LoSBoL Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 1 hour ago, The Aziz said: Seriously, some people here.. "baby squeaky voice" anyone who says that should grow up first. And open their minds to less edgy adult way of thinking. Friendly voice happily explaining hard stuff? Count me in. I bet Intercept did a lot more demographic research than any of you. Oh come on, try to emphasize here, Imagine yourself trying to lauch something and failing every time and SOME FRICKIN KID is telling you IT SHOULD BE LIKE TAKING CANDY FROM A BABY !! (I'd say, keep it in :) ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whatsEJstandfor Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 All I will say about this is that, if the voice bothers you, it's because it's not meant for you. Incidentally, I find Scott to be far more condescending than this character Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MechBFP Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 Just now, whatsEJstandfor said: All I will say about this is that, if the voice bothers you, it's because it's not meant for you. Incidentally, I find Scott to be far more condescending than this character This is exactly the problem. They change it something else and then a different group of people complain how it is being condescending or boring or whatever for X reasons. While I get some people are going to react that way, they have a personal responsibility for their own feelings and it isn’t the developers fault if they can’t manage them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chilkoot Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 36 minutes ago, Catto said: morgan freeman? God mode confirmed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeSchmuckatelli Posted February 21, 2023 Author Share Posted February 21, 2023 1 hour ago, Pthigrivi said: Folks on the discord went nuts about this when the first tutorial was shown. I find the voice cheerful and informative so its hard for me to hear what other people are hearing. I do have to wonder how much implicit bias is a factor here. Not exactly sure where you are going with this, as I've avoided the Discord like the plague. There may be people who have reached a similar opinion for different reasons... I think I've been clear that it's the sing-songy 'talking to little kids' thing that grates. I use a lot of video content in my teaching - and I have watched the reactions of my students very closely, because once I start losing engagement it's hard to capture their attention again. This means that I have to curate videos very carefully. Sometimes I find a video that has all the information I want in a nice tight package - but I cannot use it because the voice over is in the sing-songy talking to Littles voice. Literally seconds after that voice starts off - you lose almost every single teen in the room. Their engagement is longer for anything that talks to the audience in direct, easy to understand language - so long as it's not condescending or boring. I don't think this is a deal breaker - but it is something that has caught my attention and seems cautionary at this point. Again - once I have the game I will run it against my resident teens and report back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthgently Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 Ackshully, kids learn best from a voice that sounds wise, authoritative (not same as authoritarian) and is humorous. Morgan Freeman would be an excellent choice, not joking. I don't mind the kid voice, but it leans too far into entertainment and away from information transfer to be optimal with kids. They will find it "fun", but will be less likely to remember the material Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LHACK4142 Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 As one of our in-house teenagers, I have to say that I find the VA rather annoying, and the odds are that I'd not use the tutorials and therefore have a higher chance of not playing KSP2 if I were new. I'd also like to say that IMO tutorials have a massive impact on how many people go on to become active players of a game. The only reason I don't play DCS is that the tutorials are complete garbage. You need to fly each mission perfectly, and if you don't, you need to wait through 10 minutes of some guy saying the same thing inaudibly. Similarly, if people boot up the game and have to listen to those tutorials, I feel like a good amount of them will drop the game. I'd also like to add that I always hated these types of voices as a kid, perhaps even more than I do now. They always struck me as ridiculously contrived, and not at all factual or weighty. That said, I can tolerate it, and it's decent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerbal3 Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 I'm thinking (and hoping) that once I get used to the voice, I won't mind it so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dman979 Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 21 minutes ago, darthgently said: Ackshully, kids learn best from a voice that sounds wise, authoritative (not same as authoritarian) and is humorous. Morgan Freeman would be an excellent choice, not joking. I don't mind the kid voice, but it leans too far into entertainment and away from information transfer to be optimal with kids. They will find it "fun", but will be less likely to remember the material Do you happen to have a source for this? I'd be curious to read more about that. It sounds like an interesting topic to learn more on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcwaffles2003 Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 (edited) 3 hours ago, shdwlrd said: I personally find the voice the same as the annoying sidekicks in anime. Annoying but useful. On the other hand, the voices used for Kerbals have always been in a higher pitch. So it makes sense for Kerbals to have a higher pitch or squeaky voices. (Think about how Squad got the voices in the first place. Reversed Spanish that was cheaply sped up. Speeding up speech will raise the pitch.) I agree that it fits the theme, but the actors speaking English to people, not kerbish to kerbals. I think if you want to communicate to a large set of people, then follow the tone of people who have made a job doing so, youtubers. That said, I wasn't offended by the voice, gave me Navi from OoT feel. But I think it would appeal more if presented in the style of Scott Manley, Tim Dodd, Or Joe Scott, etc... Edited February 21, 2023 by mcwaffles2003 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeSchmuckatelli Posted February 21, 2023 Author Share Posted February 21, 2023 Added this to the OP Note how she talks to the kid in a way that is direct and not sing-songy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t_v Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 I was thinking, if the tutorial person is supposed to be an AI, adding a voice effect to indicate the digital nature of the speaker might place the voice-over on the other side of the uncanny valley, making it less relatable but also making us judge it less as a person's voice. No matter how annoying Mario's voice might be if it was in real life, we don't judge it the same way because it is separated from reality. Maybe KSP 2's tutorials can work the same way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthgently Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, Dman979 said: Do you happen to have a source for this? I'd be curious to read more about that. It sounds like an interesting topic to learn more on. I learned it in a lecture way back in undergrad and can't find a link. But ask anyone which teacher they learned the most from and what traits that teacher had. They will typically say they knew what they were talking about, so authoritative, had street cred, been-there-done-that etc, and were funny and engaging. Children can get other kids' attention easily, but an older person taking time out to help them understand something is of higher value and rarer. If you want to transfer knowledge then there has to be a friendly state where it is clear who knows and who doesn't, and an older voice will inherently belong to someone who has had almost certainly learned more having spent more time learning. I'll keep looking though Edited February 21, 2023 by darthgently Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dman979 Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 Just now, darthgently said: I learned it in a lecture way back in undergrad and can't find a link. But ask anyone which teacher they learned the most from and what traits that teacher had. They will typically say they knew what they were talking about, so authoritative, had street cred, been-there-done-that etc, and were funny and engaging. Children can get other kids' attention easily, but an older person taking time out to help them understand something is of higher value and rarer. If you want to transfer knowledge then there has to be a friendly state where it is clear who knows and who doesn't, and an older voice will inherently belong to someone who has had almost certainly learned more given more time learning. I'll keep looking though No link to non-recorded lecture from years ago? Sheesh, I thought this was the internet. Regardless, it makes intuitive sense to me. Thanks for looking, if you happen to find anything academic my PMs are open! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MechBFP Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 20 minutes ago, t_v said: I was thinking, if the tutorial person is supposed to be an AI, adding a voice effect to indicate the digital nature of the speaker might place the voice-over on the other side of the uncanny valley, making it less relatable but also making us judge it less as a person's voice. No matter how annoying Mario's voice might be if it was in real life, we don't judge it the same way because it is separated from reality. Maybe KSP 2's tutorials can work the same way. This seems like a reasonable approach to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthgently Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 2 minutes ago, Dman979 said: No link to non-recorded lecture from years ago? Sheesh, I thought this was the internet. Regardless, it makes intuitive sense to me. Thanks for looking, if you happen to find anything academic my PMs are open! I mean younger hominids worldwide sat around fires listening to older people pass on cultural knowledge for, what, 100k+ years? That just doesn't go away in few brief years and if it does then we are lost Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shdwlrd Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 34 minutes ago, mcwaffles2003 said: I agree that it fits the theme, but the actors speaking English to people, not kerbish to kerbals. I think if you want to communicate to a large set of people, then follow the tone of people who have made a job doing so, youtubers. That said, I wasn't offended by the voice, gave me Navi from OoT feel. But I think it would appeal more if presented in the style of Scott Manley, Tim Dodd, Or Joe Scott, etc... I can't disagree with that either. People's tolerance to voices does vary. Some people won't care, some will. The only thing I hate is that only certain people are ever considered for voicing KSP. There are hundreds of voice actors out there. Any single one can do this. If Intercept was truly concerned, they can still use the same style of speech and energy used in the current tutorials. But lower the pitch a bit. (Like Eddie in Cowboy Bebop.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strawberry Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 Personally I dont mind the voice but clearly some people very much do. I think voice options to where you can change the narrator would be good, probably as a setting easily visible in the training center. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcwaffles2003 Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 Just now, Strawberry said: Personally I dont mind the voice but clearly some people very much do. I think voice options to where you can change the narrator would be good, probably as a setting easily visible in the training center. honestly, having choice here would be the best situation... just like GPS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dinlink Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 What about to let it in the original version voice (Kerbalish language), with subtitles? ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Aziz Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 (edited) There are people who learn better by listening than through reading. Kerbalish would be childish and lead nowhere. Edited February 21, 2023 by The Aziz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcwaffles2003 Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 18 minutes ago, Dinlink said: What about to let it in the original version voice (Kerbalish language), with subtitles? ... cute idea but reading while paying attention to illustrated instructions wont mix well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheOtherDave Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 7 hours ago, AtomicTech said: Perhaps Scott Manley? Or even Neil Degrasse Tyson? Given the subject matter, I think Scott Manley would do better than NDT. As long as we’re fan casting the VOs, though, Tim Dodd would probably be my first choice. IMHO, he gets the tone perfect in his documentary-style videos, and that’s mostly what this is about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerbart Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 Why did they change the voice? The one they posted about "missing the ground" was just fine, but now I'm being told they replaced it with some donald duck voice? Does anyone have a link to a tutorial with the new voice? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chilkoot Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 2 hours ago, darthgently said: Ackshully, kids learn best from a voice that sounds wise, authoritative (not same as authoritarian) and is humorous. Morgan Freeman would be an excellent choice, not joking. I don't mind the kid voice, but it leans too far into entertainment and away from information transfer to be optimal with kids. They will find it "fun", but will be less likely to remember the material As much as we try to rise above bias and other prejudices, human psychology is real and we do need to account for it when designing this kind of stuff. I'm not arguing for/against the narrator voice, only noting that while it's important to try and take the high road, many players - almost certainly most - will not do the same, and their unconscious perception of the person behind the voice will influence how much trust they put in the narrative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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