Elias Toufexis is a voice actor and director most commonly known for his role in the Deus Ex series as everyone’s favorite mechanically augmented covert operative, Adam Jenson.
After several games that Elias was working on were canceled, including Perfect Dark, a modder decided to create a tribute to Elias in Cyberpunk 2077 using generative AI. Unfortunately, Toufexis wasn’t a fan of the idea.
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While the mod was meant to give a shoutout to Elias and the legacy of Adam Jenson, and create the chance for fans to relive fond memories of Deus Ex dialogue, Elias made it clear he didn’t approve of the idea, andthe mod was later removed.
The world doesn’t care about right or wrong. It’s all about power. And right now, none of us have it.
—Adam Jensen
With the amount of work and passion that goes into bringing a character to life through voice acting, and the overwhelming threat of AI on human jobs, it’s easy to understand why Elias wasn’t on board with the mod. There’s a lot of heart and hard work that goes into perfecting those unforgettable lines.
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Elias' work as the edgy cyborg detective Adam Jensen in Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided garnered widespread respect from gamers across the world, and after the cancellation of the new Deus Ex game, Elias took to Reddit to give aheartfelt thank you to Adam Jensen fans, and a proper goodbye to the beloved character.
I hope you like the other work I’m fortunate enough to put out there, but I know that whatever the character is, he won’t mean as much as Adam Jensen does to a lot of you… and to me.
—Elias Toufexis
If you’re not totally immersed in the video game world, you might not realize how much these roles mean to gamers and Voice Actors alike. These are passion projects people pour themselves into, and when one gamer recommended the Cyberpunk 2077 mod that recreates Adam Jensen using AI,Elias' response was rather blunt: “No. Do not f***ing do that.”
It comes down to the fact that what they are creating is art. It’s human expression, creativity, and soul. The voice acting is an integral part ofamazing RPGslike Deus Ex, and the actors should always own the rights to their likeness. Actors must stand their ground against AI when needed to ensure the gaming industry isn’t completely dominated by robots in the future.
As employees invest a lot of their time into these projects, when games end up getting thrown out, there are some serious consequences.
“These games getting canceled is a constant threat. I had a good amount of days of acting in Perfect Dark that just got scrapped. Thousands of dollars that I expected and counted on gone in a snap. Now every game I do as a director or actor I wake up hoping it isn’t canceled,” said Elias onX.
The unfortunate reality is that the use of AI is reshaping the video game world as we know it, andlayoffs, studio closures, and game cancellations impact people’s lives in a major way. With that in mind, it’s important to be respectful of the work that voice actors put in to create timeless characters.
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