This.
It's an issue, and it leaves a lot to be desired, but before you get enraged, try and understand why and how the problem came to be.
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I'm sick of non-Arab voice actors playing Arab characters
- Thread starter Dance Inferno
- Start date
This.
It's an issue, and it leaves a lot to be desired, but before you get enraged, try and understand why and how the problem came to be.
Nah, that would be Ana. Egyptian actress voicing an Egyptian character.
Maybe it's a form of Stockholm syndrome but I speak and/or understand 2 other languages, including one in my native tongue, and I'm never upset when I hear people speaking it. I remember this came up a lot during breaking bad and also Narcos with Escobar, like it really seemed to bother native speakers. But for me, when I even hear an actor attempting or doing a half decent job I'm just impressed/satisfied that they gave it a go.
Of course, when someone actually hires native speaking actors, or the rare occasion that a non native actor nails it, I'm even more satisfied and impressed. I just never related to the outrage. The worst I'll feel is laughter at how silly it is.
Of course, when someone actually hires native speaking actors, or the rare occasion that a non native actor nails it, I'm even more satisfied and impressed. I just never related to the outrage. The worst I'll feel is laughter at how silly it is.
So, it happens to every non-English language it seems -_-
It happens with French too, also in movies.
It happens with French too, also in movies.
I never knew that. That's really cool.
I mean, I've always wanted a new Punch Out game, but that makes me imagine a new one where they even go so far as to collaborate with developers from those other countries to help design each country's contestant for the game. I would love to see what a bunch of different countries would come up with for boxers.
I remember me and my brother laughing our asses off during the Yemen level in U3. Wrong and fucked up accents everywhere and I can't blame the actors in the game. A lot of background VAs have no idea of the projects they sign up for and are just brought to the studio to record generic lines obviously written by a writer who doesn't understand the language with little to no direction.
Like if you brought a single random Arab person from the streets and had them play that level, they'd easily been able to point out the mistakes. These AAA games with their expensive af production values and large budgets can't get basic details right.
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We also need Street Fighter characters speaking their native languages as well. I highly regard Tekken in this aspect. I know interactions would make little sense but the SF story is mental anyway. Either that or have the character speak their languages during the actual fighting with attack moves and taunts.
OP, I stopped my MW2 playthrough because I got tired of the american soldiers killing poor stereotypical brazilians
THANK YOU for making this. Several times I made a similar thread about this. The bad Arabic with Farah is egregious.
Pretty much. Every Nordic language and accent gets reduced to herdy-gerdy-berdy as well.
I can understand spanish pretty well but am not spanish myself and it is so cringy to hear the "bad mexican" enemies talk. To a lesser extent it is the same with "bad brazillian" enemies although I could argue that it's brazil's own fault for ruining such a nice language.
In the world of acting, it always comes down to who can do the best stereotypical accent in order to land the role. It's why Kumail Nanjiani didn't get the role of Dopinder in the Deadpool movies, despite how funny he is as a comedian.
Yeah, this is Torbjörn in Overwatch.
I'm glad they got a proper swedish VA for Brigitte though!
I thought they did a great job with AC Odyssey and Greek accents, but it's one of the few examples, made it feel really authentic instead of Greeks with British accents in films.
I wonder whether part of it is just the difficulty of getting voice actors with certain accents.
I wonder whether part of it is just the difficulty of getting voice actors with certain accents.
Yep. It's annoying as fuck. Same shit with Persians. I mean they got Jake Gyllenhaal to play the Prince in Prince of Persians movie. WTF.
She's of Pakistan background so yes she.
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Was just thinking about a similar issue with any of the caribbean languages, in particular haitian creole. Was expecting Bad Boys-level butchery in Cyberpunk 2077, but was pleasantly surprised that much of it was passable.
I think Brigitte and Placide VAs were either not Haitian or diaspora, but NPC dialogue was surprisingly good. Not bad for a language that is regularly mishandled in western media.
I think Brigitte and Placide VAs were either not Haitian or diaspora, but NPC dialogue was surprisingly good. Not bad for a language that is regularly mishandled in western media.
I stopped buying games with arabic *characters* or background,
Always shown as bad people, living in the stone age, kill , kill and more kill. Pathatic.
Just like uncharted , They went to Yemen and the NPC speaks Syrian Dialect . It was so bad and stupid dialog , Just like watching a bad soap opera.
Always shown as bad people, living in the stone age, kill , kill and more kill. Pathatic.
Just like uncharted , They went to Yemen and the NPC speaks Syrian Dialect . It was so bad and stupid dialog , Just like watching a bad soap opera.
Not even really then either... its very rare to hear Southeastern characters and accents that aren't treated as an exaggerated parody... I'm sure there are people in other US regions with similar complaints. At the end of the day though these people are actors, and it seems weird to totally box them in and not allow them to act as anything other than themselves. It really just depends on the project I suppose but it does make one wonder why a wider net isn't cast more often; I'm certain finding a suitable actor who comes from the proper background, or knows the language, can't be too difficult - its just a matter of making a little bit of effort. That being said even if you get a region correct actor to perform a character written in a stereotypical manner there would still obviously be a problem, there's a writing issue at play as well.
Agreed with people mentioning Ana. Her arabic is really good. It sounds like an actual Egyptian instead of someone attempting to speak with egyptian dialect.
I think devs should make their character the same nationality as their actor and make them speak with their own dialect instead. That would be the best way to represent arabic.
Pakistan doesn't speak Arabic.
I think devs should make their character the same nationality as their actor and make them speak with their own dialect instead. That would be the best way to represent arabic.
What?
Pakistan doesn't speak Arabic.
Doesn't bother me as a south Asian, though. Look the part and sound the part? Go for it, you're just _acting_ so I got no beef, honestly.
No it isn't. I'm Indian with Pakistani relatives, it's not remotely Arabic in any sense. The main language spoken is Urdu. Closest you might get is that many folks can also read Arabic, but that's because of religion and less to do with culture.
Pakistan isn't an Arab country... It's (South) Asian. They speak Urdu/Punjabi/English and numerous others but it's not an Arab or Arabic country.
I remember this with GTA IV, when Niko talks Serbian and just does everything wrong, pausing mid sentence, pronouncing everything as wrong as you could possibly do, etc.
It's all at the start of the game, too, so whenever I boot that up for whatever reason (most recently, BC and 60 fps on XSX), it hits me again.
It's all at the start of the game, too, so whenever I boot that up for whatever reason (most recently, BC and 60 fps on XSX), it hits me again.
??????
No, it's not. Pakistan has many different ethnicities plus they mostly speak Urdu.
Yes, it's classified as South Asian. Even Afghanistan falls into this category. Certainly neither are Arabic.
I'm going by what my Pakistani realtives and friends have told me. When I say realtives, they are relatives by marriage. I'm on the phone right now with my brother in law who was born and raised there and he's telling me they are.
I'm from Italy and I've seen several american TV shows with Italian speaking characters portraited by non-italian actors or Italian Americans actors that are not even remotely able to speak Italian.
I find it funny waaaaay more than offensive.
As well as for the hand gesture jokes about Italians.
I find it funny waaaaay more than offensive.
As well as for the hand gesture jokes about Italians.
Your Pakistani relatives and friends think they are Arabs?
Saw your edit: I have no idea how your relatives came to such a conclusion, but they are very confused.
My background is Pakistani as well. It's an Asian country. Noone in my extended family ever identify Pakistan as anything but Asian, never Arab. Pakistan and the Asian country India used to be one and the same. You telling me India is also Arab?
Google:
The
Arab World
consists of 22
countries
in the
Middle East
and North Africa: Algeria, Bahrain, the Comoros Islands, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United
Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
Now I'm curious why your relatives think they are Arab.
I'm just going by what they say. I didn't think Pakistani were Arabs until I moved to the UK and the ones I know claim they are. So don't blame me..
Yo why you coming at me? I'm just saying what they told me so maybe you should have a word with them.
Apologies, I edited it out as well.
You moved to the UK as well? That makes things even more weird. As a UK, Londoner with a Pakistani background myself, none of my family ever call themselves anything but Pakistani Asian. I've never met a Pakistani here that says they are Arab. First for everything I suppose.
Sounds like he must be confused. Maybe his parents moved there and aren't native Pakistani? Most Pakistanis would be closer to Indians in ethnicity due to historical reasons.
Yes I was living in Miami, Florida for majority of my life before I moved to the UK. My wife is from Mauritius and her sister is married to a Pakistani and that's how I've come to know a lot of Pakistanis. I've been here for 14 years now and been living in Croydon. I originally didn't think Pakisanis were Arabs until I was told otherwise. I'm not one to get into arguments with people about where they are from so I just left it.
You might have a point, I remember he said his dad was from Iran and moved to Pakistan while his mum was a native there. Maybe that's why he says he is an Arab. Man, sorry if I offended anyone.
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These 22 countries are officially recognized as the Arab states.
While there's may be a bit of debate around exactly where to draw the boundary, there really isn't any debate that Iran and anything east of it definitely aren't Arab countries.
There are Islamic countries that may speak Arabic as a second language, but none which is culturally or linguistically Arabic by any definition.
Happens with accents too. I could count on my fingers the amount of Irish characters played by Irish people rather than "American/Canadian/Brit putting on a questionable accent".
Yeah, I was definitely thinking something similar. There are certain cultural habits that people within the culture find distinctive and funny; that's part of the popularity of ethnic comedians. You can keep the comedic tone and reduce the offensiveness of the game by grabbing more of those jokes that are less likely to be used by people outside.
I haven't thought up anything that I feel you can use in the context of boxing, but for example, Indian etiquette can draw out some hilarious situations. It's often seen a polite to give gifts but impolite to accept them, so I'm constantly seeing my family bickering as they try to do something nice for each other and then almost resort to blows to get them to actually accept it. Or there's the time that my uncle accidentally insulted a guest because he offered the guest a beer, and then after the guest said no, he didn't give him a beer.
Involving more devs could help draw the humour away from often dated and overly narrow external stereotypes and make the characters more distinctive.