14 DAY TRIAL // Kane, hailing from the Command & Conquer universe, is one of the most easily recognizable figures in the games industry today. The actor that voices him is Joe Kucan and from 1995 up until now every time Kane made an appearance it was Kucan playing him. He also has directing experience with the FMV sequences in the Command & Conquer game up to Command & Conquer 3.
Kucan declared to Eurogamer that for all the talk about games these days, he doesn't think that the general public can name a game that is influential in the same way that other media products, like newspapers, television channels of movies are influential. Even if people are talking about violence and videogames or about sexuality in videogames, they can't really talk about specific games and they end up making broad assumptions about games that aren't always true.
Kucan thinks that "The only thing that's culturally influential now is the genre itself. There's nothing specific about any of the games that are worming their way into the psyche of the world. But that notion of the videogame, the videogamer, the Internet, or the online game has certainly had a tremendous amount of influence in terms of people markets - not just products, but how they look at spending their leisure time." In other words, the level of knowledge and understanding is increasing, but the specifics are still lost in a great number of people.
Joe Kucan's latest performance can be seen in Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath, which is already out on the PC and is expected to be released on the Xbox 360 soon. The game focuses on the personality of Kane as he picks up after the disaster of the Second Tiberium War to lead the forces of the Brotherhood of Nod in the Third Tiberium War and beyond.
While pondering the importance of videogames as cultural constructs, you can also check out our own Kane's Wrath review.