Video Game Voice Actors Could Be Going on Strike - IGN

 

Erm, I didn't see anything in that article about any possibility of a strike. Just that the Screen Actors' Guild's Voice-actor branch is in negotiations for an ammendment on their Union contract.

 

Doesn't really get much clearer than that.

 

I must've missed that part.
My mistake.

 

I honestly think we shouldn't be too worried; most strikes usually last only a few months. So if this does end up happening, it probably won't last very long. Video game developers wouldn't be THAT dickish to give voice actors a little more recognition.

Unless their names are EA, Activision, or Konami...

 

There's only a handful of good voice actors.

Better use this time to find better ones.

 

Unions are such an obsolete system.

 

Eh.... We need more of them in some ways instead of jobs being able to go "You sneezed. Your fired."

 

resisting urge to make joke about Troy Baker and Nolan North making up the bulk of games Voice acting...

but yeah, theres needs to be more unions in the games industry given some of the horror stories ive read.

 

??

 

I'm pretty neutral about the voice acting thing, and I'm not a big fan of labor unions in general but game designers and programmers could definitely use one. The working conditions in your average large game studio are deplorable. Illegal immigrant farm workers get treated better.

 

No we don't. They were good at a time when people needed protection, but these days, the unions are just as bad as the employers. All they do is gouge money out of a company's employees regardless of whether or not that person can afford to have that deduction and they don't help things at all.

Hell, one of my friends works for a company that has a union and the union just started making some stupid ass demands from his employer (Kroger) or the threat of going on strike. He can't afford to go on strike because he needs every cent he gets to pay for his rent and utilities.

 

I just had this horrible thought that we were about to return to the dark ages of video game voice acting before they started hiring professional actors.

"Whoa! You were almost a Jill sandwich!"

 

I, personally, don't mind the Union skimming off 20% of my paycheck when the alternative is spending $200-300/month on prescription medicine. Also all those keen deals UFCW has with various retailers and entertainment venues is nice.
Also, the protection provided by my union against unfair termination and The two weeks per year of Vacation time I get is pretty awesome.

On topic, for the sake of all my favorite Voice actors, I really hope this thing gets sorted in a way that doesn't fuck over everyone involved. They really do bring their respective game worlds to life.

 

This thread is going to go bad. We are already going to political and losing focus on the topic. As of the voice acting topic. The difference between movies and games are you are paying teams that are 10x bigger than movies. It also feels like there are only a few main voice actors in that are in every game.

 

On-Topic, I hope they do get stuff sorted, it's unfair when considering the amount of dialogue they read through on a lot of games (open world, multiple choice endings etc), I'd be interested to see the pay difference between a movie centric voice actor and someone who works in video games.

EDIT: *deleted*, it's not worth the argument.

 

To be fair, I can understand why the voice actors would want this. Patrick (Seitz) told me a few years ago that he gets paid two to three times as much to voice a video game than he does an entire anime series. The difference is they get royalties with anime and cartoons than they do with video games.

 

The hazard pay argument I think is stretching it a bit, though 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 goes wrong, no money is spent.

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.

 

Warning: rant incoming:

When my school district is willing to throw down a lawyer on my behalf if little Timmy's parents decide I didn't do my job in teaching little Timmy well enough - despite the fact that little Timmy refuses to pay a damn lick of attention in my English class because mommy and daddy won't parent him - we'll talk about how unions are unnecessary.

My union stands up for me against state budget cuts and ensures I walk out with a contract in hand and what salary I do. Do you think teachers are rolling in dough as it stands? With states slashing our schools' already tiny budgets, they want to kill our wages. When the schools can stand together as a union can, no, unions will not be necessary. That, however, does not happen, and thus makes unions such as teachers' unions necessary.

A union does not just take without giving. A union gives a unified front, a voice, representation. If you think that all unions do is take wages, you have no idea what unions do.

Don't you dare try to paint all unions into some pinko-commy corner with a broad brush without being educated. I am a proud teacher and a proud member of my teachers' union. Talk to other teachers, talk to police officers, but don't talk out of your ass as if you know.

Edit: Oh, and if you want to keep "weekends" and "40 hour work weeks," lets keep unions. Unions got us those things, among countless others, to begin with.

 

And so the Text dialogue boxes will make a miraculous return.