Voice Actor Strike

[Yeef]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/05/25/news_6126521.html

Discuss.

[flare60]

Most voice acting in games are dubbed, and the dubbing is done poorly, so i fail to see why give them something they dont deserve.

Now if they actully did a good job doing voices for games then it would be another story.

Ive tried japanese original versions then dubbed versions, the dubbing is usally horrible, with no feeling at all, in angry or happy parts, they sound like they dont really care, while in the japanese versions they actully put more feeling into it.

Its getting better but it aint good enough yet i think.

[OniCloud]

"In 99 percent of all games, the voice actors are irrelevant. You replace one voice actor with another nonunion actor, and no one will know the difference."


thats a load of bullshit right there.

[Hiltz]

Their problem, not ours.

[Shou]

voice acting is one of the main reasons certain games with potential end up getting ruined when they come stateside. It happens in europe as well, look at Siren, they completely demolished that game with the horrible voice acting. Let them strike, atleast less games might get screwed up

thats a load of bullshit right there.
no its completely true. Those people are a dime a dozen. Only a few games have good voice acting, there are so many released with voice acting that make people want to throw a brick through their tv in disgust.

[Goldenavatar]

Blaming a voice actor alone for a bad dubbing is like blaming a chimp for shooting you with the loaded gun you gave them. If the voice actors on strike feeling they should get a bigger peice of the pie, who am I to say they have no right to it? Besides, it's not like video games and anime are critical to life, so it's really not going to hurt me in the end.

[Spider Man 2099]

I agree with OniCloud.

What if you bought a game in your favorite series? Let's say when Metal Gear 4 comes out you no longer have David Hayter doing Snake's voice. Now the person who replaced him still sounds pretty cool. Still sounds like he could disembowel you with nothing more than a stern look. BUT it's not the same person who did it as before. The game...now...SUCKS!! How many die hard fans would be rioting and throwing memory cards through windows while looting EB's? How many computer geeks would strangle the clerk that sold them the game with the cord of their controller?

If the game sucks and nobody really likes the game it's not really of any consequence. If it's a game with a huge following it makes a BIG difference.

[Shou]

I seriously doubt the mgs actors are affected by this in any way shape or form, I mean cmon. Same with the GTA people or any other high budget/high expectation game. Obviously those actors get paid a lot more than the actors of normal games who would need to be part of a union

[oringe]

How many die hard fans would be rioting and throwing memory cards through windows while looting EB's?

how many normal people care at all? i know i wouldnt. voice acting probably doesnt account for 1% of all the work that goes into making a game.
i also think its funny how theyre treating voice acting in games the same as other standards of entertainment (movies, tv...) and wanting them to be equal, with the residuals and whatnot, while at the same time there are other people trying to hold games to different standards than movies, with the ratings.

and what shou said

[flare60]

how many normal people care at all? i know i wouldnt. voice acting probably doesnt account for 1% of all the work that goes into making a game.

If they decide to put voice acting in a game, it can make it EVEN BETTER !
in japan they do a pretty good job on the voice acting, they take alot of time to get it good aswell !

However in europe and the usa, they always **** it up......

[Hiltz]

Voice acting in a video game I guess is a small role compared to the bigger picture of what goes into producing a video game. However, some times it can be those small things in a video game that can help further make it enjoyable or just help ruin it.

[Spider Man 2099]

I'm not saying MGS will be affected. I'm using it as an example. And voice actors probably aren't the biggest part of making a game but that does NOT mean that they aren't an integral part of the entertainment factor. Some of the games with cool gameplay and graphics SUCK because of horrible voice acting. Crappy games with cool voices still suck though. HOWEVER a good voice on a good game make that game all the more enjoyable. (DIFFERENT EXAMPLE!) Star Wars Revenge of the Sith. The VA's from the Cartoon Network series The Clone Wars (WHO DO AN EXCELLENT JOB) reprised their roles. If they had different actors it wouldn't have been a huge deal but because they got the same actors it makes a big difference.

I would say that VA's don't have enough power and pull to make a big dent in this topic...YET. Just a few years ago we were still READING what the characters were saying so voices are still too close to bordering on an unecessary luxury for games.

I think it's safe to say that voice acting has become the standard. GOOD voice acting however is NOT in common use. Until the standard is top voice acting this is going to be a moot point.

I think the VA's are going to lose this battle. I'm rooting for them I just don't think they have enough leverage yet.

[Shou]

Zelda has never been criticized for not having voice acting. And its sales certaintly havent suffered. I would much rather read than listen to horrible voice actors who only ruin the experience. With the exception of a few respected games who take pride in what they do, all of it is buisness politics. Its pretty bad that they actually have to form a UNION of voice actors, we've gotten to a point where the game quality takes a back seat to filling unnecesary employment requirements to keep the union off their back.

So yes I do blaim the stupid voice actor union. A union is there to protect jobs, they use their force to do that, and its good for labor and office type jobs. But these people are actually hurting the game industry, the more games they ruin the more sales will suffer. Many times theyve turned potentially good games into unplayable pieces of crap and theyve never truly affected a game in a way that makes it sell more if there werent any voices. The last thing we need is to give these people MORE money for hurting sales and giving good games bad reviews.

[Alucard1515]

I don't know. It's hard for me to say if what they're asking for is unreasonable or not, considering I don't know crap about sales, and how much money they'd actually end up with.

And I wouldn't mind it so much is, as others have mentioned, if there were more GOOD voice actors in video games. If it were for games like Metal Gear, where the story is as important or moreso than the gameplay, I think it might be okay. But most games are about the gameplay and not the story, at least overall. They're NOT movies or other types of entertainment, because they're meant to be played, not watched. I'd have to know how their pay compares to the people that actually MAKE the games to know if what they're asking is reasonable.

But a problem that this could cause is that game companies just use less voice actors in games where it's not essential. If you know you're going to have to pay your actors a lot more, and having them really isn't integral to the game, why even bother?

[Hiltz]

The voice acting for Killer 7 I thought not only had an original story driven plot but the voice acting for the characters blew me away.

[Phearun]

Voice acting is deffinatly not high on my list of how good a game is. I like plenty of games where the voice acting is not good or there just are no voices.

[FigureFour]

Blaming a voice actor alone for a bad dubbing is like blaming a chimp for shooting you with the loaded gun you gave them.
That would only be true if it was the script that was bad, not the actors flat emotionless delivery.

Even the BEST video game voice acting jobs have pissed me off at times. MGS is full of lines that are delivered poorly.

If voice actors want more money, they should first focous on doing their job well.

[Lexar]

Castlevania Symphony of the night is considered one of the best games ever, and has god awfull voice acting, which has led to many funny mp3 mixes and quotes. Voice acting is overrated compared to animating and scripting. The worst example (or best) is shrek 2 where the voice actors were payed millions while the real hard work was done by the animators. I know it's not a game, but I'm betting that well known voice actors in games would also get more compared to animators. Hell, even in the credits they are often higher up on the list than the people doing the graphics.

[Alucard1515]

That's not the same as games, though. That was meant to be watched, and the voices were absolutely integral to the movie. I don't agree that the actors should be payed ridiculous salaries while the people who CREATE everything else in the movie make far less, but the voices are far more important in Shrek2 than in Castlevania. That game wasn't about the story, it was all about the gameplay.