Celebrity Voice Actors Good Idea or Bad Idea

Increases the cost of the game....unnecessarily.

It depends who it is......if it's someone like Patrick Stewart, then it's fine. If it's just a big star who barely did any voice work before, just there to boost sales.....then that kind of sucks.

David Cage thinks it's a good idea.
Which means it's a bad idea.

Waste of money.

Ehhhh, it depends I guess. I love Peter Dinklage, but I don't necessarily think he was needed as Peter Dinkbot.

I wouldn't say it's a bad idea, it's just unnecessary.

Terrible idea........................unless it's Morgan Freeman

I don't mind the voices but I rather dislike the new trend of the actors/actresses faces being placed in the game. How many pop culture outlets must we see the same faces? Blah. I don't want games to feel like the movies.

Morgan Freeman doesn't count. If kittens are born just from you speaking you get a by. (grammar check I'm really not sure if I'm using by correctly)

But really all joking aside is there anyone out there who's buying decisions are effected by having celebrity voice actors in a game they might be interested in?

But if it's unnecessary it's a waste of money, and when is a waste of money not a bad idea?

It depends on the skill level of the voice actor and the cost. Having seen games with bad voice acting, it can certainly help a game in some aspects. But, it has to make sense from a budget stand point.

That's sort of the point tho, just because you're a good actor doesn't mean you're a good voice actor and a lot of these celebrities they use to try and boost sales can't voice act worth shit.

LMAO that's too funny. Good Job.

Usually a waste of money, but every penny that the Portal 2 developers spent to get Stephen Merchant to voice Wheatley was worth it.

It was also amusing to hear Kevin Sorbo as Hercules in God of War.

I don't know. Depends if it's in their budget. Not to mention they can get people go "It haz Kevin Spacey!!".

I thought Jack Black and Hugh Jackman did excellent Jobs playing their characters in Brutal Legend and Xmen Origins Wolverine.

Robin Downes and Jean Reno were Excellent in Onimusha 3 too. (apparently Robin Downes is also Miller in the New Metal Gear.)

ALSO this guy is in Payday 2.

In case you're wondering, YES that is Giancarlo Esposito, other wise known as Gustavo 'Gus' Fring from Breaking Bad.

Is it a waste? I don't think so, even though that scene was just an opening for the game, I thought it was great and just shows how far games have gone. I think having Celebrities in games just makes the medium better in my opinion. Helps Gaming grow.

I don't think so. Besides a small group of dedicated fans of said actor. It's mostly just PR, IMHO.

Though, i would buy the Stanley Parable again if it had Morgan Freeman as the narrator. Yes, he does count.

Most of the best voice work in games is done by completely unknown actors.

So yeah, it's a tremendous waste.

It's a great way to raise the price of developing a game rather fast, so no.

As long as they do a good job, I couldn't care whether the voice-work was done by a celebrity or a 'civilian'.

There is nothing wrong with a "celeb" voice actor. Especially if they are actual actors in good mediums and not videogame actors.

But it's about getting the right people. Martin Sheen is an excellent voice actor. Peter Dinklage however is not. And it would be obvious to anyone that has seen his work or even Game of Thrones. At no point on that show are you ever that into the way he delivers his line or anything. His acting is primarily his midget body language. And it's effective for it. On Camera. Not in a sound booth, where he gets exposed. Translation: don't take this to mean he's a poor actor, he isn't, but he doesn't exactly win you over on line delivery or any nuance in that department.

In contrast Tricia Helfer? good voice actor. Martin Sheen? good voice actor. Mark Hammil? you get the picture by now.

Edit: oh and the other part is making sure the role fits. Another issue with Dinklege in Destiny is that...he's basically narrator for most of the game's plot. That is not a role that I would argue would translate well with Peter Dinklage.

it's not inherently a good or bad thing. Just need to act well for the roll they are casted and I don't really care if they are hollywood actors or not. Will say though some celeb appearances in games have been so goddamn enjoyable. I still to this day fondly remember how well Samuel L Jackson played Tenpenny in San Andreas. Illusive man may have been a shit villain overall, but he seemed so cool at the time cause Martin Sheen made the character so awesome.

Talented voice acting makes games better so yeah its a good thing

peter dinklage in destiny......

Good voice acting is good voice acting, bad voice acting is bad voice acting. A celebrity doesn't change that. Hiring a celebrity increases the game budget. I rather have that budget towards development of better gameplay. But if they incorporate all of the above and fits in the budget than I don't mind what celebrity is in the game.

Obviously a good idea if it doesn't excessively balloon the cost of development.

Celebrities have lots of experience with something a lot of voice actors don't... ACTING. They understand how to place themselves in a scene and react to it. And without the body language, it is incredibly hard to get feeling across through voice alone... but they do have lots of experience doing it (just look at Pixar and Dreamworks movies).

The developer just needs to choose the correct person for the role and not just choose them because they are a celebrity.

Depends .

Adam West is the new voice for the lego batman game. So im more hyped for it than anything else.

The thing is tho the celebrity is going to take a big chunk out of the budget.

I think you missed the point.

pretty much this. hiring a famous actor for your game just to boost hype is terrible

i prefer when they use voice actors, like billy west, fred tatasciore, or jon dimaggio. rather than celebrities.

though some celebrities have a really unique voice, like michael caine, or morgan freeman. i wouldn't go inflating the budget for them.

on the whole, shielder's post - i feel it is very sensible :)

Michael caine in a video game would be awesome while i feel at this point morgan freeman in a game would just be...weird

Waste of money that could be spent on making the game better.

i feel they both have pretty good voices. you seen this before? you strike me as a man with a sense of humour.

those guys did a good job,but nothing beat this

XD

@lawlessx: yeah that's a good clip. 'have you been doing satnavs?'

he's a good dude.

Depends on the actor, many celebrities can't voice act worth shit.

Gus Fringe though, damn hes good in what he's done so far. I think professional voice actors are better as long as they aren't over-used on NPCs (cough Bethesda).

Depends on the actor.

GTA franchise shows how you do it properly.

Also, I really liked Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez in Mass Effect.

Talent is talent. If the performance is good I don't care whether they are a celebrity or not. Same as in movies.

Completely depends on how much effort the hired actor puts into it.

I feel he's a special case. Now i haven't actually played the content he's in,but from the trailer he appears to be playing a character that shares the damm near same speech pattern as he did in breaking bad. The problem with Peter Dinklage is that when people think of him they see a certain character that has certain traits..not a A.I sounding like a robot. Had bungie designed his character to match well with the personality and charm he displays in Game of thrones you wouldn't be seeing anyone complaining

The cost is inefficient, but hearing a familiar voice coming from a video game is a huge deal. It's like all of the things you've seen this actor do now become part of the character, because they have the same voice.

On the other hand some actors are just terrible at voice acting because there is no physical expression to complement the voice acting.

I feel that for the most part they are a waste of money. But there are some games that have famous celebrities that work really great. As long as the voice acting is well done then that's all that really matters for me and most of the times you don't need a famous actor who wants a huge pay check when you can find a less known actor who can do a great job for less.

@RoboCopISJesus:

The best thing about Bethesda games is when you hear the same voice actor talking to himself whilst you're passing through a settlement. Happened to me the other day in Rivet City

Excellent topic, I was going to make a thread on it too. Waste of resources IMO. I'm a gameplay guy, I can't even remember who voiced who or are two characters from different games had the same voice actor, never cared about these stupid things.

After Peter's D stellar performance in Destiny, i'd preferred if every dev spent their resources on the engine and additional gameplay mechanics instead of a popular voice that costs 1M

Generally indifferent but can be a good idea in game adaptations of films I suppose.

Uh you know there are professional voice actors that aren't going to command the same money as a celebrity?