What about female narrators?

[Fox12]

Obviously not 100% of fairy tales are narrated by women.

Which is different to saying that all of them are. Which I thought was obvious.

Just pointing out that a wealth of them are, and that a fairy tale is generally more likely to have a female narrator then most other genres.

I don't know, are they? I immediately gave you two male examples without even struggling to think. I can't remember female ones off the top of my head, to be honest.

Maybe it's because of the subconscious image of a mother/grandmother/nurse telling a story. Also, none of the things listed were fairy tales. They were just random examples of female narrators.

Yes - random being the key word. When you put examples after making a statement, it's usually because it's connected to the statement.

Potatoes, some minced meat and spices.

I mean, at least I thought that's how communication goes.

I... I didn't think I'd actually have to explain this.

I definitely think that when you are talking in literal non sequiturs is not something other people should be at fault for not understanding[footnote]Fry it until it changes colour, add some onions, water half the way up, and put it in the oven.[/footnote].

Also, when you made an absolute statement. And then it was my fault for not realizing you, in fact, meant something different and not absolute. Just a tip - getting your point across works better if you actually do it.

Was it not a clear exaggeration? I mean, I figured a reasonable person who understands the basics of human interaction could figure that out. It's.... Pretty obvious that I didn't mean that literally. I was just making the point that there are a lot of female narrators (which is why i listed them). Melificent, to kill a mockingbird, saga, and Valkyria chronicles had them as well. Those were just off the top of my head. Maybe you can't think of any. I don't know, that's an issue for you to figure out, quite frankly.

You're just arguing semantics, though, so it's a pointless argument anyway. Unless you were trying to argue about the prevelence of female narrators, in which case you failed, since you barely mentioned it.

 

[happyninja42]

This may sound sexist but i think that sort of deep booming voice is perceived as having more impact than a female voice. or at least I think that's what some people think so to say. I mean that james earl jones type voice, or tony jay who voiced the elder god in soul reaver, it just has a certain resonance that we either perceive or are programmed to perceive as authoritative. I mean it's, lets say easier, to portray gloom and doom with the baritone than the higher pitch most female voices have.

Probably true to an extent, but then there are examples like the narrator in God of War, who I felt at least, did a good job of conveying dread and gloom. Granted, her voice isn't very high pitched, but it's not a baritone either. I think it's just whether or not the voice has gravitas, plain and simple. If the female narrator can pull it off, then I see no reason it wouldn't work.

Oh! I just thought of another example, Cate Blanchett narrated the LotR series, and the Hobbit trilogy. And again, she's got kind of a deep voice. So yeah, that's probably a big factor in it, if they're going for deep and resonating, like the "thunder of gods" kind of voice for their narration, it would limit the number of female narrators somewhat to those with a deeper register.

 

[sageoftruth]

Isn't the narrator in God of War female? It's been a while since I played those games, but since that's all I've got, you're probably right.

Now that you mention it, I guess they really are all over the place, or at least more common than I first realized. Still, while I can name some other games with a female narrator (Like Dark Souls, or most Lord of the Rings games) why does it always sound like the same person?

 

[sageoftruth]

I think it's because the narrator needs to have big, pleasant voice. If you want a lot of narration, either have an older woman or man.

I'm not sure about that. Plenty of great narrations have featured women with quite haunting voices (see The Lord of the Rings' prologue sequence for a great example).

Maybe big, booming male voices are better for announcers (because they're more attention-grabbing) but narrations don't necessarily have to be as bombastic, they can be quite relaxed or sombre.

I meant for narrators who are in most of the game, the voice needs to have a certain charisma in it, otherwise the whole thing gets annoying.

Now I'm just curious to see what would happen if a game had a narrator who sounded like a 10 year old girl in the middle of a massive sugar high. I guess you can sort of do that if you unlock the Elf's voice in Dragon's Crown, but I'm really curious to see how it would impact the feel of the game if the narrator was deliberately trying to sound cute instead of just neutral.

 

[DoPo]

Was it not a clear exaggeration? I mean, I figured a reasonable person who understands the basics of human interaction could figure that out. It's.... Pretty obvious that I didn't mean that literally.

It's pretty obvious that it wasn't pretty obvious, given that you were challenged on that claim. And speaking of "obvious" you yourself wasn't sure if my answer was serious or not. Thus proving that on the Internet "obvious" is not really that.

I was just making the point that there are a lot of female narrators (which is why i listed them).

You did not. Should I quote you on exactly how you said all fairitale narrators are female? I don't think I need to. Even if we say you meant "most", you didn't actually list any of them. MAYBE Dark Souls, but you need to have a looser definition of what "fairy tale" is. Or confuse it with general "fantasy".

Melificent, to kill a mockingbird, saga, and Valkyria chronicles had them as well. Those were just off the top of my head. Maybe you can't think of any. I don't know, that's an issue for you to figure out, quite frankly.

Maleficent and To Kill a Mocking Bird are both not games. I don't know what Saga is and I've not played Valkyria Chronicles but I didn't think it was a fairytale.

You're just arguing semantics, though, so it's a pointless argument anyway. Unless you were trying to argue about the prevelence of female narrators, in which case you failed, since you barely mentioned it.

No, what happened was, I challenged you on a claim you made. So far, you've been the one going off and not actually defending it in any way but somehow shifting the goals. The claim was, to remind you that the female narrators are everywhere in the fairytale games. You have since clarified that you can't express the notion of "prevalent" without grossly exaggerating and that you cannot distinguish between genres and mediums. But you haven't really defended that claim at all. So will you?

 

[cleric of the order]

I often find that men have a very pleasing, gravely baritone that i much enjoy.
The is a rumbling strength in those narrators and.... whats that ....

There are a lot of female narrators with the typical british accent, something like in Dark Souls.

Usually when its a narrator for a story that is presented as a legend its a women.

In many cases the narrator is the same character as the protagonist (Half-Life 2, etc.)

You glorious bastard I do like that idea.
I was reaching for female narrators i know that would help even this out but i couldn't think of any until.... fuck i love this one and how could i forget C&C, eva is a narrator of sorts too.
And you given me a great idea.
Every, male narrator seems to impart an are of immediacy, of the present. Even bastion's and D.D.'s males voices through ever masculine Tiber and it's something i don't think i noticed for quite a while
Take the following or any dawn of war campaign
(notice the Carthaginians in the thumb nail for some reason/)
There is an urgency, a call for action for strife(not just the dos fps but that works too)
I don't know what it means but it might just be the gradient of the voice.
The female narrator does seem to be used in more historical tenses as you suggested but I'm not sure about the truth of the matter.
Females tend to a operator role in RTS games like ol' C&C (if you remember the only male voice is cabal in tiberian sun.) I'm not sure how dispersed this is but at this point my mind is stumbling.

 

[HardkorSB]

They should get Judi Dench to narrate something.
She's got a cool voice.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

You know what, going by two pages alone I've made up my mind. There're quite a lot of game narrators who happen to be female.

 

[DementedSheep]

I don't think they are uncommon. In fact I can't be sure cause I'm not going to count but in games in which the narrator is not the protagonist they might be more common.

 

[Maxtro]

If there is ever a video game based on The Hunger Games, it would make perfect sense to have a female narrator.

The books are written in first person which is something that was completely lost from the movies.

It would be like the Max Payne series which is narrating/inner monologue.

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

There are plenty of them, I'm not really sure what you mean.

If you mean games where narrators play a huge role (ala Stanley Parable and Darkest Dungeon) then it really depends on the subject matter at hand. Stanley Parable wasn't amazing because it was a man telling the story, it was amazing because it was "The Narrator". Even when the female Narrator came on, I wasn't like "Oh great, a female, "yay"...", I was more along the lines of "Aww, I lost my old friend The Narrator! But who is this The New Narrator? Excitement!"

However, in something like Darkest Dungeon, I literally cannot imagine a female voice (note: not including a female who can do a scary deep male voice, that's cheating ) that would work with that game. The voice actor of that game is phenomenal and frankly I don't think any other voice apart from the very deep, haunting kind of voice that would read me a Lovecraftian audio-book would really work for it.

Narrators are not characters in the usual sense, for many reasons. The first is that you have to hear their voice the whole damn time. It'd better be a really good one. Secondly, the narrator always has to fit the story. A young boy could be the protagonist of a horror game, but the narrator couldn't. Unless it was something like a ghostly/dead creepy ass boy who pulls the: "Annnnnd then our hero walked into the next room... ha... heheeehwhe a ahahahahah! POOR HERO HAHAHAHH!"

Yeah. You need the right narrator for each game. I really don't think there's a lack of female voice overs, but for the VERY few games that focus on a narrator or feature is majorly, most of them were suited to a deeper/grander male voice or in the case of SP, was suited to the CHARACTER of the narrator, which was carried over from the original.

 

[freaper]

*snip*

Yea, I've come to realize that I just happened to play few games with female narrators

Nonetheless, a few people stopped to think about it, which is what I was hoping for.

 

[Ambient_Malice]

Turok 2 says Hi.

 

[Ryotknife]

thats...huh....

That is weird. If anything, it should be the opposite way around. I mean the vast majority of talk back devices use a female voice (GPS, phones, etc). Only thing i can think of is that male voices get people intimidated or excited whereas female voices are soothing and relaxing or something.

Still weird though.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

Well, plenty have been mentioned but I'd like to add that DOTA2 default announcer voice is female. There's a voice pack done by the guy from Bastion, which I use instead, because the default lady sounded like a posh prig.

Also, didn't some of the Fable games have bits narrated by the seer lady? I can't remember now. I know in the first game the Guild Master chatted constantly, but wasn't the equivalent for Fable 2 female? idk.

 

[small]

life is strange. definitely worth a mention and a great game

 

[Erttheking]

Isn't most of the narration in Gears of War done by the Locust Queen? Those were like one of the three memorable moments of the game.