Because the script is so God awful and boring in comparison to the passion project that is Legends of Vox Machina. That was started on Kickstarter and contains actual quality fantasy worldbuilding and characters because Matt Mercer, one guy, has more ingenuity and imagination than the CDev of a multi-million dollar gaming corporation.
Just a little perspective.
I have no problem with Laura Bailey getting her coin and phoning it in with this franchise.
Good for her.
I don’t know who that is … Is that Beetle Bailey’s daughter?
(Kidding)
Anyway, now that someone mentioned it, I thought Jaina’s dialogue has been pretty lame in Shadowlands and delivered in a curious way. I couldn’t tell if Laura Bailey was directed to seem breathless and exhausted… or she was just over the character and lame script… because the way she delivers the lines, she seems tired of even thinking about Warcraft, much less talking about it.
Exasperated is the word I am looking for…but not so much about the situation her character is in, because she also seems detached and removed.
Vox Machima sounds like a fusion Italian/Japanese dish at some hip new trendy restaurant. It guess it is a video game?
Can you give examples of LB phoning it in? Maybe show where she isn’t phoning it in for some contrast?
I’m not disagreeing, but I’m not overly familiar with her non-WoW work.
I’d be checked out too. Jaina is overutilized.
Wut? /10 char
It could be subconscious bias projecting that feeling onto the VAs. There could be a lot of things going on. But I personally hear it too. Feels like Laura is kinda not into it.
IDK. I don’t hear it, but I don’t not hear it either. It could be there, or it could just be very different emotions in very different scenes.
Source for any of this?
It could also be an issue on the director’s part. I don’t know who the voice director is for WoW (I know Liam O’Brien did it a little bit around Legion but I don’t think he was ever “the” director if that makes sense), but the director’s job is to give the voice actor the context for their lines, both in terms of the character’s headspace and in terms of what’s going on in the scene. Video game voice work isn’t done in a group, it’s just the single actor in a booth only seeing their own character’s lines in the script. So if the director isn’t giving Laura good direction her performance wouldn’t be good either.
Of course it also very well could be she isn’t digging the script and is just phoning it in, but I would think a professional wouldn’t intentionally do that.
Regardless I don’t think comparing any Laura performance to Legends of Vox Machina is fair. Vex is her character, she made her in D&D like 7 years ago and knows her inside and out. It’s equivalent to Metzen voicing Thrall, it’s absolutely going to be the role she puts the most passion and work into because she knows exactly who the character is from head to toe.
All of that is to say, I’ve also felt voice acting across the board has been substandard for WoW in recent years. So if it’s everyone and not just one actor, I’d chalk it more up to the director.
If Laura Bailey wants to phone it in, good for her. She gets paid the same either way, get that bread, Laura.
If she’s phoning it in, then she fits in well at Blizzard.
Given everything that we found out has been happening at Blizzard from the lawsuit, and how much exposes’ and cleaning house there’s been going on, it makes sense for things to be taking a toll even on the voice actors.
I think it’s her being directed to sound like that. Jaina herself looks tired to me, she looks like she almost has bags under her eyes in a lot of BFA scenes. How her voice sounds in Shadowlands is appropriate given the torture she went through. A lot of scenes in BFA had characters being sad and melancholy. Regardless, her voice sounds fine, but I do get tired of hearing the same voice actors in almost everything.
ooooooooo Mocha Alynsa 
Wait. Is everyone else seeing my new look but me?? The forums won’t show the change and it’s bugging me!
I saw the change yesterday - you were typing in your post like you didn’t see it. I figured it might be on your end, maybe you had to log in and out or something. But for like a day you were darker skinned.
But now it looks like you changed back? Because now you appear pale and blonde again?
It could be a combination of the website, and the devices we all use, and the connections we have? As well as how stuff from in game updates to the forum?
But you were darker skinned for like a day.
ARGH!! This is annoying. Nope, my caramel elf hunter should still be caramel in-game at least, and the forums have not updated for me yet.
One thing I might try is swapping characters you post with, just for a moment. Like, if you have an Alt, switching to that Alt, posting in GD for a bit, then swapping back to your main posting Character. Maybe it will refresh it.
With my limited understanding of technology, it is one of those superstitions in the guise of trouble shooting.
Did it. Still showing me Coffee With Extra Cream Alynsa, not Light Cream Alynsa.