If we’re talking regional variants certain accents or whatever I am fairly certain Mendoza and Santa Fortuna are in trouble as well. While it mostly just sounds like “spanish accent” to someone like me, I am sure people from Argentina and Colombia would like to differ.
But maybe “right/close enough considering the resources/limitations” is a more accurate way of putting it… doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as well though. 
No matter how it’s done, regional accents are always going to be somewhat vaguely racist for one simple reason: The characters are always speaking English. In Santa Fortuna and Mendoza, they should be speaking Spanish - not Spanish-accented English. In Chongqing, they should be speaking Mandarin - not Mandarin-accented English. Same for all levels taking place in non-English speaking countries. True authenticity would require each level to use their native languages - I don’t see any way to avoid slight racism with accented English.
I guess don’t use the stereotypical accents associated with English / non-English languages which I find impossible.
Never minded stereotypical accents in games such as Assassin’s Creed, especially the Ezio trilogy, Hitman etc. since I never though that the developers / actors tried to be racist or anything. See Postal 2 / 3 for stereotypical accents that can be considered racist / offensive.
As a Romanian I really don’t mind the voices in Contracts or find them offensive though the actors were Romanians. Wonder how it would have sounded if it was done by a non Romanians. Couldn’t have done a worse job than what South Park did 
Actually went on IMD to check and I found Petronela Cimpoesu, Mircea Marghidanu, Ovidio Romanescu as the Romanian voice actors for Contracts. They were also part of the developing team. Since IO is nowadays a big multi-cultural gaming company, couldn’t they go around the office and get some volunteers to voice act in their games and fill the rolls for minor non English speaking characters? 
The reason why all NPC speak English is simply due to how the game is designed, you as a player gather intel and knowledge from the NPC that inhabits each map. If IO decided to go for full authenticity then it would be on the cost of the maps narrative, opportunists and it would drastically limit world building for players who don’t speak the language at hand. There is an argument to be made about subtitles, but that also comes at a cost.
Yet there is a difference in portraying a people through stereotypes, it reinforces prejudice and is far more damaging to how we see other nations.
As I started with stating, I’m not interested in the argument that “racist stereotypes are not bad, because it’s makes a level more believable”. This isn’t a narrative we wish for people to push here, without realising how damaging it is. There is a difference between satire and a game that pride itself on delivering authentic locations.
I don’t think that having regional voice actors voice accented lines in the way they say it is problematic or harmful at all. Its not played for laughs, its just how they speak.
That isn’t even what the discussion is about, but that people wish for IO to included accents based on stereotypes back into the game, like it was the case with older titles. I have made the forums stance on this subject pretty clear and I’m not interested in seeing this agenda pushed any further.
But the game does have accents in some locations. So do you think that they should not be there? And every game that we play should always just have English and American accents as to avoid offending anyone?
It is not just about accents. While many would speak English, the native language is sparsely heard within Hitman.
It would have been best if people from Mumbai mission spoke Hindi and English (80% Hindi & 20% English) and make subtitles 100% English.
It’s clear from your response that you have not read my comments if this is your take away point.
What I been saying over and over again is that the arguments for including accents based on stereotypes is not a welcome notion on the forum. Due to the problematic nature of stereotypes in pop culture and prejudice.
I have said nothing regarding the accents in H2. Next time I expect you to read the thread before you make baseless conclusions.
I would genuinely love this! But unfortunately I think alot of people wouldnt be happy with subtitles which is such a shame. The game would feel so immersive
Now I been repeating the same thing since yesterday, it’s gets a bit tiring and redundant to have to make the same point over and over again. Especially when someone drops in without even reading what’s said before coming to conclusion.
Which they won’t be if we go by C47 as a template for games with “believable” accents. That is the notion I’m pushing against.
Oh now that we can definitely agree on. I was young when I played C47 but the accents still stick out in my mind as being incredibly insensitive. It is really a shame that having different languages wouldnt be universally accepted, that would be such a better solution imo
This, period. The old games, despite all their horrible racial stereotypes, used regional languages- this one should have, too. But regardless, I’d rather have a game that avoids racial caricatures and has the current game’s voice acting than the other way around, so WOA still comes out on top. Maybe one day we can get the best of both worlds. In any case, Norseman is wrong to conflate the use of regional language with the stereotypical depictions in old games- they are 2 different things which are easily separated.
Also, a lot of the slave labor in Dubai is Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi so that’s actually a sort of accurate detail.
I don’t think anyone wants racist stereotypes. The new dialogue systems require almost all conversations to be in English. I don’t know of fans from India, China, Colombia or Argentina feel this way. From my perspective this adds greatly to immersing yourself into another country and being around the local people. I just know I definitely feel more immersed walking around Mumbai or Chongqing than I do Sapienza or Berlin.
This reminds me of AC: Unity and how everyone hated the fact that the main characters spoke with a British accent while generic NPCs spoke actual French.
I think IO could have used real foreign speech for the generic NPCs, and have NPCs that are related to Story Missions speak either English with an accent or speak a foreign language and have the subtitles color coded do make it easier to know who or what kind of NPC is speaking (a guard, a janitor etc.).
In HL2, each main character had it’s own color for the subtitles, generic NPCs were white and soldiers were blue.
I, for one, am glad that most locations don’t have accented NPCs.
I think you underestimate the average fellow. Sure some average Westerner may not know the difference between an accent from Morocco or Dubai. Or if Berlin was filled with Austrian accents instead of German, but they’ll have an ear for the general area. The average person has an idea of what a French accent should probably sound like. And videogames are all about illusion.
I mean it does take you out of the illusion a bit when everyone in Sapienza sounds like they’re from the US, certainly. Even if we don’t know what an authentic Italian accent actually sounds like from that region. But I think the average person would pick up on, say, Italian accents in Paris. Or German accents in Paris instead of generic French accents.
Going back to the original topic of the thread, I was reading an article that was linked in the Menzoa thread that was mainly based on that location - but it did give an insight in regards to lack of accents (and presumably the same reasons apply to other locations, not just Mendoza).
Argentinian players were disappointed by the lack of a proper accent from NPCs, which the developers attribute to lack of time and budgetary constraints. The Covid-19 pandemic also made casting and recording new voice actors far more difficult than usual. In the end, the team chose to focus on voice talent that would fit the Chongqing level rather than Argentinian voice actors.
“We decided that reusing our Colombian and Mexican accents was still better than having British gauchos,” Ansdal explains.
It seems very much inline with what a couple of us suggest to why there is a lack of accents overall in this final instalment. Either way it was an fantastic level and a nice insight into the design process behind this level.
