Five Reasons to Keep Video Game Voice Acting in its Original Language

Keeping a game in its original language solves lip-sync technical issues, adds perceived depth and immersion, is nice to listen to and saves us from horrible English versions of foreign accents.

We've been playing games made by developers from many parts of the world for a while now. Almost all of them make it to the English-speaking world with new voice acting. But is that necessary or worth it for the games we play? AAA titles that get translated with the help of well known actors are great. There's obviously added value there; However, I believe that *most* of them would be better with the original voice acting.

There are four games I've been playing that really sound great not in English.

The Sims, Magicka, Assassin's Creed 2, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. sound great. With the exception of Assassin's Creed 2 and STALKER, these games use some form of gibberish language (Magicka is a Swedish-gibberish combo.) All four are fun to listen to, and add something to the quality of the game. The Sims and Magicka have a lighter, funnier feel to them.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in Russian is great for immersion, and Assassin's Creed sounds a million times better with all the voice acting in Italian. The Italian accents in the English version are examples of the worst voice acting since the Chinese accents in Deus Ex. There are other games that could benefit by returning to their original language too.

There are five really good reasons to keep the original voice acting:

1. It solves the lip-sync problem. I notice bad lip-syncing on voice acting translations and that bothers me. I ignore the actual conversation as my mind gets distracted by the weird mouth movements. It's like watching a movie where the audio and action don't match up.
2. Good lip-syncing requires changing the dialogue. The result is that humor, phrasing, meaning and emphasis could be lost in the translation. Dialogue is frequently the first place they cut corners in games, why make it worse by changing the meaning in order to fit the words to the mouth correctly?
3. Even if there isn't that much depth to the game, listening to something in a different language adds a perceived depth to it. In the same way a film in French might appear to be really cool, but loses that je ne sais quoi with an English voice-over.
4. These games are from different countries, and we should celebrate the cultures that made these games. Perhaps being reminded of the language of the games' creators will give us some incite into where these designers are coming from, and encourage designers to create visual, audio and literary references to their own countries?
5. A foreign language immerses the gamer into other worlds. If we're experiencing new lands, adventures and stories in games we should also be experiencing the languages of those places.