Sega gets new voice actors?

Koosh Koosh! · Post by **Koosh Koosh!** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 7:40 am

There have been no good English voices for Sonic. Drummond was close, but still.

Gwilym · Post by **Gwilym** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 8:02 am

I've always had the feeling that he just shouldn't talk at all.

Post by **G.Silver** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 8:16 am

Esrever wrote:But it's funny how everyone who grows up with a long-time silent character forms a different idea of how he should sound. I thought Ryan did a decent job, but he always sounded way too... well, white to me. I always pictured Sonic as having a black voice actor. No idea why.

I always thought Knuckles would be the one who sounded black. And... rastafied. It must have been the flying dreadlocks.

Post by **Popcorn** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 8:56 am

G.Silver wrote:
Esrever wrote:But it's funny how everyone who grows up with a long-time silent character forms a different idea of how he should sound. I thought Ryan did a decent job, but he always sounded way too... well, white to me. I always pictured Sonic as having a black voice actor. No idea why.
I always thought Knuckles would be the one who sounded black. And... rastafied. It must have been the flying dreadlocks.

Or his weird steel drums theme tune in Sonic 3.

PSMad · Post by **PSMad** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 9:54 am

I thought Sonic in the 'movie' sounded like Terrence or Phillip of South Park fame.

Kishi · Post by **Kishi** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 9:58 am

Gwilym wrote:I've always had the feeling that he just shouldn't talk at all.

Does anyone remember those comics in Sega Visions with the totally rad kid with the shades and shaved-in-the-back haircut? There was at least one comic where he was transported to Sonic's world, and Sonic never talked. Not just by coincidence, either; he had to pantomime to communicate to the kid that he had to jump out of the way of that badnik or whatever. Always seemed peculiar to me. I mean, it's like <i>Mickey Mouse</i> not talking.

Frieza2000 · Post by **Frieza2000** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 10:13 am

If Sega gives a damn about customer satisfaction,

The only effective way to get them to stop what they're doing would be to stop buying their products. Do you best to let them know what they did wrong, then stop giving them your money. The reason that Sonic Team can continue to make bad games is because there's enough people who like these bad games to make our opinions irrelivant. And that's why I pirate games (or, if I can't, buy them second hand).

Good voice acting can't do very much to correct bad scripting. Bad voice acting sometimes compliments bad scripting. The change of actor suits the change of personality of post-Heroes.

PSMad · Post by **PSMad** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 10:33 am

The only problem is if nobody buys the next lot of Sonic games there's a good chance we'll never see another. Anyway, if people are enjoying what they bought thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s fine and it means there is more money about to make a better game.

Of course I'm being overly optimistic there.

Zeta · Post by **Zeta** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 10:50 am

I always thought Knuckles would be the one who sounded black. And... rastafied. It must have been the flying dreadlocks.

Well fuck, there are a bunch of black guys in the background of all of his stages now rapping and claiming that it's Knuckles speaking . . . and yet when he actually opens his mouth for dialog, the echidna sounds like an uptight caucasian Canadian accountant.

Ngangbius · Post by **Ngangbius** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 10:50 am

PSMad wrote:The only problem is if nobody buys the next lot of Sonic games there's a good chance we'll never see another.

For certain individuals, they see this as a good thing.

Ritz · Post by **Ritz** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 10:56 am

Okay then, so suppose that all 409 of us stop buying Sonic games. That's not going to deter the 500,000+ 9-year olds who are no doubt anxious for the opportunity to lap up this anilingus buffet. Don't worry, Sonic Team'll keep churning out mediocrity for years to come. :D

Parn · Post by **Parn** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 11:03 am

Chaos Sepher wrote:If Sega gives a damn about customer satisfaction, they will listen to us.

You know... I used to be on your side of the fence back in the good ol' days, those days of the Sega Saturn and its downfall to the Sony PlayStation. I helped gather signatures for that fancy Shining Force 3 petition since two of the scenarios never made it to our shores, then later made yet another to get a compilation of all three scenarios for Dreamcast.

I think I managed to pull in just under 3000 signatures with the latter (the more successful one). I thought I was something special and was ready to convince Sega to comply with my "demands." But here's the great part about the whole thing: 3000 signatures is small fry, and that's assuming every one of those is legitimate, and we ALL know how everything on the internet is legitimate. You don't make money off of 3000 sales.

But we're not talking about a potential game release. We're talking about the voice acting in a videogame that hasn't even finished being recorded yet. While a quantity of people two eggs short of a dozen has a public outcry at this "atrocity" (which by the way, it's hilarious to see that word used; meanwhile there are thousands of people unable to live in their homes post-Katrina), this game is going to sell plenty of copies. Look at the sales for the GameCube Sonic releases alone.

Just a little food for thought, anyways. I'd be more concerned about the game not-sucking than I would the voice acting.

Chaos Sepher · Post by **Chaos Sepher** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 11:05 am

I don't think that boycotting the games would be nessesary, for now I still think we should just dump hate mail all over their severs and pray to God that they listen. If that doesn't work we may have to take it a step further. Sure the actors in the games may not be the best in the world, but it sure is a hell of a lot better than what those 4kids jackholes have.

Ritz · Post by **Ritz** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 11:10 am

Chaos Sepher wrote:I don't think that boycotting the games would be nessesary, for now I still think we should just dump hate mail all over their severs and pray to God that they listen.

AND SURELY THIS WILL STIR A REACTION FROM SONIC TEAM HOHOHOHO

Seriously. As far as we can tell, they're probably halfway finished recording everything, they're not going to dump weeks of work in favor of a bunch of distraught fanboys.

Parn · Post by **Parn** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 11:11 am

You know... if I was a customer service representative who didn't play videogames and received all these emails in my inbox addressed to no one in particular complaining about voice acting in a game that isn't even done yet, I'd probably shake my head thinking "um... ooooooookay", then prepare my copy/paste message telling you that we appreciate your email, and that we have lots of Sega games that you may be interested in.

Ngangbius · Post by **Ngangbius** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 11:59 am

Parn wrote:[ I'd be more concerned about the game not-sucking than I would the voice acting.

Agreed. I find it funny that people from various Sonic-related MBs treat this as the worst thing Sega has done when there were far more awful moves they pulled in the past.

Chaos Sepher · Post by **Chaos Sepher** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 12:16 pm

Ngangbius wrote:
Parn wrote:[ I'd be more concerned about the game not-sucking than I would the voice acting.
Agreed. I find it funny that people from various Sonic-related MBs treat this as the worst thing Sega has done when there were far more awful moves they pulled in the past.

For example?

While I don't consider voicing the main point of a games quality, an awful voice cast can certainly add to the level of suckage a game has.

Post by **Esrever** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 12:25 pm

If you are really bummed about Sega's treatment of their VAs, you should write them a letter and mail it to them.

But -- and this is important -- Don't waste your time with online petitions. They have never worked, they never will work, they do not work. And I'm not just saying that because I'm cynical and I think the companies don't care (although I am and they don't). I'm saying it because online petitions are fundamentally defective.

An online petition doesn't prove how many people care because they are easy to flood and there are no signatures. An online petition does not express any kind of significant outrage because there are billions of them and they only take a split second to "sign." And finally, an online petition does not "send a message" to the company, because no one ever actually completes the petition and sends it to them. They just lumber around online forever! It doesn't accomplish anything that a real petition would. All it does is make a bunch of grumpy, lazy people feel better about themselves without trying to hard.

</pet peeve>

Post by **Popcorn** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 12:31 pm

Esrever wrote:If you are really bummed about Sega's treatment of their VAs, you should write them a letter and mail it to them.

But -- and this is important -- Don't waste your time with online petitions. They have never worked, they never will work, they do not work. And I'm not just saying that because I'm cynical and I think the companies don't care (although I am and they don't). I'm saying it because online petitions are fundamentally defective.

An online petition doesn't prove how many people care because they are easy to flood and there are no signatures. An online petition does not express any kind of significant outrage because there are billions of them and they only take a split second to "sign." And finally, an online petition does not "send a message" to the company, because no one ever actually completes the petition and sends it to them. They just lumber around online forever! It doesn't accomplish anything that a real petition would. All it does is make a bunch of grumpy, lazy people feel better about themselves without trying to hard.

</pet peeve>

Well if you're so goddamn angry why don't you go and start an online petition about it?

Gaz · Post by **Gaz** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 1:04 pm

Esrever wrote:If you are really bummed about Sega's treatment of their VAs, you should write them a letter and mail it to them.

But -- and this is important -- Don't waste your time with online petitions. They have never worked, they never will work, they do not work. And I'm not just saying that because I'm cynical and I think the companies don't care (although I am and they don't). I'm saying it because online petitions are fundamentally defective.

An online petition doesn't prove how many people care because they are easy to flood and there are no signatures. An online petition does not express any kind of significant outrage because there are billions of them and they only take a split second to "sign." And finally, an online petition does not "send a message" to the company, because no one ever actually completes the petition and sends it to them. They just lumber around online forever! It doesn't accomplish anything that a real petition would. All it does is make a bunch of grumpy, lazy people feel better about themselves without trying to hard.

</pet peeve>

Too late! Someone already started one!

EmeraldGuardian · Post by **EmeraldGuardian** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 1:23 pm

What about that kid with the Loonatics petition? Didn't do alot, but WB did change it because of his petition didn't they?

Zeta · Post by **Zeta** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 1:28 pm

What about that kid with the Loonatics petition? Didn't do alot, but WB did change it because of his petition didn't they?

That was problably more from the press coverage and the fact that more people care about Bugs Bunny because he's such an icon. Sonic hasn't achieved that level of "everyone and their brother" knows who he is and what he's about.

Neo Yi · Post by **Neo Yi** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 2:18 pm

Should have responded earlier. All I can say is I really don't seem to care. I'm used to the Sonic X dub to the point where I think they're at least decent and I actually do perfer some of their acting from the games. To me, they all pratically sound the same anyways (except Rouge, in which I perfer her game version), but it'll feel weird without Ryan Drummand as Sonic in the games...
~Neo

Brazillian Cara · Post by **Brazillian Cara** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 2:21 pm

If they haven't ditched David Whatshisname, I'll be satisfied.

Post by **Green Gibbon!** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 2:37 pm

Quality of the acting purely aside, the switch is also rather indicative of Sega's desperate struggle to maintain a cohesive brand identity for their golden goose. Someone in another thread mentioned something about Mean Bean Machine, and it also struck me as a similar sort of maneuver, if not quite as extreme. I have no allegiance as far as actors are concerned, but I still view the news as bad.

Plus, it's really just another reason to hate Sonic X, which has, I think, done more damage to the integrity of the series than any other single thing over the past few years. Didn't Archie even start a comic book based on that?