Why are there so many modern quotes?

[igsnyder]

For the tech and civic trees, and all of the wonder building quotes, there is such a dearth of quoting from ancient texts that are instead replaced by moderns commenting on the ancient world--or just not commenting on the ancient world at all.

I got chills sometimes in V with William Morgan Sheppard quoting these archaic and ancient sources, and VI isn't striking me the same way. It's much less immersive and campy in VI--not epic.

The other side of this issue is that I think Sheppard was a superior selection aesthetically compared to Sean Bean in this particular medium and genre. Perhaps it's something about the age difference. There is a world weariness in Sheppard's voice that seems more apt for a game about ancient worlds moving into the future.

This is a non issue for most, but I think that V was aesthetically superior to VI. VI is certainly mechanically superior, so I can absolutely learn to live with it.

How do you all feel about this?

 

[Mrdarklight]

There's already a thread about this, but I agree. It takes away a lot of the impressiveness when they use quotes by George Carlin, and someone who couldn't get Wi-Fi at a natural wonder.

Sadly, I doubt it will ever be changed. I'm sure Sean Bean is not cheap, and they're not going to call him in and have him redo voiceover.

 

[Returning Lurker]

I feel the same way. In CiV hearing quotes from the Illiad whenever I built The Temple of Zeus or Aristotle when I built Stonehenge in that deep, ominous voice of his always made me absolutely giddy. Hearing George Carlin in Sean Bean's neutral tone just makes me cringe. I really hate the quotes they've chosen this time around, a joke here and there is perfectly fine (Monty Python for Divine Rule made me chuckle) but when the majority of the techs and wonders are given some kind of "witty" aside it just becomes really groan worthy.

 

[Ozisl]

Well, for most of the voice overs can probably be ported over from Civ5 in a mod. Or surely there is a voice actor willing to record the lines.

 

[stiiknafuulia]

Best would be Civ IV quotes with Sean Bean's voice, imo. If the quotes went downhill in Civ V, they took a nose-dive off a cliff in VI. There are a few good ones in there, but the majority are utter garbage that might've been place-holder work by an intern (really, that wifi-quote? ).

 

[God of Kings]

Don't forget the ridiculous air conditioning ended the Roman Empire quote.

 

[Atwork]

C6: "History is a Joke" Edition.

 

[steveg700]

Well, maybe we'll get a "History is Pompous Redux" DLC for the discontent to go spend some bucks on.

 

[Biz_]

someone looked up where one of the quotes comes from:
https://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/5bed3m/did_isladeb_win_a_contest_or_something/

 

[CaiusDrewart]

I still shake my head at the Tanzania wi-fi quote. Someone saw that quote and thought, "yeah, this random person complaining about wi-fi is just the right tone for our Civ game." It's just perplexing.

 

[Disgustipated]

I like some of the modern quotes by Chuck Yeager and Vince Lombardi. Of course I'm an American football fan, so of course I like the Lombardi one. The biggest problem is the quotes are very America centric. But it's an American game, so the developers likely aren't aware of other stuff out there. There are at least 3 Mark Twain quotes, and I love all 3 quotes. I'm not sure if Mark Twain counts as modern though.

Some are bad though. The Courtney Cox one? Ugh. What were they thinking? What's worse, is I don't understand the Courtney Cox quote. Why use a quote from a has been TV star? You are better than that Firaxis. And I already mentioned in the other thread my dislike for the Roman air conditioning one. The wifi one is bad too.

As for the speaker, I didn't care for Civ 5's speaker. Leonard Nimoy will always be the best. But why continue using men? I think it's time they go with a female voice. Sean Bean is alright though, and I like his voice better than the Civ 5 guy's voice.

 

[Skybird]

Quotes are ok, but I wish instead of the quotes this time they chose something factual about what you just built or researched. Something that fleshed out the detail of a wonder for example, how tall were the pyramids, or if you research democracy, how many of the worlds governments implement it. Just some facts as CIV over the years has taught me a great deal about so many historical things it would be nice to have some more.

I do expect Sean to sneak in a "rewards are better with O2" at some point.

 

[Mustakrakish]

I never thought I'd say this (being "there are more important problems" type of a person), but I really really dislike the quotes. Never before (IV & V) have I've been so annoyed and so fast by the quotes. My first mod priority changed to "mute the quotes".

 

[criZp]

In civ V I used to listen to the quotes, now I just cross them out immediately.

 

[Pico 22]

The worst so far, by a large margin. They should do the whole thing all over again but they won't so we're doomed to listen to them for the next six years. A mod to block all of them would be most appreciated - can it be done?

 

[PhilBowles]

I like some of the modern quotes by Chuck Yeager and Vince Lombardi. Of course I'm an American football fan, so of course I like the Lombardi one. The biggest problem is the quotes are very America centric. But it's an American game, so the developers likely aren't aware of other stuff out there. There are at least 3 Mark Twain quotes, and I love all 3 quotes. I'm not sure if Mark Twain counts as modern though.

Some are bad though. The Courtney Cox one? Ugh. What were they thinking? What's worse, is I don't understand the Courtney Cox quote. Why use a quote from a has been TV star? You are better than that Firaxis. And I already mentioned in the other thread my dislike for the Roman air conditioning one. The wifi one is bad too.

As for the speaker, I didn't care for Civ 5's speaker. Leonard Nimoy will always be the best. But why continue using men? I think it's time they go with a female voice. Sean Bean is alright though, and I like his voice better than the Civ 5 guy's voice.

Well, Terry Pratchett and Brian May are recent non-Americans they quoted who I can bring to mind.

I've said on the other thread that I think the problem is mainly that Civ IV and V didn't really have bad quotes - both had quotes that were uninspired or badly-selected, but all were fine quotes in or out of context. Civ VI still has a lot of good quotes - from both recent and historical sources - but it has some glaring misses (worst offenders the wi-fi quote and the air conditioning one) that overshadow fine choices for the remaining natural wonders, or for new civics/techs that weren't in past games and so didn't afford much opportunity to use those (I really like the Napoleon quote for Recorded History particularly). Who is Courtney Cox and which quote is that?

And Sean Bean really misses the mark on the more comedic efforts apart from anything else.

 

[TruthfulCake]

Who is Courtney Cox and which quote is that?

Courteney Cox is an actress known for playing Monica in Friends. Her quote was something about lasers being the wave of the future.

And I remember it only because it's so out of place.

 

[Dark_Jedi06]

"It was luxuries like air conditioning that brought down the Roman Empire"...that one seems to rub me the wrong way the most.

I do like the Monty Python quote for Divine Rule, however.

 

[Jabulani]

I am particularly missing Edison, Woody Allen, etc.... hope a mod will fix them

 

[HeliosDisciple]

I kinda like Civ6 deliberately choosing not to go all Grave and Pompous with its setting. I mean, I love the quotes from the Iliad or the Book of the Dead too, but I think it's good to mix things up.

Unfortunately, they chose outright bad quotes instead of just lighthearted ones. in several cases.