游戏邦在:
杂志专栏:
gamerboom.com订阅到鲜果订阅到抓虾google reader订阅到有道订阅到QQ邮箱订阅到帮看

分析游戏角色口音与民族优越感的联系

发布时间:2011-11-21 17:57:17 Tags:,,,

作者:Mattie Brice

配音已经在游戏中扮演了一个很重要的角色,帮助游戏角色和游戏玩法变得更加具体化和形象化。取消文本框能够让游戏更加亲近玩家,并以玩家所熟悉的方式表达游戏中的情感和理念。虽然配音在游戏中的作用还有待争议,但是如果使用合理的话,这将能够为游戏的美学添上重要的一笔,特别是对于那些需要通过口音去区分角色国籍的场景。很多分析经常会遗漏掉配音中蕴含的那些文化政治内容,默认的英语口音是指通用美国英语,所以任何不属于这种口音的英语都会被美国玩家当成是一种潜台词。可见,通过口音传达信息能够很清楚地表现出美国人强烈的名族优越感。

通过《最终幻想》中的配音选择,我们可以发现电子游戏产业也很重视通过旁白与玩家达成共鸣。美国文化中对于如何重新演绎引进游戏中的角色存在着众多争议。现实世界以及游戏内部角色的外来文化总是能通过口音表现出来。《最终幻想XII》以及《最终幻想XIII》都是通过口音,而非外观去表现不同角色的区域化。在《最终幻想XII》中,大多数角色都使用通用美国英语,并通过华丽的辞藻帮玩家勾勒出早前欧洲时期的画面。通过用美国口音与玩家联系起来,已经被当成是一种默认的方法了。但是Fran(游戏邦注:《最终幻想XII》中的一个女角)却是个例外,虽然她在很多方面也使用了这种方法:她是唯一的非人类角色,唯一的非白人角色,但是也是最具有特征的角色。她奇怪的比约克口音更增添了她的异国情调,尽管也有人说Fran是这款游戏所有角色中最没有个性的一个。因为“Empire”使用的是标准英语发音,而Rosalia帝国的Alcid则使用西班牙语,那么美国玩家就必须结合上下文去识别外国的政治,并判断自己在游戏中的命运。在《最终幻想XIII》中也出现了同样的情况,Fang和Vanille通过澳大利亚口音去表现自己的国籍,而其他角色则都是带着一口纯正的美国口音。再加上一些部落群体的服装以及农耕描写,这种澳大利亚口音更加让美国玩家感受到角色的原始性与异域性。在强调保护家园免受外敌入侵的游戏主题中,如果能够突出美国口音与外国口音的区别,便能够为游戏注入更加真实的感受。而对于那些认为美国与其它文化没有任何差别的旧想法来说,这种做法就没有任何意义了。

Fran(from bestfinalfantasywallpaper.com)

Fran(from bestfinalfantasywallpaper.com)

《龙腾世纪》系列游戏也使用了口音多样化去迎合美国玩家。因为游戏背景为幻想世界,所以主导口音便是标准英语发音。虽然已经有了一种默认口音,但是其它口音也在通过与英语的相互配合下而具有意义:Dalish说的是威尔士口音,Orlesians是法语口音而Antivans则是西班牙口音。如此,我们便会按照口音而不再是通过他们在游戏内部的文化差别去识别这些群体。特别是Orlesians,他的配音有时候很让人费解,而且还会时不时透露出一种幽默感。但是更让人惊讶的还是游戏中的美国口音。城市精灵,小矮人以及Qunari人并不是使用默认的口音。而美国口音在这里则变成了一种中立的口音,因为它的作用并非凸显这些群体的差异性。这使美国口音不再那么明显了,而比起区域传统,玩家便会多花点心思关心其它内容。从中我们可以发现一些开发者想让玩家关注的内容:从小矮人的遭遇看到阶级歧视,从Qunari文化中看到了绝对哲学神权并且了解了城市精灵是如何处理种族主义的问题。在这个例子中,人类与Dalish以及与这个种族的区域差别则是故事的核心内容,所以他们便通过欧洲口音去显示自己与他人之间的关系及差别。理论上来讲,美国口音在这里也并不适用,因为在以欧洲中世纪为背景的游戏下,美国还是一块未被开发的大陆,那时候的美国口音并非人们所熟悉的语言,但它仍然这样做的原因是,现在的玩家都已经习惯了电子游戏默认设置美国口音的做法。

口音不只是用于区别不同国家间的角色,同时也可以用来区分国内不同区域的角色。像《星际争霸》等游戏中经常使用美国南方口音去描述角色,而这也是基于南方在我们眼中就是一个开发缓慢且较为保守的地区这种印象。而且游戏还利用美国内战意象去塑造游戏角色所处的环境,南方口音让玩家们能够通过他们当前所使用的口语或者表达等去联想他们控制的军队在未来的发展。比起进一步探索南方人的复杂性,《星际争霸》系列侧重于表达南方人的“多余”与“无用”。而玩家之所以会忽略这一点是因为在美国大众眼中,海军陆战队就是一些坦率的土包子形象,大家都可以尽可能地嘲笑他们。玩家很少能够在游戏中遇到那些操南方口音的聪明或者受尊重的角色,一般是美国通用口音或者北方口音更受欢迎。

意识到这一点,开发团队们可以将美国玩家们当成观众而迎合他们在电子游戏中设置多样性的内容。而口音更能够体现出游戏的美学风格,并且能够为游戏带来足够的文化内涵。如今,许多游戏在走向国际化的过程中却多从美国人的视角给予角色更深刻的个性化描述,是时候思考出现这种情况的原因了,我们开发者还是努力把游戏推向一个全球化的空间吧!

本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转载,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Speaking in Accents and the American Ethnocentrism in Video Games

by Mattie Brice

Voice acting has become a staple in gaming that helps flesh out characters and setting. Abandoning the text-box provided a more intimate way for the game to connect to the player by expressing emotion and ideas in a way that they are more familiar with. The quality of voice acting in games is, of course, an area of contention, but when done properly, it adds brushstrokes to the aesthetics of the game. This is especially true for settings that benefit from characters having accents to imply nationality. The cultural politics that voice acting implies, however, often escape analysis. The default English accent is General American and deviations from this tap into a subtext that assumes an American player. How accents communicate information to the player exposes the subliminal effects of American ethnocentrism.

Looking at the voices chosen for the later Final Fantasy games reveal how conscious the video game industry is in having voiceover resonate with American players. There is critique about American culture in the very idea in how a foreign country would choose to best translate their characters. Exotification of both real-world cultures and in-game characters surfaces through the series’ presentation of accents. Final Fantasy XII and XIII use accents to imply regional differences rather than what normally would, the face. In Final Fantasy XII, most of the party has a General American accent, with florid vocabulary to make the setting reminiscent of “olde” times in Europe. This associates the American accent with the player, assumed as the default. Fran is the exception, but she is so in many respects: she’s the only non-human character in the party, the only non-white character, and also the most sexualized. Her odd Bjork-esque accent adds to her exotic characterization, though one could make a strong argument that Fran has the least personality of all of the party members in the game. With the Empire sporting England’s Received Pronunciation accent and while Rozzaria’s Al-Cid speaks with a Spanish one to match his exaggerated mannerisms, the player’s experience adds context to the notion that the politics of foreign countries decide the fate of their own if that player is American. This also takes place in Final Fantasy XIII, in which Fang and Vanille have Australian accents to designate their nationality, while Americans voice the rest of the cast. Along with their tribally inspired clothing and the uncultivated depiction of their home world, the Australian accent gives the American (and possibly other) players the subtext of the characters being wild and exotic. In a game that trumpets the theme of protecting the homeland from foreigners, the emphasized difference between the American- and Australian-voiced characters adds to the drama of the situation. This is absent for those who share the same stereotypical views that the US has about other cultures.

The Dragon Age series reappropriates accent dynamics for the assumed American player. Taking place in a fantasy setting, the dominant accent is the English Received Pronunciation. With this as the default, the other accents gain meaning through their interaction with the English: the Dalish speaking with Welsh accents, Orlesians are French, and Antivans Spanish. The treatment of these groups coincides with the stereotyping of their accents rather than their own in-game culture. This is especially true of Orlesians, as their voice acting is sometimes incomprehensible and usually humorous in its deprecating manner. What is surprising is the usage of American accents. City elves, dwarves, and the Qunari do not represent the default. Instead, American accents are a neutral sound because there doesn’t need to be any differentiation within these groups. This makes the American accent invisible so the player can focus on something other than their regional heritage. It uncovers what the developers wanted the audience to focus on with these groups: the classism of the dwarves, the absolute philosophical theocracy in Qunari culture, and how the city elves deal with racism (however there is little commentary on how humans are casually discriminatory towards them). In the cases of the humans and the Dalish, their regional differences are a core part of their story, so they receive European accents to illustrate their relationship to one another. Logically, American accents should sound out of place, as the continent remained undiscovered in the medieval Europe setting the series calls upon as its influence, but they actually do not as American accents are now what players in general have grown accustomed to as the default for video games.

The accents found in games don’t merely represent other people outside of the US, though but also groups within the country. Starcraft and games that use the “space marine aesthetic” often use American Southern accents to depict their characters, relying on many stereotypes of the South as unrefined and conservative. It’s no accident the game provides supplementary US Civil War Confederacy imagery to frame the context of their characters. Southern accents allow the player to understand the military of the future by having them relate to the usual trash-talking and attitudes assumed to be emblematic of those in the US’s current one. Instead of exploring the complexities of a Southern identity, the Starcraft series shows Southerners as unwanted and expendable. Players overlook this because the marines are like the outspoken bumpkins that American society at large has come to laugh at without reprimand. The player will rarely find wise, respected characters with Southern accents in their games; the General American accent or one of the many Northeastern ones allow for that role.

Realizing that development teams assume an American player as their audience can help diversify the setting and cast in video games. Accents can be more than flavor for a game’s aesthetics but also communicate cultural subtext that adds to the overall meaning of the game. Currently, games rely on an American perspective for characterization in a medium that is experienced internationally, and it’s time to question why this is. And as a community, move games into more of a shared global space.(source:gamasutra


上一篇:

下一篇: