SAG-AFTRA votes unanimously to expand its strike to include the games industry
SAG-AFTRA votes unanimously to expand its strike to include the games industry
What people might not catch is that this isn't artists, designers or engineers. It's voice actors only. I'm all for people getting what they deserve but as I see voice actors in the games industry demand profit sharing and more rights, I'm reminded that those who actually make the games don't get that. They have overtime without pay.
Voice actors are among "those who actually make the games." Voice acting in particular also is strenuous work that can and does cause physical injury when workers are compelled to work long hours doing rough voices and so on. People end up having to have surgery on their vocal cords.
We don't need to devalue voice actors to value other game industry workers. The only difference is the voice actors organized first, probably because of the injury risk, and when you form a union you have to define a group that you can reach and coordinate. It shouldn't be an us vs them among works.
Don't forget mocap. A lot of actors are doing mocap for games now, which also potentially results in injury.
This also includes stunt workers (who do the more intensive motion capture work) and stunt coordinators, many of whom are in the Screen Actors Guild already.
They should then let engineers, artists, and designers in their union.
They need to unionize too. Also count actors are included in the "actually make the games" group. Everyone should be paid well, don't drag a group trying to fix that down because the rest aren't doing anything.
My bad I didn't mean to imply they don't work on the game.
Voice actors have a union.
Designers and engineers generally don't. Yet.
for those in america, CWA, Communication Workers of America, is a union that's trying to reach out to the developers in the game industry
I’m reminded that those who actually make the games don’t get that. They have overtime without pay.
Yes, capitalism fucks everyone every day unless you fight for what you deserve, usually for decades, and even then only getting half of it. It's surprising that keeping this in mind requires reminders.
A better deal for one group helps the rest of them by setting precedent.
Or ensures the others get locked out, as the business feels the financial sting of the first effort
Yeah, that's how I run my studio.
I think they asked for that in the last strike, but I haven't seen it mentioned in this one. And some speculated it was only included for something they could drop in the eventual resolution as a form of compromise.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but since this strike is against certain companies and not some entity that represents the entire industry like it does for movies and television, that means that other individual companies who come to an agreement can still hire these people, right? If so...imagine if we had that in movies and television.
We do. A24, for instance, is still making a couple movies by agreeing to work under the proposed terms by SAG. As far as I know, no one else has made such agreements yet. The more of such exceptions that get made, the weaker the AMPTP's position will get.
Dropout.tv (formerly CollegeHumour) is also an unstruck company.
Oh, I see. I thought all of Hollywood was AMPTP and that's why we can't have nice things like DRM-free movie purchases.
I never wondered about the conditions of videogames workers, but I'm really happy that they get better thanks to this movement !
It's 10x worse than whatever you're imagining.
It all depends on where you work and what lines you personally draw in the sand. Some novice game developers will not draw a line in the sand near release and management will work them to death. Stress causality is the term for when people don't quit, don't say anything, and just stop showing up for work. If you work at a studio where crunch is normalized then usually there is a stress causality normalization too.
No guarantee anything gets better yet.
And there’s no reason to think it will
Oh I can provide context with an entertaining and informative video!
https://youtu.be/DN-Hv3pnVz0?si=y11gki97RBZ5paQa
Shout out to Matt McMuscles who makes these. What a champ.
Thanks for sharing ! Looks like the usual "small white male feeling powerful because he's the boss" bullshit more than a problem specific to the gaming industry.
Anyway, unionizing should protect them better from these kind of abuse, which is good :)
Either everyone needs to get royalties or nobody does.
Absolutely agree. Otherwise giving someone royalties is a spit on the face of everyone else on the team.
or nobody does
Be careful, Disney might like that idea
How so?
Everyone in the games industry is vastly underpaid because of the glory of working on games. Game Execs are ruthless to gamble and exploit where they can. Crunch exists mainly in the games industry for a reason. You don't hear of any other industry where office workers are getting early on-set PTSD symptoms from their job.
On top of that, if you are a woman, you will get a lot of people trying to either sleep with you or talk down to you like you are a child.
Absolutely, gaming execs won't give profits to anyone.
I wonder how many are actually in union to gain that bargain power?
Good.
One of my good friends was one of the voices on LA Noire years ago and gets zero residuals from it. It's maddening.
🤷♂️I've made multiple million-dollar titles and haven't gotten more than a paycheck from them. I really don't think VAs should get much if any in the way of residuals. Engineers, artists, and designers should get a huge portion of the profits. Giving VAs even a 1% residual is a slap in the face of the rest of the team who build those games. Not to mention the whole team of LA Noire was laid off later that year.
just give everyone residuals
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