Gaming Voice Actor Strike?

I wonder how this will affect all the games in development that require voice acting?

Depends on whether development teams will cross the theoretical picket lines or not. If they won't, then game development stalls. If they will, then there will either be a period of unvoiced games, or more non-union actors getting work.

Depends on the games and franchises and how long a strike lasts. As well as where the game producers are located

Video games, unlike TV Shows and films, aren't as tightly bound to pick unionized actors. Some might be willing to simply pick non-american actors who aren't part of the same union or on strike. Similarly non-american game producers might not feel an american union's strike or demands affect them. Works with more established actors who can't afford to recast are more likely to be impacted by an extended strike (For example, Bioware games and their returning casts of characters, or works where a character's been noticeably and closely tied to a Voice actor)

That said I think the issue with this is that there's no "Central body" the actors can negociate with. Every developper decides how much they pay, and there's, AFAIK, no central organization that currently has a mandate to negociate for all american developpers, let alone the ability to make its members follows on a deal.

When the Writers Guild went on strike in 2007 and 2008, they had someone to negociate with - The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which was mandated to represent the interest of just under 400 producers.

Video games don't really have that. They have, amongst others, the Entertainment Software Association (Whom you would know as the people behind E3) but first the developers would have to agree to let the ESA negociate on their behalf for this - and this could be an agreement that might take time. ATM the ESA is more of a lobbying, patent and marketing outlet.

Another thing to note is that this might just affect english games. Japanese devs making Japanese games won't care. It might just delay their localization, or if the price hike is too big to their taste, deter them from crossing the pond. Ditto a british studio using british actors, or a Canadian one using Canadian actors (Like Bioware or Ubisoft Montreal or Eidos Montreal)

edited 23rd Sep '15 9:47:43 PM by Ghilz

I just want to add that many actors are paid by the line and well games like Until Dawn have 10,000 page scrips, yeah.

I hope Laura Bailey doesn't go on strike. I love her voice and can recognize her almost instantly in the games she's appeared in.

I thought it was 1000 pages.

Ghilz: It sounds like the motivation behind threatening to strike is getting the big publishers like EA and Activision to even come to the table on this issue.

edited 23rd Sep '15 10:00:05 PM by BadWolf21

@grounder: yeah, because a race to the bottom is always great and certainly not a detriment to the entire industry.

https://www.vg247.com/2015/09/23/until-dawns-script-was-10000-pages-long/

Anyway many devs are non-Union like Atlus so it would probably only affect the biggest of the big names.

edited 23rd Sep '15 10:03:39 PM by Memers

I'm cool with this as long as this doesn't fuck with the release of Kingdom Hearts III. People have already been waiting like 10 years for that and we don't need to wait longer.

No doubt, but not being able to get the publishers/devs to negotiate as a unit might not help the Voice Actors' cause. If every corporation negotiates itself its own deal, and the "crisis" ends, there's not much incentive for other studios, either young or new, to meet those bare minimum condition. Sure, the union might then blacklist a particular company who refuses to play ball, but if that company then rakes in a ton of cash on a game they produced anyway (Via hiring non union V.A.) it might send the message to the big ones that the deal they signed is pointless and only costs them money. Plus some of the big devs might refuse to sign till their opponents do, (Coz they don't want to be stuck paying more) so you end up in a situation where no one wants to take the plunge.

I have no doubt the union heads have their own gameplan, but IMHO a strike is not as imminent as the article and thread title imply. It's being considered but might be step 150 of a 200 step plan.

Plus like Memers said, some devs have staunch non union policy. I've worked for EA and I can tell you they jump through hoops to make sure they can avoid paying their employee bare minimum benefits garanteed by actual law (like 1 year non renewable contracts so you can't be rehired until it's been 3 to 6 months you left so as to avoid qualifying for various legal employment benefits).

edited 23rd Sep '15 10:13:27 PM by Ghilz

I suspect the biggest obstacle to KH 3 is the fact square cant seem to develop a game at any speed faster than "in concept 3 years after we announce t. maybe"

You mean EA are run by a bunch of assholes?

Wow; who knew?

I'm just confirming they are every bit the asshole people think they are.

American voice acting for video games tends to be bland, dull and emotionless (And on the rare occasions they do express emotion, it's almost always anger and nothing else), especially Troy Baker and Nolan North, who are in pretty much every AAA game nowadays.

edited 23rd Sep '15 11:58:55 PM by Bat178

That's more of a writing issue than a voice acting issue.

i'm not really sure that voice-acting elsewhere is much different.

As opposed to the whiny high pitched and annoying Japanese ' voice actors'?

Yeah, no thanks. Troy Baker and Nolan North work with what they've got. Even then, they manage to make their characters sound badass and cool.

How do you know if they are actually being high-pitched and whiney? Do you speak Japanese fluently and are thus able to tell if they are emoting correctly?

No. I just hear one word and I want to change it to English.

It's much better and I can understand what they are saying.

Soul Calibur is a perfect example. Xianghua's voice is high pitched and annoying in both languages and yet, I'd still rather hear it in English because it isn't half as screechy or whiny as Japanese. Plus it fits her more.

I can see a potential strike as affecting the striking V As more than the big companies, but I really do want to see V As paid more for their work.

Would this also effect Anime and Western Animation they use many of the same voice actors?

I'm only asking because I'm not sure if they go on strike from video games or is there a different division for that union.

Posted by: Karxrida

They aren't, trust me. I've been around the Japanese quite a bit in the hospitality industry and while the female voice is somewhat higher pitched due to the language's pronounciations and accents, it's almost never as high-pitched and child-like as in most animes, even during an excited conversation. The younger generation does try to emulate the anime tones and accents though, but that's mainly for the sake of attracting Japanese men (or even foreign men for that matter) and sounding as young as possible.

edited 24th Sep '15 4:33:47 AM by SgtRicko

The problem is that non-union acting has already taken too big of a hold in video games. So even if the union goes on strike, there are still a ton of people who aren't in the union left for acting. And let's be honest, those people who aren't in the Union? Yeah, there's gonna be a schism between union and non union actors when the strike inevitably doesn't have the impact SAG hoped it would because there's too much non union talent. Heads are gonna roll, that's for sure.

edited 24th Sep '15 6:10:47 AM by RoboZombie

Wouldn't the non-union workers be seen as scab workers?

@Midgetsnowman; And you think that companies care about that because...?