Thacobell

8 hours ago, Galactygon said:

I know I'm being slightly pedantic here, but changing the spelling of her name to "Korlaj" would at the same time preserve pronounciation of the existing name and be a nod to Semaj if he'd be replaced by her in BG1.

Yes, you are. You decided you don't like 2 letters for some reason, and use that as justification to criticise something, when there isn't a problem here.

18 hours ago, Galactygon said:

It's more of a matter of consistency imho. Original games went with fantasy names that are easy for an English speaker to pronounce/decipher which are consistent with the canon material which often times played up to real-world stereotypes i.e. arabic sounding names for genies. I guess if there's a subgroup in Faerun that uses Polish names it makes sense to give those characters such names? Polish names are a bit hard to decipher for a non-Polish speaker due to how many consonants can build up a single "sound" like the "sz". Speaking of which I think I got the pronounciation of the Polish "sz" wrong again. Now I'm not sure if it's pronounced as "Korlash" or "Korlage"?  

Thaxllsyllia, Nizidramniyt, whatever that other other dragon's name was. BG was never a stranger to made up or none germanic names. Or names hard to pronounce, for that matter.

I always forget my fighters' HLAs. So this is perfect for me.

Toril is a melting pot of quite literally everything. Complaining about a name sounding too foreign is silly.

23 hours ago, Connelly said:

And Portalbendarwinden says nothing because he's running away after you just blew your shit on him like a goddamn lunatic.

Really, a good part of the original games is full of humor, not uncommonly quite puerile and/or silly even. This is a very weird criticism that I hardly understand except if one didn't engage with the game beyond the minimum amount required to follow the main storyline. And even then you're forced a few times to go through some humorous moments (or act like a uncaring sociopath to skip them, which is an entirely different matter).

Yeah, this has been a criticism I've seen a lot, and its kind of nonsense. There's so many random, absurd, and referential humor in the classic games. Especially in BG1. Rabid chickens, Lewis Carrol references, Oopah the exploding ogre, the list goes on. BG1 even has a lumberjack, and that's okay.

"Writing: I don't like the writing because it feels like it's for teenagers in some places, whereas the tone of the first and second games seemed more melancholic and dark. "
Maple Willow Aspen says, "Hi".

Underlevelled and over equipped is the perfect explanation. Thanks for the lol.

Big fan of that black border.

"How can you make a law that says you can't make a similar sounding voice when acting your own script?  You can't. "
I'm sure this won't age poorly. Hey, anyone hear about voice actors cutting licensing deals for replicas of their own voices?

"I totally respect actor's wishes, unless they go against my own! Its totally different you guys!"
"The ends justify the means! This is a totally reasonable argument!"
"The people who don't agree with me aren't even responding to me! Clearly the only one who has agrees with me! Otherwise they wouldn't disagree!"

For an interquel expansion I think its very good. Its certainly not perfect, but it gave us goblin grandma.

2 hours ago, Angel said:

It has some issues, but overall I'm fairly fond of it, and the Underground River is one of my favorite dungeons in the series.  I'm only disappointed that there was no effort done to make the SoD events canon in BG2EE.

Yeah, this one you can lay at WotC's feet. There were plans to expand on SoD in BG2, but after SoD's review bombing, WotC got cold feet and altered the license so that BD couldn't add new content.

This was  amajor point of the strike. They wanted to (rightfully) have control over their own likeness. Trying to say that consent is pointless says a LOT about you.

20 hours ago, DavidW said:

I remain unconvinced that there is a real ethical difference (at least in an unmonetized context) between imitating a computer character's voice manually and doing it via AI - but I'm not convinced the discussion is that productive at this stage so I shan't comment further. (And having philosophical arguments is my day job - if I'm going to do it I might as well get paid for it )

I mean, the fact that many voice actors have already stated that it makes them uncomfortable should be a factor here. The alternative is to pretend that consent never matters.
 

17 hours ago, BobT said:

Why is your mind going THERE? O_O

Because PEOPLE GO THERE. The entire crux of this issue is consent. Whether you think what want to do is benign or not, nobody has the right to dictate what to do with someone's likeness, except for the person themself. What you are comfortable doing with the likeness of another person doesn't matter when the actual person is uncomfortable with what you are doing.

I love this, potential legal troubles and actors clearly stating lack of conent "emotional response." This person clearly just wants to take advantage of others. Their way is "logical" and anything else "emotional response."

@morpheus562That's very interesting. The biggest problem with AI is consent, but algorithims that have their own resources is a good way to go about it.

@BartimaeusVery well put. I can't really add anything to that.
 

19 hours ago, morpheus562 said:

The Crucible mod is going to be wading into the use of AI Voices discussion, and I've paid to use ai software from Replica Studios. First time I've personally put money down to generate a free mod, but I think it will better the mod. Of note, I have already generated 115 fully voiced lines of dialog for various net new characters the player will interact with. I estimate there will be close to 200 fully voiced lines of dialog when it is completed. Any existing character that already has voice work (e.g. Sarevok, Imoen, etc.) will be mute in their interjections as I do view it as an ethical concern to mirror the work of an existing voice actor to voice a character they are behind. I did tweet out to the original voice actor for Sarevok to see what it would take, but I doubt I will get a response as I have no people to reach out to his people to set something up.

Using ai to make voicelines for original characters? Am I understanding your post right? I'm curious. What do you see as the benefit to this versus sourcing voice work from the community? And is the ai you're using pulling samples indiscriminately or is it an algorithim made up of pieces that are being pullled with consent from the original artists? There's so many variables at play here.

 @DavidW The thing is, a human impersonator and ai generation are fundamentally different. The impersonator is at least a person using their own voice of their volition. You aren't loading up a computer program to take that voice from another person. They aren't equivalent.

@BobT "Its not stealing, its fine!"
The actual owners of those voices disagree, as has been noted multiple times. Actors do NOT want their voices taken without consent. But you clearly do not care if it hurts anyone, because you keep ignoring this.
Also, you have been presented with legal issues that can arise from it, as it IS potentially stealing. Which is WHY actors are pushing against this so hard. But again, any reassurance you have to give that its "fine" is just a pretense. You brush everything aside saying its a bad idea, because you don't actually care. You only care what you can get out of it. It doesn't matter to you that vocie actors themselves are saying its stealing, it doesn't matter to you that there is potential legal issues with it. Anykind of justification you give is nothing but pretense.

"Yet it's the character "Edwin Odysserion's sound though isn't it, as fictional as the writing for it. No-one's making the "actor" say anything or attributing anything to them. Extending their voice work (FOR FREE) is exactly the same as extending the writing or programming. VA's aren't special here."
There is NO Edwin Odesseiron, he is a fictional character and does not have a voice. That is Jim Meskimen's voice. An actual person.

And the both of you are STILL disregarding the fact that voice actors have already voiced their opinon on the matter.

51 minutes ago, BobT said:

You're not "literally stealing" it though are you, no-ones reaching into their throat and ripping their vocal chords out. This is NO DIFFERENT to a skilled impressionist lol. It's an IMITATION. 
For something like the NPC project it's a free mod, a homage, how is it gross just to have those existing lines voiced rather than have the random music playing? The COMPUTER is saying those lines, no-one is shoving their hand up the VA's @rse and "forcing them" to say anything. 

I could understand if it was being used to "impersonate" in a negative way, but it isn't is it lol. It's also taking no-ones jobs away since the original VAs have been paid for their work already, and it's a free mod. Giving 66% of the royalties from the mod would still give £0. 

Many voice actors have made it VERY clear that they are not okay with someone takinh their likeness without permission. Look up that Scooby Doo/FNAF project that used ai generated voices and the truble that stirred up for a recent example.
The idea that writing fanfiction for a fictional character (NPC porject) and taking a real person's likeness without permission (ai generated voice) is not remotely equivalent, and its delusional to think they are.

There's a HUGE consent issue here. Its not "transformative" if you're literally stealing a person's voice. And uising software to make them say whatever you want? That's just gross.

Using someone's voice to make them say things they never agreed to is hecka sketch.

That tripped people up for a long time. For awhile, "How are mod kits going to work when you can't scroll SoD's kit list?" was a point of discussion. Nobody really thought to try click and drag for awhile.

If you're on SoD, you can also click and drag to scroll the list. Even not on mobile it has that functionality.

I mean, we can still thank her for all the work she's done for the community.

Eeeyyyy!