The recent decision by developer miHoYo to make a Genshin Impact Barbara voice change has been met with fan backlash online, and some of it is being misdirected towards other parties. The Genshin Impact version 1.3 update launched recently and brought with it some major content updates, including the arrival of the Anemo polearm user Xiao, a heavily anticipated character who many fans adore. As a 5 star character, Xiao is difficult to acquire, so he’s been the subject of a lot of discussion, whether it’s fan celebration or commiseration depending on how the respective parties’ gacha rolls went.

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Genshin Impact version 1.3 also brought with it some less noticeable changes, and one of them is the subtle alteration of how Barbara is voiced. For those unfamiliar, Barbara is a 4 star character – which means she’s more accessible and more users have her – who is a pop idol in Teyvat and one of the game’s better healers. Barbara was previously voiced pretty much how fans would expect a young pop singer would be, with a peppy personality and higher-pitched tones in her dialogue. Following the Genshin Impact version 1.3 update, the game changed Barbara’s voice to be a bit more muted and laid back, but didn’t change voice actors – she’s still voiced by Laura Stahl, who has done work on other games like Fire Emblem Heroes and in anime like The Promised Neverland.

Unfortunately, the decision by miHoYo to make a Genshin Impact Barbara voice change has been poorly received, and some fans are directing their anger towards undeserving parties like Stahl. In a report from Kotaku detailing the fan backlash, it’s clear that people are upset, though some of them are managing to channel it more healthily into memes. Unfortunately, the harassment has become enough of a problem that Stahl had to take to Twitter to tell fans she can’t make miHoYo change the voice – and doesn’t know why the developer made the change, either, before asking fans to stop asking her about it.

To be clear, the fans acting out are in the minority. The Genshin Impact community has, for the most part, either kept its displeasure with the decision to make a change to Barbara’s voice to itself, expressing it in memes or in healthy discussion. As the Kotaku report highlights, some threads have even cropped up on the Genshin Impact subreddit supporting Stahl and asking players to stop harassing her over a decision that wasn’t in her hands, so it’s clear that the majority of Genshin Impact fans are making sure to go about the backlash in a healthier way, directing their feedback to miHoYo.

Still, the fact there’s Genshin Impact Barbara voice change backlash means that some fans will inevitably take it a step too far, so it’s good that the community is taking the time to call out those people for their bad behavior. There’s no doubt that Genshin Impact fans are passionate about the game – it wouldn’t be a global success otherwise – and it’s fine to feel strongly about a character’s voice or representation. It’s absolutely important to express those feelings in a productive way, though, and hopefully the Genshin Impact Barbara voice change backlash catches the eye of miHoYo thanks to the community’s largely positive way of discussing it – and the developer steps in to prevent bad actors from further harassing innocent parties like Stahl.

Source: Laura Stahl/Twitter (via Kotaku)

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Cody Gravelle
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Cody is Screen Rant’s Game Reviews Editor. He joined the team in 2018 and has been reporting on games pretty well every day since – except on weekends, where he’s typically playing them instead. Despite being in a field ostensibly about critiquing and enjoying quality games, his most played game of 2019 was Fate/Grand Order – something unlikely to change in 2020 and beyond.

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