While everyone's debating Ellen Page's likeness claims this week, is there a bigger issue that faces gaming concerning the use of Hollywood actors?
The patience to act through a 2,000-page script of Beyond: Two Souls, written by David Cage, was challenging for Ellen Page.
GamesBeat: 2013 was an interesting year for acting in video games, with extreme highs (The Last of Us) and extreme lows (Zeno Clash II). Here are some of our favorites in both categories.
Trevor is definitely an unforgettable character but he should have killed Michael and his entire family.
Trevor was a piece of crap. He is a horrible human being. After playing GTA 5, I realized most of the characters were garbage.
I loved playing that game for like 4-5 days but I can't stand it now.
So I take it you're not a Manhunt fan then? Hey, I agree with you although I enjoy filth for thrills, but I only practice it out of necessity.
*Mika* OH GOD YES. That character is everything I hate in anime condensed into one. I know that Suda is very much into spoofing an exaggerating tropes from anime and games, it's a huge part of his style and I love it, but my god, that character is beyond painful.
Ars - "When nude images of Jodie Holmes, actress Ellen Page's character from Beyond: Two Souls, began appearing on the Internet a few weeks ago (courtesy of a repositioned shower-scene camera running on debug hardware) we thought the story was a little too tabloidy to cover."
Hm...the only person who should be to blame is the modder that toy'd around too much. I'm sure the modder didn't intend for harm to happen so the idea of threatening lawsuits and such is barbarous. This whole thing is one of those "Oops, my bad" sort of deals and nothing more.
I think that every public figure who poses nude in pictures or videos in privacy either intend to publish images for personal gain or do it because their career is stagnant. They can't say I had no idea that this could ever happen.
Ellen Page didn't have that spectacular of a career to begin with....It's only the hipsters who are in to little boys that think she's so amazaing since she looks like Justin Beiber
deadpoolio LOL
an actress with the body type of a ten year old boy... not really my thing.
Law Student opinion (for whatever it's worth):
There will not be any liability imposed on the modder, and likely not even any on the sites which choose to publish the leaked images. Page may be able to secure some form of injunction which would slow the publication of the images, but any hope of that being effective is misplaced.
As the much as Sony or anyone else may want to make veiled legal threats at the pervy corners of the public, it's really just a matter of them wanting to cover their own butts. After all, the ultimate responsibility for any damages to Page's image (or emotional distress... or whatever she claims) will likely fall upon the shoulders of the entity which published the disc: Sony. Quantic would also be jointly liable for creating the content in question and including it on the disc - she would probably be able to obtain restitution damages for breach of her contract (because their programming actions exceeded the scope of the agreement, I'm sure).
At the end of the day, we as gamers have nothing to worry about. Legal liability will fall on the broad shoulders of Sony and Quantic, and there is a very high likelihood that we will see some massive settlement ($ Millions) between the parties within the next year or so. Should be interesting.
Unless I misunderstood how these pics came about, though, I was under the impression that it was done with a debug kit PS3, and a debug version of the game.
In other words, it's something no normal user could ever access.
If that is true, then it would seem Sony wouldn't be liable for publishing the disc, because the version they actually published didn't have any access to these kinds of images, correct?
I don't know... The whole thing is weird to me... Partially because I don't see the big deal in the first place, I mean, it's not really her body.
To me it's no different than photoshopping her head onto a nude picture of somebody else, which happens to pretty much every female celebrity ever since the advent of photoshop. lol
It's a brand thing, really. Ellen Page and her associates are going to concerned about the brand of her likeness first and foremost.
The way I see it is that the extent to which the Developer can use the Actors image is or should be clearly outlined in the contract.
I am guessing, just being logical here, that this whole story is really about her not being informed that in the contract there was a piece that allowed a full nude body render to be made, or that in fact the contract did not allow a nude render.
If for example the Devs overstepped the boundries set by the contract than she has every right to demand that they remove it, or sue the company.
Removing her nude parts would only make her model more realistic, so lawsuit either way.
I can see why one could be concerned about this. In some cases I'd say rightful so. On the other hand this is a great thing for the industry though. Hollywood stars are Hollywood stars because people like their work. This could be a step forward for gaming to be taken a little more seriously by even entertainment industry veterans.
However, I don't think movie stars will make too many appearances (via face mo-cap at least). It's looking good as it is. Of course nobody wants to see Kristen Stewart anywhere near their game worlds and I don't think that's about to happen.
I personally don't have any problem with celebrities in video games. It makes it easier to feel what the character is feeling because processional actors know how to add more feeling into the role.
Who else remembers the bad voice acting in RE1? I can't even take that game serious because the voice acting and dialog is so ridiculous. I laughed more times than I was supposed to in a survival horror game.
"You were almost a Jill sandwich"
"Wow! What A MANSION!"
Hey, nice thought piece.
I think that the BIGGEST issue regarding is how the story is going to be told and if the game is going to rely on star power more than its own two feet. Actors are actors for a reason, in that they can convey themselves through mediums and give us the potential to BELIEVE they are someone else.
In the end, it's going to be the ability of the actors to convey their roles more than the fact that they are in the role, if you catch my drift. It doesn't matter if it's Ellen Page or not, really. It just has to be if we believe that Ellen is playing her role well as another person.
If you actually pay much attention to celebrities, maybe. I don't, so it doesn't matter to me.
Don't see why they bother with celebrities, though. They usually don't amount to better voices, from what I've seen. And given how costly they are to hire it's not worth it. Take Bethesda games , for example. They get a celebrity VA for every game and barely use the character they voice, assuming they don't kill them early on too. That's several thousands of dollars for a paycheck that barely adds anything to the game you couldn't get cheaper and do better with using a VA native to the industry.
Edit: *Headdesk* lol, someone wrote almost the exact same thing I did before me, examples and all.
I really hope gaming budget of future games are not going toward hiring famous actors to motion cap or do voice overs