Six Days in Fallujah

I saw in an older post confirmation of 'interactions with British forces'. From what I understand, the British forces present during the battle were the Black Watch battalion, providing perimeter support around the city.

Do they have speaking parts? If so, were Scottish voice actors used?

If the answer to part one is 'no' then you could pretty much ignore the rest of this post, but it's something that I'd love to see in the game if done right -- and fear seeing done wrong. Please pardon me because I don't want to presume anything, and I suppose I'm sort of asking a lot with something like this at this point in the game's development, but I feel it's worth bringing up though because the developers are clearly committed to authenticity.

It doesn't sound like a big deal but it's something that I see go wrong all the time. Scotland is a very small country but the accents are very diverse. A three-hour journey will have you sounding as out of place with the locals as a New Yorker in Texas -- and you'll have passed through towns with Cajuns, Bostonites and Valley Girls along the way. This is just region, and doesn't even touch on a person's socioeconomic background, which has an undeniable impact.

Americans often refer to 'British' accents, and they mean English (huge diversity in English accents as well), and a Scottish accent is its own thing; there is no one Scottish accent. This is likely why the vast majority of attempts at sounding Scottish by North Americans range from Groundskeeper Willie to Shrek. This infiltrates videogames as well, from the almost-had-it Fergus in the Wolfenstein reboot (English actor, good effort) to the unbearably bad Donnelly from Mass Effect 2 (could've been satire if he'd at least tried to sound like Scotty).

The problem here is even if the developers gave the characters speaking parts, even if they hired Scottish voice actors for it, the chances are that the voice actors would possess that TV-accent that pervades every Scottish appearance in foreign media. The extra-articulated so people understand us middle-class Glasgow accent, where we all sound like Desmond from Lost; frankly, not at all like the teenagers who join the infantry. The Black Watch recruits from the central to north east regions of Scotland, i.e., Perth, Fife, and Dundee. These are not accents you often hear outside of Scottish media, and would be extremely hard to imitate faithfully.

I feel like in the grand scheme of the game, this probably sounds like an unnecessarily nit-picking rant to many, and would be easy enough for everyone but Scottish players to simply overlook. However, since these men were there, and made sacrifices, and continued to do so into Afghanistan, I'd say that it's worth looking into, especially if great care is taken with the rest of the game to handle everything else as tastefully as possible. In my opinion they deserve to have their voices literally heard, as faithfully as can be practically managed.

Aw, man. No one engaged with that at all. I'm really embarrassed I typed all that out.

banjo_string wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 4:32 pm Aw, man. No one engaged with that at all. I'm really embarrassed I typed all that out.

That's not true. You got some likes from others. You must keep in mind, this community at present is very small. Far smaller than it was when the game was first announced. Many of the regulars, guys who responded to everything, just don't engage at the moment since news for this game has screeched to almost a dead stop. Don't take it personally, many of us have had posts that didn't get much notice too. Once this game starts the hype train again you'll get far more engagement.

Thank you for typing that out. The European side of the battle is one most of us here are not too familiar with. Perhaps some of the guys here who served in the battle can offer perspective on their UK Counterparts?

In terms of your post, I think most of us in these forums are American and probably do not have much to add on that front. Most of us can tell the difference between Scottish, and the English accents from London and your midlands, and Irish... and that's probably it. But absolutely, if there is a difference to be found the devs have a duty to research it and get it right. I'd be pretty confused if I, from California, was in a game voiced by a Texan with a noticeable accent.

banjo_string wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 4:32 pm Aw, man. No one engaged with that at all. I'm really embarrassed I typed all that out.

I actually read through your whole post and chose not to engage with it simply because (to be quite frank), that level of detail regarding a very focused aspect of NPC dialogue just isn't a concern I share. Not everyone has the same priorities when it comes to what they are looking for from the game so no biggie. ....certainly nothing to be embarrassed about.

Also, as aggimajera pointed out, the community in this forum is relatively small right now with even fewer bothering to chime in at this time. In either case, folks do read these posts including the SDiF team. I think it's definitely worth sharing your personal feedback, suggestions and questions.

banjo_string wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 4:32 pm Aw, man. No one engaged with that at all. I'm really embarrassed I typed all that out.

Let me also say that while every thread doesn't need a developer response, I still read absolutely everything on this forum and pass questions to the right members of the team. Admittedly I do miss things too, and this thread fell through the cracks. Never apologize or be embarrassed by sharing your thoughts, especially in such great detail.

Thank you for pointing this out for us as it’s not something many of us are aware of. However, you’ll be relieved to hear that one of our senior artists is Scottish. Based on your post, it sounds like we should engage with him on this part.