My Favourite Game
The comedian and actor on Commodore 64 bootlegs and looking for emotion in games
Kumail Nanjiani on Commodore 64 and finding emotion in games
Kumail Nanjiani is a PakistaniAmerican stand-up comedian, actor and writer. Featuring in television, film and also a few games, he is best known as Dinesh in HBO’s Silicon Valley. While shooting its fifth season, he took some time out to talk about narrative and diversity in games, his performance-capture debut, and dubious Pakistani piracy. What is your earliest memory of playing videogames? I had a Commodore 64 when I was very young. I would play a game called Street Surfer, and Paperboy. There was a game called Barbarian that I never figured out but I would try and play just because the graphics were cool and I like fantasy. You grew up in Pakistan. What was it like getting hold of games there? My Commodore 64 games were all bootlegs. What would happen is, you would look in the newspaper, and in the Classified sections there would be different people advertising games. So my dad and I would go to some random guy’s house – it was different people each time – and you’d tell them what you want, and then wait around while he copied all these games for you. I’m not proud of it, but it was the only way we could get those games. You’ve done voice-acting in games, but Shadow Of War was your first physical performance. How was that? I didn’t do the actual mo-cap; I didn’t run around and fight, they had other actors doing that, but I did facial mapping. That was different, because you really have to exaggerate your expressions. Most acting, at least the acting that I do, is meant to be pretty real, but this was meant to be over-the-top and theatrical. Have you tried playing it yourself? Yeah, I’m playing it right now. I haven’t run into my Orc character yet, it’s pretty random. I saw there was a thread on Reddit where people post whenever they ran into me. Some met me right away, some met me way late into the game. I’m kind of hoping to run into myself!
“As audiences get broader, the characters in games should get broader as well”
As an actor and storyteller, do you also look for narrative experiences in games? I think in videogames, more than movies, I look for emotion. Whereas in a movie I’m watching other people go through this experience, in a videogame I want to be the one going through this experience. I like playing games where I really feel like I’m in that world. Shadow Of War does a great job of that, and so does Horizon: Zero Dawn. You took the leading role in Judd Apatow’s The Big Sick, which felt important for representation onscreen. Is that something you find equally vital in videogames? I think what games are making a move towards is a diversity of main characters. They’re making more games with female main characters, but I’d love to see more mainstream games with gay protagonists. I think especially in RPGs, we’re seeing a move towards having characters from different backgrounds or different sexual orientations come in and be part of the story. That’s very important: as audiences get broader, the characters in games should get broader as well. This is not just for young dudes. Do you still find time to play games? I used to be able to juggle a bunch of games but right now I’m too busy.
Shadow Of War I’m playing right now, but there’s so many games I want to play – the new Mario, the new Assassin’s Creed, I want to play The Evil Within 2, I really loved the first one. There’s just a bunch of really great games out. Your wife enjoys games too. Does that influence what you play? I’ll generally have one game I’m playing on my own and one game we’re playing together, and she’ll also have a game she’s playing on her own. So we’re playing South Park: The Fractured But Whole together. That’s good to sit back and just watch. So, what’s your all-time favourite? That’s very hard – as you can tell I’ve been playing videogames my whole life, and I play a lot of games – but I’m going to pick Skyrim. That world was so well realised, the idea that you could go on a tiny mission and have your own storyline, the scope of it was unbelievable, but also the attention to detail was just so fully fleshed out. So yeah, I’ll say Skyrim.