They deserve it, in many cases they make the game. And the companies are trying to screw them over fairly well on top of it.
When it was 1996 and there were no voices in games, that was one thing. Now entire genres are basically nothing but people talking. They’re actors, just like any other and deserve similar compensation and workplace rights.
It’s almost like they’re getting screwed over in that respect. Weird, maybe they should unionize. Oh wait.
And people like Jennifer Hale have sold games before. FemShep is a thing, a big thing.
Think of the Telltale Walking Dead games. There is no way that series does so well if Lee and Clem are not so wonderful in their roles. They are acting and the game is significantly stronger for it.
You’re right we should go back to programmers doing voice acting in their closets. Remember how awesome that shit was? Bad voice acting can ruin a game. Good voice acting can elevate a game. Making characters that aren’t shit is kind of expected these days, paying the people that do that fairly and treating them fairly isn’t asking for too much.
And PS: they’ve always been in a union, so I’m not sure where the whole union hate comes from. They just haven’t negotiated for like 20 years (you know back when video games first started having voices).
Bad voice acting can make people turn the voice acting off and read subtitles.
Good voice acting can in fact elevate a game.
But voice acting in and of itself is a radio play, not a game. Voice actors in games are in the same category as F/X teams in film or TV. A nice to have that can enhance the experience, but not the experience.
No, there have been negotiations more recently, because it came up on this very forum, and this site is not 20 years old. And for that matter, I tend to be pro-union (although I swear, the police unions are trying to make me change that).
Ah, but “game play” is a tough thing to define. Is it just the programming? Without the graphics, and game design, it’s just algorithms. Is it just design? Without code, it’s just storyboards and ideas. A game, like a film, is a product of many intersecting skills and parts, and you need them all. Whether or not unionizing voice actors is good for them or not I have no idea; I’m not a voice actor. But in general, given that pretty much every other aspect of the entertainment world is unionized in some way, it makes sense. And yes, all the other creative types in game design should unionize as well, probably.
It doesn’t matter what “the focus” is. The same service is being delivered by the actors whether it’s an Audi ad, an episode of the The Simpsons, or Uncharted 3. The only variable is time required.
This is a pretty good moment to do something like this, since the overreliance on voice acting for recent AAA games is well established, and certain voice actors are well known enough to almost “sell” games by themselves. I have no idea if their demands are reasonable, though.
On the other hand, AAA companies may choose to ditch American unionized voice actors and instead contract good voice actors overseas. I’m pretty sure they’d find good actors in England and elsewhere quite easily (some of them perhaps with acceptable-to-good American accents), without the constraints of the union. That possibility makes this strike a somewhat risky move, especially if the voice actors in question are overrating their own importance.
I don’t think it’s a matter of them overrating themselves so much as getting shit on by game companies. They aren’t asking for payment like Brad Pitt, but more like “enough to pay my fucking rent doing this full time without bullshit from my employer.”
Considering basically ALL of them seem to agree on it, things must be pretty crappy. People like Hale and Blum are famous voices who are doing well and they’re pushing for it.
I don’t know. Does it come with better pay, more vacation time, job security, etc? If so, I can definitely imagine that.
I’m pretty dang happy where I’m employed now, but the large corporation that I was working at for the 8 years prior to that? Bring on the fucking union, please.
