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Games Losing Their Voices
Gamespot is reporting on a possible SAG strike against the video game industry. The working contract that the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists has with the major game publishers expires tomorrow and negotiations are still underway. From the article: "Academy-Award winner Charlize Theron will lend her voice to Majesco's Aeon Flux, David Duchovny and Marilyn Manson voice-act original characters for Midway's upcoming Area 51, and Sean Connery will do some Bond-speak for EA's recently announced From Russia With Love. Actors are even voicing from beyond the grave--the late Marlon Brando will join James Caan and Robert Duvall in Electronic Arts' digital version of The Godfather."
This may, in the end, be good for the games industry; removing the advantage of a big development to hog the limelight by parading big name actors on their game boxes, and giving a tiny bit more of a chance for smaller game houses, who rely on gameplay to sell their games, to grab a piece of the pie.
However, this is another example of a big money union crossing the line. While SAG is acting perfectly within its bounds, it is completely pissing on the spirit in which the union were founded.
Unions are there to protect the workers, not to be dicks.
Dont get me wrong , i am very much pro union in some situations, However the SAG is an example of why some unions are seen as abusive groups of organised criminals. . .
A union is there for one reason , to protect the rights of the workers
Now this does not include boycotting a small company who hires non-union workers..
Fair enough to boycot the studio if it hires people during a strike but this is just silly.
Perhaps back in the day the Screen actors guild was used to right a few wrongs(I have my doubts) but now all they do is keep the exclusive club going and try to hike up wages for the elite
(/Rant)
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
Honestly , being a member of the SAG does not make you a good actor .. /Budget funds budgeted to hiring actors ,either that or they just hire anyone who offers.
The problem is that not nearly enough attention is paid
Notable exceptions to this rule are the GTA games (after 2) and Planescape:torment.
You can tell that real care care was done in the casting for most of the charichters(on the janitor note , i belive one of the DJS in GTA3 was the marketing manager for DMA,he was also one of the best actors in the game).
I have no real clue why such little care is paid in such an important area , but as i stated previously my main suspicions is the PHBs and the budget.
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
The worst part of all of this is the fact that without these famous names doing voices, the quality of these games is going to fall drastically. Can you imagine playing a game without recognizable voices in it? Man, if only there were people out there that could, you know, kinda, mimic famous people. If only someone could sound like sean connery...
Don't Blame me if I seem bitter, I'm at work, and the TV only plays soap operas.
Take the money you would pay these actors and put it towards quality testing up front and less time towards patching buggy releases.
Meet the new sig, same as the old sig
A bad actor would emphasize the word "meatbag" too much, just because it's funny. But part of the reason it's funny in the first place is because HK-47 doesn't sound like he's trying to be funny.
I bet a name-brand actor wouldn't have done half as well with that character.
Unions are there to protect the unions. They used to be there to protect the workers, and they attracted leaders who were concerned with protecting the workers. Then they grew large ...
As the son and grandson of blue collar union members, and as a person who has materially benefited from the original ideals of unionization, I'll add that a large part of the problem is that union won their war but did not demobilize. Nearly all their legitimate issues are enshrined in law. Now they largely exist to preserve themselves and their power.
The occassional exception where they actually do something useful would be the "Save a job, buy American" type public relations campaigns. We bitch and moan about about jobs being exported and blame the government and corporations but the simple truth is that it is our own damn fault. We tend to buy whatever costs less. The union's modern battle is with the public not government and corporations. Well, that is if they were interested in protect their workers.
I can't really think of a game that bragged about its celebrity voice actors and didn't suck.
Also, hire amateur scabs like me to do the voice work, I'd love to do it! Pity there aren't many (any?) game development houses in Ottawa (although there are lots about two hours away in Montréal).
- chrish
Join F.A.G, ban Team America!
I'll never be able to hear anything about the Screen Actor's Guild without thinking of George Clooney puppets and "Matt Damon!"
-JP
Last year I worked at a Talent Agency that speacialized in Voice Overs (VO). A few of our guys had done some games. I got into a conversation with one guy who had done a bunch of the russain and italian mobsters for Max Payne 2. He told me he put in a full day at the studio doing these voices, and only got scale.
VO actors thrive on being able to do multiple sessions in one day. They studio hop, and although each gig pays less than an on-camera gig would, they make it up in the numbers.
Since video games are a little more like films, they take more time, and therefore these guys should be getting paid more.
IIRC, there are two major brackets for scale right now: On-Camera and VO. I'm willing to bet that Video Games will get their own bracket, and they will be somewhere in between the OC (about $700 a day, and that means the full day) and the VO (about $450 a day, per session, which are typically just an hours or two)