Guild Chat - Episode 14

The following is an unofficial, player-written transcript of the episode. The accuracy of this transcription has not been verified by ArenaNet.
The 14th episode of Guild Chat aired on October 2, 2015. Watch Leah and Rubi give a behind the scenes of Voice Acting in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns while live at TwitchCon on September 25-26 2015.
Transcription[edit]

Note: The text below hasn't yet been converted from raw subtitle text into pretty print like above.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxh09AJrpEY
and welcome to the final Guild chat of 
twitchcon 2015 I can't believe it's over 
I kind of feel like Christmas is almost 
over I've been like getting a little sad 
this afternoon it's been so much fun and 
and I think for all of us here too there 
are a ton of fans who've been coming up 
to us talking about oh yeah when you 
said that thing it meant so much to me 
because that's exactly what I was 
responding to it's been great so yeah 
I'm getting to meet the people that have 
come here has been just absolutely 
fantastic it's been super fun yeah so 
thanks to the fans who are here and 
thanks to everyone watching at home it's 
been really awesome thank you guys so 
much so we are cheering ourselves up 
with this is like a rundown of some of 
the hardest working most creative funny 
people yeah this in the business they're 
so great they are we have an amazing 
cast and it is one of my favorite 
aspects of game development really is is 
seeing the things brought to life you 
know especially as a person who works so 
closely with all the people putting the 
story together yeah you're down there 
working with them so much yeah and then 
you just see it come to life in a booth 
is spectacular and our cast is so 
amazing so we're going to talk a bit 
about that process about what they about 
who they are what they do why they're so 
amazing um and part of why it's so 
amazing is you know having played Guild 
Wars most of you watching right now you 
know we've got a lot of characters 
there's a really really large cast um 
and just for Heart Of Thorns we had four 
separate voice 
records um and this last one was 
actually five 
there really was because there was one 
that we did early early on actually even 
probably in 2014 to do our first 
announce kind of beta uh to be able to 
the the first Hands-On thing that people 
could play we actually recorded that 
quite a while ago yeah we have Bo for 
that yeah and a lot of that is still in 
game because a lot of it is what became 
basically that beta Story Mission that a 
lot of people have been playing so uh 
yeah we started then and then over the 
course of the late spring up until 
really just about a month ago even maybe 
slightly less than mon July I think 
beginning definitely did one in August 
yeah yeah you were down there how long 
were you in Burbank for you were down 
there for ages yeah every time that we 
do a record I try to be down there just 
because it is that final chance to to do 
things change things make sure that the 
performance is really hitting the 
motivation that we're looking at the the 
context of what's going on in the scene 
and so I spend a decent amount of time 
down there for those but a lot of times 
we also will have two booths going at 
one time and so you can't cover it all 
but um I think my longest s down there 
was about 2 and a half weeks we had one 
record that was 2 and a half weeks long 
it just goes on and on and the thing is 
you can't keep anyone actor in the booth 
for too long because you're just 
wrecking their voice abely so you have 
to be careful yeah yeah we had oh Ron 
Yuan who does our male Char character 
and he's awesome he unfortunately came 
in one day and just had a horrible cold 
and then you're trying to 
like just came on like right as he was 
starting and and you could just tell oh 
goodness we can't use the stuff from 
today and he knew it and he felt awful 
and then is trying to schedule in when 
he comes back there's always those kind 
of things and he was trying so hard 
absolutely as they all do every single 
time they get in but yeah and for other 
reasons I mean you can only have a 
person in the booth for 4 hours at one 
time but it's also because we want to 
actually get stuff recorded get it in 
game have people play sort of see how it 
hits where it doesn't and sometimes then 
be able to pick it up again um and of 
course truth is we don't have everything 
ready to record all at the same time 
this is a really massive expansion it is 
there's there's just so much V work 
going on how many do you remember offand 
I know we hadn't talked about this so I 
apologize if you don't do you remember 
offand how many lines we had in that big 
session that I came down for this summer 
oh goodness I think our largest session 
was about 12,000 lines 12,000 lines of 
dialogue and that's English only yeah 
yeah that's before we actually sent it 
to be re-recorded in you know and that's 
one of five you said right uh for the 
I'm sorry for that was one of five 
sessions oh yes that was 105 that was 
the largest but I think all in all we 
probably recorded almost almost 40,000 
lines of dialogue yeah you guys there is 
just so much stuff and it's things that 
are coming up in the future that we 
can't talk about quite yet and it has 
been super difficult yeah I know it's 
fun to like that is such a cool video 
that the the the folks who were involved 
with that put together it's was an 
awesome video but of course all the 
lines we had to select those very 
carefully because you don't want any 
spoilers said you were you and Scott 
mcgoff were really helpful after I came 
back we have and you guys will see a lot 
of these on future Guild chats when I 
came back from that recording session I 
had 107 video clips to work with and 
before we turned them over to fil 
Materia the company we were working with 
I had to go through and let them know 
here's a lot of stuff that you guys just 
we don't want to spoil for you guys so I 
had to go through every single one of 
those 107 Clips transcribe them figure 
out what could be talked about here at 
twitchcon and what needed to wait and 
then I had to run up by Leah I had to 
run up by Scott Sor is 
everybody no it was no it was totally 
okay because we would have ruined yeah I 
mean that's the thing we didn't want to 
like spoil anything for people but and 
I'm thinking it's so hard to type all of 
these things and I'm like wait a minute 
this dude like had to Roar these things 
and you know there's these growls and 
like so many different voices um you 
know what let's that's the other thing 
is each one of our actors most of them 
do more than one voice in the game right 
so that's there's just a lot that you're 
keeping track of you know um most of our 
player characters like you know you saw 
a clip from Nolan North who's amazing 
one of our player characters and we also 
just decided he really needed to be our 
Mort moth uh he just such a great 
version when we were trying out a few 
people to see and it just like okay he 
was already recording a bunch of lines 
and now we're going to give him this 
very critical character in the expansion 
and um yeah I mean of course he just 
performs like a champ so that's 
excellent but the funny thing is the 
thing that I love is that Nola North is 
the voice of our male player character 
human mhm so if you happen to be playing 
a male player character human and you go 
up against mormont's minions yeah you're 
pretty much fighting the minions of 
yourself is that how does this work 
where's the it's all getting very it's 
very weird I've seen some players talk 
about that and I was like oh that's 
that's a thing yeah it is it is there's 
that it definitely happens that you'll 
actually sometimes we write two 
different characters that are so not 
related to one another and so they're 
cast as the same person and then for 
some reason you know maybe 6 months 
later you see them come together in the 
the same scene and of course people do a 
really good job like the professional 
voice actors it is such a hard job and I 
think some people feel it is so easy and 
that what they get to do is just sit 
behind a mic and make a funny voice and 
it's so not that the you know really 
talented ones absolutely get voice 
separation they can completely mimic 
people they can get into different 
things but it always really comes down 
to the acting and the timing and hitting 
that right motivation and that thing for 
character and you know the folks that 
you see there I mean I adore everything 
Troy Baker said in that particular clip 
because a it's so indicative of our cast 
that he's so aware of what his character 
is doing it's not that they just come in 
read a script and leave like he really 
knows what's going on with Logan and 
he's you know just into it so many of 
them are and that's awesome I find that 
Troy Baker he's especially good about 
that and how much he really knows those 
characters because a lot of times you 
have so much going on it's impossible to 
not come in to be like okay tell me a 
little bit tell me enough about this 
character where I can just do a good job 
and their talent their incredible talent 
and their willingness to learn quickly 
and work hard really makes for good 
things Troy Baker knows his characters 
absolutely and one of the things I told 
you about this earlier while I was down 
there for that voice recording session 
my daughter Liz is a Transformers fan 
and she had this transform should be 
well right yeah so she had this toy and 
she was like Mom can you take this down 
because Troy Baker voiced this can you 
see if he has time to sign and I felt a 
little I didn't want to like interrupt 
his work so I waited till there was some 
downtime and I was like so I just have a 
quick favor to ask my daughter sent this 
down to me and I pulled this out as I 
was saying it I hadn't even finished the 
sentence he saw it and he just lit up he 
saw I mean it was like folded down into 
the car and he still he knew instantly 
what it was and he was like can I sign 
that for her yeah you wow you're really 
good and he had really good in-depth 
things to say about Logan too yep no and 
I think of course we work with really 
professional voice actors who are known 
for so many other things I mean one of 
my favorite characters in our game is 
kanok and he's you know voiced by John 
deio and John is he's so many great 
characters you know he he's Jake the dog 
he um I actually I know from a long time 
ago because I work Disney making 
cartoons for Disney and so I first got 
to know and love him as do dren on Kim 
Possible and I 
like um and so it's so fun to get there 
it's almost like this reunion but they 
are all like so varied and one thing I 
will say about John just to give a 
little plug for his stuff he created 
this documentary oh my gosh yes called I 
know that voice and um it's a whole 
bunch of the voice acting Community many 
of Tor in our game and it's all really 
gets into how tough it is to do this job 
and what a talent it is to do it well 
and I'd recommend for anyone who's 
interested in this part of animation in 
general but particularly for video games 
like just rent that download it it's 
streaming on various Services it's 
really really worth it it is so good 
yeah and I think it just shows how much 
passion these people bring to all of 
this and and I just it's the excitement 
that we get every 
time there are things that I will say 
the narrative team does when we're 
sitting around in a room we will um our 
process is we will go back and forth 
we'll a lot of times have a script but 
as we're working with the designer on 
something that script will get refined 
and various but when it's ready to 
record we'll actually do a table read 
meeting where we'll sit around and each 
person on the team will grab a different 
voice and we'll read through the scene 
just to make sure it 
and it absolutely comes up that oh you 
know what Nolan North would do this 
Jennifer H would do this to it you know 
and so hey what if we added a little 
something because we know what they can 
bring to these voices that we we even 
throw in a little extra because we can 
just hear their voices in our head would 
this person be great with this 
particular line let's just put it in 
there and the thing that I really love 
and I think that is a lot of fun for 
them is that they get to take this 
passion that they have 
and turn it into a turn it into what 
they do for a living something that I've 
noticed when talking to our sound guys 
at in house and when talking to these vo 
actors all of them if you ask them how 
did you how did you get started doing 
this how did you how did you become an 
actor in this particular thing they're 
always like well I kept making really 
irritating noises when I was a kid and 
getting in trouble for it and you know I 
would make I would like do funny voices 
and I would get in trouble in school and 
now they're sitting back 
going Mrs Smith second grade see and 
it's just it's so great that they can 
take something that unusual and turn it 
into this yeah it really is and it's um 
I will also say it's not a talent like 
there are so many times when you get a 
person who's known for being on camera 
and it doesn't always translate because 
you only really have that one tool and 
it's not to say that people don't get 
behind the mic and really gesture and 
get into something but they absolutely 
just have um that one tool and if it's 
not there and if your voice just isn't 
on point and they can't slightly change 
it it's going to be really hard to have 
that career but the ones we work with 
we're just we are really so lucky that 
you know myge our cast is just amazing 
so they are so good and they're getting 
in there and they're having so much fun 
I mean there's like this exuberance and 
that was something that I kept noticing 
when I was taking pictures of them in 
the booth I just wanted to capture a 
couple things from posterity and every 
time they would glance out and see me 
there with the camera and immediately 
start mugging without even breaking I 
mean I have Sam Regal he's like in there 
with his headset on 
going and Joselyn blue was Joselyn blue 
was in there and she's in like this very 
nice dress and her hair's done and she 
looks all she looks very very reserved 
and very prim and proper and she 
immediately like starts Hamming it up 
and like waving at me and she's smiling 
and the whole time she's not breaking 
voice and I have no idea how but she 
does it yeah and Ruby and I have 
actually been working on something we 
can like tell you a little bit about it 
now we've been working on these things 
cuz every single time we do a record we 
get the best out oh gosh they're amazing 
they're hilarious and we're trying right 
now to figure out the best format to 
start sharing some of those with people 
because we share them around the office 
like crazy and we all love them and we 
know that you will too so we're putting 
ways together to kind of put that out so 
that you guys can hear some of the some 
of the ad libs that happen some of just 
the personality that these people bring 
to it is great I don't do you have one 
in particular that you really love cuz I 
know I do you know I'm trying to think 
of 
okay so there's there's a whole lot of 
not safe for anything stuff tell why you 
think about it one of the things um 
Nolan North was going through some M 
mooth lines and you know he's like he's 
got that gutur roll and he's got that 
growl and he's doing really well and 
then he busts out if you've seen wet 
Ralph he busts out the lines in King 
candi's voice and I about died and I've 
never that's I can't wait for people to 
see that it it was so great really good 
yeah Troy Baker Troy Baker did like a 
deadly EST catch thing just out of 
nowhere I think you were in there for 
that yeah yeah I think one of the other 
things that is also very cool to us that 
we really see is you know we were 
talking a little bit earlier today about 
the fact that the player character is 
back and obviously even just in English 
we have 10 different player character 
actors so much and I think it's such a 
cool part of our game our community the 
ability to role play that each one of 
those actors actually does do their own 
special thing with the same lines that 
everybody else gets and I find that to 
be really amazing you know after yeah 
you start hearing these same lines over 
and over and it starts hitting you what 
a different what a different take each 
Act and it's not just male actors versus 
female actors even the guys and all of 
the women running through these same 
lines it's completely different yeah 
it's a different feel it's a different 
inflection tone everything has their has 
their own take on it and that's why you 
have your if you play a male human if 
you play a male salari it's just it it's 
different feel even though it's the same 
line yeah and our svari actors have been 
so excited about the story that they get 
to also be a part of yeah it's been 
excellent so they are extremely 
extremely good so what's been one of the 
we've I mean we're like rapsing about 
how much fun this is and it is I mean it 
we absolutely love it you've been 
getting to do this for a very long time 
I've just started traveling down this 
year and joining you for that so I don't 
have that background what's been the 
hardest thing about getting in there and 
helping them through in the sound booth 
well what is interesting too about game 
recording as compared to sort of more 
linear uh animated television type 
recording is that the context can change 
and so since the player can choose to do 
seven different things at one time we 
have to have lines to cover all of those 
possible choices at which point you 
really have to get in and provide 
context in a way that it's not baked 
into our script so that's another reason 
why we always have to attend it is the 
way our script is generated is so 
different than what you do for film and 
TV that it doesn't always give the 
actors as much context which in some 
ways can be really cool because we can 
be there and say hey this is what's 
going on and you're running down a hill 
so you're a bit out of breath and you've 
just encountered this but it's also 
sometimes you get these amazing Little 
Gems because they have such a different 
take on it and and in that case I mean 
they're times when I'll be in the booth 
gun that is so not what I thought that 
line was but yes let's keep it it works 
great and um I think that's 
been one of the things that we have been 
trying to focus on is okay we are every 
time we put something new out we want to 
write better lines we want to tell 
better story and we want to get even 
better acting out of it and so getting 
into the process and trying to make sure 
that yeah things have gone through their 
table read that the scripts are as on it 
as they can be but then there are times 
when sometimes an actor will be in the 
booth and they'll even say you know what 
I really feel like my character might 
even phrase it this way or they'd start 
off this way like Just Go With It 
absolutely that dude you're here because 
you're good exact and they're there 
because they really understand the 
character and they 
understand almost all of these actors 
actually also play our game and I find 
that to be me I love that I know so 
they're like yeah but when I'm playing a 
Char I want to do such and such and so 
what if it was like this yes like 
they'll I think it has to be a really 
surreal experience to like be at home 
playing something and your voice com out 
you start yelling at yourself I know but 
you know they like to review the 
material that they're putting out there 
as well yeah they know what's going on 
and that's interesting I mean it gets a 
lot more Nuance than this but one thing 
that I heard I heard consistently over 
and over it's like okay so this is this 
is like a pain line but is it pain like 
I got punched in the arm or am I almost 
dead yeah I need to know you know it's 
not just like ow and let it go they 
really want to get the inflections down 
and and know how that works it is true 
that will like there will be people that 
be like so like did someone slug me in 
the arm or am I on fire right or I am I 
missing a limb what's what's happening 
here yeah so yeah it absolutely is a 
um essential part of that to give them 
that context but they bring so much more 
to it as well they do and they they do 
it because they they love it yeah so and 
they also it's it's amazing that there 
are these people who have become 
celebrities for their voice you know and 
there are people who stand in line at 
Comic-Con and do all sorts of other 
things because they like they are 
following around a character who they I 
mean Jennifer hail has an amazingly huge 
well Ki 
Walgren noan North all these people 
they're really talented and they're 
doing a ton of great stuff so they have 
they have done great work for us and we 
are very very grateful so 
we will show you more of the vo stuff 
coming up on future episodes of Guild 
chat but you know what for 
now it's time we're it's time to wrap up 
and we don't speaking of behind the 
scenes so there's this hey come 
here we have seg we're going to we're 
going to bring on a friend you might 
know kind of finish us up for hang out 
with us hey what's 
up oh yeah into the mic hello thank you 
Colin 
so uh this has been quite a couple of 
days what a great couple of days this 
has been nuts uh we have a lot of people 
quietly gathered behind the cameras here 
uh that have been a huge part of making 
this these last two days possible can I 
say this is the most subdued these 
people have ever ever been but they 
weren't the last 5 minutes they've been 
trying to make byon is like losing his 
mind because he has to hold still and 
we're going to bring them all up here in 
just come guys come on so all theaet 
folks have' been part of twitchcon all 
of you come on 
come on up thank you so much our partn 
who helped make this so successful for 
us 
too to the water that allowed us 
bringing cin water everyone's been 
so water how uh how about we play out 
with the little bash the dragon Oh yay I 
think we might need another Dance Party 
People wo come on thank you everybody 
who watched the stream these last two 
days we love you guys thank you thank 
you guys thank you toaster for carrying 
all of us these two days the toaster was 
our MVP thank you toaster guest of honor 
and thank you to our event manager Katie 
was amazing thank you Katie give it up 
for Katie Katie thank 
you and now we dance 
us 
to we take and 
shestack with all their the and the will 
up to join the fight
External links[edit]

Guild Chat, episode 14: @TwitchCon, Voice Acting on ArenaNet's official channel on YouTube
Guild Chat - Episode 14

Transcription[edit]

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