Rebecca Needs Some Acting Lessons...

[Kyotra]

This has been bugging me a while, and since no-one else wants to say it then I will: Rebecca is not a good voice actor.

 

At first, I figured it was just part of DE's goal making the Lotus this all-business, monotone character. That perhaps they had yet to give Rebecca the chance to act out some true emotion in the role. That perhaps her lack of vocal urgency was just something I was interpreting in a manner different from everyone else. EDIT: After some review, I've realized that emotion isn't the issue. It's her lack of contextual emphasis. Sometimes it feels as if the Lotus isn't actually talking to you, or that she is obviously reading from a page.

 

Then came the Mirage quest, and all doubt was eliminated. What was supposed to be a moment of emotional pain just came across as unfortunately fake. For such an important character who's voice we hear in the game every damn minute of every damn day, this is frankly disappointing, grating, and embarrassing.

 

Rebecca, if you ever end up reading this, please, take some acting lessons. You are 2 hours from Toronto, one of the film capitols of the world! It is totally possible for you to study under a good acting coach. There is nothing to lose, and not only will you benefit by becoming a better actor, but so will the players when they are delivered an enhanced experience.

 

Disclaimer: Please don't take this critique as a personal attack against Rebecca. I intended this as a critique of Rebecca's voice performance, and I hope that no-one interprets my blunt honesty as an attempt to insult. I want her to improve, not dissuade her from being the Lotus.

 

If we ignore our faults, then we shall never improve, and they will only serve to hold us back.

 

EDIT:

BAM There ya go, that's how voice acting is supposed to work.

Edited October 11, 2014 by Kyotra

[Ordel]

To be honest, I liked Lotus' voice before it turned full-on robotic and..empty.

[TennoSimons]

Disclaimer notwithstanding, someone could use some manner lessons. 

 

While I am confident that DE is open to constructive criticism, it strikes me that your topic title and much of the content of the post really singles out a distinct individual (a person with feelings).

 

 

Personally, I would prefer that DE Rebecca stay in London and continue her diligent work with DE, than take four hours out of her work day every day to commute to Toronto to study with voice coaches. By the way, there are a number of fine actors who live and work in London, too. Not that Reb needs them, imo. Like I said, DE Reb does great work for DE which is actually an astonishingly small company that manages to produce such great content consistently on the strength of their own ingenuity, multi-tasking and work ethic.

 

Of investments I would make to DE's modest sized organization, acting lessons would be pretty low on the wish list. 

Edited September 30, 2014 by TennoSimons

[slykidd]

ouch...

[(PSN)IIIDevoidIII]

I think the voice acting fits her theme.

If the Lotus were to suddenly be some sort of emotional wreck, it'd add drama, but certainly be quite the oddity.

[Letter13]

Considering that a lot of the tone, volume, inflection, modulation and things that make up the Lotus's voice are added/edited in digitally after the  actual recording of Rebecca's voice, I think it's hard to say that the issue is that Rebecca's a bad voice actor. If we were listening to the raw voice recording of her we might be able to better critique her acting.

 

As it is now, I think it's too difficult to chalk it up to bad acting or the sound editors after the fact. Sort of like how Autotune can make an amazing singer sound awful or a bad singer sound good. Without a baseline to compare it against we can't really draw too many conclusions.

[Excalibur9]

I think it fine, when lotus said "Prepare for life support" She does not have to say it that dramatically. And besides if she did change you will have to wait until u17

 

[Sifu]

Dude, her acting is ok, why so much hate? 

[Egg_Chen]

It worked for me.

 

I normally mute Lotus because of the repetition, but turn the volume back up for new content.

There were hints of emotion there in the Mirage quest, and let's not forget if it was overdone it would seem even more false.

If Arnie in Termiinator started blubbing over a dead cat, you'd say it was false...

[KiraShado]

I like Lotus/Rebecca. If she goes to Toronto (again) then I'll fangirl over the fact she's within the city I live in, and I'll cry over the fact that I won't be able to meet her.
Nevertheless, she doesn't need voice acting lessons.

[Rajko]

For me, it painted her as a sort cybernetically super-tasking meta handler, calmly guiding uncounted numbers of Tenno through their individual cell's tasks simultaneously across the Origin system.

 

For the mirage quest, I just thought there weren't enough lines toward the end.

[noveltyhero]

Right now you can't even tell its Rebecca. It'd be like critiquing Electro's voice acting in the amazing spiderman 2, it is digitally altered too much for you to be able to say wether or not it is good. Also it fits the character so the voice fits the face which isn't a bad thing indeed.

[homiedudemanguy]

im fine with her monotone voice to be honest. i wouldnt want some radically emotion filled lotus voice filling up my headphones or else itll just be even more annoying. It's fine as it is

[Eggzodiya]

Take in, for a moment, the game's setting and environment place. Warframe takes place in a solar system that is being ripped several new ones by the participating warring factions. Lotus, to me, seems like the type of person who has lost a lot during this war: friends, family, allies, etc., and has likely gotten used to it without it affecting her personality. She's all business, no pleasure, and I think that's fine. She doesn't want any attachments, but only to get the job done as efficiently as possible. If she loses more Tenno in the field, it sucks but that's the life of a soldier; you can't have attachments without risk. People die in the field, and the ones emotionally attached to the diseased take a heavy blow each time.

When you repetitively lose someone important in life, it leaves a scar. Assuming Lotus is not some AI (her monotone would make some sense if she was) with no feelings or emotions, then her Rebecca's voice fits perfectly. Lotus is there to guide the Tenno, not to cradle them. If they die in a mission, Lotus can't be weeping for days or weeks. She has a job to do, a solar system to save, and there can't be room for tears.

No emotions, no attachments, only results.

Edited September 29, 2014 by Eggzodiya

[direcyphre]

'Emotion' has never entered my mind when consider the character of Lotus. As we are well aware, we are one of many in a growing society of a once-dead race. The pain was long gone, and now we are rebuilding and becoming connected.

 

Also Lotus totally has to tell like a million tenno the same damn thing when they wake up, and that is probably annoying. If emotional emphasis was involved, it would probably be more like indifference.

[Lukap99]

You're treading a very think line here OP, we all know how the community may respond to dev-bashing, even if it's just brutal honesty. Luckily based mods are here to help if that happens.

Anyhow, after listening to Rebecca do the voice of the Lotus for 7 updates now, I think that she has improved, although I cannot gauge by how much due to the heavy voice modifiers.

I'm also fairly certain that there are a lot of easier, and less expensive ways for her to practice the voice of lotus.
Like reading her posts in that voice for instance. Or watching tips on YouTube on how to become a better voice actor.

 

As for those who say that the Lotus is supposed to be monotone, I only have to say this.

Even monotone characters can have emotions in their voice, albeit rarely and subtly.

Edited September 29, 2014 by Lukap99

[Magnar21]

The Mirage quest, IMHO, could use a bit of tweaking on the emotional side (using Autotune or something). DERebecca, IMHO, is fine as a voice actor. But everyone, no matter who they are, can always improve. If DERebecca feels that her voice acting could use significant improvement, improvement that suits the game and would add to the experience, then and only then would I consider it viable for her to consider voice acting lessons.

 

Once again, I feel that her monotone makes sense given the nature of her character. For the Mirage quest, I feel she needs more lines and maybe a bit more emotion --- with the sole purpose of providing conrast with all her other lines and dialoge throughout the game, a chink in the armor, as it were.

[Rajko]

Isn't it interesting that the Corpus call her a betrayer, yet The Lotus apparently predates the Corpus and the Grineer factions, having been an Orokin handler for Tenno during the Sentient war? (taken from the Mirage quest line)

 

Now back to the voice overs!  IMHO the only thing we need is more variety and more trigger categories, like mastery level affecting how the Lotus interacts with your tenno, etc.

Edited September 29, 2014 by Rajko

[OverlordMcGeek]

She is constatnly on the forums so she would have read this without commenting.

 

So:

 

*hugs Rebecca, wipes tears from her eyes*

[Kyotra]

Okay, I need to make a list, there is a lot to address in this thread:

 

1.) Despite my disclaimer, you guys are still taking this as a personal attack. Well guess what? Professional critique can be brutal in it's honesty, and it hurts. If you can't suck it up and deal with it, you'll never improve.

 

2.) I fully understand that the Lotus expressing emotion does not mean she should be "emotional", she is the equivalent of a militant commander and I wholly expect her to act with the bearing of one. That said, when on a mission where lives are on the line, I would expect her voice to at least carry some sense of urgency. As is she has the personality of a fish her delivery is very flat.

 

3.) I never said Rebeca should actually go to Toronto, I was just pointing out her proximity to the city gives her easy access to talent. It was just a suggestion, if there are coaches closer to her then by all means use them.

Edited September 29, 2014 by Kyotra

[Bibliothekar]

Right now you can't even tell its Rebecca.

Who knows, maybe that's part of their plan. Alter the original lines so much that at some point anyone could take over the Lotus and we won't notice if it's Rebecca, Megan or Steve.

[DrFail]

I noticed the things you’re talking about in your critique while doing the Mirage questline as well.

 

The thing is, until I did the Mirage questline I never really thought of her voice acting as bad. And a few days after finishing the questline it no longer bothered me. Because like you I figured Rebecca was just being casted into an all business monotone character. Because that’s what it looks like they’re trying for in most instances outside of the Mirage questline.

 

So, If you’ll allow me to reach into an area that may be slightly off topic, The entire reason I’m posting this is to mention that, while I would definitely encourage Rebecca to take lessons in something like voice acting if it interested her enough to take more courses or what have you in, I would like to propose that some of what you’re noticing might not be entirely her fault.

 

It is my opinion that the Lotus’ part in the Mirage quest just is the victim of unfortunate writing, and I think that this may be souring your opinion of Rebecca’s voice acting as a whole beyond your normal like/dislike. This is not to say that I am trying to invalidate your opinion, because it definitely sounds like you’ve held this opinion at least somewhat for a while. It is unlikely that one instance made up your mind entirely on its own. But since you mentioned the Mirage quest as securing your view of her voice acting in your opening post, I would like to encourage you to look at that particular aspect harder before making your mind up about how you feel concerning her voice acting, and maybe give her another chance in your own eyes afterwards depending on what conclusion you reach.

 

---The Lines Vs The Character---

 

The in quest dialogue is purple prosed and is trying to be dramatic and to an extent emotional. This isn’t always a problem with writing. Especially as far as voice acting is concerned. But look at the character versus the lines

 

Normally the Lotus is portrayed as a very to the point and business type character. At least to you, me, and it seems like a few others in this thread based off of their posts. It is true that her lines are often monotone and that they don’t really have Rebecca voice acting her with emotion. In fact, as others in the thread have stated, they have put voice filters over Rebecca’s voice to ensure that the end result sounds less emotional and, as a previous poster said, “full-on robotic and empty”. While not for everyone, this is in and of itself fine. The voice Rebecca has taken along with the accompanying filters and what have you are designed to fit such a character. While it’s not perfect, it’s good enough. Really good for a dev team the size of DE, honestly.

 

The lines, however, are composed of short fragmented sentences, such as ones spoken by a deeply emotional and shaken character who is having trouble saying the lines due to mentioned guilt and emotions. They’re full of attempted dramatic description mixed with personal experience and perhaps guilt. (ex.

“It’s Dark. I see the glow of restraints.” “I tell her I won’t lose her. She is smiling because she knows I am lying…”)

 

Lines such as these will sound fake and wrong if approached with a businesslike monotone character unless believable and sensible changes are allowed to take place in that character’s voice.  (Heck, when your writers start surrounding a single word in ellipses you risk the lines sounding fake, even with a fitting voice.) Here, they didn’t. And I feel that this may account for good deal of what you’re seeing. Enough that I felt it important to put it on the table for consideration. The voice of Lotus was played like it usually is. But the lines were different and demanded something that just didn’t fit the character’s standard voice. I get what they were trying to do here, I really do. It’s a neat idea. It just didn’t work with what they’ve set up as Lotus’ default voice and tone. Which is robot-like.

 

In addition the whole emotional thing came to be and disappeared so fast (Due to this being a videogame) that the fake feeling given was akin to a super serious character like Batman breaking out into a song and dance routine with for ten minutes mid-film while keeping his voice in standard Dark Knight mode.  Jarring, but in the wrong way.

 

Before anyone jumps on me, (though they probably will anyway, if responses to your disclaimer are anything to go by), I want to clarify that despite all that I have said in this post, I don’t bear any ill will towards the writers. There are plenty of other scripts written into the game for several other characters, including the lotus that work very well in my own opinion. I could write a lot about them too, were they not even more off-topic than my current delve into a particular quest line. The matter in short is that in the Mirage quest they simply tried something different. Which is cool, takes guts, and is by no means unappreciated even if it didn’t turn out amazingly. As I said before, I understand what they were trying to do with these lines, and it is a daring idea that would be great if done to its best. I hope that they delve into and tweak the formula and try it again at some point in the future, but in its current state I feel the writing's demands compared to the character's demands may be souring your views on the voice actor extra.

[Kyotra]

-snip-

 

You do have a valid point here, I had never given thought to how the directors may have requested Rebecca approach the quest dialog. We cannot know the quality of the performance had they guided it in a more appropriate direction.

 

That said, I still believe that Rebecca's voice acting skills could use improvement across the board. I had held this view well before the Mirage quest was released, the questline simply provided a confirmation.

[Derpo]

To be honest, I liked Lotus' voice before it turned full-on robotic and..empty.

Rebecca is outstanding as Lotus, in my opinion...and I can't say I'm a fan of Rebecca, personally (I've dealt with her). She simply does Lotus very well. I don't think there is a noticeably better choice for Lotus' voice anywhere. HOWEVER, I hate the audio post-processing. Sorry, sound engineer, you screwed it up. She sounded MUCH better before the processing.

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/Warframe/

Edited October 1, 2014 by Derpo

[Derpo]

Actually, I have a little more to say about Lotus. I strongly favor leaving Rebecca's voice, without the audio post-processing, for Lotus. It's a beautiful voice. The fact that Rebecca has not put a lot of emotion into the voice is consistent with the name, Lotus, which is also a position used in meditation. It's not supposed to be emotional. Also, I like the possibility that Lotus in not necessarily a 'good guy' or even a friend. The voice of Lotus is one of the few things in this game that I feel is just right.

 

As to Rebecca herself, when you deal with her you need to bear the following in mind:

  - She's busy; she may not have assimilated the entirety of the fact pattern

  - She's intensely loyal to DE. If you construe your issue as being you vs. DE, you lose.

  - She's just a normal person. Don't expect to be dealing with Lotus when you deal with her.

 

None of this is to be construed as criticism, not even constructive. It just is. I was not successful in my dealings with her. But she is still a really awesome voice for Lotus.

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/Warframe/