Video Game Voices on Strike

In the last few weeks I've been reading and seeing coverage of the SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) strike.  SAG-AFTRA is a union that represents a wide variety of acting related professions including video game voice actors.  It seems that not everything in the video game industry is working as intended and actors have some gripes.  This may not sound very interesting, and I honestly know very little about how actors are compensated for work on games, but there are some thought provoking issues related to gaming all wrapped up in the myriad complaints.

So what are the actual complaints?  One of the biggest issues that the actors seem to be pushing for is for higher pay (not surprising--money tends to be at the center of most strikes).  Voice actors get paid a flat rate for recording sessions but receive no other compensation beyond this.  The union is pushing for a type of bonus pay based on how many units a game sells--for example, if a game was a blockbuster that sold millions of copies then the actors would get extra pay.  Since not every game is a blockbuster these bonuses wouldn't be happening all the time.

Seems reasonable, right?  Good voice acting can take a game to the next level and it's those unique voices that make our favorite characters all that more memorable.  Interestingly enough, one of the people mentioned as part of the strike was Jennifer Hale--the voice of my favorite femShep--and a very prolific video game voice actress.  Remember how awesome femShep was acted compared to the male version?  Yeah, voice acting is pretty important.  But is it more important than good writing?  Or great environmental art?  Or level-design?  That's one of the difficult issues--if you reward voice actors for the work they do, shouldn't you reward everyone when a game turns into a multi-million unit selling blockbuster?  At first glance you want to root for the actors (I am!) but once you read about the issues things get considerably murkier.

One of the other complaints that surprised me was the fact that most voice actors have no idea what game they are acting for when they are hired.  Maintaining the secrecy of a major game series puts voice actors at a serious disadvantage when it comes to negotiating pay.  The actors are demanding that they be informed about what they are auditioning for.

Besides the money issues there are also some "unsafe working condition" type of complaints.  According to the complaints issued by the union, stunt and motion capture actors are frequently forced to perform stunts with inadequate safety supervision.  To me, this seems like a pretty legitimate complaint.  They also claim that voice actors are expected to perform vocally demanding tasks--think of all the acting for weird sounds like getting shot, or falling, or being punched in the face--that could put their voices at risk.

But we all know the big question looming in the back of all our minds...will this delay impact the release of any upcoming games?  I don't know that there is a really clear answer for that one.  Depending on how long the strike goes on it looks like a possibility.  The majority of the striking seems to be targeted toward the big studios (Disney, Activision, EA, etc.) so, maybe?  According to this article only 25% of voice actors are actually members of the union...so maybe not?

Keep your eyes peeled and your fingers crossed that this issue gets resolved soon.  (I'm rooting for the actors, but I understand that the issue of raising their pay is complicated).

If you want to read more about the union demands here is a helpful document from SAG-AFTRA:

SAG-AFTRA Strike

The developers have also fired back with their own website to lay out their side of the story:

http://sagaftravideogames.com/