Pronunciation

[The Blackangel]

I see a lot of disagreements with this. Mostly with some of the older games. For example take FF8. The character Seifer. I always pronounced it See-fur. Whereas most seem to pronounce it Sy-fer.  Ninja Gaiden is another one. I always pronounced Gaiden as Guy-den. I hear a lot of people pronounce it Gay-den. Another FF8 is Ultimecia. I always pronounced it Ulti-may-shuh. But everyone else seems to pronounce it Ulti-meh-see-uh. Quistis is another. I pronounce it Kwis-tis. But apparently the correct pronunciation is Ku-is-tis. People even seem to get Conker wrong. I've heard people pronounce it Co-ker and Cock-er. Apparently they miss the N in his name. Not unusual for a person to accidentally miss a letter in a word. I think I always get it correct however by pronouncing it Con-ker.

I know there's a lot more than just the few I've listed. But have any of you come across names or words in gaming that are debatable on the pronunciation?

[Shagger]

If the fanbase of a certain game, movie, TV show or whatever develops an obsession over name pronunciation, it's a comparatively nice problem to have. If that is something to get one's tits-n-a-twist over, there can't be much worth complaining in the first place. so yeah, I see it as petty and puerile for the most part. People grow up in various places around the world with various languages and accents, so people are going to pronounce this in various ways. Even if it is a proper noun, like a name, so there is technically a "correct" way to pronounce it, is it really that important?

Edited September 14, 2023 by Shagger

[Rain Dew]

There are FF7 characters that I pronounce one way but the company says it another way. For example Tifa. I always pronounced it Tif-a but it’s pronounced Te-fa. I like my pronunciation way better than the creators. 

Edited September 14, 2023 by Rain Dew

[Ravenfreak]

I know there are tons of people who missprounounce the name of certain Pokemon. For example, most of the internet seems to misspronounce Rattata and it drives me insane to no end. That's the only Pokemon that bothers me so much when people missprounounce it's name. I know in some cases since the characters or game name is a Japanese word/name it can be harder for the western audience to pronounce their names correctly. Also translations can be off too, just look at Aeris/Aerith in Final Fantasy 7. Another example is Tina/Terra in Final Fantasy 6.

[Scorpion]

I totally relate! Pronunciations can be so varied. I used to say "Gaiden" as "Guy-den" too. Ultimecia confused me, pronounced it "Ulti-may-shuh." Names can get tricky, especially in older games. It's interesting how gamers have different interpretations! 

[killamch89]

This is such a fascinating part of gaming culture. Before voice acting became more standard, we were all left to our own devices to figure out pronunciation, so it’s no wonder there’s so much variation. For example, ‘Ultimecia’ has a Latin-inspired root (ultima meaning ‘last’), which could lend itself to multiple interpretations. And with Seifer, it’s likely influenced by ‘cipher,’ hence the hard ‘S’ sound. It’s interesting to see how regional dialects and personal experience shape the way we say these names.

[Kennysplash]

I have lost count of the number of games I have mispronounced. We basically just pronounce it what everyone does, whether it is right or not. I know what I used to call Pokémon before I heard the right pronunciation, though I wells really young then. 

[Shortie]

This happens way more than I think many realize. The amount of times that I have pronounced a game characters name in the way I always do and someone else has pronounced it differently is crazy! It always leaves me wondering who got it right and who got it wrong. 

[killamch89]

6 hours ago, Shortie said:

This happens way more than I think many realize. The amount of times that I have pronounced a game characters name in the way I always do and someone else has pronounced it differently is crazy! It always leaves me wondering who got it right and who got it wrong. 

Usually, I check the official company's site or social medias for potential pronunciations. Either that or I scour the internet until I find the proper one.