As many others have already said, the voice acting is usually not so well anyhow. Going on strike is only going to hurt those who cannot read. Also, I've witnessed so many people new to a game just completely skip over any and all text and voice overs just to get to the gameplay. Drives me crazy because then I watch them run in circles not knowing what to do. So......Yeah.

Either way though, I'm sure there are many other people out there in need of work who are willing to voice themselves. I would have loved to got into the gaming industry.

To be fair, barely any indie game reaches 2 million copies sold (the threshold mentioned specifically in the article you linked to) and giving the actors SOME money (not specified in the article) after a game has sold 2 million friggin' copies will hardly do any harm to any company.

That said, as important as I consider good VA and as much as I respect the work and admire great VA performers, they are indeed the last people in the industry who should demand better conditions - ESPECIALLY those who have already established themselves and are in a position to lead a "movement" like this. They are perfectly delusional if they think that they have it harder than anyone else in the industry.

The good thing is that if they fuck things up like this we can expect some fresh blood in the industry. I'm sick and tired of hearing friggin' Troy Baker in every single game released over the last couple of years.

Is this some shit where a company is forced to do business with the union? Like, if they hire a non-union member to do a voiceover, they end up with a severed horse head on their conference table?

Or are there bogus communist laws in place that force gaming companies to use unionized employees, like in the hotel industry? Because my first thought is what I think most time easily replaceable ditch diggers go on strike - fire their asses and hire new ditch diggers. Unless they're striking for basic health and safety reasons, I simply dare them to take their talents down the road and get that better job they so richly deserve.

As opposed to if this continues and they have to hire lesser quality voice actors because nobody is willing to put up with the risk for the pay?

The extra money for voice acting in a game is pretty minimal, indies weren't hiring union VOA anyways, so I fail to see why it would impact those games. It's mostly the larger companies that would be forced to take a little bit less profit.

I doubt they're going to get what they're demanding, but you make it sound like they're being unreasonable.

They aren't important to the production of a game but they are almost the opposite of replaceable. Nobody will notice if programmers, designers or artists get replaced (well, excluding concept artists, maybe). Replace a voice actor or composer and the players WILL notice the difference (well, in most cases). There's a reason there was a shitstorm when David Hayter was replaced by Kiefer Sutherland in MGS5 or even when David Bateson was to be replaced by someone else in Htiman: Absolution (even though the Hitman series was hardly famous for its story or characters). A human voice is simply something you can't replace easily and depending on the game/series it can be highly responsible for the identity of the entire game/franchise. I don't think that voice actors can attract many players to a game but removing them from an established franchise can seriously harm the relationship with the fans. Just think about the shitstorm of the Silent Hill HD collection where the replaced VAs were the single biggest issue the fans had with it.

This is a safety issue as much as it is about compensation. They're demanding things like better protections against damaging their vocal cords while screaming amongst other things.

Then why can't said voice actors bargain individually? Those are good points, but I don't see what it has to do with unions. If you've got the talent and the ability to deliver a product fans will demand, you're in the driver's seat by yourself to bargain with your employer.

At least that's something legit. But in the end... that's the point they'll give back a the table in exchange for money. It's always about the money.

It amazes me how unappreciative people like you are of unions. Show some respect, unions are why you get a weekend, have a relatively safe workplace and weren't forced to go to work at 8 in a sweatshop.

The reason why America is in so much trouble is that people like you bashed unions even as you suckle at their teets for benefits that they fought for.

Makes me sick.

Yeah, but as the industry has grown and the prestige and fame of video game actors has increased they have begun trying to apply standards from the film and television industry to video games. It's obviously ridiculous considering that stuff like this is unheard of in case of other, especially the fundamental, professions in the game industry (while all sorts of professions in film have guilds, unions and whatnot).

Hey, I read The Jungle. I'll all for collective bargaining to ensure health and safety. We need more labor unions in Bangladesh, you know what I mean?

I'll just skip the violin music for highly-paid, cushy skilled workers like voice actors who want to shared profit without shared risk.

Royalties only applies to titles that shift over 2 million units, so I don't see indie devs being affected much at all. Where they are, it's not going to be a bill they can't pay.

I'm not saying I necessarily agree with the strikers, but your opening post somehow manages to be ill informed despite linking to a short article with that particular fact right there in its single paragraph.

Again, a lot of ignorance of the facts being displayed here. The SAG-AFTRA union is not made up of just "name" actors like David Hayter, there are over 150000 members of the union and 96.52% of them voted in favor this possible strike. That's at least 145000 voice actors (just in the U.S.) dissatisfied with how the gaming industry treats them. This isn't about getting a better payday for someone like Jennifer Hale or Will Wheaton, its about the rest of those no-name actors that get screwed on pay and working conditions day after day; the ones who only ever get an "additional voices" credit in a game. Sure some of those known actors will benefit from a change in industry policy and practices, but the unknowns who need these changes will benefit more.

To me, voice acting is just another asset.

Lose a key developer from the team and the production will suffer. The player will be unable to trace the problem to the missing developer, but that doesn't make the him/her replaceable.

Yes, they will notice. And some times they will be happy about it. I have read several reviews saying after an adaptation period, they prefer Sutherland over Hayter.

I'm not aware about Silent hill or Hitman enough to comment about it, then I will accept your word people didn't like the change in those cases.

Fuck them all. And take their shoes too. Shitheads. They shoud be paying for the privilege of working on a game! Anyone can voice a game, it's not like it takes any skills or talent or something to do it well. We can replace them with the developers kids. And pets. The goldfish will work cheap.