Let me preface this by saying I decided while I was out and about today that I would make it a point to pick up a game. Preferably a used game. I wanted to save some money, and have something decent enough to hold me over till Grand Theft Auto arrives. I was hoping that I could find a used copy of Eternal Sonata as my first choice, but alas the local Gamestop lacked that particular title. Instead I ended up picking up a used copy of Two Worlds for thirty dollars. I have not decided whether it is a good, decent, or mediocre game. I have realistic expectation, and hope it can entertain me for maybe a couple weeks. 

What I do know is right out of the box this game is getting on one of my last nerves. The developer has some obscene notion that there is actually a good reason to have the dialog in Old English. Why is it any game set in some fantasy medieval environment seems to make the pretense of being a historical documentary.  Further more to add insult to injury they reworked the font in an attempt to make it look like the work of a withered old scribe. I suppose the worst thing of all is that nobody can possibly do justice to this way of speaking beyond a classical play actor. Unless you have performed Hamlet it sounds like someone has shoved a wooden pole where the sun doesn't shine and slowly began the rotation. 

I think I have had enough of this bullshit. I hope you pardon my language, but that is exactly what it is. This isn't clever, and it adds nothing to the gameplay experiene. Hell it damn well detracts from it. How can anyone enjoy the dialog if it sounds to an experienced ear like the characters are doing their very best to speak in the most backwards fashion possible. Obviously nobody can naturally write in this style any longer either. You sure as hell can't have a decent one liner. I feel for the voice actors, and I feel for the writers. This is obviously not their idea. Some twisted tradition is at play here, and nobody is standing up to say this is just annoying. The gamers sure as hell don't want to listen to this gibberish. 

Does anyone here sincerely enjoy playing a game where the writers are intentionally writing in an obscure dialect? Does anyone actually think this enhances the games experience? Does anyone think of this as anything remotely close to an essential game element. I sure as hell hate to read it or listen to it. The voice actors cannot possibly enjoy speaking it, and the writers should want to be able to write in something close to a creative fashion. So why the hell are we all suffering for this idiotic window dressing. 

I think this will be one of my criteria in gaming from now on. Obscure dialect is out the writers are not Shakespeare. The voice actors will have not done Hamlet, and I am sick of trying to enjoy a story that rolls off the tongue like Sea Urchin one irritating spike after another. This isn't the only game that has done this as of late, but I really cannot take anymore of this. Why destroy your audiences enchantment. Hell why torment your audience in the first place. 

I don't mind odd dialects as long as they fit the story. Like if I go to some far off land, I'd much rather have my character have to learn that language instead of automatically learn it.

I like characters to have different dialects. It adds personality. If it goes overboard, it gets annoying though.

I wouldn't say games with Old English are common, though. Just let the writers feel important and smart.

And as a response to the title: No, I am not. And neither are you. Shakespeare will never find an equal.

As I understand it Japanese has an older dialect that is still widely understood. Commonly when it is translated in order to preserve the effect the creator was going for translators will use Old English in place of standard English. I really hope this is one of those times something is just completely lost in translation though because it does nothing but annoy me. I can't imagine why anyone would want to listen to that crap for any amount of time. I have seen this show up a couple different times when something is translated from Japanese to English/

Shouldn't that be Olde English?

Get thee hence.  Thine words doth offend us.  True heresy are these things of which thou should speakest not. Prithee thou cometh to understand the oft unused tongue of olde and I doth beseecheth thee to strive to gain a greater understanding of that which ye lack.

Personally i find it annoying when playing games and watching movies that everyone human or otherwise speaks with an American accent. So bring on the variety as long as it suits the story, period or setting of the game.

BTW The characters aren't speaking "Old English", everything from Shakespeare on is considered "Modern English". Old English refers to Anglo-Saxon English prior to Norman influence, which was c450-c1150. Old English would be almost completely incomprehensible.

Real Old English is very different compared to simply using archiac terms and phrasiology, but since no one really cares about the real Old English, it doesn't matter.

 Other it was divided into Old, Middle, and New English?