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Overdoing an accent?
#1
This is somewhat of a rant because I'm in SWToR right now, standing next to a woman in the Lingerie Huttball League with... some kind of an accent. "Well, I ain' had no Sithy try'an'ta'wi'me." That kind of thing, where they don't seem to say 'd', 'to', 'with', etc.

It brings me back to my old WoW retail days, where I saw... unholy things. A Draenei Shaman, ladies and gentlemen. She would talk in this horribly overdone stereotypical Russian accent. "Yeah! Ze elements, zey speak to ze shamans of ze Draenei, yah!".

It made matters worse that she RPed a class that is a respected member of Draenei society and her personality was that of a 5 year old girl that had just been shot up with a few kegs of caffeine. Jumping on people's backs and being kooky and silly, you know the kind.

So, do any of you think that some people in RP really overdo an accent? Like, to the point where it's kind of offensive? I don't mind people RPing Worgens with a British accent (especially since I'm from the north of London, the land time forgot) but seeing a Dwarf that says 'hoots, mon', a Draenei that says '5 year plans' or a Goblin that sound like they're from Brooklyn makes me want to slap them.

EDIT: Googled the shaman's name, now they've class changed to a Priest. Also their horns have changed. Pretty sure it's the same account since the server was the target of mass migration from the server I saw her on.
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#2
I hate it when people say you overdo an accent. It's become a pet peeve of mine. People do accents how they feel, just like with anything else in RP, and has to do with personal flavor. Does everyone like it? No, just like everyone doesn't like certain other things in RP, if that's not your thing, don't do it. If the person RPing an accent seriously confuses you... RP it accordingly.

That's my advice.
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#3
..but goblins always sound like they're from Brooklynn? (Part of why I love 'em.) For me if a character has a "medium" accent (not illegibly heavy but not near-nonexistent either) I enjoy typing them out!
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#4
Blizzard did kind of put them in the game with said accents. Goblins have a jersey accent going on for them, Dreanei have a Russian accent and trolls, when speaking common, have a Jamaican accent. It's kind of in lore and RPs are respecting the different tones characters are given via RPing them out. But on that note, I do think accents can be overdone in RP. If it's to the point where people need to ask you to translate what you just said, then it's kind of coming on way too heavy. That kinda kinda hinders communication and RP in a bad way, I feel. I enjoy when people do accents in their RP, but I just don't enjoy when I have no idea what is being said.

Just because I can't read someone's typing doesn't mean their accent is something I couldn't ICly understand. That's just more...typing skills I suppose. I can understand all the gilnaen/troll/goblin/dwarf/dreanei [do any others have accents I dunno] NPCs without trouble after all. Accents are extremely hard to convey from speech to text and it's one of the main reasons I do not play races that require an accent. Juuuust can't do that, nope.
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#5
(09-23-2013, 05:30 PM)falcophoenix Wrote: ..but goblins always sound like they're from Brooklynn? (Part of why I love 'em.) For me if a character has a "medium" accent (not illegibly heavy but not near-nonexistent either) I enjoy typing them out!

Then, does that mean…BROOKLYN RAGE?
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#6
Accents are hard, and yes, easily overdone. I'm still trying to figure out how to do troll. (We should make a guide for accents actually, anyway) Accents can add a lot to rp. Just.. They're so hard to do!
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#7
(09-23-2013, 05:29 PM)Harmonic Wrote: I hate it when people say you overdo an accent. It's become a pet peeve of mine. People do accents how they feel, just like with anything else in RP, and has to do with personal flavor. Does everyone like it? No, just like everyone doesn't like certain other things in RP, if that's not your thing, don't do it. If the person RPing an accent seriously confuses you... RP it accordingly.

That's my advice.

It's when the accent is kind of a quirk or one of their traits that it becomes too... big. An accent should be used to improve the character's personality imo, not BE the character's personality. The Draenei I described, her entire personality revolved around doing the wackiest, funniest thing and the wackiest, funniest way of saying it.

Granted, that's probably bad character representation more than the accent, but it gets REALLY obnoxious when they kind of pass it off as "oh, it's just my character being my character!" It improves the character, it ISN'T the character!

(09-23-2013, 05:30 PM)falcophoenix Wrote: ..but goblins always sound like they're from Brooklynn? (Part of why I love 'em.) For me if a character has a "medium" accent (not illegibly heavy but not near-nonexistent either) I enjoy typing them out!

I imagine Ratchet will have a different accent to Booty Bay, the same with K12 (name is probably wrong) and Everlook. If all Goblins have the same homogenized accent... eugh. I want to see a Dr. Strangelove Goblin - talks in a bad Germanish accent and wears those sexy glasses. That's actually a good idea, Nymus. No one else take that, okay.
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#8
I'll give you that. When it's the only part of a personality---it's bad. However, I've been told I overdo Faelan by quite a few people, and the funny thing is... I know a lot of people that also understand it perfectly. So it comes down to, do I keep it, or are people being too picky? Sometimes it feels like people can get awfully critical over things.
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#9
I do some accents(mostly on Piken with the whole semi-Dwarven accent thing) or my troll, but I can definitely agree that sometimes it's overdone.. but what I mean is that I've seen people who take major pride and laugh that their character's accent is so thick that next to no one can understand them. While it's worth a few giggles at first, it really hinders RP, IMO, and made me not really wanna RP with the character again. And like Nymus said, don't make the accent all about the character.

But also, sometimes I get a little irked when I see some characters -without- accents. More specifically Trolls because as I've always understood(and I could be wrong) that the reason they have the accent is because their tusks inhibit their ability to fully pronounce everything as clearly as others. So some trolls probably have stronger accents than others, but still chances are there's gonna be -some- accent unless the tusks are completely removed. But that's just me. <shrugs>

All in all, I like accents, usually. /sits on the fence :|
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#10
Some people complain when characters are unintelligible in reading, but what about when they're supposed to be?
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#11
You don't always have to follow what is heard in game when it comes to the accents of the races, and can give voice your own interpretation so long as it doesn't go too far. I think that so long as there isn't a physical obstruction to vocalizations (tusks or loss of body parts with undead), then a person can have the accent of those he is raised with. It's seen all the time in real life.

And so long as the accent isn't terribly butchered (and it usually isn't), I can respect that somebody put the effort into doing it.
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#12
The first time I ever gave a character an accent was Remyl, and it went a long way towards helping me immerse in the character. Accents, especially ones that aren't your own, help you distinguish between characters, and always remind me not to just answer everything in my own voice.

Speaking of unintelligible accents, I loved playing up Jonoth's no-jawed lisp. It ended up being a great study on communication, especially seeing characters begin to understand him like they had learned a new language. I tried an indecipherable Dwarf accent on a wildhammer character I rolled, but results were a bit more mixed. So to me it all depends.

So I guess to answer the OP and echo the point made, it's only overdone when it is all that defines the character.
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#13
I enjoy confusing the crap out of people with Roux's accent, and I enjoy her frustration as she tries to learn to enunciate.
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#14
Back when I played Ted for a while, his accent was a brilliant paramount of confusion. I loved it. Might bring him back someday.
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#15
Also being somebody that plays a character (troll) with a heavily flavored accent;
"Wha' ju whan frum Jae? Jae ain'gon' 'elp ju' witcha' prollums, soh keep'et goin' ohn," and more of the like.
I do see the point of this thread. Yes, it does become bothersome when the accent IS the character, but I guess I'm also kind of saying that that isn't the same as a HEAVY accent. You can have someone that smashes lots of words together with apostrophes, or you can have somebody that very lightly touches the surface of the accent.

The thing about accents are that they're 85% personal touch. If somebody doesn't know the proper way to approach an accent, chances are they can't do it. I couldn't ever do a Gilnean accent. Because of this, people are led to following stereotypical accents, and it may be bothersome to some people, but I see it that that is just the person's way to do an accent to the best of their ability.
Personally, as a troll, I say 'mon' in a very minimal amount. This is still one of the major building blocks of the trollish accent, yet I don't use it. That's just an example of accents being 85% personal touch.

I think that's it from me about accents. I'll edit if I have any other thoughts.
Good idea for a thread, Nymus!
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