Forum Discussion

7 years ago

Lifeline's voice

Seriously, can there be another voice actress for lifeline. I can't stand that Jamaican accent... already in the first few matches I got annoyed by it and so was a buddy of mine... It's nothing again...

legends

ferpesss

7 years ago

(Apologies if bumping an old thread is improper etiquette in this forum; I came here with the same complaint, and was redirected to this thread.)

It seems like this is an issue no one is aware of, or even really discussing; when I initially looked this up, I found one other thread on Reddit where Jamaican gamers were talking about Lifeline's accent. And when I mentioned that EA didn't hire a voice actor with an actual Jamaican accent for Lifeline to my friends and coworkers, they had no idea.

This is especially disheartening when compared to the stellar job they did casting the voice actors for Gibraltar and Bangalore, who actually reflect the races and cultures of the characters they're voicing. I mean no disrespect to the voice actress for Lifeline, but I do wish she had realized what she was doing was insensitive, and had passed on this opportunity.

I'm sure the Apex team is working very hard, and this is probably at the bottom of their list of concerns... but it would be nice to see a game that actually goes out of it's way to have such a diverse cast of characters in its roster cast voice actors that reflect that diversity. I hope this is addressed at some point in the near future, and that Jamaican fans of Apex can play Lifeline again with pride and joy.

Capnbodes
7 years ago
@ferpesss wrote:
...
A good friend of mine is half Asian/half Jamaican, and was extremely excited to finally have representation in a video game- and a main character to boot! But when he started playing Apex, and heard Lifeline actually speak... that excitement quickly turned into disappointment. He knew instantly that this accent wasn't genuine, and when he looked up the voice actress, his suspicions were confirmed. He can no longer plays as Lifeline because the fake accent bothers him so much.
...
Wow. What are the odds.
I have a half pygmy half eskimo friend and he's really disappointed that he still hasn't gotten representation in a video game.
We've got a long way to go.
- lovemevalentine
  6 years ago
  Yea I feel the same way it just sounds cringey and out of place. I can't really play lifeline because of it. I'm Caribbean but im not even from an Enlgish speaking Caribbean country, I'm Haitian, and oddly enough her accent is so bad that some people have told me that that they thought she was Haitian or Louisiana creole. Which is sad because its not just a bad accent its also bad patios which is a language. Her patios phrases have grammatical errors and pronunciation errors for example when she uses American pronunciations for the letter H in words. Its really bad. For people that have not been expose to people from the islands i can see how this might seem cute or whatever but if you're from the Caribbean it just sounds really bad for the great majority of us. Its like the white voice that some black comedians in the 80's would do but a little worse because at least some of those were accurately degree and it was clearly for comedic purposes. But this is poorly done, and is clearly just what someone from another culture, who has done no research which is sad for a professional voice actor, thinks we sound like and thats why its disrespectful because its suppose to be taken seriously and you're displaying someone else's culture. But besides that i love her. I had great games with her. I just wish they took the time to cast an actual person with the accent like how they got a korean american to voice crypto which was well done. I actually main crypto partly because i love the voice acting. I love apex and think its a great game however but that accent really has to go. And her skins are very ugly too. But i don't know if thats for gameplay reasons to make her stand out as a nerf because shes the healer but if not oh man.