Nautilus
Banned
While this has happened before, and it makes sense on titles like FIFA or any sports titles, since the main appeal of these games is to play as your favorite athlete, ever since Death Stranding this trend is beginning to become more and more common, to the point that it's not uncommon to see holywood actor faces on games instead of original faces(Death Stranding, Callisto Protocol, just to name a few). And I hate that. Let me list the reasons why below.
1) Give that sense of "Been there, done that": When you have a new IP released, almost always that new IPs comes with original, new characters. Its one of the exciting things about new games: A completely new experience, going blind before playing it, its refreshing to see who's who, and their relationship grow along the journey. So imagine going into a new game, you are in a pivotal moment, when you are unmasking the true villain of the game, and it turns out it's... Will Smith.
Obviosly not the real Will Smith, but associating the villain with a real person that has already played a bazillion characters you like, that you saw him play into a bazillion different roles, know every immaginable facial expression that he can make, and then here he comes again, being the unnammed villain in just another media, in just another product that the industry spat out to make money. It just takes the wind out of my excitement on learning about/finding out new characters, or at the very least of that character, because my brain can't fully separate that actor from his past works , and any feeling I might have towardds him, and it just sucks. It's just not the same as it having a brand new face, that's uniquely his, to that specific villain. Its just a lame marketing attempt at having someone famous attached to the game, in a (probably successful) attempt at selling more copies. I know this is a business, and this is supossedly a proven method at selling stuff, but still. I want to play as The Hero, not as Bruce Willis.
2) Increases the cost of the development of the game: I'm no connoisseur in how expensive is to hire/buy/lend(?) a famous actor face to put into your game, but considering they are super famous, they must not be cheap, and the cost is probably in the millions. I mean, you could just create a completely original face that costs only the time the designers take to make it, but no, you HAVE to spend what an indie dev uses to make a game on a single face. Again, I get it, marketing reasons and all, but I feel like this is such a waste of money. Especially considering that what sells a game is its story and gameplay, not the characters per say, and that the most famous videogame characters have unique faces that are their own, so these types of decisions boogles my mind a bit. It also have an additional problem, which is...
3) Future licencing issues for re-releases: If someday the dev wants to port/remaster/remake the game, and said actor(whose face is proeminent in the game) either refuses, or asks for too much money, you're fucked. Simple as that. While original faces don't have this problem. Considering how games are selling over a bigger period of time, it's just a short sighted decision.
So yeah, I hate when they put a face of someone from the real world in the games(Especially because of reason number 1), unless its ULTRA specific, and would make too much sense to not put it in. But what fdo you guys think?
1) Give that sense of "Been there, done that": When you have a new IP released, almost always that new IPs comes with original, new characters. Its one of the exciting things about new games: A completely new experience, going blind before playing it, its refreshing to see who's who, and their relationship grow along the journey. So imagine going into a new game, you are in a pivotal moment, when you are unmasking the true villain of the game, and it turns out it's... Will Smith.
Obviosly not the real Will Smith, but associating the villain with a real person that has already played a bazillion characters you like, that you saw him play into a bazillion different roles, know every immaginable facial expression that he can make, and then here he comes again, being the unnammed villain in just another media, in just another product that the industry spat out to make money. It just takes the wind out of my excitement on learning about/finding out new characters, or at the very least of that character, because my brain can't fully separate that actor from his past works , and any feeling I might have towardds him, and it just sucks. It's just not the same as it having a brand new face, that's uniquely his, to that specific villain. Its just a lame marketing attempt at having someone famous attached to the game, in a (probably successful) attempt at selling more copies. I know this is a business, and this is supossedly a proven method at selling stuff, but still. I want to play as The Hero, not as Bruce Willis.
2) Increases the cost of the development of the game: I'm no connoisseur in how expensive is to hire/buy/lend(?) a famous actor face to put into your game, but considering they are super famous, they must not be cheap, and the cost is probably in the millions. I mean, you could just create a completely original face that costs only the time the designers take to make it, but no, you HAVE to spend what an indie dev uses to make a game on a single face. Again, I get it, marketing reasons and all, but I feel like this is such a waste of money. Especially considering that what sells a game is its story and gameplay, not the characters per say, and that the most famous videogame characters have unique faces that are their own, so these types of decisions boogles my mind a bit. It also have an additional problem, which is...
3) Future licencing issues for re-releases: If someday the dev wants to port/remaster/remake the game, and said actor(whose face is proeminent in the game) either refuses, or asks for too much money, you're fucked. Simple as that. While original faces don't have this problem. Considering how games are selling over a bigger period of time, it's just a short sighted decision.
So yeah, I hate when they put a face of someone from the real world in the games(Especially because of reason number 1), unless its ULTRA specific, and would make too much sense to not put it in. But what fdo you guys think?
