Guild Wars 2

Am I the only one a bit disappointed with the norn female voice acting? I created a ranger female norn and I was expecting a bit of a girly voice but instead I great a really deep and almost manly voice. It ruins a bit the experience.

I believe charr males have voices according to the legion they chose. Do female norns have something similar?

Their voice are all the same no matter what you choose during character creation. I have played 3 charr males with 3 different legion before and they are all have the same voice acting, the only thing that is different is the personal story.

As for norn female voice, if you want a girly voice make a human female instead. I like the deep voice of norn people due to their lore and background.

While I find the deeper sounding voice of the current female norn more appropriate than the human voice I think its too deep in some cases and seriously lacking in emotion in some cases too.

The ‘deep’ sound is appropriate. The boredom with which she says most of her lines is rather troubling though.

Sarisa.4731:

A female norn is 8-9 feet tall, and (estimated) 400-500 pounds of muscle. Nobody would expect someone built like that, with the lungs to power it, to have a diminutive “girly” voice.

Word. I love the voice for that reason, it really fits. I don’t find her “flat” either, at least not moreso than any of the others.

Like Sentinel said it’s always the same voice. I have 2 Norn female characters, warrior and ranger, it’s the exact same voice speaking the exact same way. I don’t think there’s something wrong with their voice, it fits perfectly with the race. A 9 feet tall fighter speaking with a girly voice, THAT would sounds really strange.

Dark Revan I also agree that the lack emotion in the female norn voice saddens me. I find that the female norn voice is perfect just wish it had more emotion and didnt sound so stiff some times.

I hate their voice. I want a Norn character which has charm to sound a bit less tough and match their profession/personality better.

Out of subject-big individuals don’t always have a deep voice, so the “she’s tall, big, and Norn, so she must have a very deep voice” is not totally right on. Similarly somebody else could complain that a few of the female voice sound bits are too girly, given that there are very tiny human females with deep sounding voices, much like GW2’s Female Norn.

Personally, the female Norn voice is OK and “fitting”-I wish it was slightly less deep, because my Ranger isn’t the burly type, although still a brave warrior. It’s a matter of taste-I also wish some of my female Charr voices were different too, perhaps a bit deeper, but not too harsh. To be honest, the ideal would be that we would have voice type customization options for EVERY race (such as “deep” or otherwise, for male and female), although I see how that would be too costly too implement for the game developers. That said, all voices, including the Norn, seem to fit specific racial stereotypes, so I don’t see any problem with all of them, save that they may not all fit what OUR OWN concept for our characters may be at times, regardless race/size/lore.

Voice is good imo. but its a litte bit emotion lacking at some parts, well maybe not a little on skill voices.

I’m pretty sure my Norn female doesn’t lack emotion when sometimes she screams “DIE!!” when engaging an enemy.

You were seriously expecting a “girly” voice for such a large race? Honestly, their voices sounded more high than I had anticipated.

The female Norn that spoke to mine when I first made her had a nice voice I liked (I don’t remember her name =(

This is the same person who played Aela the Huntress in Skyrim. I like the voice for such a hardy race of people. I like her battle grunts a lot better than Human female’s squeaks (they really don’t fit at all).

I honestly think the pitch is way too low for her dying sounds though.

The voice fits the race perfeclty in my opinion and the voice was exaclty was I was expecting. Female norns are quite manly after all

For those who are curious, the Norn female PC is voiced by Claudia Christian, best known for the role of Susan Ivanova on Babylon 5.

I like her voice and I think she does all right with it, but it must be hard to do that much acting with no context or understanding of what your lines are in response to. A friend of mine is a professional voice actor and it’s a tough job.

You expected a nine foot tall woman to sound girly? What’s wrong with you? The voice is right, but the voice acting is often terrible. My shouts for instance sound more bored or annoyed than anything. I was shocked when I first started playing and heard the other races/genders’ versions, which actually sound like they’re in a battle.

The VAing for female Norn is also bad throughout the story, although I attribute a great deal of this to how ANet stereotyped their own races. I feel like they must have gone over in great detail how two dimensional the player character needs to sound to whomever they got to do the VA work, because that definitely comes through. The final discussion with Trahearne in the final quest made me cringe.

Claudia Christian is a great actor and her voice quality, and role history suits the Norn very well. She shows a great range in B5, with an emphasis on the “strong woman” archetype, and she should have been a natural at Nornishness. I can definately agree that this does not rank highly on her list of works though. She’s capable of much better.

I think there’s two major factors involve, the first being that she’s primarily a screen actor. Voice actors are in the unique position of having absolutely no body language to convey meaning, and no context to act in while doing it. It takes a very different set of skills than screen acting and the difference shows in the finished product. Marina Sirtis has the same problem when she voices games (example: Mass Effect 1) in spite of her abilities as a screen actor.

Second, the voice direction was obviously given to make the PC’s characters very flat. I think they didn’t want to impose a particular character onto the players perception of their character, but the result is a dead performance. Emotion doesn’t register at all, even the most basic ones like inquisitiveness when asking a question.

Which of the two takes more blame is up for debate; I think it’s probably the combination of the two. I don’t blame the actress for at all; I think she was a great choice for the role based on her voice and past roles. She was just obviously put into an incredibly challenging voice acting job (making a character that’s both appealing and neutral) with mediocre or bad direction, and didn’t have the voice acting experience to carry it past that. I do think that the direction must truly have been terrible; if any of you gets the chance to do the Ogre racial storyline (40-50, and Norn get the option) you’ll get to hear Claudia do a very, VERY bad monster voice. I’m talking about the girl-faking-a-deep-voice-and-failing kind of bad. And then she talks to herself in her Norn voice. It’s painful. I can only imagine what went on in the voice studio that day; all parties involved should be embarrased about that one.

Rhyse.8176:

Second, the voice direction was obviously given to make the PC’s characters very flat. I think they didn’t want to impose a particular character onto the players perception of their character, but the result is a dead performance.

If that is true, then it’s a definite brainfart since the game absolutely does not hesitate to “impose a particular character” on us otherwise. It’s extremely rare to have any choice at all as to what our characters say, and if we do it has absolutely no impact on anything (i.e. the Charm/Dignity/Ferocity split, which is one of the game’s wasted potentials).

A bit more emotion would definitely help rather than hurt, in terms of both writing and acting.

I think my Norns voice is just perfect. I was dying of laughter when she told the guy she was about to beat “Hey Nice hat…. I’m going to take it and turn it into my chamber pot.” I of course felt it necessary to make good on her threat.

Sarisa.4731:
A female norn is 8-9 feet tall, and (estimated) 400-500 pounds of muscle. Nobody would expect someone built like that, with the lungs to power it, to have a diminutive “girly” voice.

============
Does this look 8-9ft tall 400-500lbs?

No I think not.

We should get to choose what voice we like on every race in my opinion each Charm/Dignity/Ferocity should have a different voice ranging from slightly girly-deep and commanding. So everyone gets what they want.

@Ansatsushaa:
Your charm etc. can be modified later in the game by talking to npcs, how would you account for that in an intuitive fashion?

Additionally if you know nothing about the lore of the race you chose you shouldn’t ask questions while presenting evidence that contradicts your snarky insinuations.

Yes that norn looks to be about 8-9 feet tall and about 400-500 lbs because she is a female norn. That’s like telling me that a female human doesn’t look to be about 5-6.5 feet tall and weigh about 90-180 lbs. It’s completely arbitrary.

Go stand next to any typical human npc (which you are not doing in that image) and compare size and body proportions. Norn are shaped like humans but proportionately larger.

I’d point you to the wiki but I’m fairly sure that you can find the info first hand pretty much anywhere you can find official info on the norn, such as the website, in-game, the books, guild wars 1, interviews, etc.

@Kerithlan
Sorry if I came across “snarky”, that was and is not my intention.

I will explain a bit more of what I was trying to say.
We all have our own perceptions of how our characters should look in our eyes. When I am standing next to a Norn maxed out on height and build I do not feel it is correct to say my character is is 400-500lbs when she is obviously way smaller.

In the following screenshots I had a friend make a female and male Norn maxed out to fulfill the 9 ft 500lbs while I myself am one of the smallest builds for the Norn female and we stood side by side and compared.

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o548/NIZSIMZ/3.png
http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o548/NIZSIMZ/1.png

In reality there are noticeable differences more than a couple hundred pounds and a foot or two in height.

I consider myself more of a mini Norn if anything. I do not feel the female Norn voice fits for my personal character. It would be nice to have it a bit less deep and brutal sounding.

Here is that screenshot you requested of my toon standing next to a typical human npc.

Front view
http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o548/NIZSIMZ/gw521.jpg
Side/Profile view
http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o548/NIZSIMZ/gw524.jpg

Well I was swiftly put into my place. Nicely played.

@Kerithlan Thanks hun,
and thank you Joey for making toons for the screenshots.

Wow this, except not. The deepness does not bother me in the least bit. As stated above these ladies can top out at nine feet. What I dislike is how the voice sounds very forced. Perhaps a female with an actual deep voice would have been more appropriate. I also dislike the lack of emotional reaction. Even the most stoic people can occasionally have emotion behind their words. The acting is very read sounding instead of something more natural.

Gaining adrenaline!
*loses adrenaline…

I smile every time

I find the female Norn voice to be a refreshing change from the wussy anime/asian kind of thing so popular these days. And as pointed out it’s appropriate for the “biology” of a norn.

I thoroughly enjoyed the few lines that Apprentice Valda delivers.
“Holy crap, a Norn with a regular voice!”

I love the female norn voice just as it is, it fits perfectly.

Women with husky voices are schmexy.

That’s the natural range of her voice, although usually at the low end of it. Here’s a good example of Claudia Christian acting Norn years before she was Norn:

http://www.thewb.com/shows/babylon-5/eyes/d8094242c2

Approximately 16:30. CC has been delivering great lines for years

While I would love to see more voice options for each race.

You guys are missing one big thing – The story lines and lines, hours and hours of voice acting, recording,editing all must be done.

Also you can’t just take the human voice and put it on the norn for the same reason. They are recorded specifically for the human stories.

So if Anet is willing to hiring more voice actors then sure, it be great to have voice type options.

However I do not think they will.

Yet my two cents on the voice, the Norn female voice fits perfectly for them.

First Ranger I rolled… I was like woah hell no… it was not what I was expecting from bow ranger. scrapped played something else

came back months later and made another Norn GS Hilt Bashing in your Face Swooping Ranger… Voice fits perfectly now.

I absolutely loved revenge brawl scene when my Norn threatened to turn the helm into a chamber pot.

Other favorite moments (has happened a couple times). When I swoop in and immediately get knocked 600 yards back and on my butt. Her response, “I did that” (as if I meant to do that all along)

Freekill.6478:

Am I the only one a bit disappointed with the norn female voice acting?

No disappointment here. That’s Claudia Christian, aka Commander Susan Ivanova on Babylon 5. She has a great voice imho!

Wow, I didn’t recognize her voice at all! I looked everywhere a few months ago and couldn’t find who it was, so I thought it was a pitch-shifted man. I either managed to somehow miss seeing it entirely on the IMDb listing, or it wasn’t there at the time.

If Charr females get to sound like they do (the best voice for a female PC in game, imo), I don’t know why they didn’t have Claudia Christian use her voice like B5 or Freaks and Geeks to do Norn females. Using that same mannish voice for female ogres (which are indistinguishable in appearance from the males) was what made it an especially huge disappointment for me, like Arena Net thinks Norn females are disgusting.

The voice acting is fine, the dialogue is atrocious though. Even a great voice actor can’t spin gold out of digested straw from a horse.

i agree the voice acting is fine it just sounds a bit stiff from what i gather from the posts i see over all just need to tone it down with some more emotion but no way to sound girly with out killing her voice trying to hard to do this at least shoot i would love to help her out too with it

I think what a lot of people are confusing for stiff acting, is a norn woman being rightfully indifferent to almost anything that others would perceive as a challenge. That bored tone is quite fitting for a race that deals with epic battles as a matter of daily life, and in my eyes, makes them seem that much more epic. “Oh look, a dragon. I suppose I should kill it. Yawn.” In regards to the actress’s skill at voice overs, she did a fantastic job in Summoner 2. And yes, I agree the story dialogue in some sections was rather… sad.

Elektrohund.5086:

The voice fits the race perfeclty in my opinion and the voice was exaclty was I was expecting. Female norns are quite manly after all

I think the voice fits perfectly too.

Though I would’ve liked to have seen a few voice options we could’ve chosen for each race/sex. Having only one voice option available is a bit weak, development-wise, if you ask me.

Do you have any idea how expensive it would be to record multiple voices for a game that has constant VA use, especially when there are 5 races with male/female each??

TheDarkCynder.4618:

Do you have any idea how expensive it would be to record multiple voices for a game that has constant VA use, especially when there are 5 races with male/female each??

Yes, I do. I’m fully aware of it.
But we’re talking about a top of the line MMO here, least that’s what it’s been touted as. If they – the developers – want to talk about excellence and pushing the envelope with this game, they should do so.

TheDarkCynder.4618:

Do you have any idea how expensive it would be to record multiple voices for a game that has constant VA use, especially when there are 5 races with male/female each??

It would’ve been easy for them to modulate the voices, so there would’ve been no need to record multiple voices. It’s a cheap and easy alternative when you want to cut corners.

My take on the voice:

1. I think the voice itself works overall in terms of being a ‘deep / husky voice’ matching the Norn style.

2. I think it’s slightly too deep since a Norn can be anything from an Elementalist to a Warrior. I have a Norn Warr and the voice works well. I have a slim Norn thief, and I can’t play her because of the voice. The voice needs to be slightly more neutral, or less skewed to a Warrior concept.

3. Flat emotion. Yeah it’s bad. Could have helped to have the character animate more. Could have helped to have the VA put in more dynamism. I feel like the VA was trying too hard to be “DEEP HUSKY NORN” and lost some of the emotional inflection in the process.

Laying off the deep tone a tad would have enabled a wider opportunity for emotional inflection and made the voice more adaptable to different classes and Norn builds.

So, yeah. I like the voice itself, but I agree that the voice direction may be the core issue.

I hate it. Trying to make a female norn who’s a teenager (height all the way down) and the voice just ruins it.

EasymodeX.4062:

My take on the voice:

2. I think it’s slightly too deep since a Norn can be anything from an Elementalist to a Warrior. I have a Norn Warr and the voice works well. I have a slim Norn thief, and I can’t play her because of the voice. The voice needs to be slightly more neutral, or less skewed to a Warrior concept.

That’s exactly what I meant.
Maybe I explained myself badly at the begging.

The voice does feel fine into bigger and maybe more muscular female norns but since I created a smaller and more feminine norn I feel that the deepness of the voice just doesn’t match at all what I had in mind when I created my character this way.

Every time I get a bit role-play-ish and suddenly I get into a cutscene and hear my voice it’s like a punch to the face and I totally break character.

Should they change the voice? Probably not, but it would be nice if in the future we were able to customize our own voice. Even though it would take a lot of time and possibly money to record the lines all over again.

I’m not sure I understand the people in this thread that are complaining that the female Norn voice doesn’t suit their character. You cannot possibly expect the devs to record oodles of additional dialogue just so you can make a character that doesn’t suit the stereotype. Norn women are generally strong, tall and butch. If you want to play a character that goes against this norm you have to live with the fact that not everyone can be accommodated for and what we have right now fits the race and the lore best.

I’d be in the same situation if I wanted to play a butch sounding human, or Sylvari, or an Asura that isn’t quirky. And besides – the game already imposes a character onto you in the cutscenes. You have little to no say in it whatsoever, and for the character the game displays you as the voice is fitting. I’d say the fact that your feminine, slender norn teenager acts like a strong, fierce warrior in the cutscenes would be as much as a dealbreaker as her voice.

Now the quality of the norn voice acting can be pretty dead. Sometimes it’s fine. Sometimes it’s alright. Sometimes it’s no good at all. The warrior shouts have been mentioned, I was taken aback by how terribly woody they are compared to the rest. I’ve resorted to using signets now. The dialogue has some definite flaws as well.

So what I want to say is, the voice is fine as a standard voice, and I’d rather they improve the preexisting dialogue before adding more.

I’m not sure I understand the people in this thread that are complaining that the female Norn voice doesn’t suit their character. You cannot possibly expect the devs to record oodles of additional dialogue just so you can make a character that doesn’t suit the stereotype.

Ideally, the voice could have emotion but be slightly more neutral in tone so it’s more believable as a voice for other types of characters.

Tbh it probably has something to do with how artificially husky the voice sounds. If it weren’t so artificial it would probably sound better for light builds / Ele/Thief types.

EasymodeX.4062:

Tbh it probably has something to do with how artificially husky the voice sounds. If it weren’t so artificial it would probably sound better for light builds / Ele/Thief types.

I agree on it sounding artificial, which is more an issue with how stilted the female Norn VA is. If they were more organically stereotypical, like the overly cheerful, quirky Sylvari females, it’d still be rather unfitting for characters that aren’t, as you put it “husky”. I’d also rather my Sylvari thief didn’t lay on the glee so thickly, but I’m trying to be realistic.