Bungie Explains the Decision to Remove Dinklage from Destiny

[Lizzy Finnegan]

Bungie Explains the Decision to Remove Dinklage from Destiny

The decision to replace the Game of Thrones star in Destiny came down to a simple matter of availability.

Earlier this month it was revealed that Bungie had The Taken King [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/141878-Nolan-North-Takes-Over-the-Role-of-Ghost], also having replacement Nolan North re-record all of Dinklage's existing dialogue.

"We wanted Nolan North's version of the Ghost to wake you up at the start of the journey at level one and follow you all the way to level forty," said creative director Luke Smith.

In an interview with Game Informer [http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2015/08/10/destiny-the-taken-king-39-s-new-approach-to-storytelling.aspx], Destiny executive producer Mark Noseworthy stated that the decision to remove Dinklage from the role came down to a matter of "Hollywood nonsense".

"Dinklage was awesome to work with... but we needed to work with someone who is more available. Nolan is a pro, this is his thing," he explained. "We can just call him up and say 'hey, next week we're doing this internal play test and it would be great to get some Ghost dialogue in there'.... And he's available."

Creative director Luke Smith indicated that dialogue will be a priority moving forward, and it appears Ghost is going to be a crucial part of that.

The Taken King will release on September 15.

[Source: Game Informer [http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2015/08/10/destiny-the-taken-king-39-s-new-approach-to-storytelling.aspx]]

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[Metadigital]

Now they just need to find a writer.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

People are still playing this? I guess so if they have to justify decisions through PR. Unless they are very keen on seeing themselves in media reports, those narcissists! I played the beta and it felt like I had seen all they had to offer there. Between that and halo, halo is still a better experience. What happened, Bungie? Where did all your ideas go?

 

[Hungry Donner]

It makes sense that someone who does a lot of voice acting will have a schedule that works better for voice acting. But the way they phrase it, it sounds like they're switching to Nolan North because he's not doing anything else.

 

[Davroth]

Dinklage was a pleasure to work with? So the Destiny people wanted his lines to sound so phoned in? I guess I gave them too much credit then.

 

[Ishigami]

So it is as suspected: Dinklage simply has a full schedule and is too much of a hassle to organize the voice recordings with him.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

So Dinklage just had better things to do. Guess that was a big blow to their egos if he didn't feel like making any more time for their sub-par product.

 

[Rednog]

So Dinklage just had better things to do. Guess that was a big blow to their egos if he didn't feel like making any more time for their sub-par product.

Damn right, he was too busy making that eternal classic 'Pixels'.

 

[Tohuvabohu]

Dinklage was a pleasure to work with? So the Destiny people wanted his lines to sound so phoned in? I guess I gave them too much credit then.

What are you implying? That Bungie should call Dinklage a fucking asshole, or something? They're being courteous, and maybe really he was a pleasure to work with regardless of how his lines ended up sounding. What are you even trying to say here?

OT: Pretty much what was widely suspected. And again, I have to wonder why Bungie went with Dinklage to begin with. Even at production stage of the game, Dinklage was a busy man. At least they're trying to do something about the story, but still... They just shouldn't have brought Dinklage on board. Oh well.

 

[Davroth]

Dinklage was a pleasure to work with? So the Destiny people wanted his lines to sound so phoned in? I guess I gave them too much credit then.

What are you implying? That Bungie should call Dinklage a fucking asshole, or something? They're being courteous, and maybe really he was a pleasure to work with regardless of how his lines ended up sounding. What are you even trying to say here?

OT: Pretty much what was widely suspected. And again, I have to wonder why Bungie went with Dinklage to begin with. Even at production stage of the game, Dinklage was a busy man. At least they're trying to do something about the story, but still... They just shouldn't have brought Dinklage on board. Oh well.

For one, yes, I'm disgusted by marketing speak. I think the world would be a better place if marketing people wouldn't be lying through their teeth.

Other then that I'm mostly making fun of the way this makes Bungie look. This is easily the most lifeless and uninspired performance I have ever seen from Dinklage. So either that's because he didn't give a fuck (which is what they denied right there) or they gave him bad direction. That I find hilarious.

 

[squid5580]

Dinklage was a pleasure to work with? So the Destiny people wanted his lines to sound so phoned in? I guess I gave them too much credit then.

What are you implying? That Bungie should call Dinklage a fucking asshole, or something? They're being courteous, and maybe really he was a pleasure to work with regardless of how his lines ended up sounding. What are you even trying to say here?

OT: Pretty much what was widely suspected. And again, I have to wonder why Bungie went with Dinklage to begin with. Even at production stage of the game, Dinklage was a busy man. At least they're trying to do something about the story, but still... They just shouldn't have brought Dinklage on board. Oh well.

For one, yes, I'm disgusted by marketing speak. I think the world would be a better place if marketing people wouldn't be lying through their teeth.

Other then that I'm mostly making fun of the way this makes Bungie look. This is easily the most lifeless and uninspired performance I have ever seen from Dinklage. So either that's because he didn't give a fuck (which is what they denied right there) or they gave him bad direction. That I find hilarious.

There is the third option and that is he just had nothing to work with. Maybe it is just me but I don't believe for a second that even if Dinklage had given the best performance of his life it would have mattered with the dialogue he had. And unless Nolan has the time to explain all the things that Dinklage didn't have time to explain this is not going to make it any better

 

[Flashmanic]

This is kind of what I thought was the case. Dinklage either didn't want to, or wasn't available to come back to the game to do more voice work. This would mean any new content would have a different voice actor, which would be kind of jarring. You might evne be in a situation where you'd go to one planet, hear Dinklage, go to do some specific content on that planet, and suddenly you'd have a different voice actor.

Replacing all the lines with the new actor (Nolan North) would solve the issue.

 

[RandV80]

Dinklage was a pleasure to work with? So the Destiny people wanted his lines to sound so phoned in? I guess I gave them too much credit then.

What are you implying? That Bungie should call Dinklage a fucking asshole, or something? They're being courteous, and maybe really he was a pleasure to work with regardless of how his lines ended up sounding. What are you even trying to say here?

OT: Pretty much what was widely suspected. And again, I have to wonder why Bungie went with Dinklage to begin with. Even at production stage of the game, Dinklage was a busy man. At least they're trying to do something about the story, but still... They just shouldn't have brought Dinklage on board. Oh well.

Well they're certainly making it sound like a snub against Dinklage

In an interview with Game Informer, Destiny executive producer Mark Noseworthy stated that the decision to remove Dinklage from the role came down to a matter of "Hollywood nonsense".

"Dinklage was awesome to work with... but we needed to work with someone who is more available. ]Nolan is a pro, this is his thing," he explained. "We can just call him up and say 'hey, next week we're doing this internal play test and it would be great to get some Ghost dialogue in there'.... And he's available."

Sounds to me like someone at Bungie feels snubbed because they hired a full time Hollywood actor without realizing they couldn't just call him up at anytime and get some new lines recorded.

Celebrity voice overs can work just fine: Patrick Stewart in Oblivion, Leonard Nimoy in Civilization IV, etc. But those are set scripts that can be recorded on a specific schedule. Wasn't very smart to hire a Hollywood pro with a busy schedule if the role is going to be continuously ongoing.

 

[Something Amyss]

I hear if you say " Nolan North" three times in a mirror, he appears and voice acts for you.

 

[EndlessSporadic]

Haven't played the game myself and I don't plan on ever picking it up, but it would be a nice service to keep Dinklage's voice in there as a separate option or something.

 

[Tohuvabohu]

Well they're certainly making it sound like a snub against Dinklage

Sounds to me like someone at Bungie feels snubbed because they hired a full time Hollywood actor without realizing they couldn't just call him up at anytime and get some new lines recorded.

By "they", I assume you actually mean Luke Smith. And I guess that you don't know who Luke Smith is?

This is Luke Smith we're talking about, a man who simply doesn't grasp the concepts of tact and Public Relations.

In other words, the same guy who said this:

Eurogamer: Can you see that some fans are confused that you're asking them to buy stuff they already own?0

Luke Smith: Yeah, I can totally empathise with those people. But the Collector's Edition is a pretty cool package for people who want to pursue that stuff. Otherwise, surely what you're saying is that you would want to buy them separately, right?

Eurogamer: Well, yeah. I would rather do that - pay a few pounds or dollars or whatever - than spend money on things I already own.

Luke Smith: [Laughs] Well, we have nothing more to talk about regarding your opportunity to spend extra money in Destiny, other than The Taken King and the three versions we've announced.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-06-22-destiny-the-taken-king-director-defends-40-expansion-price-tag

Personally I think nobody should even consider asking Luke Smith what time it is since he'd find a way to answer like an abrasive asshole. And it mystifies me why Bungie continues to parade this guy in front of the press given the PR disaster he caused with the Eurogamer interview. But all that aside, if you look at what he said about Dinklage in the context of literally everything else he ever says, it's nothing out of the ordinary.

 

[martyrdrebel27]

Now they just need to find a writer.

and a plot, and gameplay, and fun....

 

[Mugiwara]

I got Destiny because I honestly thought it was going to be a much better Mass Effect style game. Many planets, a team of three, choices in the galaxy.

The Warlock was like a discount Tali. There was no team, as suggested in previews. Only 4 planets. Fuck DLC. Then came all the updates. After working 2 months to fully upgrade my auto shotgun, they nerfed it. Made all the material gathering obsolete, took away my loot cave, hunters are grossly under powered aside from the super. There is ZERO plot. Its all a bunch of stuff.

I threw in Mass Effect and regretted all my decisons that led up to Destiny. As great as the areas are I don't much care for visuals. Some designers can appreciate the steam coming from a mug like in The Order however as a gamer I don't care about textures or the graphics. Designers have an important role but they need to learn good graphics don't make a good game and it seems to be Bungie thought lack of gameplay with amazing rocks would be okay.

I want to see limbs flying, I want to fly in a space game, all this tech and no jet pack? I want my bullets to look like they actually harm an enemy. Every head shot sounds like shooting an air tank with this weird air noise. Shooting a shot gun looked as though i shot an air cannon. Don't have me point at a boulder "that's a nice boulder" *Shrek reference* I am not asking for fallout shit but screw your moon graphics and add a dam bullet hole to gun fire. This is next gen, YOU HAVE THE POWER!

If your an idiot like me and got the game because you thought it would be like Mass Effect you had a bad time. To anyone else. Play Mass Effect, word is it will be backwards compatible... Better be all 3 with DLC... So no excuses.

I really hate that large middle aged lady in the bungie destiny ego stroking video discussing the game before it came out. where she was all "Players are going to love the loot system" No, no we are not. We hated getting 200 green things from 200 blue things and we hated traveling to do so. Waste of our time. I really, really hate her and the pride she felt about those dam items. This is why the Loot Cave became a thing your actual game was boring and tedious, the cave sped up the system to enjoy more actual gameplay.

 

[Metadigital]

Now they just need to find a writer.

and a plot, and gameplay, and fun....

That's a little unfair. I played it for about 2 months when it first came out and had a blast.

That being said, its writing, characters, setting, and story were pretty much nonexistent outside of some weird lore cards you could unlock.

 

[Gennadios]

Haven't played the game myself and I don't plan on ever picking it up, but it would be a nice service to keep Dinklage's voice in there as a separate option or something.

You should really watch a few let's plays and revisit that statement. I never played the game, never really plan to, but the sections where Dinklage speaks... well, the DGAF is unmistakeable. This is one of the few situations where the product would lose nothing from completely redone voice acting. North can at least pretend to care.