I am a bit tired of hearing the same voices over and over again with a slight modification. In the end you can always hear who is talking and you remember all the other characters the voiceactor/actress has made.

Lets hope they bring in some new voices

I only have issues with one: Da Blum.

Fine with the rest truth be told and if I don't know them by name, then I guess even less of a reason I have to criticize them.

I only have issues with one: Da Blum.

 

Fine with the rest truth be told and if I don't know them by name, then I guess even less of a reason I have to criticize them.

This x1000

The worst part is that Blum sounds exactly the same for every character he voices. No variation at all. It drives me insane.

This x1000

 

The worst part is that Blum sounds exactly the same for every character he voices. No variation at all. It drives me insane.

Indeed.

I mean, no one's asking him to be Gideon Emery (

Can't there be more shades of gruff?

Indeed.

 

I mean, no one's asking him to be Gideon Emery (

,

) or Tom Kane (

,

) but if he could sound a bit different every so often, I'd really appreciate it.

 

Can't there be more shades of gruff?

Not when it comes to Blum. Whenever I hear any of the characters he voices, I immediately think of

I am a bit tired of hearing the same voices over and over again with a slight modification. In the end you can always hear who is talking and you remember all the other characters the voiceactor/actress has made.

 

Lets hope they bring in some new voices

It's unlikely.

You might hear some new actors, but still expect to hear all the same ones you've been hearing.

Bioware hires actors under contract instead of per session. Having the actors under contract allows them to use them as much as they want and across all of their games. That's why you hear actors like Cam Clarke, Jennifer Hale, and Steve Blum in every Bioware game.

They don't hire every actor under contract obviously, but if it's some one they like or know they're going to be using a lot they do. For instance all the class voice actors for this game are under contract because they knew early on that they would be needing them for a significant amount of time.

It would probably be outside their budget...

But I'd like to hear Michael Dorn and Patrick Stewart... with maybe a bit of Leonard Nemoy in there to boot...

Or just more Jennifer Hale, she remains one of my favorites (here's looking at you Cmd. Sheppard)

Bioware hires actors under contract

Does it now? I thought EA, having been voted the worst enterprise ever, purchases them as chattel slaves and ships them off to an offshore sweatshop. There's no way one would voluntarily put in the 17 hours a day Steve Blum has to do to voice the 350 characters he does!

Just thought of another VA that I'd like...

Summer Glau

Blum is very good at what he does, and I'm not sure where people get the idea that there's no variation. There might be some voices he's doing that you don't even realize are his, if you think all his SWTOR work sounds identical.

That said, YES, they overuse Blum way way too much. Way, way too much. It really hits home during Bounty Week -- I think they had him do 3/4 of the male voices for that event.

Blum is very good at what he does, and I'm not sure where people get the idea that there's no variation. There might be some voices he's doing that you don't even realize are his, if you think all his SWTOR work sounds identical.

 

That said, YES, they overuse Blum way way too much. Way, way too much. It really hits home during Bounty Week -- I think they had him do 3/4 of the male voices for that event.

Except it is not just SWTOR he has been used in. He was also the first enchanter and Oghren in Dragon Age 1, many of the voices in both of the Dawn of War games, was a few character in Dead Island, and many, many other games. It has gotten to the point I can't swing a lightsaber without playing a game he is voice acting in.

That is not to say he is a bad voice actor. His role as Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop and Stitch in Lilo and Stitch were great and I understand he needs to make a living, but there seems to be an over saturation of his voice in particular styles. On the Korriban FP for the Empire, I fully expected for him to say "For the glory of the God-Emperor!" Many of his different voices are being used in so many different settings but with the same tones and variances that you can pick him out of a crowd and it becomes immersion breaking.

Nothing against the guy personally, I just want some different male voice actors

Blum is very good at what he does, and I'm not sure where people get the idea that there's no variation. There might be some voices he's doing that you don't even realize are his, if you think all his SWTOR work sounds identical.

 

That said, YES, they overuse Blum way way too much. Way, way too much. It really hits home during Bounty Week -- I think they had him do 3/4 of the male voices for that event.

Do point a role he played where he became virtually unrecognizable.

Hell, Krogans have their voice "distorted" and I could instantly tell that Steve Blum was voicing Grunt. Fits the name too come to think of it.

EDIT:

If we have to keep enduring his voice, I wanna do

Or just more Jennifer Hale, she remains one of my favorites (here's looking at you Cmd. Sheppard)

You get to hear Hale a bunch if you play a female Trooper, which is basically the TOR version of Sheppard.

I wanna say I remember reading/hearing something where the original plan was for Satele Shaun to have a faint accent, but that decision was changed early on the the voice recording process, which kinda sucks because in the few instances where the female Trooper can speak with Satele you just here the same voice going back and fourth. Like if you closed your eyes it just sounds like someone talking to herself.

Does it now? I thought EA, having been voted the worst enterprise ever, purchases them as chattel slaves and ships them off to an offshore sweatshop. There's no way one would voluntarily put in the 17 hours a day Steve Blum has to do to voice the 350 characters he does!

There used to be a point and time where voice actors could and would work crazy long hours but SAG put a stop to that after the voice director for the Transformers cartoon series would keep actors working insanely long hours until they got it the way this director wanted it.

Looking back on what the Transformers was it of course seems just as insane now as it did then given that it was a cartoon about robots that turned into cars in order to sell toys and the fact that none of the acting on that show really required that kind of commitment. As in you had talented people like Frank Welker all over that show, but it's not like there was going to be a big difference what you get/got out of him in hour 1 vs hour 7, especially given the dialogue that he was reading with the the voices he was doing.

You get to hear Hale a bunch if you play a female Trooper, which is basically the TOR version of Sheppard.

 

I wanna say I remember reading/hearing something where the original plan was for Satele Shaun to have a faint accent, but that decision was changed early on the the voice recording process, which kinda sucks because in the few instances where the female Trooper can speak with Satele you just here the same voice going back and fourth. Like if you closed your eyes it just sounds like someone talking to herself.

Even so, Jennifer Hale is talented enough to add a little flair so Satele sounds older in comparison to FemShep.

EDIT:

There used to be a point and time where voice actors could and would work crazy long hours ...

The South shall rise again and fix this injustice.

For now, offshore sweatshops? You can buy promising young workers for under a grand in Equatorial Guinea, set up shop in Somalia or the Middle East...

Even so, Jennifer Hale is talented enough to add a little flair so Satele sounds older in comparison to FemShep.

Yeah, I know. I was exaggerating.

IIRC the reason they had her back off the British accent with Satele was because her voice didn't sound stern or commanding enough for what they wanted from a leader figure with that accent. She must of sounded too polite or insincere. I'm guessing with the lines that Satele has and the way they have to be delivered that (with the accent) she probably came off more like Grand Moff Kilran than a Jedi leader.

Yeah, I know. I was exaggerating.

 

IIRC the reason they had her back off the British accent with Satele was because her voice didn't sound stern or commanding enough for what they wanted from a leader figure with that accent. She must of sounded too polite or insincere. I'm guessing with the lines that Satele has and the way they have to be delivered that (with the accent) she probably came off more like Grand Moff Kilran than a Jedi leader.

I always came to assume it was most likely due to the fact Bastila had a very light kind of posh accent. They probably wanted to keep both characters separated as much as possible, personality wise.

On the subject of Voice Actors in general, who does Jakarro's translator droid?

During the last flashpoint some of his lines sounded sooooo familiar - they definitely reminded me of a cartoon or anime voice I had heard (maybe another videogame voiceover) but I couldn't place it. It was driving me crazy.

On the subject of Voice Actors in general, who does Jakarro's translator droid?

 

During the last flashpoint some of his lines sounded sooooo familiar - they definitely reminded me of a cartoon or anime voice I had heard (maybe another videogame voiceover) but I couldn't place it. It was driving me crazy.

I'm pretty sure that's Daran Norris, same VA who voices Gotto, Colonel Darok and Gault.

They should get Nicholas Boulton to do a voice.

He already did.

I'm pretty sure that's Daran Norris, same VA who voices Gotto, Colonel Darok and Gault.

 

He already did.

Wish I knew who.

Wish I knew who.

I shall impart upon you great Knowledge.

Bask in its Light and repent, lest you be washed away with current, heretic.

I'm surprised you didn't notice the last one.