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Is anyone else disappointed by the quotes for Techs/Wonders?

ExemplarVoss said:
Few too many from modern American comedians for my taste. Devoid of their original context, they just sound amazingly like 'ignorant Americans not knowing history.'


I'm not sure I can really explain it. Garrison Keillor was around for about 42 years doing the same radio show (though new material in every show) in a very dry monologue, and the audience reactions to funny (in the sense of strange) statements (like the air conditioning) are largely a matter of snapping out of the hypnotic drone with a sort of 'Wait? What?' reaction.

Odds are pretty good that if you aren't a rural(ish) American of the Baby Boomer generation, you won't find most of his material particularly amusing. Just a lot of double takes and raised eyebrows.
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Part of the issue is Sean Bean - he really doesn't do comic timing well. Great quotes like the Monty Python one really fall flat.

Usually the attribution is pretty irrelevant, but it adds a nice touch that Brian May was the one who commented "Astronomy is more fun if you're not an astronomer" - probably only if you know his background, though, rather than just knowing him as a guitarist.

Again I find the issue isn't that there aren't good quotes, it's that there's a lot of variability in how good and how well-chosen they are - some are as good as any in Civ IV, but the only Civ IV quote I recall that fell flat was choosing a Johnny Cash line from Rock Island Line, and having Nimoy speak it (sure, singing it would have been worse, but it doesn't work at all as a spoken line).
 
lol, of all the problems with the game, quotes is certainly not one.
 
Having finished one game now I find some of the quotes pretty cool. I like the Chuck Yeager one. Also Vince Lombardi. You can't go wrong with those two men. Yeah America centric, deal with it.
Of course some quotes are bad. But I found this with Civ5 and Civ4 as well. Not every quote was a winner.
 
Exactly. Poor jokes < inspirational and dour quotes, IMO.
 
They have a quote by some famous old German general. Don't remember the name offhand (sorry), but his quotes have turned up in a variety of games and other places. I remember thinking "Wait, all the great quotes by this guy and this is the one you choose for Civ 6? Seriously?"

Overall, I have to agree with the original poster. Either the quotes are too modern and too pithy (e.g. the Wi-Fi quote), rehash quotes we heard before in previous games, or quotes that are just less impressive/less interesting.
 
Not a major issue for me, but I must admit, I agree they haven't really nailed it with their choices of quotes on many of these.
 
The WiFi on Kilimanjaro really breaks my immersion, I would have never allowed it in the game if I had a say in it. Quoting modern day stand up comedians and other such rabble is one step from quoting celeb bloggers and Kanye West.

You have an ample plethora of historical figures to quote from. Hell, just take Plato, Sun Tzu, Marcus Aurelius, Machiaveli and Shakespeare and you can fill up everything until the industrial era.

Regarding which civ game had the best tech voices: anyone saying anything other than Alpha Centauri is delusional.
 
Myth and Legend said:
Regarding which civ game had the best tech voices: anyone saying anything other than Alpha Centauri is delusional.
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That goes without saying. SMAC had leaders that stood for something with unique philosphies, quoting from the leaders themselves was genius.
 
I never really paid much attention to the quotes, but some of them are obviously pretty bad. Is the travel blog quote on Kilimanjaro from a dev's friend or something? Not knocking her(?) but the quote isn't particularly stand out even in context and the Kilimanjaro mention is only incidental. Personally I don't like Sean Bean's voice very much, both the accent and delivery.
 
A lot of them are just not appropriate. They're too flippant, there's no gravitas. George Carlin? Really? That one particularly I find unappealing.
 
darko82 said:
Civ IV has the best voice. Nobody can beat it.
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Right here is the most important point.

I'm not impressed with Sean Bean at all. If I was in the market to hire an actor, maybe. But for a narrator? I'd probably go with Peter Cullen. He's 75 so he might not be around for the next Civ game.
 
A ton of the quotes are pessimistic. I swear it's at least a third, if not more, in my experience. Researched iron working? Violence is bad. Industrialism? Pollution is bad. Economics? Capitalism is bad.

Seriously, are the devs trying to make me feel terrible for making progress in the game? Several of these quotes just seem like odd choices.
 
I mentioned something about this a few days ago when I first saw and heard the Stonehenge video. I hated it and pretty much do not like this new style. I would think we could get real video of the actual places and something intelligent to say about them but its a new world and I'm getting too old. Time to adapt or Die I suppose :)
 
Fluphen Azine said:
I mentioned something about this a few days ago when I first saw and heard the Stonehenge video. I hated it and pretty much do not like this new style. I would think we could get real video of the actual places and something intelligent to say about them but its a new world and I'm getting too old. Time to adapt or Die I suppose :)
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No it's not. It's time to get ALL THE DAMN KIDS OFF THE LAWN!

:queen:
 
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