Video Game Voice Actors Will Go On Strike this Friday Unless a Deal is Reached

[MiskWisk]

After more than 18 months of negotiation, video game voice actors will go on strike unless a dead is reached this week.

A dead is reached? They're not planning on killing people over this are they?

OT: I'll throw my lot in with the people who don't really know how to feel about this. I do sort of lean more on the side of the voice actors but at the same time I know so little and have so little motivation to actually search for that information that making an actual statement on this is not sensible. Plus, having been on the receiving end of spurious strike action I may be somewhat embittered to striking unions without seeing what conditions are like currently and what they are actually after.

 

[Ukomba]

The effect of which won't be felt for months, if ever.

 

[hentropy]

The ridiculous demands the voice actors wanted back when they started this nonsense likely haven't been reduced. So i doubt this will get resolved. Like, they want residuals from the game sales. No one is buying a game because BigVoice McGee is in it. Its not hollywood where the name sells the movie. They also want 4 hour recording sessions to be reduced to 2 hour sessions. Without cutting the pay for the session. Lunatics.

The problem is that giving up on all those things for video games weakens your position for movies, TV shows, and other things where names do matter. Most of it is just negotiation fodder, anyway. Most are simply supporting the strike for better working conditions. 4 hours may not seem like a long time, but it is when you're constantly talking in a little kid's voice with no breaks.

Is video game voice acting really something someone can effectively go on strike from?

The issue of leverage is a real one. This won't have the same immediate sting as other strikes. However, there is a reason why the companies are even at the table. Finding consistently good, professional level talent who are able to meet the demands of the job is difficult. A union may protect workers, but it also makes it easy to just call up SAG and get a list of great voice actors who can fly out tomorrow.

While it's very possible to get non-union voice actors, plenty of companies do it, you'll end up spending a lot more time on that task, and when you're on a schedule and you have hours of voice to record like many of these companies do, someone you picked off of Youtube is a risk.

Except you won't get fresh blood. This could actually keep a lot of young voice actors from going to games and instead focus on stuff like animation or anime dubbing (of which there is no shortage). Fact of the matter is that this is on the pubs and devs. They wanted to push this "cinematic" angle and go for lots of VA and pushing narrative. Eventually the VA industry was going to push back and demand better treatment if companies were going to make more and more money off of their efforts. This was a long time coming and the games industry had best tread carefully.

Most anime dubbing is non-union, and an increasing amount of TV animation is as well. You look at the new Powerpuff Girls show and other shows on CN as an example. They're trying to hire younger and non-union, including hiring actual children. You could say this is one of the reasons why the union wants to start drawing lines, they don't want their pay and conditions to be on par with literal children.

 

[Solkard]

I want to see them go on strike, just to see what happens.

 

[MoltenSilver]

I don't understand any of the comments calling them greedy, woe are the other people on the development team, etc. The voice actors are willing to actually roll the dice on their future to be treated better. The idea of 'well everyone gets treated like shit except CEOs so you should too' baffles me. We shouldn't be discouraging this strike, we should be encouraging other aspects of video-game development to start getting demanding too.

 

[Fox12]

I wish they had gone on strike sooner, so that Fallout 4 would have scrapped the voiced protagonist.

Screw 'em. All five of them. I'm tired of having the same few voices in everything anyway. No one buys a fucking video game because Nolan North is in it. And that's a good thing. It means people care more about the story, game play, and characters then the voice actors.

I have no sympathy for unions whatsoever. Replace the people you lost with new talent.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

I don't understand any of the comments calling them greedy, woe are the other people on the development team, etc. The voice actors are willing to actually roll the dice on their future to be treated better. The idea of 'well everyone gets treated like shit except CEOs so you should too' baffles me. We shouldn't be discouraging this strike, we should be encouraging other aspects of video-game development to start getting demanding too.

Because it boils down to this: "if it gets in the way of a game I am looking forward to being released then clearly the people demanding to be treated more fairly are evil." Gamers don't care about actors, programmers, and devs being treated like crap as long as it doesn't affect their toys.

 

[kekkres]

At first I was annoyed...then I was thinking something...then I saw Bethesda wasnt on the list...dang. Could have been a good excuse to make TES go back to text.

someone at bethesda has said that fallour 4s voiced charicters was a mistake and a massive waste of resorces and development time and something they will not likely pursue going forward (helps that elder scrolls 6 would need 18 full voiced protags instead of two which would be immensely costly)

 

[Saelune]

At first I was annoyed...then I was thinking something...then I saw Bethesda wasnt on the list...dang. Could have been a good excuse to make TES go back to text.

someone at bethesda has said that fallour 4s voiced charicters was a mistake and a massive waste of resorces and development time and something they will not likely pursue going forward (helps that elder scrolls 6 would need 18 full voiced protags instead of two which would be immensely costly)

I was never really concerned about that for Elder Scrolls. They put more effort into TES which is their own creation, and Fallout has always had greater say on who YOU are. I also personally didnt mind the voiced character in FO4, I just didnt like the motivation that conflicts with the ability to do what you want, since you clearly are a loving determined parent who shouldnt be wasting their time building settlements.

However voiced dialogue in general has severely limited what they can do in TES, as I am reminded as I am currently replaying Morrowind, and was playing Daggerfall. Both games take advantage of the text dialogue.

 

[lord synfel]

question what are their demands and what is what triggered this issue? the redirects dont work on my internet for some reason

 

[Mister K]

I mean, hopefully the outcome of this situation will satisfy both parties, but I can live without voice acting, to be perfectly honest. The only type of games that, for me personally, will be impacted by lack of voices are "Big Budget Summer Blockbusters", which I don't even play anymore.

I'll lie if I say that voice acting didn't affect my opinions on some games, but honestly, I'd rather see money poured into writing department. And QA.

However, as I've said before, I'd rather see this situation resolved in a compromise. Though I doubt that CEOs would be willing to spend more money on voice actors.

 

[fix-the-spade]

So let them. Voice acting costs too much as it is.

But is it really? Companies always claim this in an effort to keep wages down, but they can always find money to get some A-Lister into a project for no good reason (only exception being Kevin Spacey in Call of Duty, that was brilliant).

 

[Mister K]

I don't understand any of the comments calling them greedy, woe are the other people on the development team, etc. The voice actors are willing to actually roll the dice on their future to be treated better. The idea of 'well everyone gets treated like shit except CEOs so you should too' baffles me. We shouldn't be discouraging this strike, we should be encouraging other aspects of video-game development to start getting demanding too.

Because it boils down to this: "if it gets in the way of a game I am looking forward to being released then clearly the people demanding to be treated more fairly are evil." Gamers don't care about actors, programmers, and devs being treated like crap as long as it doesn't affect their toys.

Again with generalization. And calling games "toys". Whose quote was it that "we are not toymakers..." etc.?

I doubt that the non-vocal majority actually wants unfair treatment of voice actors. Heck, I'd rather see this situation resolved peacefully, with satisfaction for both parties.

I'd personally like to hear new VA's though. How many times can one hear Nolan North and Troy Baker and not get bored with them? I am not saying that they are bad voice actors, but I doubt that I'd watch movies if every second one had Will Smith cast in a main role, no matter how much I like him. Besides, as Fox12 rightfully said

I wish they had gone on strike sooner, so that Fallout 4 would have scrapped the voiced protagonist.

...

No one buys a fucking video game because Nolan North is in it. And that's a good thing. It means people care more about the story, game play, and characters then the voice actors.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Sooooooo... Nolan North, Jennifer Hale, and the five people they got to voice all the characters in Skyrim?

I kid, I kid. But yeah, voice actors get short shrift in gaming. And to those saying that games should get rid of voice acting and revert to text entirely: How about we go back to silent movies, too?

 

[FalloutJack]

The ridiculous demands the voice actors wanted back when they started this nonsense likely haven't been reduced. So i doubt this will get resolved. Like, they want residuals from the game sales. No one is buying a game because BigVoice McGee is in it. Its not hollywood where the name sells the movie. They also want 4 hour recording sessions to be reduced to 2 hour sessions. Without cutting the pay for the session. Lunatics.

You might think that, but you'd be wrong. Ask an anime fan who knows about voice actors, and that their fave actor not only reprises roles they took in games linked to their shows, but a number of other voices, based on the fact that they're just blatently talented. I mean, Steve Blum is EVERYWHERE, for instance. Don't tell me nobody cares. They do.

 

[Lufia Erim]

So let them. Voice acting costs too much as it is.

But is it really? Companies always claim this in an effort to keep wages down, but they can always find money to get some A-Lister into a project for no good reason (only exception being Kevin Spacey in Call of Duty, that was brilliant).

Thats a good point. I guess I'm showing my age a bit but to be entirely honest, I, personally , prefer reading text over voice acting. You can definitely argue that you can better convey emotion through voiced dialog, which in turn can lead to better immersion. However bad voice acting can do the complete opposite and take you out of the moment entirely. I am sure it has happened to everyone here to have a characters voice be so annoying that it killed a lot of the characters charm.

With text you don't really have that problem. Like when reading a book, you can be immersed with just text. Better to imagine a characters voice than have a voice over be unappealing or out of sync. It can also be easier to write text for a game without having to worry about a voice that may have to speak it. You also get the luxury of having longer text or details, something thay gets cut to a bear minimum when a game is fully voiced over.

A game like planescape:torment couldn't exist if every peice of dialogue was voiced over, it would just cost way too much. And yet that game is highly regarded in the gaming industry.

As for finding the money for big named actors, well having a familiar and famous face directly increases sales. It's name brand recognition plain and simple. It's the same reason some actors get paid two or three times as much money than other the feature in films. Their face quite litterally sells the movie. Same with Kevin Spacey, while he was a known actor before, House of Cards has made him a household name. Even to the point that ,arguably, more people know him as Frank Underwood than Kevin Spacey. So having the " guy from House of cards" in the last CoD game definitely boosted sales.

But this is all my opinion of course.

 

[Lufia Erim]

Sooooooo... Nolan North, Jennifer Hale, and the five people they got to voice all the characters in Skyrim?

I kid, I kid. But yeah, voice actors get short shrift in gaming. And to those saying that games should get rid of voice acting and revert to text entirely: How about we go back to silent movies, too?

I get the idea you are going for but i feel like you have the wrong comparaison. I know both have to do with sound, but it isn't really comparable because you kind of lose a element of depth with silent movies. Silent movies would probably be more akin to going back to 2D gaming. Whereas i think the proper comparaison would be going back to black and white films. Now had you said that, that could have been an interesting discussion.

But then again i have the impression that your comment was more of a jab than an attempt to have a meaningful discussion about Voice acting.

 

[Fox12]

I don't understand any of the comments calling them greedy, woe are the other people on the development team, etc. The voice actors are willing to actually roll the dice on their future to be treated better. The idea of 'well everyone gets treated like shit except CEOs so you should too' baffles me. We shouldn't be discouraging this strike, we should be encouraging other aspects of video-game development to start getting demanding too.

Because it boils down to this: "if it gets in the way of a game I am looking forward to being released then clearly the people demanding to be treated more fairly are evil." Gamers don't care about actors, programmers, and devs being treated like crap as long as it doesn't affect their toys.

Not at all. Do you remember their earlier demands? That anyone who doesn't belong to the union doesn't get to work in the industry? In an industry that's already difficult to break into, they wanted to make it even harder. And, if by some miracle you did make it in, then you would have to give some of your money to a union. You would lose the right to negotiate with you employer without them. Here's the thing. Some people don't want to be part of a union. Some people are happier without the hassle. It isn't ethical for them to try and strong arm both companies and other workers. But, corporations are always evil, so I guess the unions are right no matter what they do.

Furthermore, why do VA's deserve residuals? What about their job earns them that? That may fly in film, where big name actors bring success, but certainly not in gaming. Nothing about their work entitles them to that. Frankly, they're being greedy. There are plenty of other positions that deserve that more, but VA's are in the spotlight, so when they act like pre madonnas people pay more attention.

Finally, unions get in the way. Not just in games, but everywhere. You call them toys. I call them art. Either way, it doesn't really matter. Look at George Lucas, for instance. The Directors Guild wanted Star Wars to have credits at the beginning of the film. Lucas wanted them at the end in order to maintain the dramatic opening of the movie. They fined him millions, and refused to let him hire Spielberg for the final film. People complain about how corporations hold back art, but unions can be even worse. They're just another unfeeling bureaucracy that muddles up the works. Please, let's stop pretending that their the good guys.

 

[immortalfrieza]

Is video game voice acting really something someone can effectively go on strike from?

I mean, it's not like it's daily work and the lack of workers will have an immediate noticeable affect and bring production to a halt. As far as I know, most video game voice acting is recorded separately from the main project and recorded during a set period of time during the production, it's not an ongoing endeavour and for the majority of the time, as far as one project is concerned, the voice actors are on "strike" anyway.

Also, as Rockstar proved with GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption, you don't actually need to deal with and bend to the whims of demanding actors (like they had done in the past with some of the celebrity who worked on Vice City and San Andreas) to produce a game with good and well acted vocal work, there are plenty of people who can do the job just as well, if not better, than professional voice actors if they're given strong enough material and direction.

Is this striking union really numerous and powerful enough to hold the industry to ransom, or will video game companies just hire the many available actors, undiscovered talent and the non-actor and non-unionised talent (e.g. musicians who do vocal work) for the work instead?

Without a confirmed list of every voice actor (and by extension, every video game character and the game they're from) taking part in this strike, I can't help but feel that this will end in tears for the actors who may think they're more vital to the games they're hired for than they actually are.

I said the same thing back when the Escapist first announced this months ago, but it bears repeating: This reminds me of that one South Park episode where the Canadians went on strike and refused to work for American businesses and the entirety of America just didn't give a damn for the whole episode until the Canadians eventually just caved at the end, and the only ones that ended up being hurt by it were the Canadians themselves. The same exact thing will happen here if there's any sense in this world. Strikes only work when they are unanimous and they're being done with jobs where there isn't a hundred people lining up to take that job for every 1 person who goes on strike. Video game companies will just start hiring from the burgeoning pool of amateur and low experience voice actors for likely far less than they are paying any of these strikers and there will be plenty of worthwhile talent among them. Voice actors are a dime a dozen, that's why they get treated like crap and not paid anything, only in a competitive job market are the employees treated fairly and paid well. If anything these voice actors are demanding themselves right out of their own jobs.

 

[Transdude1996]

I don't understand any of the comments calling them greedy, woe are the other people on the development team, etc. The voice actors are willing to actually roll the dice on their future to be treated better. The idea of 'well everyone gets treated like shit except CEOs so you should too' baffles me. We shouldn't be discouraging this strike, we should be encouraging other aspects of video-game development to start getting demanding too.

Because it boils down to this: "if it gets in the way of a game I am looking forward to being released then clearly the people demanding to be treated more fairly are evil." Gamers don't care about actors, programmers, and devs being treated like crap as long as it doesn't affect their toys.

Not at all. Do you remember their earlier demands? That anyone who doesn't belong to the union doesn't get to work in the industry? In an industry that's already difficult to break into, they wanted to make it even harder. And, if by some miracle you did make it in, then you would have to give some of your money to a union. You would lose the right to negotiate with you employer without them. Here's the thing. Some people don't want to be part of a union. Some people are happier without the hassle. It isn't ethical for them to try and strong arm both companies and other workers. But, corporations are always evil, so I guess the unions are right no matter what they do.

Furthermore, why do VA's deserve residuals? What about their job earns them that? That may fly in film, where big name actors bring success, but certainly not in gaming. Nothing about their work entitles them to that. Frankly, they're being greedy. There are plenty of other positions that deserve that more, but VA's are in the spotlight, so when they act like pre madonnas people pay more attention.

Finally, unions get in the way. Not just in games, but everywhere. You call them toys. I call them art. Either way, it doesn't really matter. Look at George Lucas, for instance. The Directors Guild wanted Star Wars to have credits at the beginning of the film. Lucas wanted them at the end in order to maintain the dramatic opening of the movie. They fined him millions, and refused to let him hire Spielberg for the final film. People complain about how corporations hold back art, but unions can be even worse. They're just another unfeeling bureaucracy that muddles up the works. Please, let's stop pretending that their the good guys.

At least with companies, they have the defence of needing the money to pay the costs of maintaining the company, paying taxes for the company existing, pay for the continuing ownage of their brands and names, paying for taxes of their employees, paying for the salary of their employees, paying for outside companies to figure out how much money they should be paying everyone, paying for the equipment and software that everyone uses, paying for the facilities that the company operates in, paying off the debts of previously failed and cancelled projects, etc., etc., etc., and whatever minimal amount is left is funneled back into the company to fund future ventures.

Meanwhile, with unions, what started out as a fight for "employee rights" became an agenda machine used to line pockets after new laws were made to remove the need for such an organization.