Female vs. Male Announcer Voices
Author
Hello everyone!
I am writing a research paper on computer-mediated communication, and conversational analysis for one of my graduate communication seminar classes. Being an avid gamer, I chose to do my research on something Team Fortress 2/ computer game related.
I have a few questions, that I hope you can answer.
First, why do you think companies opt for a female versus male voice announcer? Do you think players respond differently to the in-game announcer? My assumption, is that most games use male announcers, but many games and mods that I have played in recent weeks have been using either a female, or a male and female announcer voices. I just wanted to try to understand the background of why people choose one voice over another.
Second, why do companies choose to to have a voice to discuss alerts and announcements in the game, versus just using a text based, or picture based announcement system?
Finally, do you think that there's a difference between when an announcer alerts you to something going on, versus when your teammates tells you that something is going on? In which situation are you more likely to respond to? Which of the two voices stress urgency more - the computer or the human?
One final note, this forum has been extremely helpful to me in previous research that I've conducted, so thank you all for your participation. It has really helped me explain video games to outsiders, as well as, find interesting things about the community that I play in.
Thanks!
1) I think it's a style thing. Games like Unreal Tournament and Quake have a bulky, gritty aesthetic, and so their announcers are gruff males. Team Fortress 2 has a playful, cartoony style, and its cranky middle-aged lady announcer fits it well.
I'm not sure if players respond differently. UT2k4 had an option to turn on a heavily sexualized female announcer voice, and I'm sure players responded differently to that. But in general, I don't think players responded differently in any way significant to their gameplay decisions, but probably just towards how they perceived the style of the game.
2) I definitely listen to my teammates more. Computer announcements get tuned out pretty easily. In Counter-Strike Source, I'd more likely respond to someone who says on the mic, "I need help in the garage" versus someone who uses the radio command to play the "Enemy Spotted" voice command. It's just more personalized, and often contains much more relevant information. Although on the other hand, often the voice chat gets cluttered with useless chatter and annoying people, so sometimes I just turn that off completely.
I'm not sure if players respond differently. UT2k4 had an option to turn on a heavily sexualized female announcer voice, and I'm sure players responded differently to that. But in general, I don't think players responded differently in any way significant to their gameplay decisions, but probably just towards how they perceived the style of the game.
2) I definitely listen to my teammates more. Computer announcements get tuned out pretty easily. In Counter-Strike Source, I'd more likely respond to someone who says on the mic, "I need help in the garage" versus someone who uses the radio command to play the "Enemy Spotted" voice command. It's just more personalized, and often contains much more relevant information. Although on the other hand, often the voice chat gets cluttered with useless chatter and annoying people, so sometimes I just turn that off completely.
Quote:Second, why do companies choose to to have a voice to discuss alerts and announcements in the game, versus just using a text based, or picture based announcement system?
People have the wonderful ability to listen to audio while doing other things. This makes voice announcements infinitely more useful than pictures or text because someone can be in the middle of a heated firefight and still perceive and comprehend important information without it hindering their ability to play. In a game like Team Fortress 2 or Unreal Tournament -- fast twitchy games where every second counts and blinking can cause you to miss a target -- this is an extremely important advantage!
Additionally, people almost always ignore text. Most people hate reading with a passion and will do everything in their power to avoid doing it (you would be absolutely amazed at some stories I can tell about this from play-testing games. Trust me, people will go to any length to avoid reading). Pictures are more acceptable but they still take up space and require time to look at an interpret.
- Voice is immediate.
- Voice doesn't prevent you from looking elsewhere at the same time.
- Voice suggests human presence and people naturally pay more attention to other humans than a computer HUD
- Voice doesn't clutter up the HUD.
- Voice breaks immersion less than a HUD.
- Voice can add to the atmosphere.
- Voice can easily and effectively emphasize moods like urgency, relaxation, or celebration just by shifting the tone a bit.
As for Male/Female it's mainly just about what seems more appropriate for the mood of that particular game. Females are generally better at sounding relaxing, males are generally better at sounding really macho and in your face, etc.
Interestingly enough, the default in UT2004 is a female voice for announcing things like objectives ("destroy the barricade"), time limits ("one minute remains"), win/loss ("you have won the match"), etc, and a male voice for one-off reward feedback ("double kill", "killing spree", "first blood", etc).
There are four voices (male, female, UT2k3 (a more animated-sounding male) and "Sexy") and any can be selected in each of those two categories.
It's probably worth mentioning GLaDOS from Portal as part-announcer part-character.
I wonder why games often use British-sounding females, too [smile]
There are four voices (male, female, UT2k3 (a more animated-sounding male) and "Sexy") and any can be selected in each of those two categories.
It's probably worth mentioning GLaDOS from Portal as part-announcer part-character.
I wonder why games often use British-sounding females, too [smile]
Quote:Original post by Andrew Russell
I wonder why games often use British-sounding females, too [smile]
Genetic memory of the Days Of The Empire when British-sounding voices were telling the rest of you lot what to do [razz]
Quote:Original post by LockePick
Females are generally better at sounding relaxing
And also quite insanely manic; iirc it was the last level of a payload map, we nearly had the bomb at the location and the female announcer, in this voice on the edge of cracking practically cackled 'the bomb is nearly at the target' and then went off into this mad cackling which somewhat disturbed our team [wow]
Female voices are mostly to 'sex up' the game. Most players (especially online FPS) are male. Male voices are usually military in tone. It's part of the war theme of those games. Why choose one over the other, well TF2 does lack a female presence, and it's not a particularly serious military FPS (Quake 3 style voice would sound out of place).
An audio cue is much more direct than text or graphics. That's how we communicate information primarily, it doesn't clutter the screen, and doesn't distract you from the action as much (or shouldn't). It's like reading chat, versus voice comms. Although chat spam is far less annoying than voice spam, so it's a double edge sword.
Assuming your voice comms are clearly audible, and meaningful (i.e. not spam), I'd pay more attention to what my teammate would say, as it's more relevant to the current situation. However, there are occasions when it's extremely useful.
Imagine a spy sneaking on a capture point in TF2, the voice announcement usually triggers a mad stampede to the CP. It's more of a complement to the game, and the overall game flow information. And also character shouts. TF2 canned character shoots are very useful and well done as well. You wouldn't want 6 or 7 players calling for medic on voice comms.
An audio cue is much more direct than text or graphics. That's how we communicate information primarily, it doesn't clutter the screen, and doesn't distract you from the action as much (or shouldn't). It's like reading chat, versus voice comms. Although chat spam is far less annoying than voice spam, so it's a double edge sword.
Assuming your voice comms are clearly audible, and meaningful (i.e. not spam), I'd pay more attention to what my teammate would say, as it's more relevant to the current situation. However, there are occasions when it's extremely useful.
Imagine a spy sneaking on a capture point in TF2, the voice announcement usually triggers a mad stampede to the CP. It's more of a complement to the game, and the overall game flow information. And also character shouts. TF2 canned character shoots are very useful and well done as well. You wouldn't want 6 or 7 players calling for medic on voice comms.
Actually, humans interpret and respond faster to female voices than they do male voices.
This is why many of the most important warnings in aircraft are often stated in a female voice.
This is why many of the most important warnings in aircraft are often stated in a female voice.
Quote:Original post by Swarmer
"The bomb has almost reached the final terminuuussss!"
"Alert! Our checkpoint is being captured!"
There was a question posed on Yahoo! Answers that asked something like: "If you had a starship, which gender would you want the voice of the computer to be?" One of the answers cited a study claiming that most people find a male voice to be a little bit irritating, IIRC. Interestingly, most of the answerers picked "female."
I also remember on the news once when they were talking about why teen boys rebel against single mother's, where an expert said that males do not hear the sense of urgency in a female voice. I'm quite sure she worded it differently, but this is the essence I got. This may be why you don't hear very many female VOs for movie trailers.
[Edited by - shuma-gorath on June 10, 2009 1:02:26 PM]
I also remember on the news once when they were talking about why teen boys rebel against single mother's, where an expert said that males do not hear the sense of urgency in a female voice. I'm quite sure she worded it differently, but this is the essence I got. This may be why you don't hear very many female VOs for movie trailers.
[Edited by - shuma-gorath on June 10, 2009 1:02:26 PM]
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