Speaking to the folks at Eurogamer, actor Joe Kucan, known for playing Kane in EA's Command & Conquer games, commented that he doesn't believe today's video games are having much impact on popular culture.

"We're half-way there," he said. "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."

Perhaps Kucan needs to be introduced to World of Warcraft, GTA, Halo, Wii Sports and Madden. We can't help but think those have had a substantial cultural impact beyond their sales.

Although the games industry has come a long way since Kucan started with Command & Conquer in 1995, he also said he still feels that many in the acting community have an aversion to working on video games – although clearly, in the last five years or so we've seen more and more big names lend their voice talents and even likenesses to games as the Hollywood and gaming convergence accelerates. "I think there's still snobbery; I think there's still a massive misunderstanding about what the work actually is," Kucan said.