Technology quotes - I am the only one who

[Atepa09]

2. The same voice actress doing ALL the lines.

This is really the only thing that bothers me... because the quotes are from all the different leaders, but done with the same voice actress...

 

[TheGrumpyBuddha]

The silly fake accent used by the narrator doesn't help.

And the way she PUTS emphasis ON the wrong words quite OFTEN. I don't blame her, though. That's what voice direction is for. I have the sense they wrapped up the entire recording of the quotes late on a Friday afternoon.

 

[AriochIV]

This is really the only thing that bothers me... because the quotes are from all the different leaders, but done with the same voice actress...

Some of the leaders don't speak English, so having them read their own lines wouldn't really work. The is a case where the juxtaposition of the foreign language speaking Civ V leaders and the quirky SMAC leader quotes is a bit awkward.

 

[TheGrumpyBuddha]

Ok, that's a pretty lame one. But it's one of *the* lamest of SMAC, and it's still not actively bad. Whereas stuff like this exists in BE:
It is 'pure' alright... Pure drivel!

Yeah -- a lot of the founder logs are like that. They read like a first draft from some high school student who likes science fiction. "We're going to this strange world and it's awesome and challenging, but we'll make it!" Um, okay, I guess.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Some of the leaders don't speak English, so having them read their own lines wouldn't really work. The is a case where the juxtaposition of the foreign language speaking Civ V leaders and the quirky SMAC leader quotes is a bit awkward.

Eh, you could still have them read it in English. It works for war movies.

 

[PhilBowles]

This absolutely killed me.

Yeah, you're totally right.

I think there's three heads to this hydra -

1. The low quality of actual writing compared to SMAC.

2. The same voice actress doing ALL the lines.

3. The lack of mechanical/gameplay character of any of the factions the leaders represent. The factions in SMAC are much better differentiated. Each one is a double-edged sword, and each faction's multiple pros and cons are far stronger than any of the entire sponsor bonuses.


Compare hearing

"A four-billion year old world's worth of resources, shared among a handful of people. We're gonna make a fortune here!"

...notably without hearing the source, in that same goddamn uninspiring accent as everything else you hear in the game. Who said that? Who are they talking to, some guy on the street? It sounds like something from a strange episode of Top Cat. And this guy is who? The leader of Polystralia? What do they do? Oh, they trade a bit more than everyone else. They're a bit corrupt, elitist?

to

"Resources exist to be consumed. And consumed they will be, if not by this generation then by some future. By what right does this forgotten future seek to deny us our birthright? None I say! Let us take what is ours, chew and eat our fill.

CEO Nwabudike Morgan "The Ethics of Greed"

...in that brilliant, prideful, confident voice, like he's reading his book out at a shareholder conference.

This is a good pair of quotes to compare, and indeed hints at the importance of the voice acting in SMAC. The AC quote is badly-written, not terribly entertaining in phrasing, and above all from the perspective of immersion, does not reflect the way people really write or speak when discussing these kinds of concepts.

The new quote is also badly-written and has something of the same 'bwahaha, let's revel in being an evil corporation' of the AC quote, but it's pithier and more naturalistic.

And yet ... the first quote is better and more lasting. Why? The voice acting, and its link to the setting. That's it. Nothing in the inherent quality of what is, judged in isolation, not merely a bad quote but arguably worse than the BE one.

It's like that for most, but it's a pity, because I think there's some decent bits of writing lost in there because of the lack of specific voice acting. I can imagine a combination of Miriam and Yang saying Bioengineering's quote, "If it's a sin to 'Play God', then why would He leave his tools lying around?". There's a few good short ones in there.

Nothing comparable to the vivid imagery conjured up in the SMAC quotes, though:

"Observe the Razorbeak as it tends so carefully to the fungal blooms; just the right bit from the yellow, then a swatch from the pink. Follow the Glow Mites as they gather and organize the fallen spores. What higher order guides their work? Mark my words: someone or something is managing the ecology of this planet."

Lady Deirdre Skye, "Planet Dreams"

I even hear the voice while reading the quote despite - again - it making little real sense (no more 'higher order' need be invoked here than for leafcutter ants on Earth, a planet with no higher consciousness of its own in either reality or the game's lore) and being written by someone who appears to believe that pretentious wording equals profundity.

or probably the best one for getting the point across about the different factions' styles:

"The entire character of a base and its inhabitants can be absorbed in a quick trip to the Rec Commons. The sweaty arenas of Fort Legion, the glittering gambling halls of Morgan Bank, the sunny lovers' trysts in Gaia's High Garden, or the somber reading rooms of U.N. Headquarters. Even the feeding bay at the Hive gives stark insight into the sleeping demons of Yang's communal utopia."

Commissioner Pravin Lal, "A Social History of Planet"

And this one is actually just a good quote.

 

[PhilBowles]

Eh, you could still have them read it in English. It works for war movies.

As far as I can tell, all of them speak some English (except Brasiia?) Etodie, for instance, switches to English after her opening French.

While the voice actress is the same, she does try different accents for some quotes, I've noticed - for instance an Irish accent for a quote from a random pioneer settler, and accents approximating Russian or French for quotes from those factions' spokespeople.

 

[NikNak]

The AC quotes pulled triple duty. They had nuggets of backstory for the setting, they supplied flavor for the factions, and they worked to give color to the techs they were attached to. The writing and voice acting worked together to produce this. Even the shortest quotes had personality thanks to the performances.

In contrast, the BE quotes are just bland and lifeless for the most part. It's rare to find any that are as evocative of the AC quotes. The fact that they are read by one actor in the most deadpan way possible hurts even more.

 

[TheGrumpyBuddha]

The fact that they are read by one actor in the most deadpan way possible hurts even more.

I wouldn't call the reading deadpan, or flat. But it's consistently cheery, and as I said, sometimes with an odd choice of word emphasis. Nothing in there that vaguely approaches the level of curiosity or condescension or anger or joy or wonderment in many of the SMAC quotes. (Not that there's much to work with, though.)

 

[GenEngineer1]

I wouldn't call the reading deadpan, or flat. But it's consistently cheery, and as I said, sometimes with an odd choice of word emphasis. Nothing in there that vaguely approaches the level of curiosity or condescension or anger or joy or wonderment in many of the SMAC quotes. (Not that there's much to work with, though.)

The choice of word emphasis actually makes sense if you're looking at Kavitha's quotes; generally "zen" and implying that the word is carrying a much deeper spiritual meaning than the dictionary would suggest. Seeing as she shares a voice actor with Kavitha, it works. But you are perfectly correct in that it makes no sense for the rather condescending Daoming (lightspeed problems are simple, advanced proofs trivial) or the naturalistic Barre (planet is our neighbor, be good to it).

 

[PhilBowles]

Ok, that's a pretty lame one. But it's one of *the* lamest of SMAC, and it's still not actively bad. Whereas stuff like this exists in BE:
It is 'pure' alright... Pure drivel!

I don't mind that one - like most BE quotes it's intended to be humorous, and in this case it does (cynically) reflect the way people often think.

 

[Ari Rahikkala]

CivBE's quotes are really starting to grow on me. It does suck that they didn't do the leader VA thing, and I wish they did, because reading them in text form, they actually look like they could work really well. Yeah, these leaders aren't the larger-than-life intellectuals that SMAC leaders tried to be, but they're pretty fine characters.

You've got Kozlov's soviet bluster and obsession for progress and industry which is actually kind of endearing. Elodie was originally presented as a mean old moral guardian who thought she knew what's best for everyone, but based on her quotes she looks more like a snarker who really just wanted to get rid of the bits of culture that she found annoying. Fielding is CEO Yang, though we already knew that. Sochua can't get five words out of her mouth without mentioning how much smarter she is than everyone else. And Hutama is a savvy business guy, and Kavitha is a mystical prophet, and Reggie is a wise military leader, yeah, they're archetypes, of *course* they're archetypes - that's the only way they can have a chance of working in the first place.

One thing I found odd is that most of the leaders' quotes all come from a single work (one per leader). I guess that works to make them a bit more down-to-earth. Kavitha penned a couple books, probably all full of aphorisms and poetry and suchlike. Daoming Sochua is a sort of an exception with her endless series of tomes on the subject of scientific morality.

 

[Traejun]

The quote when you get Supremacy 18: "All previous versions of humanity are no longer supported."

That's my favorite one thus far. Really gets the message across.

 

[janboruta]

I like BE quotes, but dislike the fact that they're done by one voice actress with such a high-pitched voice - I wish the devs chose someone with a more serious approach to reading all the text in the game.

What I would like to see one day is a mod that would provide tech quotes (and maybe affinity quotes) read appropriately by all the leaders. Finding English-speaking voice actors with similar voices and/or accents to those of BE leaders shouldn't be really an issue - money would be an issue, but if this is such a big problem for BE players, I bet it could be successfully funded.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

I also wish the quotes were done by separate voice actors to match each leader that is speaking the quote. It would make the quotes feel more real.

 

[NyQuil]

I also wish the quotes were done by separate voice actors to match each leader that is speaking the quote. It would make the quotes feel more real.

That worked so well for SMAC.

I can still hear:

"Learn to overcome the crass demands of flesh and bone, for they warp the matrix through which we perceive the world. Extend your awareness outward, beyond the self of body, to embrace the self of group and the self of humanity. The goals of the group and the greater race are transcendent, and to embrace them is to achieve enlightenment."

AND

"Resources exist to be consumed. And consumed they will be, if not by this generation then by some future. By what right does this forgotten future seek to deny us our birthright? None I say! Let us take what is ours, chew and eat our fill."

 

[SupremacyKing2]

There is no doubt that the SMAC tech quotes were wonderful in their world building and thought provoking nature. Here are the quotes from the intro and techs 0-24 as an example:


Link to video.

 

[AriochIV]

What's a bit strange is that they have all this voiceover for the extraneous technology quotes, and yet so little for the leaders. Seems like there's only one voice response for each situation that you hear over, and over, and over, and over again. "What's ours is yours... for a price." "How can the Corporation serve you?" You'd think once you've got the actor is the studio you should be able to record more than about 10 lines of dialogue.

 

[Greizer85]

I don't mind that one - like most BE quotes it's intended to be humorous, and in this case it does (cynically) reflect the way people often think.

But it's *flat* as a pan-cake; like a fizzled soft-drink compared to the luxurious champagne that is a proper SMAC quote. (Granted that a lot of it is due to the voice acting.) But it seems you're one of those people who uses words like 'pretentious', 'purple prose', etc. Me, otoh -- the more fancy the prose, the better. So it may be a matter of different tastes. 'Naturalistic', yet human *anything*, to me, is boring and bad. The point of art is to improve upon nature; a good quote in my book uses eloquent language. I don't care how a 'real' CEO Morgan would speak... I want to hear the one we have recite more quotes, game after game (if only new ones could be had for each game!). Or Chairman Yang with that 'enlightened', yet arrogant, creepily robotic voice from somewhere far beyond... 'I know your affairs WAY better than you and your kind could ever possibly hope' emanating from every word, yet it's so convincing that you *almost* want to believe. Etc etc... Will we remember the 'naturalistic' utterances of the BE leaders 10 years from now? That is the true test, and I vote a decisive 'NO', unless things are vastly improved.

"All previous versions of humanity are no longer supported."

Now this is bad-ass, and an actually good BE quote. So they *can* do it, it's just that the quality is very uneven. Perhaps they had an intern write some of the quotes (at the last minute)?

 

[JH24]

The quotes aren't as good as those in SMAC, but personally I didn't find them that bad either. I enjoyed most of them and got me more immersed with the game.

Although it would have been better if each of the leaders had said those lines instead of one voice actress. (You can tell she tries to add character by changing her way of speaking for each leader but there's only so much you can do with that)

The SMAC faction leaders really gave personality to the game, and it's a missed opportunity BE didn't do the same.