Video game voice actors are now on strike

Hmm, hopefully this doesn't have major repercussions on some of the games I'm really looking forward to in the coming months :/
 
Not a big deal. Just hire other actors. Unions don't work when they have no power. Very few have enough power to do anything

This. Fact is, the only way that unions can have power is by all the workers in that industry being members.

Without that, they have nothing.
 
If anything these publishers will end up saving money and just let the Unions go. I bet right now they aren't even trying to negotiate. No need to. Once those actors realize this won't work and there families start to go hungry.. they'll cave. Always do. Seen this happen nearly every year for the past 5 or 6 years.
 
I think these actors have an over inflated idea of their own in importance.

Maybe they should spare a thought for people doing manual labouring jobs day in day out.
 
If anything these publishers will end up saving money and just let the Unions go. I bet right now they aren't even trying to negotiate. No need to. Once those actors realize this won't work and there families start to go hungry.. they'll cave. Always do. Seen this happen nearly every year for the past 5 or 6 years.

I think these actors have an over inflated idea of their own in importance.

Maybe they should spare a thought for people doing manual labouring jobs day in day out.

This. Fact is, the only way that unions can have power is by all the workers in that industry being members.

Without that, they have nothing.

Not a big deal. Just hire other actors. Unions don't work when they have no power. Very few have enough power to do anything


All of you should be ashamed of yourselves. Would you undertake a job on contract with NO IDEA WHAT THAT JOB WAS? No, of course you wouldn't. Would you participate in a commercial venture where the publishers and creators stood to make MILLIONS, yet your involvement, which is a VITAL & FUNDAMENTAL part of that success (i.e not something that just anyone can do), was not financially rewarded in the slightest? No, of course not. And yet you are telling these people to shut up and stop complaining. Absolutely unbelievable. I had to register just to say this, your attitude makes me sick.
 
All of you should be ashamed of yourselves. Would you undertake a job on contract with NO IDEA WHAT THAT JOB WAS? No, of course you wouldn't. Would you participate in a commercial venture where the publishers and creators stood to make MILLIONS, yet your involvement, which is a VITAL & FUNDAMENTAL part of that success (i.e not something that just anyone can do), was not financially rewarded in the slightest? No, of course not. And yet you are telling these people to shut up and stop complaining. Absolutely unbelievable. I had to register just to say this, your attitude makes me sick.

I gotta say guys, this dude has a point...
 
All of you should be ashamed of yourselves. Would you undertake a job on contract with NO IDEA WHAT THAT JOB WAS? No, of course you wouldn't. Would you participate in a commercial venture where the publishers and creators stood to make MILLIONS, yet your involvement, which is a VITAL & FUNDAMENTAL part of that success (i.e not something that just anyone can do), was not financially rewarded in the slightest? No, of course not. And yet you are telling these people to shut up and stop complaining. Absolutely unbelievable. I had to register just to say this, your attitude makes me sick.

Actually, what I was inferring is quite simply that the UNIONS in place need to obtain more bargaining power.

It is unfortunate that they have no power to speak of - but that is the result of the way they do business. It is up to the individual actors (or, employees) in question to decide whether they will join up or not - and unless that vast majority of people working in that industry DO join up [AND to the strike thing when that is called for] - then the union, ultimately, has no power. This is because of the way that unions (generally anyway) try to do their bargaining. Their ultimate position is "do what we want, or we will walk off the job". This leaves companies with few options: use union workers, who could walk off the job, or use workers who are not union members. Put yourself in the business' shoes. Which one would YOU take?

Of course, in the situation where unions actually do monopolise the work force, this tactic works VERY well. What this says to me is that the unions have not adapted to their new position.

The way I see it, UNIONS have only two options: 1) get everyone in the business to join them (I've touched on this already, so not going into it further).
The better option, in my view is 2) Find a way to work WITH the industry to get the outcomes that you desire, without the use of bullying/threatening tactics.

Until the unions can come to terms with the fact that companies will actually work with them when they are not being pushy/bullying/threatening, then this situation will simply keep happening - in more, and more industries.

I don't know. Maybe it is different there than it is here... but there is a reason that the majority of employees in this country (Australia) are no longer union members for their respective industries. Part of it is the lack of push that Unions actually have in "indoctrinating" members, and part of it is the simple fact that with the exception of a few industries (Maritime, construction primarily), the unions have not got the member base to be powerful enough to actually accomplish anything major - and the general public KNOWS it.

Unfortunately for the workers - they are simply stuck in the middle. I would however also suggest that if they are proper voice actors, then they should have a managing agent who SHOULD be doing the right thing by them, and ensuring that snares like what were described are either minimized, or eliminated entirely. That is what the agents do (well, besides signing up jobs and doing auditions).

TL-DR: I dispute the claims that I am saying to shut up and suck it (as stated), and unions need to adapt, in order to 1) survive, and 2) thrive in the business world moving forward. Failure to do so, will leave unions in an even weaker position than they are now. Employees, unfortunately, are damned if they do, and damned if they don't.
 
I think these actors have an over inflated idea of their own in importance.

Maybe they should spare a thought for people doing manual labouring jobs day in day out.

Couldn't agree more.

Having done quite a few different manual labor jobs which don't get me wrong are good money but then seeing people who get to sit down and all they do is talk into a mic and the moan about it is a tad annoying.
 
All of you should be ashamed of yourselves. Would you undertake a job on contract with NO IDEA WHAT THAT JOB WAS? No, of course you wouldn't. Would you participate in a commercial venture where the publishers and creators stood to make MILLIONS, yet your involvement, which is a VITAL & FUNDAMENTAL part of that success (i.e not something that just anyone can do), was not financially rewarded in the slightest? No, of course not. And yet you are telling these people to shut up and stop complaining. Absolutely unbelievable. I had to register just to say this, your attitude makes me sick.

Your logic here makes me sick. None of said to those people "shut up and stop complaining". No idea where that came from. We are actually referring to the lack of Union Power these people have and what is going to happen. Lastly, welcome to the business world. Sorry things aren't butterflies and cotton candy.
 
All of you should be ashamed of yourselves. Would you undertake a job on contract with NO IDEA WHAT THAT JOB WAS? No, of course you wouldn't. Would you participate in a commercial venture where the publishers and creators stood to make MILLIONS, yet your involvement, which is a VITAL & FUNDAMENTAL part of that success (i.e not something that just anyone can do), was not financially rewarded in the slightest? No, of course not. And yet you are telling these people to shut up and stop complaining. Absolutely unbelievable. I had to register just to say this, your attitude makes me sick.

If they are only average actors then yes there are millions of people around the world who could do what they do.

There are fewer people around the world who can do what I do for a living than there are people earning a living as actors.

Do I deserve a big pay rise because my employer makes millions out of the things I make, no I don't.

Do I know what my employer does with what I make or where it goes, no I don't and I could not care less as long as I do a good job to the best of my ability and get paid for it.
 
Couldn't agree more.

Having done quite a few different manual labor jobs which don't get me wrong are good money but then seeing people who get to sit down and all they do is talk into a mic and the moan about it is a tad annoying.

Dice you are quite wrong in that respect. Yeah they sit down, but they need to do research, get in character, practise and practise.. its no different to hollywood stars putting in the hours or months to get something perfect. The only difference here is that it is just the voice, but even then sometimes probes are used in order to change the animation so it suits the voice response.

And THEN the voice recording can go on for well over 12hours... think of the monotony and pain of repeating yourself countless times. I know this because a good friend of mine works at Funcom here in Norway. I made the exact same jab at him about the voice acting in Conan, Secret world and other games and he kind of lost it, and raged until I saw what he was getting at.

You can all complain and say "get someone else in to do it" but then the game is released and you whine.. omg the voice acting is so bad!... just cant win
 
Dice you are quite wrong in that respect. Yeah they sit down, but they need to do research, get in character, practise and practise.. its no different to hollywood stars putting in the hours or months to get something perfect. The only difference here is that it is just the voice, but even then sometimes probes are used in order to change the animation so it suits the voice response.

And THEN the voice recording can go on for well over 12hours... think of the monotony and pain of repeating yourself countless times. I know this because a good friend of mine works at Funcom here in Norway. I made the exact same jab at him about the voice acting in Conan, Secret world and other games and he kind of lost it, and raged until I saw what he was getting at.

You can all complain and say "get someone else in to do it" but then the game is released and you whine.. omg the voice acting is so bad!... just cant win

Agreed. Don't assume you know how hard someone's job is until you've been doing it for several years.
 
Lets not let the discussion turn toxic by the way. Its good to disagree and debate but no need to get offensive or defensive over something we have very little info about :)
 
It is a good job that Sir Alec Guinness did not mind working for little or no money when doing science fiction.

When they ran out of money making the original Star Wars film (which Guinness thought was going to be a flop) he agreed to work for a % of the films earnings.

Having said that an actor like Sir Alec Guinness can make a big difference to a production, I don't think most of these voice actors are in his league though.
 
It is a good job that Sir Alec Guinness did not mind working for little or no money when doing science fiction.

When they ran out of money making the original Star Wars film (which Guinness thought was going to be a flop) he agreed to work for a % of the films earnings.

Having said that an actor like Sir Alec Guinness can make a big difference to a production, I don't think most of these voice actors are in his league though.

Sir Alec Guinness, the man, the voice, the legend... :)
 
Couldn't agree more.

Having done quite a few different manual labor jobs which don't get me wrong are good money but then seeing people who get to sit down and all they do is talk into a mic and the moan about it is a tad annoying.

The fact you are comparing manual labour jobs to acting is bad enough, but to trivialise it even further by saying it is nothing more than sitting down and talking into a mic is utterly egregious.
 
The fact you are comparing manual labour jobs to acting is bad enough, but to trivialise it even further by saying it is nothing more than sitting down and talking into a mic is utterly egregious.

But it is sitting down and talking into a mic.

I never said it was easy but it's a job that would be far more comfortable than the majority of jobs the vast majority of the human race does.
 
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