Call of Duty: Troy Baker leads Dubai wave

For a passionate video gamer, meeting Troy Baker, is a dream come true.

Speaking to Emirates 24|7, gamer Saeed M, a visitor at this weekend's IGN Convention said, "I am very excited and very happy I met Troy and took a photo with him, I was visiting Dubai and my friends told me about this event so we came together and wow I feel very lucky to meet him." 

This gamer's feelings were echoed amongst the crowd of pop culture enthusiasts (and geeks) that were in awe as Troy walked past and stopped for a chat and photo.

If you've played The Last of Us, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Batman: Assault on Arkham, and Bioshock Infinite,  then you're familiar with just a few of Troy's work.

The popular voice actor has been at it since the 90s, and he's voiced over 130 videogames till date.

"The first thing I started on was in Anime! It was a show called Case Closed that my dear friend Chris Sabat was kind enough to cast me in."

The American voice-actor spoke about how that event in his life opened doors to other opportunities and got introduced to the world of videogames.

Troy still receives rave reviews for voicing the lead character Joel on the predominantly successful and critically acclaimed action-adventure survival horror video game 'The Last of Us'.

He stars alongside Ashley Johnson who voices Ellie - a combination that gamers and Troy himself called a perfect match.

Baker explained, "You know, it's similar to lightning in a bottle, there was something to me that I understood about Joel that I feel was unique to me, it's not that what I did was better or worse  than anybody else, there was something that clicked between Johnson and I, and it worked really well together."

He added, "I don't know if by myself I would have been right for Joel, but I think because of Ashley there was a cool connection and relationship, and Neil the creative director saw something in me and I'm eternally grateful for that.

Having voiced over a hundred videogames, would there ever be a character that was harder than the rest?

"Every different role presents their own challenges, take for instance The Last of Us, the character and content was challenging and it was a very complex story, and the Joker, a character I grew up watching and greatly admiring, and having to bring out a performance that would in some way point to what he did, was a challenge."

The funny thing is that Troy Baker didn't even start out as a voice-actor.

"I was in a band doing our album at the studio, which also did car adverts, so I just happened to  in the right place at the right time, met Chris Sabat as I was going into one job and he was leaving... and that's kind of how it all happened."

As Troy is known for jumping into the action when he feels it's right, it led us to a topic that does involve jumping, although nothing related to videogames this time.

"It's my first time visiting Dubai," said Troy with a smile, "It's beautiful, absolutely gorgeous, I'm thinking about sky diving over the Palm, seeing this beautiful city from 13,000 feet would be incredible."

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