Regarding bad player voiceovers

[ThePointForward]

Now we know it's not 2K/VC's fault

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http://allball.blogs.nba.com/2014/11/14/shaqtin-a-fool-vol-4-episode-3/

[Call_M3_Mr-T]

Lol.. Whats sad is that those slip ups aren't nearly as bad as the voice acting.. I'm thinking of going to another team just t keep from hearing Al Jefferson's horrible voice acting..*side-note* He grew up in the same County as me

[ThePointForward]

I've heard Al in the videos, it's... Something
But I'm on thr Pelicans with my C and Gordon is speaking loud and clear. But what bugs me there is lack of emotion in the voice. I think good voice coach and showing them the actual situation could yield better results.

[fjccommish]

No amount of voice coaching matters if the players don't care much about doing the work. I doubt they're paid enough to make it worth their while to go through coaching or to care. They run in, speak their lines, and run out.

This happens all the time with celebrities doing voice work. You're almost better off finding a voice actor or voice actors who can pretend to be some players.

One example is a Nolan Ryan commercial in Houston. I don't even remember what it's for. But when Nolan talks it sounds like it was recorded from a cell phone, and it's lifeless and flat.

Basketball players aren't actors. They aren't going to sound natural when they read words someone else puts into their mouths. Another idea is to record players' actual interviews during the season. Fit those to the situation.

[kAmilli LakeShow]

IDK, i heard Boogie speak on a podcast with Bill Simmons and he sounded pretty much same as he is in 2K, so it actually added to the realism when i was on the Kings, haha

[Andrew]

There is that. Authenticity does count for a lot, and if that's the way they talk, then that's the way they talk. Perhaps players should be presented with a scenario and bullet points, rather than a script ("This is the situation; say what you'd say to a rookie teammate in the same scenario"). Adlibbing and a bit of method acting, rather than trying to perform from a script, might make the dialogue sound a bit more natural and less wooden.

[Kevin]

it's like they are bored or doesnt like doing it.

[ThePointForward]

But then we hear how excited they are during the scans, asking devs questions etc...

What Andrew said is right - if someone came to me asking me to read a script like a "thug" I would be like "what the hell?" and screwed it up. On the other hand if you're presented with a scenario and told to "just react" you'll do just that. Preferably you'd get the video (without lipsync etc) to let you see the situation.
Also there's always some room to improve the facial expressions, making them look like they mean it.

To be honest some MyCareer scenes look weird to me too - like before your first game when the character says "I'm pumped", but says it calmly, almost like falling asleep... On the other hand some are great - so far when I met the old coach, it felt good, both characters were great visually and graphically.

[Andrew]

I think it's supposed to come across that he is, but he's also secretly very nervous, and trying to collect his thoughts. That said, I'm all for changing up the acting on your MyPLAYER as well...or at least having a few different personality options, like the interviews on last gen where you could "Answer with Confidence", "Answer with Arrogance", and so on.

[ThePointForward]

Well, I was always pissed when I selected an answer that looked good and it turned out to be something different.
I think that the best solution would be making whole reaction by putting sentences (and their parts) together.
It would work like this:
[question about game you just played]
Player has to choose from 3-4 sentences. Based on his choice he can either continue by adding more sentences (branches depending on his previous choices) or end it (if it made sense).
Regular players would like this because they would see the full sentence and RPG/immersion players would love this.
To add some RPG depth to this, player would get rated based on his answers, so more arrogant player would eventually unlock even more arrogant answers while also locking up different possibilities.
Basically another rating with choices&consequences instead of "the higher the better and more moves unlocked".

But I realize this would take a LOT of work and probably wouldn't be properly ready for 2K16 even if someone started working on this now.

[Andrew]

I like it.

[SPS]

J.R. Smith is surprisingly the best one I've heard so far and Channing Frye

[fjccommish]

This is a lot like the wrestling business. In the old days guys created their own characters. They were told the general situation, a few bullet points, but then left to do their promo as they wanted. The result was some terrific promos.

Today, everything in pro wrestling is scripted. The wrestlers, who aren't actors, speak lines someone else wrote. So everyone sounds the same, and most of them deliver the lines in the same sing song, shouting manner.

I, a highly trained and experienced voice actor, can look at a script cold and make it sound spontaneous, natural, unscripted. I can't dunk a basketball or hit a buzzer beater with a professional defender in my face.