Video game voice actors give the National Board "the green light" to vote strike if needed

[Albatross]

lol overworked and underpaid

 

So if the game becomes popular and earns a crapton of money, they want to be able to just earn extra cash? For nothing? They also want secret information on their projects when auditioning? Actors are the most spoiled (and ridiculous) people on the planet. :lol:

[Dabombinable]

Thought this would be relevant:

[SteveGrabowski0]

Why do nobodies think they deserve a cut of profits? Are they going to send their paychecks back if the game flops? You might give royalties if you land a really big name actor like Samuel L Jackson in GTA SA or Ray Liotta in GTA VC, but that's insane to promise royalties to your average voice actors. I think despair.com summed it up perfectly in one of their demovitational posters:

 

 

I couldn't believe reading about the dude who voiced Niko Bellic in GTA IV bitching about making $100,000 for it, how he has bitter feelings towards Rockstar Games. And man, SAG members have it good. I had a friend in SAG who I couldn't believe just skipped paying dues and lost his card. I had another friend in SAG who could get tons of jobs, always 8 hours of pay even if he was only there two, they fed him, and all he had to do was be an extra walking down the sidewalk or whatever the scenes called for. I don't blame SAG negotiating for the 8 hours of pay since who wants to drive in LA to get paid for an hour or two, but they're going way too far expecting studios to treat noname voice actors like they're stars.

[SteveGrabowski0]

thanks for clarifying...

conspiracy theory time:

This is just a huge plot by hollywood to kill off the video game industry...

 

Voice actors are easily replaceable. Just do like Breaking Bad did and go out to New Mexico or something instead of recording in LA.

[Dabombinable]

Voice actors are easily replaceable. Just do like Breaking Bad did and go out to New Mexico or something instead of recording in LA.

Oh you poor naive child.

[DigitalHermit]

Voice actors are easily replaceable. Just do like Breaking Bad did and go out to New Mexico or something instead of recording in LA.

Voice acting requires talent...

I stand in the neutral in this issue... but I wish that they pay the devs more... the devs are the one who are under the most stress when dealing with deadlines while trying to make the game run properly and smoothly... and without the devs, there will be no game to speak of...

[SteveGrabowski0]

Oh you poor naive child.

 

If they were hard to find we'd know their names.

[Dabombinable]

If they were hard to find we'd know their names.

 

Oh you poor naive child.

[SteveGrabowski0]

 

 

What makes them so irreplaceable son?

[Dabombinable]

What makes them so irreplaceable son?

Watch.

[SteveGrabowski0]

Watch.

 

Who is this fat piece of shit narrating?  :lol:

[MrDynamicMan]

In related news; EA releases new text based adventure game.

[MrDynamicMan]

Who is this fat piece of shit narrating? :lol:

that's jin sterling, son.

[SteveGrabowski0]

that's jin sterling, son.

 

That's the stupidest fucking rant I have ever heard. I'm dying laughing listening to this guy. He looks like a broke Kim Dotcom.

[SteveGrabowski0]

LOL at his claim that whoever voiced Vaas is what made Far Cry 3. The hunting and the stealth takeovers when taking down bases made Far Cry 3 fun to play. And the towers. The cutscenes were boring. The programmers, artists, and level designers are who I thank for Far Cry 3 being such an awesome game. 

[SpaceNugget]

Watch.

 

You watch.

 

not everyone enjoys the same things in video games. I happen to be one of the types to enjoy, you know, playing them, not watching them. I don't care if morgan freeman narrates the damn thing, If its not fun to play I don't care about it.

[mattebad]

Journey, Oot, hl2, (insert most good games here)

 

games are completely different from movies.

Journey and Ocarina of Time are outliers, and Half Life 2 had voice actors in it, just not one for the protaginist. Games are not that different from movies, you could even go so far to say games are actually interactive movies. They both have a set story, timeline, large production team, animators, writers, voice actors, large budgets, unique environments, emotionally invested characters (well at least the good movies do), etc. They are more similar than you think.

 

 

Not every lead singer is the lead for Metallica. A true far off statement, seeing that not even a fraction of the bands doing world tours are making millions.

Which still doesn't undo the fact that unionized VA's make a minimum of 627 USD for 4 hours of work.

This is a generalization on the level of your statement; Chief Kief for example entered the Jack Bauer state of mind and phoned in 30-somewhat lines for ~500,000 USD.

So you're saying the biggest artists in Hollywood right now don't make millions on their world tours? What about Bieber, Ariana Grande, One Direction, 5 Seconds of Summer, Santana, Michael Buble, Taylor Swift, Kanye West, Rihanna, Beyonce, Eminem, A$AP Rocky, Jay-Z, Tiesto, Calvin Harris, Katy Perry? And that's just off the top of my head.

 

It really doesn't matter how much they make now. The real question that we should be asking is whether they are being paid enough for their work. Big name actors in Hollywood get paid millions. Even those who are in animation only movies where they just have to voice act, they get paid in the high hundred thousand range. Voice acting is just as hard a job as on screen acting. They have to convey emotions through their voice which is arguably harder than just doing it on screen

[Samfisher]

so. lets take a minute to think about this.

how hard is the job.  you know.  talking into a microphone

sitting down or standing up.

What is bad about these conditions again ?

 

Shouting, screaming,  talking in tones and pitches that are not made for constant talking, and also talking for hours and hours and hours on end are NOT good for your voice.  You act like voice acting is just "talking into a mic".  I guess singing is also "talking into a mic" and see how much surgery singers have to go through in their lives.  Celine Dion doesn't even talk for 2 days before concerts to conserve her voice.

[Khvarrioiren]

It really doesn't matter how much they make now.

 

If that is the case, why are we having this argument then?

[ShadowCaptain]

I am on the side of the voice actors, and I also agree its shitty the developers and coders dont get enough money either, its not fair, I mean I was sat playing MGS V yesterday listening to the tapes and I was thinking.. fucking hell I hope they got paid a lot for this, there is like 100 billion hours of dialogue, and the game would lost without it,

In story driven narrative games I would argue the voice talent is THE most important aspect of the game, outside of basic mechanics and graphics, games like Mass Effect, The Walking Dead etc, these are performance driven games, and its unfair if the voice actor gets a pittance for all their work making the character what it is

 

 

 

Voice acting is just as hard a job as on screen acting. They have to convey emotions through their voice which is arguably harder than just doing it on screen

 

Lets not forget many voice acting roles now also involve performance and motion capture, sometimes the voice actor has to do this too, its 100% about bringing the game character to life

 

 

 

[SpaceNugget]

Journey and Ocarina of Time are outliers, and Half Life 2 had voice actors in it, just not one for the protaginist. Games are not that different from movies, you could even go so far to say games are actually interactive movies. They both have a set story, timeline, large production team, animators, writers, voice actors, large budgets, unique environments, emotionally invested characters (well at least the good movies do), etc. They are more similar than you think.

 

 

So you're saying the biggest artists in Hollywood right now don't make millions on their world tours? What about Bieber, Ariana Grande, One Direction, 5 Seconds of Summer, Santana, Michael Buble, Taylor Swift, Kanye West, Rihanna, Beyonce, Eminem, A$AP Rocky, Jay-Z, Tiesto, Calvin Harris, Katy Perry? And that's just off the top of my head.

 

It really doesn't matter how much they make now. The real question that we should be asking is whether they are being paid enough for their work. Big name actors in Hollywood get paid millions. Even those who are in animation only movies where they just have to voice act, they get paid in the high hundred thousand range. Voice acting is just as hard a job as on screen acting. They have to convey emotions through their voice which is arguably harder than just doing it on screen

see the video in my previous post. Starbound, minecraft, battlefield, games don't need voice actors to be fun (BF has them but they are hardly relevant to gameplay) lol and dota could easily go without voices.  I would love dirt3 way more if they cut the annoying voice shit out. Gameplay of a game > other things of the game

[Dabombinable]

see the video in my previous post. Starbound, minecraft, battlefield, games don't need voice actors to be fun (BF has them but they are hardly relevant to gameplay) lol and dota could easily go without voices.  I would love dirt3 way more if they cut the annoying voice shit out. Gameplay of a game > other things of the game

Voice acting can also enhance games by a lot. Not all games are like COD where you say fuck it and rush in ignoring everything else.

[Guest]

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Acting isn't easy in the game industry and it doesn't pay well. Don't act like you know everything about it, if you have never worked in the field. 

 

(BTW.. do you honestly think voice acting is that easy, get off your high fucking horse and think a little.)

[Guest]

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With that said.. many VAs make less than a part time Wal-Mart greeter. 

[Guest]

...

 

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Probably one of the hardest fields to penetrate into professionally, and most companies treat you like shit either way.