Examining the Voice Actor Strike Debate

In big news that I didn't know about until just lately, the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists or SAG-AFTRA, have been negotiating on behalf of voice actors in the Game Industry for more compensation and benefits for voice actors who work on video games . These negotiations however are not going well and there are talks of possibly striking against the game industry.

This is certainly an interesting debate among fans, publishers, game developers and the voice actors; but more importantly, this once again calls into question some of the quandaries of working in the Game Industry.

The Situation:

SAG-AFTRA has been pushing for more benefits for voice actors, and you can see what they want from their FAQ. The big point is offering voice actors residuals or additional bonuses based on the copies sold; starting at two million copies sold and getting additional bonuses for every two million copies in addition, with a cap at eight million. The other points offer protection for the voice actor in various ways, which you can again read in the FAQ.

Batman Arkham City, originally posted on GameInformer

Major game companies on the other hand pitched their own terms, which seem to punish voice actors and make the conditions worse for them.

As of this moment, the SAG-AFTRA members are voting to decide whether or not to go on strike with the cut-off date being October 5th. If they get at least 75% approval for striking, then after the cut-off no member of the group will be allowed to do any voice acting on any video game projects until a contract has been hashed out.

This is a very sensitive issue and has caused a lot of debates about game development from both sides.

In favor of:

Looking at this from the SAG-AFTRA and Voice Actor's point of view, there are two parts of what they want: Better compensation for their work and protection of their livelihood. In terms of compensation, they're arguing that games that become mega hits or the ones that go over two million in copies sold, should reward the voice actors; as they're essentially "the face" of the game.

And when you think about it that way, they are. Professional voice actors like Nolan North, Troy Baker, Jennifer Hale and so many more, become the standout parts of a lot of the most memorable games. Some examples: Nolan North as Nathan Drake and the Penguin, Troy Baker as Booker in Bioshock Infinite and Joel from the Last of Us, Jennifer Hale as "FemShep" in Mass Effect.

Other entertainment mediums can live or die based on the quality and name of their Voice Actors; there was of course the recent worry when Harry Shearer was threatening to leave the Simpsons. The differences between a quality voice actor and someone who isn't is night and day and I could sit here for the next five minutes typing out the names of standout Voice Actors in games and TV from the last three decades.

Her Story

The other part of their requests I personally think are 100% fair. Starting with "Stunt pay" for Voice Actors doing stressful or strenuous voice acting; as someone who has done a lot more talking thanks to live-streaming and podcasting, my throat has become a lot sorer lately and I can't imagine how it would feel for someone yelling and screaming for hours on end.

And when your job has you working on multiple projects at once, it's not good if one project affects the work you do in others.

Having someone on hand during physical motion capture sessions for assistance I think is reasonable too. No one wants to get hurt on the job and having extra safety measures in place is never a bad thing in my book. Finally, giving Voice Actors more information about the job/game seems like a no brainer to me.

With that said, the problem and argument from the Industry's point of view is how much video games are different than other mediums and the wording of the requests.

Against:

Video games are an entertainment medium, but they're not the same as other industries with the obvious point being that they're interactive. The big point that critics will pull up is the fact that there is definitely issues of members of the Game Industry being vastly underpaid compared to their worth when looked at from other industries.

I was originally going to base my thoughts on this point as well, but when having debates about the quality of life of one segment of the workforce, it's not fair or conducive to bring others into it; it's that whole, "You can't complain because of X" argument.  The issue of Game Developers, Programmers, and Artists etc getting their fair compensation is an important topic, but until there is more talk about unionizing and a serious movement for it, we can't use that as a part of this discussion.

What I can talk about however, are some of the issues that the Video Game Industry has compared to other entertainment markets and how the wording is a little grey on these points. The demands cite two million copies as the level of a blockbuster and when Voice Actors should be compensated, however this is where the Game Industry is a bit different compared to other mediums.

Payday 2

Video game pricing is not standardized these days, thanks to digital sales and greater devaluation. A game could have sold two million copies at sixty dollars on launch, or it could take a year or so and after the game has dropped to thirty or below.

The point is that you can't really use copies sold as a gauge for increased profit with exception from the mega AAA titles (Madden, Call of Duty, etc) that are going to make the bulk of their profit within the first month.

I know that the site referenced at the start specifically talks about the AAA market, but the wording isn't clear about this or if there is a deadline for copies sold; and this unclear wording takes us to the next point.

What's even a bigger difference the Game Industry has compared to other mediums is the use of post release support. The games that are earning the big bucks these days are the ones that have continued work done to them; with patches, new quests, missions, etc. Games like Payday 2, Team Fortress 2, Call of Duty, Diablo 3 and so on, became massive hits thanks to their development team continuing to support their titles and giving the player a reason to come back... a reason that has nothing to do with the voice actors.

If a game does sell a lot more copies because of DLC and this support, the Voice Actors would have had no contribution on those increased sales, unless the content is in the form of new story related materials, but it's going to be the game content that moves the most copies when talking about games like the ones mentioned above. The wording from the website once again is unclear about these points and shows either an unintentional or intentional lack of understanding of how Game Development and game selling works.

Because of that unclear wording, it has me of two minds about this strike.

My Thoughts:

When looking at the requests from the SAG-AFTRA, they all seem very reasonable and fair for people who are the best at their craft to get the proper compensation and working conditions that should be fit them. But what's going to hurt them I think in terms of public perception, is not having a clear wording that talks about the unique conditions of Game Development.

The Last of Us, originally posted on Giant Bomb

As I said further up, I'm not going to talk about other members of the Game Industry in this debate, but that's not going to stop a lot of other critics and consumers from using that as an attack on the Voice Actors and SAG-AFTRA.

My suggestion would be if this does go to a strike, to properly and explicitly lay out the exact conditions for what the union wants, keeping in mind the points I mentioned already here. That way, not only is their position clear, but how it pertains to the unique conditions of the Game Industry as well.

I'm very interested to see how this turns out, not just for Voice Actors but if this will have any impact on the rest of the Industry too. At this point, all we can do is wait until October 5th to see where the chips fall.

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