Vincent Grayson
Member
I wonder when/if we'll see this happen for all the other people who work on games and are getting shafted in (IMO) much worse ways, like those working crunch times.
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SAG-AFTRA Video Game Voice Actors Authorize Strike (they're not striking yet)
- Thread starter Shard
- Start date
The amount of people in this thread encouraging, hoping for, or even volunteering to scab is alarming and depressing.
Surely the aim should be to make everyone's lot better, rather than drag everyone down to the lowest common denominator?
Working conditions in the games industry are notoriously poor, so maybe those "underpaid devs" should be unionising and using collective bargaining to their advantage too.
Surely the aim should be to make everyone's lot better, rather than drag everyone down to the lowest common denominator?
Working conditions in the games industry are notoriously poor, so maybe those "underpaid devs" should be unionising and using collective bargaining to their advantage too.
I was gonna be all like "Yo Square Enix, why you gotta push your dumb names onto Saga Frontier now?"
I sometimes find bad voice acting kind of endearing and don't mind because in most cases you can skip it or turn it off. So from a quality perspective I'm not too bothered BUT I completely appreciate and support them in their venture for better conditions especially if they're not getting the treatment they would get anywhere else.
I sometimes find bad voice acting kind of endearing and don't mind because in most cases you can skip it or turn it off. So from a quality perspective I'm not too bothered BUT I completely appreciate and support them in their venture for better conditions especially if they're not getting the treatment they would get anywhere else.
Glendemonium
Member
I'm so torn by this, on one hand I want to see VAs get residuals and proper treatment for the talent they've provided us for years. Yet at the same time, I kind of want fresh new talent to start appearing in games and animated shows.
I don't think we'll go back to the "Jill Sandwich" era of voice acting, because there are tons of talented aspiring VA now that are hungry for more work... unless game companies just won't give a damn about talent and just get the night janitor to speak a few lines.
EDIT: I want to retract this statement, due to my ignorance on the subject. VAs should get residuals and better compensation regardless. I was under the impression the VA world (as far as gaming) was pretty darn small.
I don't think we'll go back to the "Jill Sandwich" era of voice acting, because there are tons of talented aspiring VA now that are hungry for more work... unless game companies just won't give a damn about talent and just get the night janitor to speak a few lines.
EDIT: I want to retract this statement, due to my ignorance on the subject. VAs should get residuals and better compensation regardless. I was under the impression the VA world (as far as gaming) was pretty darn small.
This is what I've been thinking every time I see people bring up the developers. But then it's the same crap we hear in some minimum wage arguments, dragging/keeping people down rather than uplifting everyone who isn't already in some extra cushy position.
copelandmaster
Member
Not automatically a bad thing, depending on the performance needed.
Also, wasn't Guy Cihi basically 'Steve from Accounting'? Silent Hill fans love that dub so bad they pushed for it really hard for the Silent Hill HD collection.
OT: Good on them.
Kinda unrelated (and a huge can of worms with a lot of stipulations, mindsets and general problems to overcome), but hopefully video game developers will strive to achieve the same representation one day in the future.
mgs2master2
Banned
Hayters gonna hayte.
Might as well get Troy baker and nolan north to do every voice now. Also maybe some others who been trying to break into voice acting but couldnt.
I do hope things work out for them, but hopefully its a positive change all around.
Might as well get Troy baker and nolan north to do every voice now. Also maybe some others who been trying to break into voice acting but couldnt.
I do hope things work out for them, but hopefully its a positive change all around.
thenadamgoes
Neo Member
So basically just Troy Baker and Nolan North? Since they make up about 95% of the voices in games.
benicillin
Banned
There are always new voice actors coming into the industry, this idea that somehow a strike will make developers suddenly go out and seek all this amazing new talent to finally "give them a chance" is kind of silly.
It's true that a lot of major AAA games will re-use the same voice actors, but that's more related to the fact that if you pay Nolan North or Troy Baker for a days session you know they're going to show up on time, deliver a solid performance and fit your time table and budget. Big developers and publishers don't want to hire unknowns. That's why union talent makes up a small portion of the overall voice acting industry but nearly 100% for big budget AAA titles.
I think P5 would be affected even if it was non-union. Past localizations even though they were non-union employed a lot of union voice actors. Union VAs doing uncredited side jobs is basically tolerated under normal circumstances but would be considered strikebreaking during a strike.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
The idea of a blacklist is so ridiculous that nobody actually thinks it exists.
Glendemonium
Member
You're right, I keep getting the impression that there is a small pool of VA all around, but in perspective this issue is more limited to gaming, yet the pool of talent is enormous in the animated/anime dubbing sector. I mean, Funimation started recruiting tons of talent over the years. I think Laura Bailey got her big break there if I'm not mistaken as Kid Trunks a long time ago and still does work for them among her other contacts, I could be wrong. Then we got Chris Ayers really hitting out of the park as Freeza. I miss the original actress who did him, but I can also understand the change.
UberTag
Member
You're not wrong. Many game VAs got their initial break in the industry doing anime dubbing for FUNimation (Dallas / Fort Worth), Sentai / ADV (Houston / Austin), Ocean (Vancouver) and the various studios in New York and Toronto and then flocked to Los Angeles so they could milk bigger paydays from gaming and high-profile Western animation. That talent circle does a lot of networking. Troy Baker got his start with FUNimation as well... just like Laura.
Imbarkus
As Sartre noted in his contemplation on Hell in No Exit, the true horror is other members.
Isn't that part of where the hard line is being redrawn? Mixed SAG/AFTRA and FiCore casts will no longer be possible, correct?
maquiladora
Member
Text to speech software has been getting pretty good.
Yabberwocky
Member
Milking?! I can't blame them the slightest for wanting bigger pay days. Dubbing work doesn't pay a lot, even if you work consistently. Steve Blum is a great example of someone who was doing a lot of prominent dubbing work for years and years, but still had to keep a day job because it's not something you can sustain a family on. When he moved over to more television animation/gaming, he was able to do voice-work full time. Dubbing work isn't the easiest thing to sustain yourself on long term.
Voice-work also tends to be fairly insular via the voice directors/casting, too, because if you find someone who does a good job and is easy to work with, you're going to reuse them. (That would go even more so for dubbing, which is an acquired skill to do right.)
UberTag
Member
Hey, I wasn't using "milking" as a negative term. Heck, that's simply the ladder you climb in the industry. If you get really good at it, you get on the inside track with the right casting director and you start landing full-time mainstream voice acting gigs like Kari Wahlgren. But only a select few are ever able to make that jump and stick it.
wipeout364
Member
Not a huge fan of this action to be honest, but I got lambasted in the day zero New Zealand studio thread so I'll leave it at that.
I do find neogaf kind of bizarre in the way it's calling for increased wages for everyone yet is so often opposed to game prices increasing, microtransactions and dlc; I think it is hard to improve working conditions and wages without significant price increases, ie you can't have one without the other. Would you accept 79.99 or 89.99 for game prices if it meant everyone got a better work environment? I can't count the times people say I'll wait till it's half price or I will never use microtransactions or buy dlc.
I do find neogaf kind of bizarre in the way it's calling for increased wages for everyone yet is so often opposed to game prices increasing, microtransactions and dlc; I think it is hard to improve working conditions and wages without significant price increases, ie you can't have one without the other. Would you accept 79.99 or 89.99 for game prices if it meant everyone got a better work environment? I can't count the times people say I'll wait till it's half price or I will never use microtransactions or buy dlc.
Exactly how much time do you expect the average voice actor can strike while still being able to pay their bills based solely on anime/cartoon work (while competing with everyone else who is now not doing video games)?
And given it's the full guild, we're not just talking about Troy Baker paying the rent here, but all those people who voice ten random NPCs.
No way are you anything close to a majority on this one.
Most of the demands are very reasonable...others less so but hopefully a satisfactory resolution can be achieved.
So...just Yuri Lowenthal then
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
I think only assholes would say no to this.
I don't know the specific details of guild, but it's not uncommon for union members to receive some form of compensation during the strike to cover basic expenses out of a strike fund.
I don't know how long is realistic to expect the strike to last, but it's worth discussing all the same, no?
Tinfoilhatsron
Banned
Lol, the reality is that the "Video Game Market" would crash so hard IMO. People are already complaining about how high the price is already. Talking casuals and hardcore. It'd be an intetesting experiment though...
I'm sure most of the informed video game consumers would pay a little extra if it meant a better working environment for the devs, but do we really believe that even if games cost $90 that the actual game developers would see any of that?
I mean already with DLC and season passes most AAA games cost about that now and I don't believe working conditions have improved much since these have become industry standard.
And possibly not particularly forward thinking ones. If everyone on average were treated better and made more then paying that bit extra won't be a big deal. Never mind it may not even need a large increase (could see price drops slowing though, but that probably wasn't very healthy anyway.)
Petrae
Member
Nope. $80+ standard for new games on Day One would mean no more launch day purchases at all for me. It would effectively price me out of the market.
That said, I rarely buy games on Day One anymore. Between launch-window tech issues, price drops 3-6 weeks after launch, and many games getting GOTY editions with extra content, it takes a truly amazing game to get me to pay $60 for it. I don't need to play games first; I'm happy to just play them eventually.
mgs2master2
Banned
so they voted in favor of a strike but is the strike an actual thing now?
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
I honestly think that we're going to see a major overhaul of how games are priced and distributed in the next few years regardless of how this strike goes.
MaverickHunterAsh
Member
Behind them 120%. I hope they get what they want and that these greedy publishers get pressured into backing down.
I rarely say this, but those of you in this thread writing all VAs off as half-assed amateurs whining for things they don't deserve literally, objectively do not know what you're talking about.
I rarely say this, but those of you in this thread writing all VAs off as half-assed amateurs whining for things they don't deserve literally, objectively do not know what you're talking about.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
Video Games are a "Fun Job".
Fun Jobs deserve less than Real Jobs.
or something.
The other angle is about how they should be propping developers up more and paying them more first. Which can be true but enters the same area as "all lives matter" in de-emphasizing a problem and watering it down on a whole. Especially as undermining unions wouldn't help developers out much.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
Well, in a perfect world, we would be doing this for devs first and VA last. I'm not going to deny that. We just happen to live in a reality where actors have a union that just happens to intersect with games.
And I think at a bare minimum people have to acknowledge that at least some (if not most honestly) requests are pretty reasonable. Is it going to sink a studio if they HAVE to break up intense sessions?
Dominic_Shade
Member
I didn't think this was big enough to deserve a new topic, so I'll stick this here. On a Dungeons and Dragons podcast from Wizards of the Coast, voice actor Matthew Mercer (RE6, MGSV) spent a bit of time sharing his thoughts on the SAG-AFTRA negotiations. Other voice actors featured in the podcast are Marisha Ray (Persona 4, MGSV) and Orion Acaba (FF-Type 0, RE6). The conversation is about 10 minutes long, but I found it interesting to listen to nevertheless.
The podcast can be found here. Matt begins talking about it at 1:04:21.
A brief list of points I found interesting::
-Matt worked in game development for seven years before becoming an actor professionally
-Marisha wants to improve working conditions for devs on the creator's side, and Matt agrees with the idea that any bonus pay should go to the devs first and the actors second
-For RE6, Orion had to voice a third of the zombies, a process that included five takes for each "line". He lost his voice the next day.
The rest of the podcast primarily revolves around "Critical Role", the DnD Twitch-streamed show helmed by Matt and starring Marisha and Orion plus other video game actors such as Laura Bailey and Liam O'Brien. Matt also talks about the DnD one-shot session he did with Vin Diesel three weeks ago. For those who haven't seen it, the session can be found here..
The podcast can be found here. Matt begins talking about it at 1:04:21.
A brief list of points I found interesting::
-Matt worked in game development for seven years before becoming an actor professionally
-Marisha wants to improve working conditions for devs on the creator's side, and Matt agrees with the idea that any bonus pay should go to the devs first and the actors second
-For RE6, Orion had to voice a third of the zombies, a process that included five takes for each "line". He lost his voice the next day.
The rest of the podcast primarily revolves around "Critical Role", the DnD Twitch-streamed show helmed by Matt and starring Marisha and Orion plus other video game actors such as Laura Bailey and Liam O'Brien. Matt also talks about the DnD one-shot session he did with Vin Diesel three weeks ago. For those who haven't seen it, the session can be found here..