my biggest pet peeve has been reproduced in Sacrifice.. grr (mana)
 

I just downloaded the demo for Sacrifice after hearing all the hype, and I can see what the fuss is about. It looks fantastic and gameplay is engrossing. I'm still thinking about buying the game for now.

Unfortunately for Shiny their voice actors had to go and butcher the pronunciation of mana. Man that's annoying. Every few seconds in the tutorial, zyzyx would go on about how I need a manalith or manahoars, grating my ears like fingernails on a blackboard. Now during the game, I can look forward to my hero saying she's out of "manna." What? You need bread? whatever.

I guess it's a pretty minor flaw in what looks like an awesome game but it's also my #1 pet peeve which makes it tough to overlook. I've played a lot of games that use mana as a resource (especially M:TG), but the only people that mispronounced it before were casual gamers, not professionals.

Sigh.

I guess it's that time where you agree/flame/whatever, go for it. thanks for listening

rs

(PS: interestingly enough the spellchecker doesn't even think mana is a real word. Head over to www.m-w.com and check out the difference between mana and manna if you're bored.)

(PPS: If you're from Shiny, please for the love of God look into patching the sound bytes with the correct pronunciation. thank you, that is all.)

A life you must get!

Ah well, if the word mana is your biggest gripe with this game...i guess that's a good sign? hehehe, I have heard a few wierd pronounciations in this game, but I have a couple english friends (I live in the states) so it doesn't bother me. I love hearing them say metamorphosis, they accent the second to last syllable. I suppose they must have the correct pronouciation though, the language is named after their country, hehehe.

okay -
so I looked up both words...

for those who care, 'mana' is a polynesian word referring to the power of the elemental forces of nature embodied in an object or person and 'manna' is divinely supplied spiritual nourishment... I suppose that means the difference is really based on monothesitic or polytheistic beliefs and, considering the nature of the game, I think Shiny got it right...

rathstar, do you really get that hung up over short and long vowels? I mean, like, gag me with a schwa...

oh, and don't ever travel to France...

hehe well, I don't know, it's not like I jump all over everybody's case for mispronouncing any random word, just "mana" in particular. Sounds even more ridiculous now I bet! But since I started playing M:TG about six years ago, about half of the 9999+ people I've played talk about tapping for "manna" and I guess it has eventually seeped into my mind and driven me crazy...

As far as the ties of the words "mana" and "manna" to religious concepts... well, the only place I've heard "manna" is in the Bible, and the only place I've heard "mana" is in Polynesian polytheistic religion, so that would imply that Sacrifice uses mana..? hmm, at least everyone's learning something here (except the "get a life" guy)

rs

Yeah. Maori pronounce it mana and it means power.

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So hold your head up high
Let everyone see your weapons
Let the enemy quake in fear
At the sight of peace
Marching down the road
Holding its guns up
Higher than its head
-Meat Grinder

I had to look that one up, but it appears you're right. Although since zyxxyzxxyzzyx has that British accent, it almost sounds like it's pronounced correctly. http://www.veforums.com/wink.gif

captains log, stardate: 231302.2.a

must get out more often =)

I'm curious.... you whine about the pronounciation of "Mana"....

what about all the words that make up the spells themselves? Most of them aren't even real words! Oh dear Persephone, what should we do about that?
Go look them up dude.... In fact, try to look up the words "Carpe Diem" which are part of the spell words... can't find a true pronounciation for that one either, since latin is no longer a spoken language, so all pronounciation is guesstimates at best.

So my take on this is that "Mana" is pronounced EXACTLY right.. I doubt very much that Shiny wanted to go for realism... if they did, they failed miserably... unless off course the original poster exists in a realm similar to that of Sacrifice.... in which case, you should NOT get out more.

/NetSapiens

Somebody please bring me a bucket.

lol http://www.veforums.com/smile.gif

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"Are all Americans squab?"

speakin of words used in the spells, sometimes i swear i hear the word "Kn'Thrak". anybody here play wing commander prophecy?

Bish0p-TTLB

speakin of words used in the spells, sometimes i swear i hear the word "Kn'Thrak". anybody here play wing commander prophecy?

Bish0p-TTLB

Umm... they're on a completely different world, they can probably pronounce mana any way they want. Heck, you should be glad they coincidentally speak english! Or maybe they don't speak english on that world! Maybe they all speak a language that is exactly like english EXCEPT THEY PRONOUNCE MANA DIFFERENTLY!!! http://www.veforums.com/smile.gif

This statement is incorrect. By tracing words back to their original Indo-European roots, linguists can prove definitively how words are pronounced in a language in any given geographic region or time period. How they do this is beyond the scope of this post, mostly because I slept through Linguistics in college and can't remember the details. http://www.veforums.com/smile.gif

You could, of course, argue that Shiny chose their pronounciation of "mana" from a specific time period and geographic region and therefore it is pronounced correctly.

actually, your all assuming we had some secret meanings to teh spell casting. The spells are composed of three things
1. team members names
2. movie phrases and a couple latin bits
3. completely made up sounds

all the actors had a list of about 20 words, and they all interpreted them any way they wanted, thus making all kinds of diferent tones and inflections.

as for using proper pronunciation...this is a fantasy world, and if you think they arent saying something right, it may be that that is the way it is pronounced in the sacrifice world, and the wizards may think that us here on earth have got it completely wrong.

To rathstar from the "get a life" guy

If I'm not learning anything here, it is because I already know this stuff!!

I also played m:tg since the alphas were released and I have always heard it pronounced 'manna'. Even before that I played a great game called Secret of Mana for snes and that's how it was pronounced. Truthfully I didn't know it WAS being mispronounced all this time, and now that I do I don't know how I am going to live with myself...I've been wrong all my life. =)

As to the spells, the first time I played and built a manalith I heard 'Klatu barada Nikto' and almost laughed my ass off. If you aren't an old movie junky like myself, that's the phrase from an old b/w classic, Day the Earth Stood Still.

Oh I was just hopin for 'bah weep granna weep ninni bah'. =)

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-- I'd give my right hand to be ambidextrous --

what's 'bah weep granna weep ninni bah' from?

I love listening to the spellcaster's especially Charolette's ALA KAZZAM!

Assuming I spelled it correctly it's from Transformers : The Motion Picture. It is the universal greeting used by Cup and Hotrod to make friends with the sharkticons.

Good thing I am older now and not into that kids stuff! =)

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-- I'd give my right hand to be ambidextrous --

I've been wrong all my life too! Time to hide in a corner =(