Voice-Actors wanting a pay-rise.

[mortiz]

What does everyone think of this? ( if you don't know what I'm talking about you can read it here: http://www.smh.com.au/news/Technolo...s/2005/06/07/1118123840106.html?oneclick=true)

Personally I think the greedy bastards get enough money for talking for a couple of hours without having a cut of a games profit. I mean they can earn more for doing a voice-over for a game than a lot of people earn in a month.

It did kind of peeve me off, I mean when I pick up a game box I don't look and say "Samuel .L Jackson is doing a voice in it! It must be good!", I buy a game for the game itself. If I was an exec in the game industry I'd tell them to take their complaints and shove' em, get some good un-unionized voice actors next time. I'm sure there's plenty around looking for work.

The reason I'm bringing this up now is because the voice actors have just agreed to a 35 percent pay rise (even though they rejected it on numerous occasions) and are touting it as a victory. They're even saying they're going to keep trying for a share of the profits.

 

[PickledGecko]

I don't think they deserve a share of the profits. Most film actors don’t get a share, on rare occasions big name actors do but its usually because they’re given a Producer credit. The reason for that is the movie going public will watch a bad, say, Brad Pit film before seeing a good no name actor film. The only time a voice actor should get a cut is if the game developers or publishers believe that it will help them sell getting some celebrity to do a voice, but that should be negotiated between the company and the actor’s agent.

Saying that, maybe it is time that these guys get a pay rise. I’m not saying the job is worth it, like you say they do get a decent wage but I don’t know enough about the industry to know whether it’s a good or bad deal. But the way I see it is, if publishers have to pay more for voice actors, they will be getting better actors. Maybe the age of the painfully bad voice acted game is dead.

 

[A True Canadian]

Voice acting in games have sucked since they were introduced. There's only been a handful of games where the voice acting is actually good.

Ever since gaming went mainstream via the console market, Hollywood celebrities have figured out that they can make money by doing these voice overs. The problem is that they expect to be payed the same amount of money for a video game that they get for a movie or TV. I don't understand the raise to 35% when it's still a relatively new thing for them. I can't access the article but it sounds to me like they were demanding more.

I mostly agree with PickledGecko.

 

[kupocake]

Personally I think the Voice Actors of gaming should get their dues. The Half-Life 2 cast should get their own mansion. The Final Fantasy X cast should get punched in the face.

 

[Gargantou]

MGS voice actors should get a castle imo, best voice actors ever Especially David Hayter(Solid Snake/Big Boss/Naked Snake/Jack/David), god I love him..!

 

[StardogChampion]

Most voice actors are pretty lame and hardly fit the characters.

 

[kupocake]

MGS voice actors should get a castle imo, best voice actors ever Especially David Hayter(Solid Snake/Big Boss/Naked Snake/Jack/David), god I love him..!

Yeah, MGS is pretty good for voice actors, though I don't think it's exactly a flawless performance... Hayter does overact a little in places and Liquid Snake is a walking English Bad-Guy cliche that goes a little too far... "My Brothuuur"

 

[Raxxman]

Starfox adventures voice acting is top notch...

I bring this up because its entirely in house, not actors, workers.

Voice actors get payed enough.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

Sorry I don't feel like going to bugmenot.com to get registration for the site, but the full list of everything that was settled on is here: http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/37325/

Personally, I feel that it's what needed to be done... I mean the guys sit there for hours doing all these different voices, and without it there wouldn't be any characters that would feel alive! Sure it may sound like an easy job, but a lot of people think that normal acting is an easy job as well... It sounds easy when you hear abou it, but when you try to do it, most of the times it comes out sounding like crap.

I don't care much though, as it doesn't affect me!

 

[Gargantou]

Yeah, MGS is pretty good for voice actors, though I don't think it's exactly a flawless performance... Hayter does overact a little in places and Liquid Snake is a walking English Bad-Guy cliche that goes a little too far... "My Brothuuur"

Not to mention Ocelot in MGS3 which sounds totally un-like Ocelot in MGS1/2.

 

[Direwolf]

Hell, if it will attract better actors to the industry, give them their money.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

Never mind about giving royalties to the developers. You know, the guys that actually make the games. Just give it all to the voice actors. Yeah.

 

[Sir Phoenixx]

Not to mention Ocelot in MGS3 which sounds totally un-like Ocelot in MGS1/2.

He's supposed to be around 40-50 years younger in MGS3.

 

[satch919]

I say give them a raise. The video game industry is a multi-billion dollar entity. CEOs and others with such power are hoarding all the profits for themselves. Its the CEOs that we should be concerned about.

The voice acting in games hasn't always been the greatest but its been improving over the years. Pay them more if they're going to be delivering better performances.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

I think they should be payed equivalent to any television or film voice actor. I mean, it's pretty much the exact same thing.

I suspect if you played all the voice files in the average SP game back-to-back, it would be equivalent to one or two very talky animated films.


I also agree that developer of good/great games should get cashmoney bonuses.

 

[DeusExMachina]

Most voice actors are pretty lame and hardly fit the characters.

Then you've been playing the wrong games. All the plot driven games I've played have excellent voice acting. Hell, even Half Life's voice acting was good and that was released in a time with horrible unimaginable voice acting.

 

[mortiz]

I'm ok with them getting a pay-rise I guess, but royalties from the game just takes the piss. It's one step too far.

If your game sells 2 million copies for example, at $40 a pop meaning your profit margin will be somewhere in the $40 million mark, at 0.1% royalty (I don't think these people will be going for much less) you're looking at a $40,000 payout to an actor just for them lending their voice. To me that's just ridiculous.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

It is ridiculous when the developers don't even get that.

 

[DeusExMachina]

It is ridiculous when the developers don't even get that.

Maybe not independant developers, but I'm sure Valve and Bungie make loads of money.

 

[mortiz]

It is ridiculous when the developers don't even get that.

Yeah, and that's $40,000 on top of a flat fee they get at the start. And you can bet that extra money for the actors will be coming out of the developers share.

 

[Kyorisu]

Many voice recording are down over multiple weeks and with or without certian characters for certain scenes, due to unavailability. This leads to robot like productions that make me feel sick.

Anywhoo, no they shouldn't get extra money.

 

[Steve]

What does everyone think of this? ( if you don't know what I'm talking about you can read it here: http://www.smh.com.au/news/Technolo...s/2005/06/07/1118123840106.html?oneclick=true)

Personally I think the greedy bastards get enough money for talking for a couple of hours without having a cut of a games profit. I mean they can earn more for doing a voice-over for a game than a lot of people earn in a month.

Thing is, they don't GET as much work in as most people do. They might only work a couple hours a month. Kinda like jet engine mechanics. They get payed hundreds of dollars an hour, but they don't work that much.

 

[mortiz]

Thing is, they don't GET as much work in as most people do. They might only work a couple hours a month. Kinda like jet engine mechanics. They get payed hundreds of dollars an hour, but they don't work that much.

So you're saying that just because they don't work as much they should get more money?

So I should get a part time job at my local Game store, working, I don't know, two hours a week and because of that I should say I deserve £20 an hour?

 

[VictimOfScience]

Ron Gilbert has the best analysis of this situation I have seen thus far.

Read it here.

A sample:
First, I think it's ridiculous that Voice Actors would be getting royalties from games when Artists, Programmers, and just about everyone else in the industry does not. In my mind, here is the big problem if the industry gives in: It's not the Publishers that will end up paying these royalties, it's the already underpaid and over-screwed Developers.

I agree completely. The old adage seems to stand true here as well: More money, more problems.

 

[A True Canadian]

Ron Gilbert has the best analysis of this situation I have seen thus far.

Read it here.

A sample:
First, I think it's ridiculous that Voice Actors would be getting royalties from games when Artists, Programmers, and just about everyone else in the industry does not. In my mind, here is the big problem if the industry gives in: It's not the Publishers that will end up paying these royalties, it's the already underpaid and over-screwed Developers.

I agree completely. The old adage seems to stand true here as well: More money, more problems.

This is probably why many devolpers are taking an interest in Steam. If developers begin to publish their own work, then they won't need to worry about these kinds of royalties.

 

[VictimOfScience]

Don't worry, they rejected it...

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=8862262

What an amazingly audacious move in the first place. Hoperfully this'll show them, but somehow I don't think so...