Voice Actors Union Authorises Strike Action With Landslide 96.52 Percent Vote

I really hope by the end of all this both sides can find some middle ground.

How about paying devs better first?

Residuals aren't something that I'll ever be okay with, personally. It'd be like having to pay a company that sold you paint for your piece of art a fraction of the profits because it was their paints that were used.

@shaneoh This would probably have been a debate had it not been for the fact that there seems to be nobody making efforts in organizing the devs.

Devs should unionize as there are numerous examples of exploiting the workforce in this business, especially in the "crunch" right before deadlines, with people working extremely long hours without any extra pay.

In a lot of game media this strike seems to have the angle of "well payed actors want more" but for most of them it seems the working conditions are more important, and also, voice acting is miles away from screen time when it comes to salaries, so its unfair to compare the two.

Should have done this before all the big holiday titles were completed. They'll go on strike and with few games coming out in Jan - March, gaming industry won't be effected all that bad.

But wow Link's voice actor for Zelda U, not sure how they are going to make the game without him.

Good on them! History has proven, time and again, that if the workers cannot organize and demand fair conditions, then the employer (especially in bigger companies) will exploit the worker for all they can. The video game industry is notorious for insane working conditions, which would not normally be accepted in many other jobs. You REALLY have to like your job to work in this industry, I don't think outsiders tend to truly realize that. I balked from considering pursuing my childhood dream of entering the video game industry as QA once I saw how it all REALLY functioned.

Who knows, maybe crowd funding and the trend towards smaller teams and budgets will change how it works in the future. Human beings can be really scary sometimes to deal with...

In all honesty of the unionizing of devs will just have some publishers move their studious to India where you can get cheap programmers. For much less than the current people are being paid. It is rather disgusting but it looks like the video game industry is rest for another crash.

@AugustusOxy A lot of executives get enormous bonuses for nothing, just because of upward growth postings or big sales numbers; residuals are basically a way of sharing the bonuses with a core workforce of whom have little or no authority. Executives take huge bonuses when big sales numbers are made all the time; doesn't that seem a much more egregious case of wealth redistribution (to the top) than tipping the actual people who made the content, giving them a little extra? (Which pales in comparison to things like CEO bonuses anyways)

All of them except the royalties thing are fairly reasonable. The royalties one is insulting nonsense that completely overvalues the contribution voice acting makes to gaming. It's a nice addition. But it's really not key in most games. It's about 1/10th as valuable as effective gameplay programming (done by people who also don't get royalties)

Wasn't there something similar with the movies SFX people some years ago? Or the Simpsons?

How will affect this non-US dubbing (e.g. Spain or UK?)

Why do the voice actors have to do stunts for motion capture? Mr. Earl Jones wasn't inside the Vader suit, was he?

Do you have to be in that union to do voice acting? What prevents studios from hiring newcomers instead of the big names? Of if you have to be in that union, wouldn't that be a monopoly?

Can we as gamers make an union so we don't get games with bugs? What's the difference between "boycott X developer/publisher" and a strike, since both intend to coerce something from someone?

@Smash_kirby That would be suicidal. The USA is already exporting much of it's workforce to slave wage labor, underage labor, and unsafe/underpaid labor elsewhere, which is obliterating our national and local economy (big private corporations don't count). If we export our talent too, then we'll be that much closer to a collapse we can't return from.

People suggesting game devs should unionize and strike clearly have no idea what they're talking about, because of the large supply of game devs it means theymoment they even try to strike they will just be throwing away their job.

Fact is that voice actors don't invest nearly as much time as game devs who work years on a game and gets rewarded less. The fact that they have the audacity to demand residuals is insulting when they don't contribute or share the risk as game developers.

Furthermore, it's just outright greedy of them to also complain about game developers voice acting in their own game. Although some of their demands are reasonable. Most are just voice actors with big egos who think their voice is what makes a game.

@Dezzy Couldnt have said it better.
I understand that they want to be paid adequately, i mean, every one wants to.
But asking for royalties is just the icing on the cake.
No dev with half a brain will hier them, because a contract clause like that can produce uncalculatable costs in the future.
Also, most big production that really rely on big name voice actors need to reach the two million mark to be profitable.
Having ongoing costs for a one time job lessens the income even further.
Say goodbye to a sequel because "The previous one didnt make enough money"

@shaneoh @Dezzy
^^^

@PlywoodStick Oh I know, when you have Disney completely replace their IT with people with VISAs who's existence, job and ability to work, is at the whim of Disney, I could see a publisher at least dip their toe in to see if they might get more returns. When you have awesome studios like High Moon now being support for Destiny, the situation gets worse in my opinion. It is just sickening and this VA strike is a symptom of a bloated industry.

@Tamalesyatole Ever seen the union bug at the end of movie credits? It looks like this:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/2012/06/839_bug_v2.jpg

Any movie with that symbol has unionized workers in the process somewhere. Many strike actions have taken place in the past, unfortunately exploitation is not a rare occurrence.

Do you think Charles Martinet still records new Mario lines, or do they just recycle them ad infinitum?

I hope Charles Martinet doesn't become part of the strike.

@Einherjar @Dezzy Are huge executive bonuses okay by comparison? They far outclass these residual bonuses, even though they're only directed at a few people at the top. In many cases, "income for the company coffers" really just makes for an excuse to give executives bigger bonuses, due to larger reported growth.

Charles Martinet loves what he does. I doubt he'll join the strike

@phangtom The fact that the core development teams can't go on strike without losing their jobs, due to a mostly employer controlled, privatized workforce, just proves how tyrannical this industry is allowed to be to get the job done. (Not to not mention proving the voracious appetite of much of the gaming public...)

ask for more, settle for less. I think the royalties thing might just be something to bargain down from.

really, I don't think voice actors really should have a right to know what their voice acting will be used for. If I hire you to paint something for me, you really don't need to know what it will be used for, your job is to paint that thing.

There SHOULD be, though, a set of criteria as to what the actual voice work will entail. perhaps something along the lines of:
-yelling
-religious blasphemy
-explicit language
-explicitly hetero/homo-sexual language
etc.

then the voice actor can now beforehand if they'd be comfortable taking the job and saying things, and can't really complain afterwards.

@Smash_kirby Good points. Well, all bubbles burst eventually. Hopefully this case, at least, will be resolved quickly.

@PlywoodStick Except the fact that it affecting game devs not the voice actors. Whilst what you're saying can be applied to anything in the private sector making it effectively meaningless. Might as well just criticise capitalism.

@khaosklub How can voice actors do their job properly if they don't know what their work will be used for? That's just silly. For example, Japanese voice actors have to be pulled into recording studios all the time to be given many details of their role. It's an industry standard practice, and almost a cultural expectation for them. If they get sucked into a "can't ask" situation, then their work is effectively converted into a factory line conveyor belt sort of job. What kind of artist would willingly sign up for that?

The only thing i disagree with is "residuals for games selling upwards of 2 million copies".
Everything else should be a given.

This hardly affects Nintendo but Atlus I'm not so sure of. Hope it won't throw problems at them. They may have their own set of actors that's separate from this but I have no clue.

@PlywoodStick
easy, they know the context of their work, but do not know what it will be used for. you can give enough information for them to do their job.

for instance, if I commission you to draw me mario, and you agree... you need more info, drawing mario doing what? what will I use this drawing for? well, I can describe the drawing I want exactly, and I don't have to tell you that I'll be copying them and taking them to Brasil to sell as postors, and you can draw a legit picture.

voice actors can be given the scenario, given the motivation and expected to perform without knowing if their work will be used in a game, animation, or even a bit of advertising and not at all in a game/animation.

@phangtom Not quite anything. The video game industry is possibly the least unionized (virtually 0%), least worker organized, least permeance of application of rights earned by laborors back at the dawn of the industrial era in the USA specifically, least negotiable, and most publisher controlled industries in the USA's current workforce. Just about every other industry in the USA has either many small businesses or large organizing outfits to counter the influence of top heavy institutional control. We can't know how exactly it would work out if we don't have any publicly decided standards.

Just hire normal voice actors rather than famous Hollywood actors.

Problem(s) solved.

Note: I'm not against employees in the video games sector getting treated and paid fairly—not in the slightest—but this is really just about entitled Hollywood actors wanting more and more money, imo, and almost certainly more than their contribution was worth in the grand scheme of things. Also, even without these changes being implemented, I expect these Hollywood voice actors were/are already getting paid too much for what they actually contributed to the total content included in whatever game they worked on. Also, I totally disagree with them getting additional money if the game sells really well. They should get paid once for the work they have done and that is all, as far as I'm concerned, unless they are a permanent employee for the developer, in which case I think everyone on the dev team receiving some form of royalties from games sold is actually a very fair thing, seeing as without them these games simply wouldn't exist (they ARE these games), and the full-time developers very much deserve and have earned that. Some person you hire in for a few hours/days/weeks to do a few hours/days/weeks worth of work, a few hours of voice acting in this case, doesn't deserve anything other than a single lump payment for their work, as in the case with most other jobs/industries in the world (outside of stuff like Hollywood and the like). And, imo, they certainly shouldn't be getting paid more than the full time employees who have in 99% of cases contributed an order of magnitude more hours worth of work on any given project.

@phangtom And you/we all SHOULD criticise capitalism.

@khaosklub Keeping the artist in the dark like that is probably a bigger form of suppression for them than any other kind of person. The medium, intended audience, and setting is integral to good artistry. That is a basic trait of artistry itself, which is taught throughout school (at least the public schools I went to, K-12 and college). Without that, the commissioned artistry is soulless, what's the point?

Doing what unions do best.

@Kirk The point I was making is that he might as well just be criticising capitalism since that is essentially what it is.

@phangtom Yes, and my point is that he/you/we all SHOULD be criticising capitalism, since you brought it up.

@Kirk That's true, however... Those big name actors/actresses have more power and influence than normal ones. Thus, they often have more clout to demand compensation, which can act as a galvanizer for others in the workforce, even if the celebrity's intentions are more self-centered.

I think they should strike on principle if they are being treated unfairly. It sounds like they have some valid concerns. Many people seem to be under the impression that every video game voice actor is "rich". Some people may command higher fees (particularly Hollywood talent) but the reality is the same as it is for most jobbing actors. Voice acting is not the most important part of a game and I don't think sells copies, but it's not unimportant either.

@PlywoodStick Yes, and that is why they are getting paid more money for the work they've done. No doubt a lot more than they probably deserve relative to the amount of work they've done. In fact, they probably get more than most of the people who spent years actually making the game, who sometimes slave away for thousands of hours and go through extremely stressful crunch periods and whatever else, and THAT is a total joke.

I don't see why these commissioned voice actors should receive a single penny after that initial payment for their work. They're not full time employees. They're not continuing to contribute anything after the fact. They've done their few hours/days/weeks of work and they should get fairly paid for that, once, and nothing more. As is the case for pretty much every other worker in every other profession, outside of the likes of Hollywood and that kind of elitist, overly spoiled, entitled, money hoarding crowd of often grossly rich, twits.

@Spoony_Tech
Hopefully this convinces Atlus to start releasing games with their original Japanese language tracks.

Although how many games has Wheaton actually been in besides Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.? I find it funny that he's acting like people not using him would be some loss to the industry.

NONE OF THIS MATTERS!

Wesley Crusher was in Stand By Me?

I still feel like this should be in the encyclopedia under "first world problems".

This is great. Anyone who is complaining about residuals being unfair — well, beside the fact that I strongly disagree with them, I would like to remind them that when you bargain for something, you ALWAYS ask for more than you think you're going to be able to get. You work toward a middle ground from there.

Well at least Zelda won't be affected. However while I'm all for better pay for hardworking people this will likely translate to either higher games in general or more DLC that costs more.

@Ralizah That also might make 3ds game prices come back down to normal. However I do think most Atlus games do pretty well with voice acting.

I like your revised comment better. I'm all for some new talent. I don't really think voice acting in a video game should have a guild lol. If you don't like the conditions or pay don't take the job. There's always someone behind you waiting for their shot at it. Plus I highly doubt there is set pay for every actor. If you don't like the amount then negotiate for more and quit complaining.

Also I guess this mean now employees will have to remove the brown m&m's from the candy jar. Darn those actors!

@Kirk Yes, but if we're going to criticise capitalism. It wouldn't be through voice actors who have it significantly better than the people actually developing the games.

If we're going to give voice actors a platform that they should feel entitled to receive residual than by that logic everyone who works in any job should. Farmers should receive residual from bakeries because it's their eggs/milk they're using for their pastries.

@Spoony_Tech
The voice acting in Atlus games is usually pretty decent. It's not a huge component of most of them, however. What makes me sad is that I'm pretty sure several companies will capitulate to their demands if a strike does take place.

Time to bring some new talent in. I'm tired of hearing the same voices over and over anyway.

@phangtom I think we're talking about totally different things here.

I'm AGAINST these largely Hollywood voice actors acting like entitled twits. They've already been paid, probably far more than they deserve for the work they did in most cases, and that should be it.

I'm ALL FOR the ACTUAL developers of games getting better treatment.

|'m ALL FOR people getting paid fairly for a fair days work, even voice actors.

I don't however think anyone other than full time employees, and people who are like the creator of the original ideas or something like that, should even be in the running for residuals or any kind of payments after the fact.

I'm AGAINST our current day capitalism in general.

@Kirk I agree with all of that. Unfortunately, we have a very celebrity focused media culture, which takes those such as the true workhorse developers operating "in the trenches", and throws them under the bus with a live grenade attached to the underside. Until the media culture becomes more fragmentally focused and worker oriented, we may as well try to exploit the exploits of the celebrities until then...

@Zach So you believe people who contribute the least in developing videogames deserves residual for their contribution over those who actually do spend years developing said game?

Yes, you tend to ask for more than you think you're going to get. Except this just makes them look greedy and deserve nothing except being shown the door.

@PlywoodStick Maybe, but this is probably more just about the celebrities exploiting the situation for their own selfish and greedy gain and everyone else just staying the same as they were before for the most part, which is why I'm not in support of what they are doing here—or, more precisely, the motivations behind it.

I'm all for genuinely fair pay for a fair days work however.

@PlywoodStick
because it's a means to an end. the actor is hired to provide a voice, not create art. while it doesn't have to not be art, it doesn't necessarily have to have "soul", just professionalism.

Ya know, it'd be neat to get a few more interviews from small time voice actors to get an idea of what it's really like

I like how Wheaton has barely voiced anybody in a video game, and he's already trying to stir up trouble in this industry.

@XCWarrior Who's Link's new voice actor and where did you read that he wants to strike too?

@TheJudge I agree 100%. I've seen union workers side by side with non union workers doing the exact same type of work and from my own personal point of view, I saw the union workers stopping work every 45-60 minutes to take a 15-30 minute break. while the non union workers took a 5-15 minute break every 2-3 hours. Guess who got their work done first?

IMO unions were great during the industrial revolution when workers were spending 12+ hours in unsafe workplaces. Those days are long gone.

What would happen if other professions went on strike? What if nurses went on strike? or police? Every job has it's trials and heartache, but come on voice actors! You really think your work warrants more money? I'm sure it's tougher then I think it is but it's not like they couldn't audition people off the street and find replacements.

I support it. Voice acting is a really big factor in immersing me in these games. I think all game devs need better treatment than what (I'm lead to believe) they have, including voice actors.

stunt pay for yelling seems a bit silly. i mean when they get a job voice acting they must know its not all going to be gentle, soft speaking. but all the rest seems very reasonable.

@dkxcalibur Unfortunately, "those days" are far from long gone. Hazardous (and deadly) working conditions (with longer than 8 hour days) are far more commonplace than most realize. Entire towns (or cities, in exceptional cases) have been destroyed or exposed to hazardous living conditions due to the malpractice of big private industry, all around the world. This includes the USA, just look at places like West Virginia to see the appalling aftereffects of completely unregulated big industry. Going there is like going to an impoverished third world country with a poisoned water supply.

There are, in fact, many cases throughout American history leading up to today where medical industry and police workers go on strike. And they can still do that today, because yes, there are medical and police unions, and our public servants do continue to be exploited in the workplace. Just because their emergency work is integral to help people, doesn't mean the workers can be exploited without reprisal.

As for the example you mentioned, context is important. It's dangerous for the worker's health to have so few and so short of breaks. It's not an admirable trait that those non-unionized are able to keep working for so long, it just means they're going to be that much more likely to suffer injury or poor health effects. For all we know, they're being taken advantage of.

It would clear a lot of the confusion if they were just called the Film Actors Guild

@XCWarrior Link has always been voiced by Japanese actors, since he doesn't talk and only grunts, Nintendo doesn't need to hire an English speaker or any other language speaker. Link's Japanese grunts, yelps, screams, etc are a universal language that everyone can understand.

Residuals for what? Unless they have writing, design, or publishing credits - why should they be entitled to residuals? Hollywood unions are a joke. They should be advocating against child labor in their industry. Every time I see a kid in a movie, I think, "poor child, they probably have to suffer to help provide for their family after Pa got sick and can't work in the movies anymore." LOL, my grandpa had to drop out of school at the ripe age of 12 to work in the perilous conditions of hollywood just to provide for his family. It is the most thankless work to do. True story.

@Dezzy
Agreed, if there's one industry that is overall far more overpaid than needed it's Hollywood. One post I found of interest is the second one down on Wil Wheton's blog.

"As someone who works on the other side of the equation, I’m going to let you know that the main reason your proposals keep getting rejected outright is because every single one has had the demand for residuals in it. It’s not happening.

You’re asking for something that nobody else in the industry gets. Programmers, designers, writers, QA, marketing, sales, none of those people get residuals. None of these guys have unions, so this isn’t a situation where our side us going to use you getting residuals as a wedge to start getting us residuals.

If you just want better working conditions, then just ask for that. The way you describe it isn’t quite as it seems. For example, I’ve worked with actors who come in and tell me that they’re all torn up from a session they did across town. So, yeah, it’s physically demanding, but it’s not like you’re so wrecked you can’t go out and do other work. Also, if I’m not mistaken, while your previous proposals have been rejected, voice actors have gotten modest pay increases every time you’ve gone to the table.

Yeah, the way those rules are worded are BS. However, if you’ve ever experienced the special hell that is trying to get an actor who doesn’t care to give you their full attention, you’d understand why this is there.

I was directing one session that was a game based on an animated show, so we were contractually obligated to use the same actors for the show. 2 lines in, and the voice director for the animated series and I have a discussion about a term. Actress asks what the deal is, director, responds. She says she’s going to go read a magazine while we figure it out. Exits the booth before we can tell her it’ll just be a second.

Right now, I have zero recourse for that behavior. I can’t reduce her pay, I can’t fire her, I can’t even dock her the 10 minutes of the session she ulitmately burns because you have to pay is an hour, and she would only work one hour sessions.

Granted, that’s an extreme scenario, and it’s ridiculous to ask you voice actors to give game companies such wide-ranging, easily abusable protections. But, there probably needs to be SOMETHING to protect against the situations I described, right?

In short, the stipulation that every requested union member be available for every audition is as much of a non-starter as residuals are. So, why don’t we just kill off both of those and figure out a way to come to terms on protection from vocally taxing sessions, and protection from unprofessional actors messing up our schedules? I think negotiations would be viewed in a much better light if they were simply about getting reasonable considerations instead of two sides going to the table attempting to extract as much as is humanly possible from the other side whole conceding nothing."

If this is true then, it's totally understandable how every proposal to date was shot down and I would have to agree that there should be something in place to prevent unprofessional voice actors from running rampant.

This is what the coal miner's of West Virginia spent generations fighting for, dammit! Over compensation and the right to use your cell phone on the job.

@Hamguar If only more employers were actually receptive to reasonable accommodations... Honeyed words, but in practice, the terms are more often than not lopsided towards the employer. That is a part of the essence of economic growth. Less accommodations = less the employer has to take off of their annual financial reports.

@Blastcorp64 LOL I wish it were that silly. Mountaintop removal coal mining has/is turning West Virginia into a wasteland, and their workers into hereditary indentured servants of the coal mining companies.

@PlywoodStick While you bring up great points, some that I didn't think about, I still question what would happen if every profession organized and went on strike? When does it stop? The situation I described to you from my own point of view did not put the non-union workers in any danger. The human body is actually capable of working for 2 hours believe it or not. How do I know this? Because the non-union workers were co-workers & friends, and they complained that they had to stop work because of the union workers too many times. The union workers held up my co-workers on multiple occasions that ended up screwing them in the long run. Instead of being able to work efficiently they were forced into unnecessary delays.

I don't think anyone minds when unions fight for unsafe conditions, it's when unions are clearly fighting for greed that angers people. We're not talking about coal workers that are being exploited, we're talking about "voice actors" that are complaining about reading lines for one day! There are many many professions that talk for the most part of their work day....what if they all go on strike?

I think everyone in video games should get better pay/working conditions. Having to pay more for voice acting means additional cuts will be made elsewhere however...

Woah, Tara Strong is in on this??! This must be pretty major for a TRULY mainstream VO to be in on this!

I kinda feel the royalties thing is that big extra thing you ask for so that it can be dropped in the compromise stage and still leave you with the rest of the stuff you wanted.

@XCWarrior Wait, who voices Link now?

That's okay, most Nintendo games don't have voice actors/actresses.

@dkxcalibur Strikes start with big industries and stop at small businesses. Small businesses don't need unions at all, they can organize on their own. (Though they do need advocates.) It's only the big operations that may warrant at least some kind of marginal outside oversight. (That oversight doesn't necessarily need to come from a vested interest, which unions are.) I don't think a situation where almost everyone suddenly goes on strike would happen unless some larger source of critical societal upheaval were going on which demanded everyone's attention. That kind of thing might be warranted in someplace like Detroit, but certainly not someplace like New York City. Strikes can be coordinated for effectiveness (power in numbers), but it can do more harm than good if there's not an exceptionally good reason for it.

It sounds like that union in particular you're describing is plagued by corruption. There have been many union leaderships which have become corrupted over time. It's ironic, seeing so many different unions adopting some of the same traits they were created to oppose. Unions aren't really the go-to method of organization they were 100 years ago, that much certainly has changed.

@MrPuzzlez LOL, I'm going to assume you are being as sarcastic as I was being.

At least I hope so.

P.S. I think one of NOA's janitors voices Link, he's really good at going "HunmpH!" "Hiyaa" "Whaa!"

@TsukiDeity My gosh man it was clearly sarcasm. They could record a 6 month old grunting and making sounds and it would be the same as Link's current voice actor.

@Randomname19 See the 2 comments above. Though I do hear Drew Barrymore was in talks with NOA to voice Link before this strike talk started. Or was it Miley Cyrus?

@PlywoodStick Good points once again. I agree.

For the record, my opinion on this particular strike is that it comes down to greed.

@XCWarrior Ha! Yeah... Imagine trying to get royalties on grunts and yells! That's funny stuff right there!

I'm not saying I'm for or against voice actors getting better treatment (I don't even have a clear idea of what their treatment is now and how that compares to professional voice actors in let's say, Japan for example, and no, one side of the story is not enough to have a clear idea of what is going on), but it's an extreme rarity for union members to not in large majority vote for a strike when the union leaders say they should, so when I hear "union members voted to strike" it doesn't really mean anything to me.

Just when I thought I couldn't care any less about AAA the VAs go and pull this BS.

Three things frustrate me about these comments...
One, there are jobs that suck a little, and jobs that suck a lot. Just because the heavily-sucking jobs exist, doesn't mean the lightly-sucking jobs should sit down and shut up. Both groups deserve better.

Two, just because celebrities like Wheaton are spearheading this, doesn't mean the deal is just, or even mostly, about them. When big-name celebrities endorse your cause, you use them as tools and spokespoeple because people sit up and listen when they say something. Joe shmoe voice actor, like joe shmoe of any other industry, would love to speak up, and is, I'm sure, but who's out there listening to them? Their buddies at the bar maybe, and that's about it.

Third, this myth that anyone could come in off the street and do what these guys do is laughable. It's like saying "All olympic bobsledders do is sit down, how hard can that be? I've been sledding since I was a kid, I'm sure I could get a gold medal in that if I tried, I just can't be bothered." Voice actors are professionals (or artists, or whatever), they do skilled work, and the surest sign of that is when the results sound natural enough to make it look easy.

I am hoping that after this developers demand more respect from publishers. If publishers/developers are going to have to treat voice actors (which is a small part of the overall development of a product) with more respect then developers should be able to demand more respect from publishers. This could be the door opening to a new games infustry, an industry where people are actually valued for their work and not just thrown out like trash after a project is completed. I don't understand why the Game Industry has formed unions.

This should be easy to support, but damn do I dislike Wheaton...

@phangtom everyone should have residuals. It's standard in acting and film/TV production, which is why we're only talking about it now.

Artist, programmers, composers, writers don't collect residuals, I would put voice actors last in line for that.

@Pigeon I hear ya.

@XCWarrior
You know something I don't. Link will have a voice in Zelda U? With actual lines instead of the usual cries and grunts when he's hacking, slashing, jumping and pushing?

I would be perfectly fine without voice acting and any of those funds going to development or to pay the developers better. Moreover, voice acting is quite an easy job that can be filled by just about anyone. Many 90s PC games got by fine with using the developers for cheap voice talent and many of those turned out fine. In fact, I've become more and more bothered by the quality and similarity of voice work this generation.

@Vriess MY gosh... please see comments 76, 77,78.

Sarcasm people. It's a thing. If your brain is 99% sure a comment seems overly far-fetched, it's because it's sarcasm.

Oh wait, breaking news, Nintendo of America signs Barack Obama to be the voice of Link for Zelda U. They said his grunting is the best they've ever heard.

Those mainly seem like reasonable terms. I tend to dislike strikes on principle, though.

@LztheQuack If he's part of the union, does he have a choice? I've always assumed that being part of the union meant that going on strike required you not to work. Otherwise, I assume that vote and the 95%+ figure would be meaningless-- people could just choose to ignore the strike and work anyway. I don't know if he's union or not, but I expect that if he is, he doesn't have a great deal of choice in the matter... unless he left the union, which again, I don't know how that works.

I'm worried about Xenoblade Chronicles X.

You mean to tell me a group of voice actors demanding more money all voted in favor of making more money??
SHOCKING!!!!!!!

I would prefer that games have no voiceovers.

I understand wanting "transparency" and "better pay" and "working conditions" whatever that might entail specifically (the inattentive fines are BS I must say) especially if >90% of the union votes for it...but "stunt pay" for "vocally stressful" recording sessions? Come on now, that should be for the mocap guys. And royalties? I know they won't get it but I think that would probably end up doing more harm (to voice actors) than good in the long run.

I can understand wanting greater compensation and means of improving/lightening your workload (especially if you voice act in the Metal Gear/Mass Effect Series) but, as much as I love him, actors like Charles Martinet, who take on lighter roles that don't really require a whole lot of script reading or voice overs, are a different breed than people like Jennifer Hale and David Hayter who are literally talking for days. And I think that the ones who will suffer in the long run (if the union gets everything they want) will be newcomers and VA's like Charles Martinet (not Charles himself tho, he'll be fine) who developers will simply not hire due to the costs.

You maybe asking why I would make a claim like that, and if I have any evidence to back it up (other than basic economics). Well, although it is anecdotal evidence, I recall one of the members of Playtonic Games (Grant Kirkhope I believe) saying that back in the day "nobody hired voice actors" to do light vocal work back in the day, as is evident in the fact that Grant was the voice of DK in DK64 and not to mention that Rare employee Kev Bayliss provided the voice for King K Rool, the only speaking character in the game. I also know that Chris Sutherland, one of the lead devs on Killer Instinct, did the voice over for the most vocal character in the aforementioned game — the announcer.

I know resources aren't that limited as they were back in the old days but (and believe me I'm not trying to be controversial) voice acting is literally the least important aspect of any game. Yes, it's become an industry standard but let's face it, as long as we can all still read it's really more of a commodity than a necessity.

@blujay1524
The stunt pay isn't just for voice acting, but anything overly stressful. Some VA's have been forced to do mocap as apart of their session, so that part is setting a precedence for future jobs. Want the VA's to do mocap? Its going to cost extra.

The thing about nobody hiring voice actors way back then wasn't just due to limited resources. Not many games had much voice acting to begin with, ones that did didn't have much either, just an intro scene or something. Games didn't have much room for that sort of thing.

A game like Banjo Kazooie didn't need dedicated voice actors, not when the spoken dialog was all gibberish. Most games now are much more dialog and cut-scene heavy, so voice acting is more important to them. The only place its a commodity is smaller/indie games, for the same reason as the classics.

There's also a clause that companies can't just skirt around the new terms by just having employees do the work or something without going through the union. If that goes through it'll help protect the VA's you're referring to.

@XCWarrior It's good to know you are being sarcastic, but the thing about sarcasm in the written form is that it's not as easy to interpret unless a person is familiar with the writer. There is no voice afterall. haha Plus, the internet is full of people who actually believe in all sorts of silly things that are not true. Making it difficult to differentiate the ignorant from sarcastic people and/or trolls.
I've always wondered what a grunt (and other throat related sounds) only voice acting gig would pay like. I can't imagine Nintendo would allow just about anyone to do it as they are quite picky with everything they do. I doubt it pays peanuts either.

Wanting proper treatment is fair enough - but this to me sounds like a bunch of crybabies wanting their bottle.

Stunt people for dangerous motion-capture sessions? "Stunt pay" for "vocally stressful" recording sessions? A cut of game royalties? Get some damn perspective, you fools. You have a dream job that is the very definition of indulgence. Try being a police officer or an aid worker - or hell, even a lowly game developer.

I'm a writer, and I don't go around demanding benefits for us poor, starving artists.

Bloody first world problems.

Of course Troy and Nolan are silent, they are already treated like the golden child and can't remember what it was like to be treated like your performance doesn't matter.

@Kage_88 LOL there always has to be one doing the comparing thing xD

I don't understand the opposition to royalties here. You're telling me a game publisher should be free to continue to make money off of future game reissues and online sales throughout copyright - and long beyond the point where expense has been recouped - but the people whose talents are featured don't?

Do people not recognise the value of their own labour any more? If you can get a bigger piece of the pie because your worth is recognised you're a fool not to take it. There is nothing outrageous about getting residuals; especially because you're probably talking about fractions of pennies per unit here. CEOs making seven figures is greedy, getting a cut of a title that is arguably a massive success because of a starring role isn't.

@TsukiDeity In an all serious comment, it would be to Nintendo's benefit for the Voice Actors to go on strike for a couple of years. Sony and Microsoft sell their games on presentation rather than gameplay. Voice actors are important to presentation.

So Nintendo should be like, "yeah, go ahead and strike, we're going to pay amateurs even less!'

I love bad voice acting in games. Because almost all voice acting in games is bad, but at least if its campy, you can laugh at how bad it is.

@AugustusOxy I see where you're coming from, but voice actors do have a lot to do with the final outcome of the game. Would The Last Of Us have been nearly as impactful if Joel sounded like a child in a middle school play? Movie actors already get enormous rewards for popular movies, why shouldn't the same be true for the stars of games?