Makes perfect sense from the perspective of an actor.

They want their performance to come naturally and with the direction of the writers/directors.

Playing the games can make an actor subconsciously act how they think would fit the games rather than how would fit their specific character.

Makes sense to me. The Ghoul is an original character, and Goggins doesn't need to know a lot about the setting or source material.

I mean, it’s not like he’s the writer lol

Doesn’t seem like an issue to me

Sounds like a pretty standard Method Acting way of going about it.

Fair. It's not like his character is in them.

I'm totally cool with this. He's not involved in the creative direction. He's just a damn good actor, he doesn't need to understand the whole feral, or glowing one, or whatever. Let the writers write and actors act and ffs keep the executive away from both!!!

Good for him. Actors who want to embrace their character and the world they are portrayed in shouldn’t feel pressured to consume the source material, whether that’s a video game series or a book, especially when the show or movie could wildly diverge from the source.

He'd be perfect for the writer's room

EDIT: Jokes aside, I respect his decision as an actor, but I also don't have faith in the direction they're giving him. Fans want him to play the games because they don't have faith, either, and they'd like someone on set pushing for something closer in tone to the West Coast games than the East Coast games. He's easily the best part of the show.

Considering none of the characters in the game played the game either, I don't see the controversy.

It’s not like his character has a special meta understanding of the fallout games or universe

He’s acting the character like he’s a professional actor because he is and a good one too

Walton Goggins apparently

If he is dedicated to the world and his character, that's sufficient. Hes a fantastic actor. buuuut...

I would suspect that him playing the games would not make him "think of the world or the characters of Fallout as elements of a game." but I'm not Walter Goggins. Realistically, hes just not into video games with major story campaigns and doesn't understand they're just a different form of story telling media. He's thinking of video games as exclusively as an avenue of competition, mastery, or challenge.

So I think hes wrong, but I don't know that it matters that materially.

My mind's eye flashes to something like The Master and I'm bummed that's considered "gamey" by great actors. Not that I expect actors to go fucking play Fallout 1 with a Small Gun Crit/Speech build and go collect the Brotherhood's data and confront the Master in a battle of words... but if someone would like to show Goggins on their phone that kind of thing is in the games, that the games themselves strived very hard to make living, colorful worlds, I think it certainly wouldn't hurt the show. Hell if someone wants to show that scene to anyone currently at Bethesda I think it could positively impact the next game.

How does he have that much natural hair and still look bald?

I see what he's saying, but none of this is that serious. Just do your job and act, dude. I don't care if you play Fallout, play Hello Kitty Island Adventure, or play Pogs. Make the show good.

Is he saying “this is a fallout game you don’t get to play”? Instead of making this into a game, it became a tv show?

Disturbing yet intriguing that his face looks like an anthropomorphic Jason mask.

Not even just to see if the games are fun? Like, he doesn't need to take inspiration for his character from it, but if he is interested in playing video games for fun outside of relating to his acting roles, why not give them a shot?

If he said "I just have no intetest in playing video games" I'd have no follow-up questions about it.

Lets be real, if he did play them it would be fallout 3 and 4 and MAYBE NV. The Bethesda games have awful stories presented awfully. He is not missing much context there.

I disagree with this approach. People are shaped by the world they live in, and so too would characters. Short of an isekai or total insanity, it doesn't make sense for someone to be disconnected from their reality.

It would be like playing an Earthling Star Trek character in Starfleet, while having no idea about Klingons, Vulcans, or Wolf 359.

Good. Other than the first two, they’re awful.

the way he says it, it just comes off as ignorant and condescending.

So this actor won’t connect with 99.9 percent of the shows fans? This actor refuses to research his role? Thinks he knows better than the successful franchise that the show is based on? Or is he really saying “get fucked nerds, I’m a Hollywood actor and so much better than you or this role”