Game Celebrities - The Role of Game Devs in Pop Culture - Extra Credits

most creative mediums from movies to books to pro-wrestling generate celebrities these people become so well-known that fans will pay just to see what they create but this really hasn't happened for games all that much most players don't buy a new game because of the games director or lead designer in fact with a few notable exceptions most players probably have no idea who the creative heads of today's most popular games are but should they [Music] the video game industry is now bigger than the film industry and game designer has become a more desirable dream job than rockstar for a lot of teenagers but the creators of games remain relatively obscure seriously think of how many film directors you can name now think of how many game designers probably less right of course the audience for this show might be a little skewed and there are well-known designers within the industry that diehard fans know who they are but their name recognition usually doesn't

extend outside the medium rarely do you see game designers on the talk show circuit in the way you might find film directors or famous authors in fact instructors at game schools even tell their students they're not going to get famous in the business why not well first off video game development is incredibly collaborative even in film which is very team focused there's usually still one main person who's creative vision is public-facing we go to see a Spielberg film or a Ridley Scott film because we have a good idea of the type of movie that we're getting even if the writer editor composer and cinematographer are all different people the film industry tends to put the spotlight on one individual because they want to cultivate that culture of Fame but in the video game industry the idea of a director or executive producer isn't as defined artists designers programmers and sometimes the marketing department all have a huge part in determining a game's look and feel and of course games rely so much on testing and iteration during development

that it's not uncommon for a game to change visions completely during production back when games had smaller teams one person could own a game but it's less feasible for one person to say that a game is theirs anymore even in Indies and it could be that the game industry wants to keep it that way without celebrities fans know the studios and companies instead and this gives them a lot of control if you know rock star or Square Enix rather than who designs the latest Red Dead or Final Fantasy that means you're more likely to buy the next game from those studios even if the people behind the core design of those games you loved leave and since studios know that it also means that they don't have to bend as much to development teams demands and honestly it doesn't look like this is going to change anytime soon but would the game industry benefit from elevating developers to celebrity status well it's been proven by other industries that celebrities can help sell products the game industry itself has admitted the

advantage of star power to a certain extent by bringing in Hollywood talent for game roles and commercials it puts a human face on a product that draws people in but developers with that same recognition would also profoundly change the balance of power within the industry because of some famous individual on the development team threatening to walk could really tank sales that individual would have a lot more leveraging power when dealing with publishers on what they got to produce and that could lead to more projects with bigger budget backing fueled by artistic vision rather than market analysis with all of the enormous benefits and risks that entails celebrities would also drive up game budgets in fact a huge part of the reason Hollywood movies have gotten so expensive is because the big stars can demand enormous salaries for instance Johnny Depp was paid 55 million to reprise his role as Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides back in 2011 while only 18 million less than a third of that went to the entire 895 person production staff

combined and I'm not even gonna tell you what Zoey's salary is of course the revenue brought in by that person's involvement may very well be worth the cost but higher budgets also mean higher risk additionally this could mean more low-quality games being propped up by a famous developer only brought in for name recognition or ego driven projects propelled by a single famous individual who can no longer be checked I'm still looking at you Johnny rather than by the needs of the game and the more an industry depends on celebrities the deeper it gets stuck in doing so every game might need a big name attached to it to get funding the same way just about every Hollywood film nowadays relies on big-name stars or a respected director also unlike film TV literature or music game development doesn't stop when the game launches anymore of course you'll often see the actors promoting their film after a production wraps which is also a full-time job in and of itself but when a game ships we

often still need all hands on deck for patches or to create ongoing content therefore game industry celebrities couldn't be out doing promotion in the same way for very long making games can feel like a thankless task because most players hardly know the studio much less the names of the people who make their favourite games and maybe that's a good thing because it could keep us from being overshadowed by celebrity culture and having projects at least more projects than already are dominated by a single ego but on the other hand it serves as another way to keep all the leverage in the hands of the publishers and the studio heads rather than the development teams and keeps people from being acknowledged for years of their hard work so with all that said would it be better to have game celebrities well I'm betting that someone someday is going to cross over into the mainstream and achieve that level of Fame and then for better or worse we'll find out but until then what do you all think please keep the conversation going via your all-star

commenting below we'll see you next week [Music]