Video Game Voice Actors May Go On Strike

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

SAG-AFTRA would like to keep publishers and developer from hiring their own employees to do voice work without having those people join the union.

Wouldn't be a union without shit like this would it

I think I read a story the other day about a school teacher in the LA unified district that is suing right now because she is forced to join the public schools teachers union and pay them dues even though she doesn't want them organizing contracts or representing her on her behalf.

It seems insane to me that if you want to be able to represent yourself and deal directly with your employer, that you are not allowed to do this and not only that, but you have to pay money for the privilege of giving up your right to negotiate the value of your own labor.

This is the thing that really kills me. I have no problem with unions or people wanting to unionize, I have problems with them attempting to monopolize labor and claiming it's for the "greater good". If your union is really that great, then why wouldn't people want to join it? If anything, it makes it less likely that the union leadership will be receptive to creating policy and direction that is attractive to it's members if they don't have to compete for the support of those same members.

This seems blindingly obvious to me, but I guess other people need it explained.

The union negotiates on behalf of everyone in the union. If they get a deal through, everyone benefits from that deal.

People like that teacher you brought up are selfish bastards. They want the benefits the union provides. They want the security the union provides. They want to reap the rewards that the union fights for, but they don't want to pay for those benefits.

Ask anyone who doesn't want to pay into a union if they'd willingly give up any union won benefits so that they could try to negotiate their own benefits and they'll laugh in your fuckin face. Ask them if they'd willingly give up their health care, or willingly not take a raise that the union negotiated on their behalf for. Seriously, do it. See how many of them willingly agree that they, as a single person, could convince their employer to give them the same benefits that the union negotiated at.

People don't want to join unions because they don't want to spend money on the unions. They don't want to spend money on unions because unions have been stigmatized as horrible things over the last 2 decades and barely anyone understands how beneficial unions are.

Just look at the rhetoric involved. Fox news all day every day labels us as union thugs and talks about how we're bullying X group. Apparently to them threatening to go on strike because we don't get paid remotely close to a living wage, get forced to work unpaid overtime, and don't just bark when we're told to bark is somehow deplorable actions.

Ease up turbo; if someone doesn't want to be part of the Union and has enough confidence and experience to back themselves up and self negotiate for them, then power to them. I'm a member of a Union because I lack the skill set to negotiate on my own behalf so I'm more than happy to pay some dues (which I can claim back at tax time) that puts me in contact with people willing to argue or assist me with such matters.

However even as a Union man I would find it grossly offensive if a non-member was still required to pay dues; indeed I'm surprised that it's even legal to do so - pretty sure it isn't in Australia - and it isn't, if fucking shouldn't be.


As for the voice actors thing; I think they're perhaps overreaching on the hazard pay argument, in my mind it would be far less adversarial to request provisions for medical care in the event of damage to the larynx and/or vocal cords themselves incurred in the course of work would probably be okay: that way it's a claimable expense if the need arises but if nothing happens then the actor is not out of pocket and neither is the company.

The royalties thing is difficult since I'm reasonably sure actors who contract out their likeness, be it in appearance or voice, can request such compensation but it's usually negotiated during contract phase rather than after the fact. So by all means they can ask for it, especially if merchandising is involved - I'd like to think Mark Vanderloo got a few quid for some of the Mass Effect toys that bore his likeness.

 

[Dalrien]

Regardless of if it works, I do hope it works out for them. Whether it's "moral" to demand more pay than they are already getting Is irrelevant to me.

Again, nope, just 100% correct. Apparently I'm biased for being able to recognize quality and a lack thereof. I didn't come here to get into an argument, but the fact is the only way Japanese voice acting, ALL of it, could possibly be any worse than it is is if it was nothing but a Japanese girl screaming as loud as humanly possible into a mic over and over again. Japanese voice acting is HORRIBLE, biased or not, that's all there is to it.

That's it. I'm leaving this thread before this turns into some big ten page long argument.

You weren't contributing much either way, a part from putting forth your biased view and attempting to make it seem like factual information.

 

[immortalfrieza]

Regardless of if it works, I do hope it works out for them. Whether it's "moral" to demand more pay than they are already getting Is irrelevant to me.

Again, nope, just 100% correct. Apparently I'm biased for being able to recognize quality and a lack thereof. I didn't come here to get into an argument, but the fact is the only way Japanese voice acting, ALL of it, could possibly be any worse than it is is if it was nothing but a Japanese girl screaming as loud as humanly possible into a mic over and over again. Japanese voice acting is HORRIBLE, biased or not, that's all there is to it.

That's it. I'm leaving this thread before this turns into some big ten page long argument.

You weren't contributing much either way, a part from putting forth your biased view and attempting to make it seem like factual information.

I don't need to try to make what I've said seem like factual information, it simply is to anyone with any standards whatsoever. People can admit that or they can refuse to, it doesn't change what I said from being the truth either way.

 

[FFHAuthor]

Whatever, I honestly can't bring myself to care.

Unions devastate anything they touch so it'll hurt professional voice acting, but on the flip of that it'll force developers who can't afford union scale wages for voice actors to go and recruit other talent...and that'll help with a lot of games these days. Maybe they'll decide to use twenty staff members for the next Elder Scrolls game instead of three unionized voice actors (down from the seven they were using before).

 

[Dalrien]

I don't need to try to make what I've said seem like factual information, it simply is to anyone with any standards whatsoever. People can admit that or they can refuse to, it doesn't change what I said from being the truth either way.

Continuing to lay your view forth without backing it up with a source or anything of significance doesn't prove anything. I can claim that pigs sprout wings at night but that doesn't make it true.

 

[immortalfrieza]

Continuing to lay your view forth without backing it up with a source or anything of significance doesn't prove anything. I can claim that pigs sprout wings at night but that doesn't make it true.

I don't need to back it up, any more than I would need to back up the statement "sticking your hand in a fire will burn you" by sticking the hand of the one I'm talking to into a fire to prove it. I don't need to PROVE anything that is completely and utterly obvious to anyone with functioning senses, I should be able to just state it and people that read it should think something like "oh, okay" and MOVE ON.

You people took one not even full sentence about everything I said and decided to reduce it down to ridiculousness while ignoring anything and everything else just to provoke me. I don't care if you or anyone else either are too ignorant to recognize an obvious truth when it's said or just don't want to admit that what I said is in fact true despite already knowing it is. People will agree with me or they won't, an obvious truth is still an obvious truth REGARDLESS of the willingness of anyone to agree with it.

I have given Japanese voice acting MORE than enough chances to provide actual worth, and I am through with doing that. There was a time when I'd watch a Japanese version of something with english subtitles and then an English version of something I liked enough if it existed back to back, and EVERY single time Japanese voice acting was inferior, often by an absolute ridiculous margin. Dragonball, Dragonball Z, GT, Inuyasha, Most every Gundam series, Multiple video games based on these animes, Tales of Phantasia, and that's just off the top of my head of the Japanese to English series I've done this. If that's not enough proof for any rational person I don't know what is.

 

[Atmos Duality]

*shrugs*
It's a lesser evil trying to shake down a greater evil.
On one hand, the operating structure for publishers is already quite one-sided. CEOs make millions for doing fuck-all on any given project.

On the other, any union that wants this:

SAG-AFTRA would like to keep publishers and developer from hiring their own employees to do voice work without having those people join the union.

Can fuck right off.
Compulsory membership and (doubtless) required dues?
Call me crazy, but that isn't terribly far removed from a protection racket.

 

[Dalrien]

I don't need to back it up, any more than I would need to back up the statement "sticking your hand in a fire will burn you" by sticking the hand of the one I'm talking to into a fire to prove it. I don't need to PROVE anything that is completely and utterly obvious to anyone with functioning senses, I should be able to just state it and people that read it should think something like "oh, okay" and MOVE ON.

You people took one not even full sentence about everything I said and decided to reduce it down to ridiculousness while ignoring anything and everything else just to provoke me. I don't care if you or anyone else either are too ignorant to recognize an obvious truth when it's said or just don't want to admit that what I said is in fact true despite already knowing it is. People will agree with me or they won't, an obvious truth is still an obvious truth REGARDLESS of the willingness of anyone to agree with it.

I have given Japanese voice acting MORE than enough chances to provide actual worth, and I am through with doing that. There was a time when I'd watch a Japanese version of something with english subtitles and then an English version of something I liked enough if it existed back to back, and EVERY single time Japanese voice acting was inferior, often by an absolute ridiculous margin. Dragonball, Dragonball Z, GT, Inuyasha, Most every Gundam series, Multiple video games based on these animes, Tales of Phantasia, and that's just off the top of my head of the Japanese to English series I've done this. If that's not enough proof for any rational person I don't know what is.

Your opinion is only worth as much as others deem it to be, buddy and you've only provided your opinion on the matter without anything but that to back it up other than "I've seen things, stuff", hence people who disagree because "opinion" have as much right to say you're wrong as you have to say you're "right".

Good luck with life.

 

[Xorph]

Continuing to lay your view forth without backing it up with a source or anything of significance doesn't prove anything. I can claim that pigs sprout wings at night but that doesn't make it true.

I don't need to back it up, any more than I would need to back up the statement "sticking your hand in a fire will burn you" by sticking the hand of the one I'm talking to into a fire to prove it. I don't need to PROVE anything that is completely and utterly obvious to anyone with functioning senses, I should be able to just state it and people that read it should think something like "oh, okay" and MOVE ON.

You people took one not even full sentence about everything I said and decided to reduce it down to ridiculousness while ignoring anything and everything else just to provoke me. I don't care if you or anyone else either are too ignorant to recognize an obvious truth when it's said or just don't want to admit that what I said is in fact true despite already knowing it is. People will agree with me or they won't, an obvious truth is still an obvious truth REGARDLESS of the willingness of anyone to agree with it.

I have given Japanese voice acting MORE than enough chances to provide actual worth, and I am through with doing that. There was a time when I'd watch a Japanese version of something with english subtitles and then an English version of something I liked enough if it existed back to back, and EVERY single time Japanese voice acting was inferior, often by an absolute ridiculous margin. Dragonball, Dragonball Z, GT, Inuyasha, Most every Gundam series, Multiple video games based on these animes, Tales of Phantasia, and that's just off the top of my head of the Japanese to English series I've done this. If that's not enough proof for any rational person I don't know what is.

You know, I think the problem here is that you're just watching shitty anime. Saying the voice acting for DBGT and Inuyasha is shit doesn't mean much when the entire anime is shit. Try comparing the godawful english dub of Mirai Nikki to the original japanese, or watch Panty & Stocking, just to name two examples of great nipponese VA work. Just because the popular, syndicated crap being marketed to 12-14 year olds is garbage doesn't magically invalidate everything else.

Congrats, by the way, for getting me to log in for the first time in 3-odd years thanks to your shortsightedness.

 

[Tilly]

There are some massive problems undermining everything they're demanding:

1) Voice acting isn't even necessary for most games and is largely an added novelty.
2) Amateur voice acting is completely fine in most cases.

I'm playing Freedom Planet right now. I have a very strong suspicion the voice acting was done by various people online from their homes (based on the weird variety of sound quality). But to be honest, it's completely fine. Anything better would likely be a waste of money. Ok, so I can understand that for big cinematic experiences like MGS you maybe want something more hi-tech, but that's only a tiny number of the total games out there.

To sum up. They're massively overgenralizing and overestimating their worth to the industry and I know it sounds harsh but should frankly just be glad to getting this work that doesn't actually need to exist for the most part. We could halve the number of games with voice acting tomorrow and the industry would barely care.

 

[crazygameguy4ever]

did everyone hear that the video game voice actor's Guild Authorized the strike? meaning it's closer to happening... if games do go without voice work for a time, i intend not to buy any newly made games til the strike is over.. i'll just buy older already released games instead.. and if enough gamers refuse to buy games and make it clear it's because we want voice acting in them, maybe the industry will give in and give the voice actors what they deserve.. i hope they resolve this before it happens but it's looking less and less like they will before it's too late.