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News: Celebrating 30 years of Star Control 2 - The Ur-Quan Masters

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| | |-+  This time I'm SERIOUSLY considering to redo the Utwig&Slylandro voices!!!
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Author Topic: This time I'm SERIOUSLY considering to redo the Utwig&Slylandro voices!!!  (Read 5411 times)
Valaggar
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Re: This time I'm SERIOUSLY considering to redo the Utwig&Slylandro voices!!!
« Reply #15 on: May 27, 2007, 03:55:03 pm »

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The Supox say "They are beyond ecstatic, well into the range of rapture or perhaps even pegged on epiphany. If you wish to learn the true depth of their joy, talk with them yourself." in response to "So how are the Utwig liking their Ultron?". And if you heed their advice and speak with Greg Johnson's Utwig... you are REALLY convinced that they're happy...   Roll Eyes
Personally I thought that was one of the most amusing jokes in the game.

Get the player all excited over hearing what an ecstatically happy Utwig sounds like -- only to have him realize that the "annoying whiny emo kid" is just naturally how the Utwig sound. Classic.

I don't understand this strange fixation some of you guys seem to have with removing comedy from the game.
The problem is NOT comedy as a whole, just this particular application of it.
The Utwig were initially designed as a race of serious, ceremonious people, not emo. Indeed, they only share some tangential characteristics with emo people.
Using such a whiny voice for them has naturally enraged all people who loved and understood the Utwig.

Plus, what's up with their depression caused by the destruction of the Ultron if they're casually depressed?! Fake depression?!!!
« Last Edit: May 27, 2007, 03:57:01 pm by Valaggar » Logged
Simon K
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Re: This time I'm SERIOUSLY considering to redo the Utwig&Slylandro voices!!!
« Reply #16 on: May 28, 2007, 09:44:48 pm »

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The Utwig were initially designed as a race of serious, ceremonious people, not emo. Indeed, they only share some tangential characteristics with emo people.
And yet, the game's creators (who, I assume, know more about how their creation was "initially designed" than people hanging around on some Web forum) decided to have this "serious, ceremonious" race speak in a whiny, annoying voice. They even went so far as to base one of the jokes in the game on that.

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Plus, what's up with their depression caused by the destruction of the Ultron if they're casually depressed?! Fake depression?!!!
But that's the whole joke. Their voice is not whiny because they're depressed, that's just how they sound. They sound like that when they're ecstatically happy as well. You only realize that their annoying tone is not a depressed tone when you fix the Ultron, and thus get to hear what a happy Utwig sounds like.

That a human might interpret their tone as being depressed doesn't *make* them depressed any more than a Yehat's accent makes him Scottish.
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Re: This time I'm SERIOUSLY considering to redo the Utwig&Slylandro voices!!!
« Reply #17 on: May 29, 2007, 04:51:59 am »

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I don't understand this strange fixation some of you guys seem to have with removing comedy from the game.

Comedy that isn't funny isn't comedy. It's just some words being spoken or read.

Furthermore, the comedic elements of the StarControl universe are very clearly directed. They're centered around some races and circumstances, while others are very serious.

In a voice-less StarControl 2, the Utwig are well outside of these comedic elements, very much like the Ur-Quan, Chmmr, and several others. They very clearly aren't the Thraddash, Spathi, Umgah, Druuge, etc.

Imagine if the Chmmr spoke with a cowardly voice (it's funny, right? They're hiding under a slave shield, get it?), and the damage it would do to their character.

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who, I assume, know more about how their creation was "initially designed" than people hanging around on some Web forum

Two words: George Lucas.

Some people make good things by accident. Or later have revisionings of something that was just fine to begin with, and turn it into something weaker.

The point is this: a thing should be judged on its own merits, not the deification of those who created it.

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But that's the whole joke.

It's only a joke if its funny. And, quite frankly, it isn't.

Furthermore, I would point out that the game, StarControl 2 was designed, built, shipped, and purchased by many well before any alleged jokes based on voice acting. The voice acting version should not fundamentally alter the ideas created by the non-voice acted version.
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Re: This time I'm SERIOUSLY considering to redo the Utwig&Slylandro voices!!!
« Reply #18 on: May 29, 2007, 02:40:16 pm »

Hey Smaug,

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Furthermore, the comedic elements of the StarControl universe are very clearly directed. They're centered around some races and circumstances, while others are very serious.

Yes -- the Chmmr, for instance, are very serious. As are both kinds of Ur-Quan.

But the Utwig? They broke the Ultron because they *dropped it on the ground*. Their dialogue, even without the voice acting, pokes fun at the exaggerated "woe is me", Goth / emo-style self-conscious "depression" stereotype. They used to have Masks of Natural Bodily Excretions hung at every lavatory, and based their courting rituals on wearing Veils of Flirtatious Prancing, and Lewd Monocles. I'd say that humour is quite integrated to the treatment of the Utwig race, even without the voice acting.

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Two words: George Lucas. [...] a thing should be judged on its own merits, not the deification of those who created it.

I completely agree, but Valaggar was basing his argument on "initial design", and I reckon PR3 and FF know more about the Star Control initial design than either of us does. That doesn't make them gods.

I think Star Control 3 is to the Star Control franchise what the prequels were to Star Wars.

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I would point out that the game, StarControl 2 was designed, built, shipped, and purchased by many well before any alleged jokes based on voice acting. The voice acting version should not fundamentally alter the ideas created by the non-voice acted version.

Star Control 2 for the PC was originally shipped in 1992. The 3DO version, which introduced the voice acting, was (if memory serves) shipped in 1993, not very long after the 3DO was released to the public. I don't think the voice acting version alters the ideas created by the non-voice-acted version, at least as far as the Utwig are concerned -- I first played the game without voices, and came to view the Utwig as a not-entirely-serious race anyway (see above). The anticipation of hearing what an "ecstatic Utwig" sounds like, only to find that they whine even when happy, was an entertaining added joke when I played the game with voices.
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Valaggar
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Re: This time I'm SERIOUSLY considering to redo the Utwig&Slylandro voices!!!
« Reply #19 on: May 29, 2007, 03:38:52 pm »

The impression that the Utwig cast upon me is that of a generally seriously-treated race, with moments of comedy (which, contrasting so much with the rest of their portraying, is even funnier - such as the "We have been directed to attack... YOU! No, wait, that's wrong, sorry. We attack... YOUR ENEMIES! The Ur-Quan and the Kohr-Ah. No, wait, that's not quite right either... What?! Oh, okay... We must strike ONLY the black ships, only the Kohr-Ah!").
So a serious voice works better, contrasting with the silly, funny things they say sometimes. Too much stress on a good joke makes it "wrap around" to a bad joke.
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