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Games Losing Their Voices 54

Posted by Zonk from the cough-cough dept.
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."
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Games Losing Their Voices More

Games Losing Their Voices

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  • Good or bad? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 15, 2005 @03:09AM (#12242100)
    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.

    • Re:Good or bad? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by wowbagger ( 69688 )

      Unions are there to protect the workers....

      No.

      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, and powerful, and their leaders became those who were concerned with being in charge of large and powerful organizations. The unions began to act not to protect the workers, but to protect the size and power of the unions.

      (Note: you can s/union/political party/g , or s/union/b

      • 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 prese
        • Well one of the main reasons that exported jobs cost less is partially the fault of US unions where some have abused their power and got far-reaching benefits. The cost of the benefits is passed to the consumer/distrubutor. So where will they buy? The cheaper products produced by the extremely cheap(and sometimes utterly exploited) foreign labor. The upkeep of the unions is dragging down the employers which in-turn hurts its own workers when it can no longer provide the better benefits. The cycle is visciou
      • "Unions are there to protect the unions."

        So true. Right now I'm in art school, looking down a few different career paths later, one of which is the booming field of digital art in the movie and game industries. I've realized that if I do go that way, I'll be shooting for the game industry, because I'm not about to go into a career that makes me beholden to the crazy assholes in the Director's Guild, Screen Actor's Guild, etc. unless I'm lucky enough to end up working for Lucas or Rodriguez, both of whom ha
    • 100% agree with the first part. Look at the infamous "SpikeTV Games awards" - parading actors and musicians across the stage, and none of the people who... y'know... actually made the game.

      At least the directors get their names on things in the movies. In the games industry, at best its a development group - which could be entirely restaffed with a new team and nobody would know (eg: Cavedog losing Chris Taylor and making TA:K suck).

      Really, I'm sure that all but the most hardcore gamers would be hard pr
  • maybe we'll see some Japanese games with a sub track now. Tales of Destiney II was absoulutely ruined by bad voice acting.

  • Some unions (Score:5, Insightful)

    by FidelCatsro ( 861135 ) <fidelcatsro&gmail,com> on Friday April 15, 2005 @03:27AM (#12242147) Journal
    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)

    • Re:Some unions (Score:2, Interesting)

      by nunchux ( 869574 )
      Actually, the entertainment unions are one of the last places where the big guys stick up for the little guys. SAG, the WGA, etc. leverage the known (and much sought-after) talent to make sure those who aren't in a position to bargain get something close to a fair deal. Actors, directors, writers, animators etc. are in a highly competitive business where it's tough to break in (and stay in) and the powers-that-be (studios, networks and production houses) know it. Aspiring actors would happily sign their
  • Voice acting is the biggest source of crap in video games. I think it was the first or second expansion to Dungeon Siege where the first NPC opens his mouth and you reach for the sound settings. Frankly I'm surprised that any members of SAG do any voice acting for video games. I would have though it's the boss' son and the janitor. (No offense to janitors, you're just the best example of a staff member that has the least to do with core business.)

    • Re:Great news (Score:3, Informative)

      by FidelCatsro ( 861135 )
      Honestly , being a member of the SAG does not make you a good actor ..
      The problem is that not nearly enough attention is paid /Budget funds budgeted to hiring actors ,either that or they just hire anyone who offers.

      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 th
      • Yeah, but I would be happier if they put more money on gameplay, than voice overs. And even better, if no stupid stunts like getting sean connery to act for a game were done at all.

        Anyway, I don't mind too much bad voiceovers, because english is not my first language.
        • Ive never played a bad game with good voice acting, Ive played plenty of good games with bad voice overs though.
          For a story driven RPG it can make or break the illusion , sure for alot of games its a silly stunt .
          The thing about gameplay is that you cant just throw money at it and make it hapen, it requires skill and time , however you can improve the audio by throwing cash at it
          • Yes, but you can polish a game if you throw money to it. Testing takes time and money, and a lot of publishers try to cut it as much as possible.

            However, Unless we are talking about fully voiced rpg's, VO may not be a big money sink, so you can have your cookie.
            • I agree totaly ,Rushing things out of the door is possibly the worst thing any games publisher can do , it turns potential masterpieces into Disasters (ofcourse too much development time and you can end up with a Daikatana).
              on the part of VO , I think i mean to include all audio , such as VA/O ambiant and music.some of my fondest gameing memorys are acompinied by a tune (Legend of zelda , Super Mario bros , Doom, Pac man even) Its part of what turns a game from good to a classic(Gameplay 1st , Style second(
          • I've never played a bad game with good voice acting
            Primal

    • A lot of "big name" actors consider voice work to be a nice cushy job, which is probably why they do it! No spending hours in makeup, no having their hair done, no messing about in silly costumes. Just sit down, do their lines and collect a big cheque. Half the time they don't even need to be there at the same time as the other actors so they can do it when they want in between other projects.

      Its probably a good thing, people like Tom Baker [tombaker.tv] seem to spend much of their lives doing voice overs for games, do

      • Easy money is one thing. Value for money is another. A few years ago, I worked on a game that hired an "A-list" actress to supply the voice for the main game character. The results were pretty flat and lifeless, and didn't fit the game well at all. I don't know if the guys who had gone along to the recording session hadn't explained the context properly, or what.

        Worse, though, was knowing that it would take me three or four years to earn what she was paid for that afternoon of "work". Bitter? Me? Naaaaah!

    • Re:Great news (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Drachemorder ( 549870 )
      There are some really good voice actors doing games, though. Take HK-47 in KOTOR for example. His "meatbag" lines wouldn't have been nearly as funny if it hadn't been for the voice acting behind them. There's just something inherently funny about a droid discussing all the flaws of organic meatbags in a dry, matter-of-fact tone.

      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

  • Michael Jackson will be playing Zelda in the next Zelda game. Paris Hilton will be playin as an unknown guy in the next DoA Game. And last but certinly not least, Mel Gibson will be playing as one of the greater minions of hell in the next expansion pack to Doom
    • Paris Hilton will be playin as an unknown guy in the next DoA Game.

      Something about that makes me think you need to take a closer look at the qualifications of what it takes to be a character in Dead or Alive (at least a female character).

  • The Worst Part (Score:3, Funny)

    by Nodar ( 821035 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @08:07AM (#12243050)
    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...
    • "without these famous names doing voices, the quality of these games is going to fall drastically"

      Unintentional insight? :)

      I mean, come on; the point of playing a game is THE GAME. Goldeneye didn't need any voice acting at all to make it the best console FPS ever. Conversely, I don't give a shit if EA's latest 'game' has or hasn't got Sean Connery doing the voices.
    • If only someone could sound like sean connery...

      I'll get you yet, Trebek!!

  • Good (Score:2, Interesting)

    by PreviouslySeen ( 714752 )
    Take the money you would pay these actors and put it towards quality testing up front and less time towards patching buggy releases.
    • Amen.

      Put the cash where it belongs: in the hands the designers, artists, coders, and testers who slave hundreds upon hundreds of man hours to put out a modern game.

      In ten years (if not sooner), software will be able to generate completely natural sounding voices anyway. Screw SAG.
      • yeah, unfortunately, even then the $$ will go to the PHB's who think that putting a known voice on a game is going to sell more copies.

        Ive never bought a game because "insert current popular star name here" featured as a voice actor.

  • You know.... (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I'd actually like to here Will Wheton's perspective on this.
  • They seriously want royalties for coming to work one or two days for a few hours, reading lines from a script and then never hearing about the thing again?

    NO!

    I hope the games industry fights back. If anyone should be getting any royalties, its the people who actually worked on the games like programmers, designers, animators etc. Sure, thats not gonna happen any time soon. Hopefully, the big evil that is EA can do some good here. They probably dont want to pay these actors any royalties, and arguably t

  • awesome! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by chrish ( 4714 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:46AM (#12244208) Homepage
    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).

  • Arec Bardwin! (Score:2, Funny)

    by I_Human ( 781026 )
    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!"

  • From the Industry... (Score:5, Informative)

    by TrippTDF ( 513419 ) <{moc.liamg} {ta} {dnalih}> on Friday April 15, 2005 @11:36AM (#12244744)
    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)
  • I know I would rather have good voice acting from a noname actor rather than getting mediocre voice acting from A-list celebrities. (And by noname actors, I mean the experienced voice actors in the field. I know there are a lot of people in the voice acting field who are pretty prominant, but don't have any recognition outside of that circle). I don't care that the Olsen twins have a handfull of lines in some game that are delivered in a flat monotone voice. I don't feel any particular attachment to a
  • ...is that they're making a Godfather game!
    I wonder...will you have to sneak into the stables to decapitate Khartoum? Get extra points for keeping your mouth shut while dad talks to Solozzo?

    I see it now. You start the game as Enzo, the baker. You are done a favor by Don Corleone, allowing you to get married and stay in the country, but returning the favor becomes more of an ordeal than you had imagined! Baking Pies, fighting off hitmen, and avenging the death of your father-in-law to make your bones.
  • On a real TV or movie set, the actors' union, along with the writers' union, the Teamsters, and whatever other unions are involved in the careers of the cast and crew all go to bat for one another, to ensure that a union shop is union to the core.

    Where's this support in the games industry? Why isn't SAG lobbying EA employees to get them to unionize? Why are programmers, designers, artists, and musicians regarded as second-class citizens by SAG as compared to the writers, directors, set designers, cinemat

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