In a delicious interview with the Gamespot website, Dominic Monaghan talks about his relationship with video games. His favorite? A fabulous heroic fantasy universe that is reminiscent of the Lord of the Rings…
Dominic Monaghan is of course the unforgettable Hobbit Merry from Peter Jackson’s epic saga, The Lord of the Rings. He is also Charlie Pace from the series Lost, who made history on the small screen. Obviously, the actor’s career cannot be reduced to these successes, which are already considerable.
The general public is unaware of this, but he has also made several forays into video games, notably by lending his features to a game called Quentum Breakreleased in 2016. A transmedia experience mixing video games and live series episodes, signed by the fathers of Max Payne.
In a video interview with the site Gamespotthe actor returned to his relationship with video games. If he played from time to time when he was very young, things changed when he moved to Los Angeles in 2002 – 2003, after a discussion he had with Elijah Wood, his partner in the Jackson saga. And, incidentally, a big gamer, as we were able to verify with him in 2018.
“I couldn’t believe the games were so advanced”
“I said to my friend Elijah Wood, ‘I’m going to buy a DVD player, and you want to come with me.’ He said, ‘You should buy a Playstation 2.’ I said, ‘OK,’ but I’m just going to watch. The Sopranos above, and other stuff like the series Oz.
But one day, a friend brings him a certain Grand Theft Auto III; the phenomenon game from Rockstar studio. Monaghan then lets go “that he couldn’t believe the games were so advanced”. “I got really good, or I felt like I got really good at driving. You get to that point where everything starts to go really fast. I kind of enjoyed it.
But I think GTA III was a huge turning point for me, because I didn’t realize that gaming had gotten to that point. [de réalisme et d’immersion]. The jump was just amazing, and the soundtrack was incredible. All the options were incredible.”
Rockstar Games
If GTA III was a video game shock for the actor, he experienced a second epiphany ten years later, on the next generation console. A role-playing game created by the Bethesda studio: The Elder Scrolls V :Skyrim.
Taking place in a medieval-fantasy universe halfway between that of JRR Tolkien and Robert E. Howard (the father of Conan the Barbarian), populated with characters and a bestiary whose design recalls the work of the immense artist Frank Frazetta, the extraordinary universe of Skyrim, hypnotic, has swallowed up hundreds of hours among its followers.
Dominic Monaghan confesses to having spent more than 350 hours of his life on it. “I spent so much time on it that my PS3 even exploded from overheating.” That’s actually a lot.
The Elder Scrolls franchise is highly addictive. Just ask James McAvoy. He spent so much time on The Elder Scrolls IV : Oblivionthe previous game in the license, that it even jeopardized his acting career. To the point of one day making a brutal decision: burning the DVD of the game to be sure not to dive into it again. Radical…
