Poll: Celebrity voice actors, Yay or Nay?

[Andy Shandy]

I'm not entirely sure what the inspiration for this thread was, but it is a rather simple one.

What are peoples' opinions on celebrity voice acting in games?

Obviously, it ranges from game to game, but as a whole do you think it's an improvement or a detriment to games? Could developers be using that money better, or is it justified if the celebrity's performance is great?

And finally, what is/are you favourite and least favourite uses of celebrity voice acting?

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

I think it's fine when done correctly, if that makes any sense. I can't really think of any example where they included a celebrity's voice just for the sake of having them in the game. More often than not, their presence adds a significant pull for the characters they are voicing.

Ok, maybe not Patrick Stewart in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, but Liam Neeson in Fallout 3 I thought was pretty well done.

 

[Zefyrix]

I think it's pretty cool. I remember playing Call of Duty: World at War back in the day, having a good time. Then suddenly I realize that my squad leader is no one other than god damn Jack Bauer! Taking orders from Jack Bauer? Now that's awesome!

I have heard that some people feel that it breaks the immersion if all they can see in a character is their voice actor. Especially if the voice is too recognizable. But I guess that's something that happens more in movies/TV anyways.

And I'm sure it can somehow work to the games advantage if they can flash around some celebrity name during the marketing.

 

[veloper]

Never worth the money and as customers we pay for it indirectly.

There's a ton of good voice actors who will do a good job without asking a fortune; probably a BETTER job than the celebs, because many VAs are used to work with game studios and are actually motivated to put in some effort.
As a bonus, a more obscure name won't remind you of some famous movie character, but becomes the voice of the game character.

 

[MysticSlayer]

I really don't care. It's very unlikely I'll recognize the voice actor anyways, no matter how many times I've been exposed to his/her works. Sure, it might funnel money away from the rest of the game, but I can't think of any game right now that had tremendous voice acting from well-known celebrities and failed to deliver anything good elsewhere. Maybe games like that exist, but it seems more like an unnecessary scare, at least in my experience.

 

[Roxas1359]

Not all voice actors are equal. I mean, there are celebrity voice actors that won't ask for fortunes when doing games, and I tend to like their portrayals of characters when that's the case.
The 3 that spring to my mind are Kevin Michael Richardson, voice of Gantu and Sebastian for Disney, when he did Chairman Drek for Ratchet and Clank and is voicing him again in the movie, and did Crunch Bandicoot up until the Mutant games. Or more famously, Mark Hamill, best known as Luke Skywalker and the Joker, as he's done many roles and does them quite well. For one, he was Master Eraqus in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, and he was also Py-ror in Wrath of Cortex (which surprised me). You can always tell when a voice actor is getting into the role and has fun with it, which is why Mike Pollock, Armin Shimmerman (Dr. Nefarious and Andrew Ryan), and Mark Hamill will always be three of my all time favorite voice actors, because they get so into the roles:

Spoiler: Mike Pollock as Dr. Eggman

Spoiler: Armin Shimmerman

Spoiler: Mark Hamill

 

[Casual Shinji]

If their voice has the proper range and or a unique sound I'm okay with it. For example Rip Torn as Hephaestus in God of War 3 was a perfect fit with his haggard and crotchety voice. Micheal Clarke Duncan (rest his soul) as Atlas in God of War 2 was a rather ill match.

Having the occasional geek reference can be nice too. Like Kevin Sorbo as Hercules, again in God of War 3.

 

[RJ 17]

I see nothing wrong with it. I really enjoyed Martin Sheen as TIM in the Mass Effect series. And what's his face, the guy that voiced Anderson (forget his name, too lazy to look it up) is good. And of course there's Seth Green as Joker. All good parts played by good actors.

Then again, in the same series you get an example of a bad one in that game journalist that voiced the reporter in ME3. Eh, but the performances of the others made up for that and I feel like being an optimist today. That and you can always kick her the fuck off the Normandy.

So yeah, I've nothing against getting big name actors to voice game characters.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

If the voice is well cast then I don't care whether the person behind it is famous or not. To stick to Kingdom Hearts: I suppose the Disney voice cast are celebrities among certain people, but then who else would you cast in the roles of Mickey, Donald and Goofy? And Haley Joel Osment's a celebrity but all you get from his voice is "hero kid" and that's fine. On the other hand you get people like Billy Zane or Christopher Lee and, while their voices can be very sexy, do they really fit their characters?

 

[Roxas1359]

If the voice is well cast then I don't care whether the person behind it is famous or not. To stick to Kingdom Hearts: I suppose the Disney voice cast are celebrities among certain people, but then who else would you cast in the roles of Mickey, Donald and Goofy? And Haley Joel Osment's a celebrity but all you get from his voice is "hero kid" and that's fine. On the other hand you get people like Billy Zane or Christopher Lee and, while their voices can be very sexy, do they really fit their characters?

Well there are back up ones for the Disney cast and characters. Genie wasn't voiced by Robin Willaims, but instead he was voiced by Dan Castellaneta. Currently there are also 2 voice actors for Mickey Mouse now, the first one being Bret Iwan who will be the voice of Mickey Mouse in Kingdom Hearts 3 since Wayne Allwine died, and the second one is Chris Diamantopoulos. They also are probably searching for a new Scrooge McDuck voice and or a possible new Ursala voice since Ursula's voice actor, Pat Caroll, is currently 86 years old (she's voiced Ursala in every appearance, including Dream Drop). Meanwhile Scrooge McDuck's voice actor, Alan Young, is currently 94 and is still voicing the lovable greedy duck, with his last full voice over being in the Ducktales HD remake release last year.

As for the Kingdom Hearts created characters, I was surprised by the fact that Mark Hamill, the Joker, voiced Master Eraqus in Birth by Sleep. Hell Master Xehanort (Old man) is voiced by Leonard Nimoy in the English version and was specifically chosen by Tetsuya Nomura because of the fact that the played Spock. Heck, Master Xehanort's Japanese voice actor is Chikao Ohtsuka who has been the voice of Dr. Eggman since Sonic Adventure 1 and voiced Captain Hook in the Japanese dub of Disney's Peter Pan. Another interesting thing is that Akio Ohtsuka, Chikao Ohtsuka's son, is the voice actor of Ansem Seeker of Darkness while also voicing Blackbeard in the One Piece anime.

This nerdy voice acting trivia has been brought to you by a Let's Player who generally researches who voiced who in the LPs he does. XD

 

[Lennie Briscoe]

Depends, I guess.

Half the time it seems like celebrity voice actors just phone it in for a paycheck... like Chloe Grace Moretz's work in Dishonored, for example.

Good ones can add a lot of dimension to a role, though. Jack Black's voice as Eddie in Brutal Legend was a highlight.

 

[Smooth Operator]

If they really deliver the characters then fuck yes, but throwing them in there to have a name to drop while spending another 10-20mil and ending up crying wolf on the poor sales, possibly adding some sketchy microtransactions to make up for it... then you can go suck a cactus.

 

[w9496]

As long as they don't end up sounding like half-assed attempts like Patrick Stewart in Oblivion or Liam Neeson in Fallout 3. Why would they spend what must be huge amounts of money only to kill these people off so early in the game? It just comes off as saying " Hey! We had that super cool actor guy here, wasn't that rad?".

If it's more along the lines of a game like Brutal Legend, then I'm okay with it. Lemmy, Rob Halford, Lita Ford, and Jack Black all did their parts well. Their voice acting actually was a benefit to the games setting and theme.

 

[Savagezion]

Never worth the money and as customers we pay for it indirectly.

There's a ton of good voice actors who will do a good job without asking a fortune; probably a BETTER job than the celebs, because many VAs are used to work with game studios and are actually motivated to put in some effort.
As a bonus, a more obscure name won't remind you of some famous movie character, but becomes the voice of the game character.

This right here. I would rather they hire more game development talent with that money rather than a famous person to say some dialogue. There really isn't much need for a famous voice unless it is somehow important to the game itself - which I have never seen be the case.

 

[kurupt87]

Captain Janeway as Flemeth always tickles me.

I'm ok with them though. Other VAs could do the job at least as well and that'd save you some money but hey, as long as they aren't awful I have no problem.

 

[Ratty]

It's a continuation of a bad trend from animated movies. (Thanks Dreamworks.) From what I've seen half the time big name celebs just can't cut it next to actual voice actors, who probably get a small fraction of the money for the same work.

That's money from the game budget that could have been better spent elsewhere. And you're likely to get a higher quality performance. Now if it's a voice actor who happens to become famous, like a Billy West for example, that's a little different. Major exception of course is when actors reprise roles they had in film or television for the voicework in a game.

 

[go-10]

it depends on how well the performance is done
say what you will of the game but Felicia Day in Dragon Age 2 did a fantastic job. Jack Black in Brutal Legend, Patrick Stewart was probably the only good thing in Catlevania Lords of Shadow. So really celebrities can sometime s do a good job and at other times they replace David Hayter and you know that regardless of how good the performance is, it's just not going to be the same

 

[Magix]

Pretty much don't care. As long as it serves the character well, having a famous or not famous person behind the voice makes no difference to me. As such, celebrities are probably inefficient, as someone pointed out, because they tend to cost more.

That being said, I'm currently playing Skyrim and I'd be happy if they got some celebrity voice actors, since then the grand total of different voice actors in that game would be HIGHER THAN FOUR >.<

 

[Phasmal]

Yay!

I like it when a big name actor can give a great performance in a game.
I liked all the famous voices in Oblivion and Fallout.

I also like it when you don't realise it at first and then someone tells you later on who it was and you go `NO WAY` and IMDB it.
That's always fun.