Accents

[Anarchy]

I donno about others, but the accent thing is a little annoying just to have northern and southern accents, it just narrows everything down, its a pain in the ass to be honest, i was wondering if the staff would consider adding a total of maybe four accents? somthing like...

Allanak: Southern Accent
Tuluk: Northern Accent
Desert Elf Outpost: Deep Northern Accent
Red Storm: Deep Southern Accent
Luirs: Randomised. (Northern or southern or even none due to its location)

What do you guys think?

[sparrowtm]

Wasn't there also a 'rinthi accent ?

[Quirk]

Dunno about the d-elves, but that's already in game I believe. If you're a 'Nakki listening to a Stormer, they sound southern. If you're a 'Nakki listening to someone who's Luir's-bred they sound northern. Luir's people sound southern to Northerners, and 'rinthers have an accent all of their own.

I might be wrong on this, but that's how I believe it works.

Quirk

[Anarchy]

Oh, right. 'rither accent too.

The code from what i have noticed only accepts southern. northern or 'rinther accents, if your not from the area that gets the accent you will get

so and so tells you in a muckty-muck accent "Im bob"

Northerns or 'rinthers all hear the same thing from southerners regardless if they are from Nak or Red Storm.

[Ralin]

Hmmm...drunken-slurred sirihish? For those of us who try to be as drunk as possible all the time.  

[creeper386]

I personally chalk this up to the Known world being that small and really there isn't too much between different people. The hugest difference is between south and north, and even then it's not a massive difference. The known world is pretty small. It's not incredibly spread out. Most of it's fairly small space. Most people come from similar backgrounds and have fairly common ancestors. There is a wide variety among the people but there isn't a wide variety of different people.


Again, I say deal with it.


Creeper

[mansa]

I, personally, would like to have Luir's Outpost people speak -no- accent.  Why not?  Another clan that lives in the same area doesn't speak with an accent.  Why are the Luir's Outpost people gyped?  (pun intended)

[Anonymous]

I, personally, would like to have Luir's Outpost people speak -no- accent.  Why not?  Another clan that lives in the same area doesn't speak with an accent.  Why are the Luir's Outpost people gyped?  (pun intended)

Mansa, you so crazy.

[Angela Christine]

Personally, having lived with accents for a good long while now, I don't think they work and they should be removed.  

Luirs and the tablelands (desert elves) should not have the same accent as Tuluk.  Luirs has/had a permanent or semi-permanent population, but it also had a steady stream of newcommers from accross the known world because of Kuraci recruiting.  They would happily recruit in Red Storm or Allanak, and wandering nomads, not just folks from the north, so children growing up in Luirs would routinely hear a variety of accents.  

Nomads, whether desert elves or human nomads, likely have accents distinct from the usual northern or southern accents.  So why do all delves that don't join one of the established delf tribe (so they start in the DEO) have the same accent as Tuluki city elves?  I would think that each tribe, at least the iso tribes, would have a distinct tribal accent.  Your average city person might not be able to identify a Silt Runner accent and a Singing Sword accent, but he'll know they both sound funny.  To use a really bad example, people that grow up on a reservation often have an accent distinct from the people who grow up in the cities and towns nearest the reservation, and the accent isn't caused by physical racial differences.  Likewise a tribe that lives near a city would probably have an accent distinct from that of the city dwellers, noticable both to people native to that city and well travelled foriegners.

It seems a little off for people from Allanak and Red Storm to have the same accent.  On the one hand Allanak is Red Storm's biggest single trading partner, most or all of RS's export wheat goes to 'nak.  But since that is large scale, government to government, trade I'm not sure how much interaction there is between average 'nakkies and average stormers.  I envision large caravans of wheat and other farm products being unloaded somewhere in 'nak, they pick up the payment, and then may hightail it back to Red Storm that same day, or at the very least the next morning.  Red Storm also gets a fair bit of immigration from 'nak, what with the steady stream of escaped slaves, criminals and spice addicts.  On the other hand, the spice trade draws people from around the known world.  Kurac is the biggest single dealer in spice (and their employers are drawn from everywhere) but there are also tribes, small organizations, and independant spice dealers wandering around.  If you are brave enough to sift spice in the first place you may be brave enough to carry it up north to sell at a better price.  Red Storm has a core population of born and bred stormers, but there are also many immigrants and travelers.  Red Storm East probably has a purer form of the Red Storm accent, because they get fewer travelers there and it is inconvinient for people who live there to visit other places.

The most annoying accent is the ghetto accent, aka 'rinth accent.  I'm sure there are some 'rinthies who never leave the  'rinth, but many (most?) will have buisness outside the 'rinth on a regular basis.  Perhaps there are rooftop farms I haven't seen, but from what I have seen it doesn't look like there is much by way of food production up there.  People eating rats eating people eating rats etc. is a losing propsition, some energy is spent on digestion so if all they have to eat up there is eachother eventually they would all be eaten and the last man standing would starve to death.  There is also a steady stream of "immigrants" in the form of poor commoners and criminals who have to leave squalid streets of the commoners quarter for the even more squalid streets of the 'rinth.  City elves are as nomadic as desert elves, so there are likely small celf tribes moving in and out of the 'rinth all the time.  Is life in the over-crowded, crumbling tennements of the commoner's quarter really that much different from life in the 'rinth?  Shouldn't they have similar low-class accents?  In real life people living in the run-down, lawless parts of town may use different slang than is used in the banks and boardrooms, but many people that use the slang are also perfectly capable of switching to standard english well enough to get a McJob.  Likewise many young people from the "good" parts of town adopt a version of the low-class slang in a desperate attempt to appear cool.  In Allanak the line is too firm.  If start in the 'rinth you are instantly and eternally identified as a 'rinther, even if you have family on both sides of the city and spent time in both places.  Likewise a poor, foul-mouthed commoner born in the commoner's quarter will never be able to "blend in" in the 'rinth.  It just doesn't make much sense to me.

Coded accents are too hard edged and distinct.  There is no room for mistakes, subterfuge or learning to blend in.  I found the accentless past less jarring, because of the inflexible nature of coded accents.

AC

[Mr.Camel]

How about letting players choose accents for thier characters at creation?

[Bestatte]

The thing with the rinthi accent, AC, is easy to explain. You can liken it to someone from Manhatten (or the Bronx) going to visit Buffalo or Syracuse. The boroughs have distinct accents that can't be erased without extensive voice coaching. Even opera singers from the city will often revert back to their regionalism when speaking in casual conversation.

Personally I'd like to see more regionalisms than less. But have it so that only people from the greater region will know that it is, indeed, a regionalism.

Example:

Rinth rat visits Tuluk. Northerners will hear only that he has a southern accent. Rinth rat returns home to Allanak - citizens will recognize his accent immediately.

A desert elf will sound "foreign" to anyone who doesn't come from the desert, and the same desert elf will recognize only "city speech" from city dwellers, regardless of which city they hail from.

Just like folks from Tennessee think us yanks all talk funny, though I don't know a single northern-born American who can't tell the difference between a New York City and a Boston accent. And furthermore, many of us living between the two (in Connecticut) can even tell a Rhode Island accent from a Boston accent, and Manhattan from Bronx. WE, of course, have no accent, being the only "true" New Englanders. <cough>

But you get the idea. I just think so much can be done with regionalisms and considering that the game already supports accents, I'd love to see it more fleshed out.

[flurry]

How about letting players choose accents for thier characters at creation?

I would love that...if you could choose your accent, like you choose scars.   Except that unlike scars you had to choose something.  It would be great if there were, say, twenty choices accounting for various shades of grey..some thick, some faint, some geographically specific, some vague.  
If during the course of your character's life, you thought it made sense for the accent to fade somewhat (because of living elsewhere), you could request a change.


EDIT:   On further reflection, better to have it as part of the application, so it's subject to staff approval.