Gibberish languages for Argonian, Khajiit, and Orc races?

[macole]

If you ever played Oblivion with the companion Vilja then you know how much a good accent can add to an NPC. Notice that Vilja's pronunciation is not perfect nor does she say exactly what is written but coming from a Nord girl in Cyrodiil it added greatly to the atmosphere. I wouldn't go for the major races speaking gibberish but I think they should each have their own distinct racial accent, dialect and slang. Or perhaps consider each race speaking a different language English, French, Italian, German, Russian, Norwegian, Farsi, Chinesse and Japanese for examples, with subtitles in English or country of sale. Might be costly though since at a minimum you would need 20 voice actors to represent all 10 races both male and female.

[cooltrickle]

If you ever played Oblivion with the companion Vilja then you know how much a good accent can add to an NPC. Notice that Vilja's pronunciation is not perfect nor does she say exactly what is written but coming from a Nord girl in Cyrodiil it added greatly to the atmosphere. I wouldn't go for the major races speaking gibberish but I think they should each have their own distinct racial accent, dialect and slang. Or perhaps consider each race speaking a different language English, French, Italian, German, Russian, Norwegian, Farsi, Chinesse and Japanese for examples, with subtitles in English or country of sale. Might be costly though since at a minimum you would need 20 voice actors to represent all 10 races both male and female.

 

You're Your suggestions would be welcome in the game but I'm not trying to create more work for Bethesda. Don't the different races already have a distinctive way of speaking? It's not a dialect exactly but I can tell the difference between them. The human races are quite similar but the argonians and khajjit sound different, maybe a little overdone when it it comes to the Khajiit.

 

My suggestion is really just about not having full-voice acting for some of the races. Instead they just have 20-30 phrases consisting of 2-3 words, that are just jumbled together to sound like a language. I'm not saying to create an entire new language for each race. That would defeat the purpose of my idea, which is to increase the amount of dialogue in the game and the length and complexity of quests, at the expense of moving some races speech to text only, while lip-syncing to some gibberish language. It would sound like a real language because we wouldn't know any better.

 

If a Japanese man, made a list of 100 japanese words and just made up sentences randomly, anyone that didn't know Japanese wouldn't know the difference. Japanese people would instantly know that he was talking gibberish, but it sounds good enough for people who don't know any better. I say we apply this to some of the races of TES, but make it sound good and believable.

 

Okay, in an ideal world, Bethesda would just spend more money on making longer, and more interesting quest with greater player choice. I hope they do this in future, but they probably won't. My suggestion is a compromise. It gets more dialogue in the game using text, but without silent NPCs. At least they will say something. Even gibberish can sound good, if it's done right. Bioware used this approach in KOTOR, but it could have used more variation in the gibberish.

Edited December 13, 2011 by cooltrickle

[Roltak]

Then how do we understand it? And no subtitle is not an answer for me, how do we understand it? Is everyone in all of Tamriel learning all the Beastlanguages even the common thief/prisoner as whom we start? Or will we get one of those translater machines from Star wars? I would find it unbelievable unrealistic if my Char could just understand them, while they can't learn our language even if they are traders living from talking to other races or life in that place for several years.

 

Your idea has something but more in the context of them using one or two words of their own language every now and then, slipping back into their language when you make them angry, them talking in their own language when they talk to each other or for some that just came into this land to not know the language all that well, but simply making up a gibberish language and using subtitles without explaining why we as a normal citizen suddenly understand them would be an immersion breaker for me.

[cooltrickle]

Then how do we understand it? And no subtitle is not an answer for me, how do we understand it? Is everyone in all of Tamriel learning all the Beastlanguages even the common thief/prisoner as whom we start? Or will we get one of those translater machines from Star wars? I would find it unbelievable unrealistic if my Char could just understand them, while they can't learn our language even if they are traders living from talking to other races or life in that place for several years.

 

Your idea has something but more in the context of them using one or two words of their own language every now and then, slipping back into their language when you make them angry, them talking in their own language when they talk to each other or for some that just came into this land to not know the language all that well, but simply making up a gibberish language and using subtitles without explaining why we as a normal citizen suddenly understand them would be an immersion breaker for me.

 

The text will appear on the screen the same way it does in KOTOR. I shouldn't have said subtitles because that has put some people off the idea. But it will appear on screen the same way your dialogue does, and the same way it worked in Morrowind. I haven't played that game but I gather it was mostly text? Rather than just silent characters with just text, we can add some gibberish over the top, to add more immersion. Not every NPC should understand everyone else. If they do have a reason for speaking to an Orc, or whatever they could use a magical item.

 

I thought about the translation problem. In Star Wars, most aliens speak Intergalactic Basic, but some still prefer to speak their own language. As a Jedi, you can automatically translate languages for yourself and the speaker. Obviously, TES characters don't use the Force, but they do have access to magic. We could have items like, Orcish Ring, which lets you understand Orcish, for example. You're right; there does need a feasible explanation for the player's knowledge of other languages.

[Roltak]

 

The text will appear on the screen the same way it does in KOTOR. I shouldn't have said subtitles because that has put some people off the idea. But it will appear on screen the same way your dialogue does, and the same way it worked in Morrowind. I haven't played that game but I gather it was mostly text? Rather than just silent characters with just text, we can add some gibberish over the top, to add more immersion. Not every NPC should understand everyone else. If they do have a reason for speaking to an Orc, or whatever they could use a magical item.

 

I thought about the translation problem. In Star Wars, most aliens speak Intergalactic Basic, but some still prefer to speak their own language. As a Jedi, you can automatically translate languages for yourself and the speaker. Obviously, TES characters don't use the Force, but they do have access to magic. We could have items like, Orcish Ring, which lets you understand Orcish, for example. You're right; there does need a feasible explanation for the player's knowledge of other languages.

 

I don't think magic is a good explanation, my character is a thief/assassin and has as much magic in it as a bucket of milk and in Star Wars it makes sense because of how loosely related the different races can be and how far you can travel(One Starsystem on monday, one on tuesday etc. not enough time to learn the language), in Tamriel everyone that is in a given country is very very likely there for several years already(in other cases I have nothing against them speaking another language, like when they just arrived) and will have learned the language by now. I would simply consider it a step back, because it would make the beast races even more .... outsiderish or however you want to call it.

[ZenMonkey47]

I'd be all for that, it'd give modders some extra tools to work with. Maybe if they had 10 gibberish lines or so for each race (male and female, of course) it'd work and not break immersion.

[cooltrickle]

...

I thought about the translation problem. In Star Wars, most aliens speak Intergalactic Basic, but some still prefer to speak their own language. As a Jedi, you can automatically translate languages for yourself and the speaker. Obviously, TES characters don't use the Force, but they do have access to magic. We could have items like, Orcish Ring, which lets you understand Orcish, for example. You're right; there does need a feasible explanation for the player's knowledge of other languages.

 

I don't think magic is a good explanation, my character is a thief/assassin and has as much magic in it as a bucket of milk and in Star Wars it makes sense because of how loosely related the different races can be and how far you can travel(One Starsystem on monday, one on tuesday etc. not enough time to learn the language), in Tamriel everyone that is in a given country is very very likely there for several years already(in other cases I have nothing against them speaking another language, like when they just arrived) and will have learned the language by now. I would simply consider it a step back, because it would make the beast races even more .... outsiderish or however you want to call it.

 

Magic isn't a great answer but TES already has stuff like fortify barter potions! How does that work? Do you exhale intoxicating fumes that causes the trader to treat you nicely? I gave Lydia a ring that allows her to do more damage with two-handed weapons. How does it work? Does it create some sort of propulsive force that allows the wearer to hit harder? If so, why does it only work with two-handed weapons? How does the ring know what you're holding? The point is, there is already quite a bit of dodginess about TES, and we just call it "magic". People don't seem to mind. So, I don't think someone wearing a ring or drinking a potion that allows them to understand Orcish, is too far-fetched. Check out the crazy magic effects, including potions and enchantables.

 

 

I'd be all for that, it'd give modders some extra tools to work with. Maybe if they had 10 gibberish lines or so for each race (male and female, of course) it'd work and not break immersion.

 

As long as the gibberish is not too repetitive, it would be good enough for me too.

 

The funny thing is, the three races I mentioned are probably the least popular. This is my opinion, but I also saw a poll on this site that supports this. But, the races that speak gibberish will not require modders to add voice-acting, so they may well become more popular in quest mods.

[ShadowscaleB1980]

" I don't think someone wearing a ring or drinking a potion that allows them to understand Orcish"

 

I think in the TES universe they have their own variant of the babel fish, they just don't mention it.

[EberronJunkie]

The dragons spoke draconic, as did half the draugr if you put on your subtitles.

 

Skyrim would probably have been better as a 2 disc game, but then, all those poor console gamers would have to get off the couch to change cds.

[huntsman2310]

How does that free up voice acting? Unless the gibberish is produced by a computer or something?

 

Honestly I don't mind if everyone speaks the same language. It doesn't take away from the experience.