyone who hasn't will probably just be confused by your attempts to recreate the accent.


If you do want to show inflection/accent in written speech, stick to really common (and easy to disambiguate) words or forms, such as "-in' " instead of "-ing", and "ya" instead of "you".  Or, go to the next level and find voice actors who can nail the accents, rather than trying to fake it with written word.

 

[rpgmakerxp]

Your players/playtesters are right.  Go very lightly on accents in written form - these characters, even if they speak with a strong accent, wouldn't write words like "tae" (to) and "doon" (down).


If you're getting the character's background, culture and ethnicity across in other ways, then anyone who has ever met a person of this ethnicity (etc.) will already have the sound of that person's voice (and accent) in their mind's ear, and anyone who hasn't will probably just be confused by your attempts to recreate the accent.


If you do want to show inflection/accent in written speech, stick to really common (and easy to disambiguate) words or forms, such as "-in' " instead of "-ing", and "ya" instead of "you".  Or, go to the next level and find voice actors who can nail the accents, rather than trying to fake it with written word.

I actually considered voice actors...but only for the party members' battle quotes, etc.  I think it would be a bit much if I had that for all the townspeople.

 

[Wavelength]

I actually considered voice actors...but only for the party members' battle quotes, etc.  I think it would be a bit much if I had that for all the townspeople.

Probably is, if your game is heavy on text.  Voice acting is a great way to get this kind of thing across, but most indie developers can't (or don't have the money to) find good VA's.  Anyhow, my advice to you about expressing accent through written words holds whether you have VA or not - go really lightly on it.

 

[Celianna]

How about this, choose a funny font for them? Tone down the accent, but not entirely, and rely on the font change to portray a different accent in your game.

 

[Kes]

I've played games where this has been attempted, and frankly, after a bit it gets really tedious.  There is also the fact that unless you know those accents, sentence constructions and idiomatic vocabulary really well, someone from that place will spot all your mistakes.  e.g. in one game there was someone who was speaking with (I think) a New York way.  Seemed all right to me.  Another character was meant to be Scottish.  I'm not a Scot myself, but living in the UK I know enough to realise that there were errors.


To my mind, the more important point is this - you would be releasing this on the internet, and so many of your players might have English only as their second (or third, or even fourth) language.  They may well not have the facility to understand non-standard English very well.  You would be making it extremely difficult for them.  As for voice acting - hard enough to get decent VAs when they are speaking in their own accent, to do another accent would be even worse, and VA instead of text which can be read at one's own speed might make it even worse for non-English speakers.

 

[Wavelength]

To my mind, the more important point is this - you would be releasing this on the internet, and so many of your players might have English only as their second (or third, or even fourth) language.  They may well not have the facility to understand non-standard English very well.  You would be making it extremely difficult for them.  As for voice acting - hard enough to get decent VAs when they are speaking in their own accent, to do another accent would be even worse, and VA instead of text which can be read at one's own speed might make it even worse for non-English speakers.

VA is rarely used instead of text - it's used in addition to it.


Besides that, I think ksjp makes some really great points - I can only imagine seeing a weird phonetic spelling of a word in a language I'm trying to learn, and wondering what the heck kind of new word it is!