Stellaris Dev Diary #77 - Ethics Voice Packs

[yiome]

See, that is the problem right there.
Several people already saying it feels right for Fanatical Purifiers, which i agree.
However, Fanatical Purifiers is only a niche, 1 of dozens of way to play militaristic, why should that than be the default?
It simply doesn't feel right. Nothing to do with it being female.

Even for fanatic purifier it may sound off. Especially if you are playing a non-human empire and suddenly hear "dog of war"......

 

[Tyrannical Prince]

Let's just say that having some men on the internet being upset about an aggressive-sounding woman was not an unexpected development.

That's rude.
Did you hear such criticism about the female voice in the utopia trailer?

I'm pretty sure we would be ecstatic if that was the militarist voice.

Instead you give us this

and insult us because we don't jizz in our pants for it?

Grow up.

 

[Refragmental]

I wonder how would it sounds like if that militaristic line is done by a male voice?
But personally what turns me off a bit is the "dog of war" thing, which feels a bit out of place in a space game.

Also I would prefer a female Hive Mind voice but maybe I am just used to the Zerg Queen voice in starcraft 2 and the version shown in the clip is not as glorious as starcraft 1 Overmind.
"Awaken My Child, and embrace the glory that is your birth right!"

The voiceacting for "StarCraft 2 - Heart of the Swarm" was superb! And again, protagonist is a female there.
A female HiveMind voice would actually make even more sense, as almost all Hives in nature are controlled by a female queen.

 

[Darrenb209]

Let's just say that having some men on the internet being upset about an aggressive-sounding woman was not an unexpected development.

It's not them being a woman and aggressive that's the problem, it's that militarist covers a military society, the vast majority of those tend to value discipline and professionalism.

The tone doesn't quite fit.

It feels less soldier more warrior, less professional, more blood for the blood god.

To me at least, it fits a small subset of the militarist societies while leaving the vast majority of them with a voiceover that doesn't quite fit.

 

[Refragmental]

Even for fanatic purifier it may sound off. Especially if you are playing a non-human empire and suddenly hear "dog of war"......

The dog of war part doesn't really bother me as it's just a line used to present the voice acting.
I don't speak for others, but for me it's purely the feeling, the emotion, that the voiceacting gives me. it simply doesn't feel right for a militaristic setup.

 

[Wizzington]

I don't think there has been even one complaint about the voice being female.
At least not here or reddit.

There has. Besides that though, we had a discussion while recording on how aggressive female voices will be called crazy or overacting because that literally always happens, regardless of context, so it's interesting to see just how much of the criticism has focused on that, with zero self-reflection on how a male voice with similar tone and style would get a pass. It's amusingly predictable, as is the offended self-righteousness upon pointing it out.

 

[Tyrannical Prince]

There has. Besides that though, we a discussion while recording on how aggressive female voices will be calld crazy or overacting because that literally always happens, regardless of context, so it's interesting to see just how much of the criticism has focused on that, with zero self-reflection on how a male voice with similar tone and style would get a pass. It's amusingly predictable, as is the offended self-righteousness upon pointing it out.

If you're so sure of yourself, why don't you upload a male example with the same dialogue

 

[Serenity84]

A male voice in that style would sound just as bad. It's very, very forced. Even for a Klingon-type society it's not that good.

As said above, look at the Utopia trailer. That one has an aggressive female voice that doesn't sound completely corny. And also doesn't fall into the "brute warrior" cliche.
Colonel Santiago from Alpha Centauri is a great example. Completely calm, but very convincing. I never really played as Spartans, but I've always liked her voiceover.

 

[CrowScape]

There has. Besides that though, we a discussion while recording on how aggressive female voices will be calld crazy or overacting because that literally always happens, regardless of context, so it's interesting to see just how much of the criticism has focused on that, with zero self-reflection on how a male voice with similar tone and style would get a pass. It's amusingly predictable, as is the offended self-righteousness upon pointing it out.

Well, when you tell your VA to overact and be crazy, don't say "Aha! We sure called it on those sexists, didn't we!"

You've been given multiple examples of positive militaristic female VAs, some from even your own products. The null hypothesis for your theory has been demonstrated. You are wrong. Own it.

 

[Everstill]

First, that's racist and sexist.

Two, just because someone disliked this doesn't mean they are a white male.

You quoted me by accident?

Probably. I'm still right, though.

You are technically correct (the best kind of correct) about it in the vacuum of the internet. But in the Stellaris community? Come on... even if you synthesize everything in a computer no one here will care.

 

[FabiusBile]

There has. Besides that though, we a discussion while recording on how aggressive female voices will be calld crazy or overacting because that literally always happens, regardless of context, so it's interesting to see just how much of the criticism has focused on that, with zero self-reflection on how a male voice with similar tone and style would get a pass. It's amusingly predictable, as is the offended self-righteousness upon pointing it out.

I still think if you had switched the voices for xenophobes and militarists, nobody would have said anything.

Not that it really matters, in the end, I would not even care to change it in my games anyway. Atleast we have some differences now.

 

[Princess Stabbity]

See, that is the problem right there.
Several people already saying it feels right for Fanatical Purifiers, which i agree.
However, Fanatical Purifiers is only a niche, 1 of dozens of way to play militaristic, why should that than be the default?
It simply doesn't feel right. Nothing to do with it being female.

I don't disagree, I think there's more than one way to interpret militarsm in the context of Stellaris. As a pacifist in real life I see people who glorify violence as barbarians so I can see where they were coming from.

The way I see it there are two ways to voice a militaristic announcer: Romulan (emphasising discipline and cold-bloodedness) or Klingon (emotional, looking to pick a fight).

In this case, they went with Klingon. It's not my preferred style but I think it's still a valid one.

The point is, when you can only pick one option and both are valid, variety is probably the deciding factor. I can't imagine any other ethic (other than xenophobe but that one got a more Galactic Empire style voice) being able to justify screaming so much. If ALL the voiceovers ended up being calm and calculated, the overall range of choices would seem kinda... samey.

 

[yiome]

There has. Besides that though, we a discussion while recording on how aggressive female voices will be calld crazy or overacting because that literally always happens, regardless of context, so it's interesting to see just how much of the criticism has focused on that, with zero self-reflection on how a male voice with similar tone and style would get a pass. It's amusingly predictable, as is the offended self-righteousness upon pointing it out.

It still won't feel right for a militaristic empire imho.
It sounds more like space horde. If you ever going to add a space horde to the game it would suit nicely, female or male.
In other game where the empire is preset VO gives it a better identity.

But in stellaris very defined VO may not work very well as everyone has a different opinion in how each empire would work.

 

[Darrenb209]

There has. Besides that though, we a discussion while recording on how aggressive female voices will be calld crazy or overacting because that literally always happens, regardless of context, so it's interesting to see just how much of the criticism has focused on that, with zero self-reflection on how a male voice with similar tone and style would get a pass. It's amusingly predictable, as is the offended self-righteousness upon pointing it out.

No offense, but you are coming across as extremely self-righteous right now.

Most of the complaints here are that it doesn't suit the militarist society, but you are interpreting

"The tone of the voice doesn't fit" to mean "No aggressive females allowed"

If the voiceover fit, most of us wouldn't have an issue. But a blood knight type voice doesn't fit the majority of militarist scenario's.

I like the voice, I'd use it for fanatic purifiers and warrior type civs, but it really, really doesn't work as the generic militarist.

 

[Refragmental]

There has. Besides that though, we a discussion while recording on how aggressive female voices will be calld crazy or overacting because that literally always happens, regardless of context, so it's interesting to see just how much of the criticism has focused on that, with zero self-reflection on how a male voice with similar tone and style would get a pass. It's amusingly predictable, as is the offended self-righteousness upon pointing it out.

Ofcourse there are always idiots, but in this topic i haven't seen one that's been outspoken about it being female, unless i missed it (i will check the topic again)
But saying the criticism has focused on that aspect is simply bs and you know it. Just read this topic and see the feedback, 99% about it is about how it feels off.
And no, a similar sounding male voice would also not pass, the feeling and emotion it conveys to the player will still be the same "frothing at the mouth, undisciplined warrior", and not "disciplined, orderly and calculated soldier".

Also, there's no "self-reflection" because why would we discuss it being male instead of female? We're better than that, better than only focusing on gender. Nobody cares!!

 

[yiome]

No offense, but you are coming across as extremely self-righteous right now.

Most of the complaints here are that it doesn't suit the militarist society, but you are interpreting

"The tone of the voice doesn't fit" to mean "No aggressive females allowed"

If the voiceover fit, most of us wouldn't have an issue. But a blood knight type voice doesn't fit the majority of militarist scenario's.

I like the voice, I'd use it for fanatic purifiers and warrior type civs, but it really, really doesn't work as the generic militarist.

Minus the exact line, the blood thirst feel would not sound bad for a Devouring Swarm. Again the Zerg impression.

 

[Wizzington]

To be clear, what I am saying is not that the Militarist VO is perfect and beyond all critique, what I am saying is that we had a script for the Militarist VO that called for a more 'crazy' approach, and we picked the actor (after auditioning both male and female voices) that did the role best, knowing that picking a male voice would have been a safer bet no matter the quality of the actor. So it's a bit amusing, like I said, to see the backlash and the absence of self-distance and self-reflection coming with it, because we *knew* this would happen and chose to pay that price.

 

[Refragmental]

To be clear, what I am saying is not that the Militarist VO is perfect and beyond all critique, what I am saying is that we had a script for the Militarist VO that called for a more 'crazy' approach, and we picked the actor (after auditioning both male and female voices) that did the role best, knowing that picking a male voice would have been a safer bet no matter the quality of the actor. So it's a bit amusing, like I said, to see the backlash and the absence of self-distance and self-reflection coming with it, because we *knew* this would happen and chose to pay that price.

Again, it has nothing to do with it being female or male. Why do you keep driving that point?

 

[Tyrannical Prince]

To be clear, what I am saying is not that the Militarist VO is perfect and beyond all critique, what I am saying is that we had a script for the Militarist VO that called for a more 'crazy' approach, and we picked the actor (after auditioning both male and female voices) that did the role best, knowing that picking a male voice would have been a safer bet no matter the quality of the actor. So it's a bit amusing, like I said, to see the backlash and the absence of self-distance and self-reflection coming with it, because we *knew* this would happen and chose to pay that price.

so in other words...

We chose a bad voice actor/script so we could preach our moral superiority at our customers

 

[Garfazz Steamfang]

Probably. I'm still right, though.

Hummm no i disagree here. I have Nothing with the voice being a female voice here. The thing is that the girl looks like a psychotic blood thirsty warrior. We can't judge a voice on one sentence but, for what i have heard, this voice would suit fanatic purificator better than an organized, disciplined and cold warculture empire.