ArcSys Voice Acting [This thread has rules now]

[Calamitus]

Spoiler

On 31.08.2016 at 0:36 AM, Orihalcon said:

If you have to preface something with "don't want to sound like a douche" then chances are you're going to sound like a douche.  And boy do you sound like one.  You really need to work on your wording and delivery if you want to sound even remotely sympathetic to people affected by this.

At least he does not use the edgelord's signature or psn/xbl accounts which do not belong him unlike certain someone (I'm suprised they did not ban you just for that).

 

On 31.08.2016 at 0:36 AM, Orihalcon said:

The JP cast just sucks.  Beyond Sugita at most, none of them could act their way out of a paper bag with their emotionless delivery that's devoid of personality, with half the voices not even fitting the role.

I can just take Jamieson Price for example and compare his roles (GG2 Raven, Tager and Leo), they sound absolutely the same (including non-ASW roles like DW5 Lu Bu or Galbalan from Ys). A majority of the other dub actors are not any better in this case (especially Vee). I also like this "half the voices not even fitting the role" part, of course you definitely know better than the creators who fits the role and who does not.

On 31.08.2016 at 10:05 AM, ReRe01 said:

The issue I have with ASW/Aksys is the didn't inform the voice actors

Why should they?

[Luminos564]

27 minutes ago, Calamitus said:

Why should they?

Basic professional courtesy. Imagine if you were any regular 9-to-5'er, making coffee for a living and you've been at your job for 7 years and counting. Then your supervisor tells you via twitter that "No need to come into work anymore, we're replacing you with a coffee/espresso machine". Wouldn't you be just a tiny bit peeved that your boss didn't inform you ahead of time that your services would no longer be required and that they didn't even bother to tell you in person? The English dub cast has been around since CT (for some, their characters weren't playable but they still count). That's a pretty long time that they've devoted to the series. To be blown off like nothing is...kinda disgusting. 

[MaximusMurkimus]

True, voice actors are on call for pretty much all projects, but there's a certain degree of networking in place regardless, especially in the case of Seitz, who served as VA director. 

Considering how revered most seiyuu are in Japan, it's a bit insulting that the English cast found out the same way that we did. 

[Ogiga99]

On 8/30/2016 at 9:22 PM, MaximusMurkimus said:

I'm a little concerned at how many signatures will it take for Aksys/ASW to even care. We're at 2626 now, but would they want to see 5K? 10K? Higher? Patrick seems to be pleased at how far it has gotten though, so maybe it's not as much as I think.

I don't think there's any way to really tell. We're nearly at 3000 in less than a week but we have no idea how long the question will remain open so to speak. Is the most important thing a really big number over a long time or a decent number really quickly? There's also not much precedence for something like this. When people talk about successful gaming petitions odds are they will be Operation Rainfall and the localization of Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth. Both of those had much more support but that is because they are much bigger names. Operation Rainfall was about Nintendo, a juggernaut of the gaming industry and included bringing over Xenoblade Chronicles, which has been considered one of, if not the best RPG of that generation. Digimon is a much bigger name filled with nostalgia and was one of the biggest games in the franchise. This was also helped by the announcement of Digimon Adventure Tri at the time, which brought back childhood fans because it continued the story of the original series. BlazBlue is much more niche so it will never reach those numbers and the news will not spread as far. On the other hand this means they probably won't need as many names. This also doesn't take into account all the emails, messages on social media etc. that Arcsys gets about this since the petition is simply the most concentrated form of fan demand, not the only one. I would like to think that Aksys's quick policy change suggests that the numbers we had even before the petition was at least enough to make them think twice, so if the numbers increase at a decent pace I think we have a possibility. Based on the size of the fandom, if we somehow reach 10,000 and they don't budge it means Arc System Works never took this seriously to begin with. This is why we need to continue spreading the information around. We can't let the issue fade into obscurity after a week or two. There are probably still fans that simply haven't seen this yet so we need to keep it relevant.

[Rotlung]

I do agree that it's professional courtesy to inform the voice actors in some more formal manner. However, I think that the comparison to a regular 9-to-5 job is misleading, because the nature of the work is such that the voice actors aren't necessarily expecting to work as soon as a project is announced. They might hope to be called, but not in the same way you'd expect to go to work in a 9-to-5 job.

[Luminos564]

31 minutes ago, Rotlung said:

I do agree that it's professional courtesy to inform the voice actors in some more formal manner. However, I think that the comparison to a regular 9-to-5 job is misleading, because the nature of the work is such that the voice actors aren't necessarily expecting to work as soon as a project is announced. They might hope to be called, but not in the same way you'd expect to go to work in a 9-to-5 job.

I used the comparison not as a means to describe the nature of their work, but more on the principle of things though. English VAs tend to not be valued as highly as opposed to say some Hollywood actors and their's is often a thankless job with far less pay than some ever realize. Even with all that though, they continue such work out of personal love for it. I dunno about you but I would like to think that if someone does something like that and contributes to the success of your product, they deserve to at least be notified properly.

[Ogiga99]

23 minutes ago, Rotlung said:

I do agree that it's professional courtesy to inform the voice actors in some more formal manner. However, I think that the comparison to a regular 9-to-5 job is misleading, because the nature of the work is such that the voice actors aren't necessarily expecting to work as soon as a project is announced. They might hope to be called, but not in the same way you'd expect to go to work in a 9-to-5 job.

I disagree. BlazBlue is a series that has been dubbed every time for eight years. Just by knowing that the game is coming out the voice actors should have no reason not to expect that to continue. If there is no precedent for not being called in, they won't just hope for it, but want it and be shocked when it suddenly doesn't happen like it should have. This is especially true for Patrick Seitz who is incredibly involved in the series, having worked as a voice director and coordinated the dub of Alter Memory keeping the games' cast.

[Rotlung]

2 hours ago, Ogiga99 said:

I disagree. BlazBlue is a series that has been dubbed every time for eight years. Just by knowing that the game is coming out the voice actors should have no reason not to expect that to continue. If there is no precedent for not being called in, they won't just hope for it, but want it and be shocked when it suddenly doesn't happen like it should have. This is especially true for Patrick Seitz who is incredibly involved in the series, having worked as a voice director and coordinated the dub of Alter Memory keeping the games' cast.

I get you. My point is that, I do agree that what ASW did (as in, failing to even communicate formally with the voice actors) is douche-y, and to be honest it would not have been very difficult/costly to formally contact the voice actors to tell them that they are not needed as opposed to having them hear about it on twitter or some other social media platform. This is especially so given the common knowledge that the voice actors love this project.

But to my knowledge, ASW is under no contractual obligation to tell the voice actors that they are not needed. A proper formal advance notification is usually required in a regular 9-to-5 job (similarly employees are often required to give some advance notice, typically 1 month, if they intend to quit). Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe dubbing one particular show/game counts as short-term project work (so work concludes with the project, the latest being BBCPE, after which no work is expected of them until a new project is announced). Equating the two circumstances is being unfair to the organization (in this case ASW) by imposing a heavier burden on them than it is in reality, even if the principles being discussed are similar.

Anyway, I'm just being pedantic at this point.

[MaximusMurkimus]

This isn't new for VAs, now that I think about it. Remember David Hayter and MGSV? There was less controversy because people are split on Hayter's performance, but the consensus seemed to be that it was way too late to suddenly change Big Boss's voice just because Kojima preferred to work with Sutherland. 

Edit: Up to 3K now. Hope it can keep this up.

People should probably stop saying that they want an Extend version with the dub. PS pretty much said that there's nothing stopping it from being add-on DLC when someone asked if they mean to delay it, and I'm sure ASW would only be bothered if they can make sure the vanilla version sells well first, which it will if a dub is confirmed to be DLC for it.

[LiveWireX]

Well, a bunch of the MGSV stuff was because Konami was being Konami. And you know, Konami's notorious for being a giant piece of shit.

[MaximusMurkimus]

At the end of the day though, it was Kojima's choice to work with English crew for motion capture and voice acting this time around, and Hayter got the short end of the stick because of it. I doubt Konami cared either way, as long as it was out on time.

[Ogiga99]

17 hours ago, MaximusMurkimus said:

People should probably stop saying that they want an Extend version with the dub. PS pretty much said that there's nothing stopping it from being add-on DLC when someone asked if they mean to delay it, and I'm sure ASW would only be bothered if they can make sure the vanilla version sells well first, which it will if a dub is confirmed to be DLC for it.

People who think that will happen are delusional. If a dub will take 6-8 months than now then a dub for Extend would take 8-10 months and that is way worse. Plus if they can get away with it now they will never have a reason to go back. The good news is if we do get one for vanilla CF it might be possible for an Extend to get it at launch since those have much less content to dub (an average of a 2 month wait which is a lot more fair to both sides).

[GF9Returns]

I hope somebody who knows both Japanese and English can make an effort to translate all of the battle quotes, especially the ones toward specific characters, which is one of the best things about the Blazblue series.

[LeDelmo]

Why did my post get deleted?

[Zaiaku]

So the amount of supporters for the petition has slowed down recently. As of now we're pretty much at 3,900, which is great, but I hope the support keeps going strong so we can reach 5,000. We'd have to have some level of significance at that point, which would be even greater if we had double the supporters, but it'd be a miracle if we could even get to 10,000.

I just want this English dub more than anything.

[LeDelmo]

Yikes, those are bad numbers.

Hate to say this but the only way acrsys would get the hint now is if BB:CF becomes a huge flop.

Unfortunately, I dont know if that will happen because lets be serious here. People that buy these games buy them regardless of what the company does. Whats worse if Acrsys gets away with this and has little to no drop in sales I doubt they would ever make a Dub version again. Because they will have proved it has no impact on sales...

Just a filthy casual here but that's the way I see this situation playing out.

[This Man]

If you want to get more members to sign that petition, you'll have to send it to shoryuken or eventhubs and ask them to put it on the main page.

I'd say plenty of fighting game fans, who may not be hardcore BlazBlue fans but might have an interest in playing it at some point, would sign it.

[werewolfgold]

6 hours ago, This Man said:

If you want to get more members to sign that petition, you'll have to send it to shoryuken or eventhubs and ask them to put it on the main page.

I'd say plenty of fighting game fans, who may not be hardcore BlazBlue fans but might have an interest in playing it at some point, would sign it.

Shoryuken posted about the situation weeks ago.

http://shoryuken.com/2016/08/29/fans-rally-behind-a-petition-for-english-dubbing-in-blazblue-central-fiction/

[Finuve]

5 hours ago, werewolfgold said:

Shoryuken posted about the situation weeks ago.

http://shoryuken.com/2016/08/29/fans-rally-behind-a-petition-for-english-dubbing-in-blazblue-central-fiction/

yea, the places that really need to post it for visibility are the ones that have ignored requests, kotaku, IGN, and gamespot. Sites that have a much much larger traffic count, especially of players that wouldnt be following the games news closely enough to know.

[MaximusMurkimus]

They're probably worried they won't get ad revenue or a review copy if they post articles about the petition. 

Honestly, with the November date still being unsure, I'm wondering if they might be reapproaching the way they do the release here. Digital-only sub release would satisfy the ones who want to play right away, and they could always save the physical release for later with the dub. Again, ideal situation.

 

 

[Ogiga99]

3 minutes ago, MaximusMurkimus said:

Honestly, with the November date still being unsure, I'm wondering if they might be reapproaching the way they do the release here. Digital-only sub release would satisfy the ones who want to play right away, and they could always save the physical release for later with the dub. Again, ideal situation.

They're not saving the physical release. The Limited Edition has been confirmed for November. Everything regarding the original release is set in stone. At the moment we have no idea how Arc System Works feels about this situation. Until they make a decision nothing that is coming will change. The best thing they can do for sales would be to announce the dub before the release since that would convince a lot of people to buy without hesitation even if they have to wait (it would change me from waiting to find it used to buying the Limited Edition). Although they are sadly more likely to wait and see how the release plays out before making their decision. The problem is we don't know what outcome of the initial release will be better. Patrick Seitz put it best. "And as for the question of whether or not to buy the sub-only release of Central Fiction in the meantime? There’s no good “one size fits all” answer to that. Frankly, I don’t know what’s going to help the dub’s cause more—healthy sub-only sales to the point where dubbing after the fact doesn’t feel like a financial risk, or low sub-only sales that underscore dissatisfaction with the current pared-down release." We'll just have to keep at it.

Another important thing to remember is that the petition is not the only means of supporting the dub. It is the most widespread and the one that clearly boasts the biggest number but it doesn't necessarily cover every person who has tried to convince Arcsys via twitter, facebook, email or their website. Although I agree, we need to keep spreading this to prevent it from being forgotten.

There is also another way to help spread the word. Let more voice actors know about it and get their support. We are still missing quite a few so we need to bring them in. Here is who we need (who are at least somewhat active on social media).

• Philece Sampler (Tao): Twitter
• Michelle Ruff (Carl and Linhua): Twitter, Facebook
• Laura Bailey (Platinum): Twitter, Facebook
• Travis Willingham (Relius): Twitter
• Kate Higgins (Izanami): Twitter, Facebook
• Stephanie Sheh (Mai): Twitter, Facebook
• Kirk Thorton (Jubei): Twitter

[Orihalcon]

On 9/1/2016 at 5:16 AM, Calamitus said:

  Reveal hidden contents

At least he does not use the edgelord's signature or psn/xbl accounts which do not belong him unlike certain someone (I'm suprised they did not ban you just for that).

 

I can just take Jamieson Price for example and compare his roles (GG2 Raven, Tager and Leo), they sound absolutely the same (including non-ASW roles like DW5 Lu Bu or Galbalan from Ys). A majority of the other dub actors are not any better in this case (especially Vee). I also like this "half the voices not even fitting the role" part, of course you definitely know better than the creators who fits the role and who does not.

 

Ahh, the age old technique of putting words in my mouth.  I rather like the part where you said I know better than the creators about voices fitting character roles and stuff.  That's fun.  Can I say that you said that because you dislike Jamieson Price or Cristina Vee, you're admitting to having unrequited love for several members of the Japanese voice cast and it compels you to make things up about anybody who dislikes them and pass it off as fact as well?

Speaking of Price by the way, I could care less if his roles sounds the same.  He does a damn good job at what he does, and I actually like knowing it's him right away because it's fun hearing voice actors I like and am familiar with in projects.  It's all purely opinion; it's fine to disagree, but cool your jets on it, yo.

And just because somebody isn't involved with the game's creation doesn't mean that, over a course of three games and their expansions over the course of seven years along with various other forms of media involving them, an individual cannot become familiar with a character's personality and what they're generally supposed to be or sound like, and recognize a dissonant voice...which, unsurprisingly, is most of the Japanese cast.  I mean, have you actually listened to Amane's JP voice?  Horrible stuff, and totally at odds with his character.  It's called 'feedback' and 'criticism' and...well, you know, something that people have been doing for years, for various things involving voicework, and all sorts of other media entertainment?

Oh, and the above also all has a large subjective element to it, so really I don't see why if you disagree you don't just shrug and move on.  Or perhaps because I didn't add 'I think' to every obviously personal opinion, you were misguided enough to think I was passing off my thoughts as solid, hardcore facts?  And before you go "BUT YOU'RE ARGUING WITH ME ABOUT MY OPINION" I'm only doing so because your post was so full of assumptions that it gave me a chuckle, which I believe warrants a response.

 

The point I'm getting at here is you're fine to disagree with my thoughts on the JP voice cast or whatever, but you really need to not set it up as if I'm trying to say I know shit better than the creators or whatever you got yourself believing I was doing just because I didn't like a voice cast.

[Domayv]

we are now past 4000 supporters

[MaximusMurkimus]

I thought the physical letter proposal was stupid at first, but the longer I think about it it would make more sense.

Still, good progress so far. 

[Finuve]

9 hours ago, MaximusMurkimus said:

I thought the physical letter proposal was stupid at first, but the longer I think about it it would make more sense.

Still, good progress so far. 

he took the idea from operation rainfall, not really surprising to look to something that worked as inspiration