KZXcellent
Member
Not gonna lie I did NOT expect the thread to go in this direction. Disappointing.
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Uncharted 4 New Character Trailer: Nadine Ross (Laura Bailey)
- Thread starter Loudninja
- Start date
shortsFortallPeople
Banned
sarcasm
And that would be fair normally. I understand that. But that also means that there was an opportunity to give a high profile role to a person of color and they instead went with what seems like an incredibly safe choice for convenience's sake. As a developer who has taken chances before, this reasoning is a disappointment if it ends up being true.
In that she's being paid to act like a person of color? I wont retread this but there's a history there that makes this not okay.
Because they havent made a mistake before doesn't automatically make them immune to making them now. I really want to hear their reasoning behind this choice but I admit that it's going to have to be really, really good to convince me that this is okay.
This thread reminds me of a post I made in the thread about the lack of racial options in CoD:
I guess now we know the answer.
I guess now we know the answer.
Audible Phonetics
Member
Agreed, in an earlier post I stated as much as this.
I think people are assuming the same issues that plague other job markets as far as racism and equality goes, may also be at play in the gaming sphere.
I can't speak intelligibly to that because I don't have statistics to back any claims.
Blackleg-sanji1
Banned
You didn't? This has been happening alot lately
firehawk12
Subete no aware
I don't know if there are biological/physiological reasons that would limit who could have performed as this character, I suppose. With children, however, if you aren't going to cast actual kids and you are going to stick with adult actors the reality is that most men's voices go through a complete change at puberty and they physically cannot sound like a child. They can falsetto, but there's nothing convincing about a falsetto. You might as well ask male actors to use helium in order to change their voice.
BuckRobotron
Member
Excellent, I always like to hear Laura Bailey. I have the Uncharted PS4 collection coming in and haven't yet played the earlier games so otherwise I'm holding off on Uncharted 4 story specifics.
Audible Phonetics
Member
I mean no disrespect when I ask this, but where are you from?
The world (specifically North America) hasn't been so racially charged since American Civil Rights movements.
keltickennedy
Member
Dude......stop.
Blackleg-sanji1
Banned
Yea no like seriously stop like now before tgis thread goes there
One person asked a fairly simple question, and a hundred folks posted "SMH", "Lolwat?!?", "Outrage culture!", PCPrincipal.jpg, etc. Then it spiraled down from there.
No one called for anyone's head. No one started a petition. Someone asked a question and the response was vitriol-flecked outrage. It's a pretty common pattern.
Between Troy as Sam, and Laura as Nadine, I feel like the casting has more to do with just going for the go-to voice actors. It's possible they just needed a reliable crew to fill the roles left after the departure of much of the original Uncharted 4 performance team; I'm wondering now if they even had the time for a lengthy audition process.
Anyway, that's all to say nothing about the performances as they are. They seem solid.
Anyway, that's all to say nothing about the performances as they are. They seem solid.
Night Angel
Member
Lol and how does a POC act?
Did the director just tell her to "act black"?
Fucking ridiculous.
Yes, this incident highlights an issue with the video game industry.
No, this incident doesn't retread old grounds of blackface and outright racism.
Blackleg-sanji1
Banned
Sigh typical
jhmtehgamr20xx
Banned
Well PatF is a really particular case b/c not only was that Disney's first princess film w/ a black princess, it was kind of their first 2D animated princess-like film I can think of w/ a black character in it at all! So it was a literal first for them in such a big way, they had to not take that chance. I also agree w/ you on that one.
But yeah, this seems like a really American perspective, but Americans gotta understand that US != the world. And it's not like their casting here was malicious at all; Sony's actually been one of the most diverse AAA devs in the industry, not just for VA but for marketing, artist, programmers, the whole gamut really.
Unless we get a leaked email saying otherwise x)...
You and me both. Let a trailer's actors not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
shortsFortallPeople
Banned
to be clear, i dont mean that there's a way to act like a person of color. What i was getting at is that she shouldn't be in the role of a person of color, period.
This is a high profile role. Let me ask you: do you know what Nolan North looks like? Or how about Troy Baker? I bet the answer to those questions from most people here is yes.
This high profile role could've gone to a person of color and helped raise their profile, given them more exposure, and could've brought more diversity to the industry. This choice does none of those things.
plasmawave
Banned
Totally different thing since the actor is visible to the audience.
DarkLordMalik
Member
Gamersyde GIFs time
You can notice the veins on Drake's hand and Nadine's arm.
Edit: She appears to have a scar on her Neck. Never noticed it before o_0
You can notice the veins on Drake's hand and Nadine's arm.
Edit: She appears to have a scar on her Neck. Never noticed it before o_0
gundamkyoukai
Member
That is nonsense and very close minded .
So lets say ND get someone with a better South Africa accent (if that is what they going for ) but she white , middle eastern etc .
A black person should get the role over them because they are black ?
jhmtehgamr20xx
Banned
It's the lighting. As in: it's a dimly lit scene mostly illuminated from natural night light through a window. It's going to probably look like that.
InfiniteCombo
Banned
"I'm flattered, but I'm afraid I'm already spoken for..."
LOL... Damn, the humor is one of those things that keeps making each Uncharted an awesome whole gaming package, even if individual elements are done better by other games.
LOL... Damn, the humor is one of those things that keeps making each Uncharted an awesome whole gaming package, even if individual elements are done better by other games.
I don't have a problem with the voice actress being white (see: Kratos etc), but I am disappointing they went with Laura "I'm in every video game" Bailey. Having both her and Baker in U4 makes it so boring for me, I'm getting a little tired of hearing them in every single AAA game.
ND gave both Chloe and Sully's voice actors a major role in a huge game when they hadn't done too much video game voice acting before, and the results were awesome. U4 just seems to be picking who's hot right now and that's boring to me.
ND gave both Chloe and Sully's voice actors a major role in a huge game when they hadn't done too much video game voice acting before, and the results were awesome. U4 just seems to be picking who's hot right now and that's boring to me.
Damn that shrug. Such outstanding writing and acting.
To be fair, Claudia Black could stub her toe and the resulting voicework would be phenomenal. I think ND knew going in that a big part of what sci-fi fans have always seen in her is her voice.
plasmawave
Banned
So ND should hire someone because he/she is not best for the role but because to boost their career? That's not their job.
She looks awesome.
Voice acting is one of the professions where I don't particularly care who's getting cast as what. If they have the talent to pull off whatever character they are trying to pull off, I don't care if they're black, white, asian, middle eastern, whatever.
Plenty of minority actors get cast as non-minority characters in games.
Phil Lamar almost ALWAYS plays a non-black character (Samurai Jack, Vamp, too many others to list).
Even Ashley Williams from Mass Effect is voiced by a black woman. I want more minorities in the industry as well, but I think voice acting is one of the few gigs where we can actually get cast regularly.
Voice acting is one of the professions where I don't particularly care who's getting cast as what. If they have the talent to pull off whatever character they are trying to pull off, I don't care if they're black, white, asian, middle eastern, whatever.
Plenty of minority actors get cast as non-minority characters in games.
Phil Lamar almost ALWAYS plays a non-black character (Samurai Jack, Vamp, too many others to list).
Even Ashley Williams from Mass Effect is voiced by a black woman. I want more minorities in the industry as well, but I think voice acting is one of the few gigs where we can actually get cast regularly.
Shin-Ra
Junior Member
You know what they say about adventurers with big hands.
InfiniteCombo
Banned
I know! I love the way the characters are animated. Seems nice, fluid, and somewhat natural to me.
The Artisan
Member
DayumGamersyde GIFs time
You can notice the veins on Drake's hand and Nadine's arm.
Edit: She appears to have a scar on her Neck. Never noticed it before o_0
This could end up being one of the greatest games of all time
narutomaki04
Banned
Man the game looks great
Scientist Supreme!
Banned
Nope. A talented black actress should because its appropriate for that character and better for the industry.
Again, this 'better suited' stuff is nonsense. Its not a equal playing field.
Some of the logic spewed here would prevent Phil Lamar from doing some incredible voice work over the years.
Always-honest
Banned
Yeah i agree. I guess it's a really specialistic work area where every bit of experience is extremely important.
The downside is that we get to hear similar voices throughout many AAA games and that few people get a shot at doing the job. Are there even auditions for games like this? I imagine a lot is just "never change a winning team".
Is there data supporting this? Because I've had discussions about this very same thing in film, and they point to Michael B, and a handful of other black actors, and the data doesn't bear out their anecdotes.
DarkLordMalik
Member
I said, wow! This is like a pre-rendered movie.
Edit: This GIF was in reverse. Sorry for the mistake. It is fixed now.
Meccanical
Member
It's funny because the people who are trying not to be racist are unintentionally coming off as racist to me...
Big hands, big... gloves?
Audible Phonetics
Member
Always-honest
Banned
Examples? Because now you could be talking about anyone.
DarkLordMalik
Member
Old and much more Handsome
gundamkyoukai
Member
Why is it appropriate for that character ?
ND job is not to make the industry better at the cost of there game , time or money .
It's there job to make the best game they can with the resources they have .
shortsFortallPeople
Banned
It's been brought up before but the current list of high profile voice actors is incredibly white. Here was a chance to allow that group to diversify some with a high profile role for a female person of color and...they went with a well established white actress instead.
So, no, it's not their job to help fix this issue but this casting choice at the very least is uninspired and incredibly disappointing, and that's not counting how it also makes me a bit uncomfortable because of the racial factors at play.
Old and much more Handsome
Pfft handsome? He looks like somebody's uncool dad.
DarkLordMalik
Member
SomedayTheFire
Member
I said, wow! This is like a pre-rendered movie.
joke post?
I should elaborate, as good as the graphics are. That section looks really really bad, the lip sync is way off and the little break in animation looks terrible.