With the video game voice actors strike well underway, Game Rant takes an in-depth look at the strike action, and how it reached this point in the first place.

When the gaming community talks about historic moments within the entertainment form, it often comes down to commercial or statistical means. A lot is made of landmarks such as the first 2D platformer, the best-selling game of all time, or the most powerful console to date. However, a recent event has made video game history in an entirely different way.

This October, voice actors who are part of the SAG-AFTRA union started strike action due to an ongoing, and as-yet-unresolved, dispute over conditions within the industry. The protest has been started against 11 of the biggest companies in video games, with Activision, Electronic Arts, Insomniac Games, Take-Two, and WB Games among those affected, specifically for games that went into production after February 17, 2015. It's an unprecedented moment in gaming, and one that has raised questions both about voice acting in gaming and about industry practices as a whole.


Why Strike?

The strike is taking place over both the compensation method that voice actors receive for their work, and their conditions within the work environment. The union itself has been requesting a more modern compensation model, where voice and motion capture actors would receive residual payments for a performance based on the overall success of the game, rather than simple one-off payments for work. According to the guild, secondary payments would begin "when games hit a certain level of success with consumers," with a high bar of 2 million copies sold being mooted.

As well as this, issues regarding safety concerns were also a major factor in the union's call for a strike, particularly with regards to long vocal sessions and better training and support for motion capture actors. Dubbed "serious concerns affecting voiceover and stunt performers," once again the guild has been unable to reach an arrangement with the companies in question. Indeed, it seems as though an agreement is a long way away.

Representatives of the industry were able to put forward a pay increase for all union members, however. A 9% wage increase was offered, alongside additional compensation of up to $950 per game depending on the number of sessions an actor contributed to. However, these terms failed to address SAG-AFTRA's concerns over both a fairer payment model and better measures to protect its members. In short, renumeration was not the only issue, with the pursuit of "a modern contract based on actor safety, industry precedent and best practices" a key feature of any agreement being met.

In spite of the role of video games as a cutting-edge form of entertainment, business practices within the industry can certainly feel more than a little antiquated. JB Blanc is an industry veteran and a member of SAG-AFTRA's Interactive Negotiating Committee, with recent credits including Mafia 3, Titanfall 2, and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. Also working across a variety of media, including animated and live action film and TV, Blanc is expertly placed to analyze the differences in pay between video games and other entertainment forms.

In any other work I do as an actor I receive secondary payments because of the temporary nature of the work [...] Video games are the only medium where this does not happen. The current contract has not been restructured in 20 years, during which I’m sure you can appreciate, the nature of performance in games has changed enormously. It’s time our employment contract changed with the times.


The Issue of Fair Pay

It's worth noting that this is an issue that has been bubbling under the surface for some time. The current contract that reflects the pay of SAG-AFTRA voice actors actually expired back in 2014, with representatives of both sides negotiating since that point and voice actors themselves continuing to work under the old contract's conditions. However, it's now reached the point of no return for many.

Although some from outside the debate may look at the suggested pay rise and think that it acts as a fair middle ground, this opinion is not met by those affected by the current compensation method. Residual payments in particular would be seen as a huge boon, allowing a much greater level of financial stability than is currently available. Voice acting is an industry where regularity is hard to come by, and where chasing jobs and constantly delivering perfect performances is mandatory.

Once again, JB Blanc was able to explain exactly what this means in terms of day-to-day life, and what is expected of a voice actor. "Training and investment in training is a lifetime’s work and expense," said Blanc. "I am expected to travel unpaid to auditions, submit auditions on video and have high quality and expensive equipment and a studio at home to maintain work."

Under the current payment model, a SAG-AFTRA voice actor would generally receive a minimum payment of $100 an hour for their work, but this does not quite reflect the reality of a voice actor's life, where job hunting and long travel can take up huge chunks of time. When a role is earned, actors can then be given little preparation time, and often little instruction on how their character fits into an overall narrative for fear of leaks. From there, it's about delivering a pitch-perfect performance, and then moving on to the next role, so it's understandable why a simple pay rise does little to ease the fears of union members.

The Importance of Stability

For the guild, then, this is not just about the payment, and instead about carving out a solid existence in a world where freelance artistry of all media types is slowly becoming more and more difficult to pursue as a viable career. Already, many voice actors work across multiple media to provide a stable income.

Phil LaMarr is one of the most recognizable voice actors in the industry. Beloved for his roles in such geek culture wonders as Futurama and Samurai Jack, LaMarr also takes plenty of video game voice work, including recent turns in The Witness and Minecraft: Story Mode. However, this is purely as extra income, rather than a viable, permanent means. "I depend on my work in TV and film to provide long-term income and think of the video game income as additional to that," said LaMarr, also a member of SAG-AFTRA's Interactive Negotiating Committee.

Because of the sparse nature of voice actor work in gaming, it's hard for the actors themselves to rely on it independently, and it's far from a lucrative career. JB Blanc sees himself as one of the "lucky" ones, but other actors are not able to consider their careers as stable - particularly when roles can be few and far between.

Most voice actors do between one and five games a year and rarely do more than two sessions a game. The average earnings are well below $50k a year. You can’t save or buy a house on that, especially when you have to live in somewhere like Los Angeles to be able to work. I am one of the lucky ones, but if I was relying solely on voice acting in video games, I couldn’t make a living. I do on camera work and now most of my income comes from directing games. After 30 years in the entertainment business, that can be tough. Most actors have secondary jobs to help them make ends meet.

SAG-AFTRA's own statements on the matter cut to the core of the debate, writing that "secondary compensation is what allows professional performers to feed their families in between jobs." Taking compensation payments from successful games would go a long way towards addressing such issues. It would also allow the industry to improve the level of voice acting work in games themselves, as it would make video game voiceover work a more enticing prospect for actors. As LaMarr states, given the choice between a game and an animated role, it's hard to choose video game work as the best option, and not only because of pay.

The current interactive scale rate is enough to make video game work worth doing. But given the vocal stress that is common in video game sessions and the lack of any secondary payments, if there's a scheduling issue, I will generally choose animation work over game work.


Safety is Paramount

This issue of safety is another that the industry will need to address before there is any thought of a middle ground. Lead actors can work through four-hour sessions, not just talking through lines but also performing all of the background noises that barely ripple in the consciousness of gamers as they play. A scream of pain or anger, a grunt of a throw, or other additional sounds can be some of the most strenuous moments of a voice actor's session.

This comes at a cost for those involved. As with other freelance work, a lot of the potential pitfalls of work fall upon the employee, rather than the employer. LaMarr explained exactly what would happen should an injury befall a voice actor or motion capture actor. "The implications would be the same for any kind of independent contractor who is injured," said LaMarr. "They would be unable to earn a living until they recover. The union, fortunately, provides health coverage but not disability."

Understandably, this could have a devastating effect on the life of a voice actor, and a real concern due to the strenuous sessions than many actors go through. Instances of severe injuries to throat and vocal chords are well known. "Currently there are no protections in place for these specific injuries," explained Blanc. "What are the implications? The end of your career and financial ruin."

What Happens Next?

As it stands, a resolution to these issues seems far away. There's been a clear divide between the companies' thoughts on what constitutes a fair payment method and what the union itself expects, and this seems to stem from a deeper place than just bottom line finances. "While the union came to the table intending to negotiate business issues, the game corporations have been engaged in an ideological war where compromise is not an option," said LaMarr.

This may sound extreme, but various reports have suggested that even the initial talks between the two parties showcased exactly how far apart the ideals of the two sides were. Blanc shared with us one particular encounter that would be enough for anyone to want to push back.

In one of the first negotiations, their lawyer looked us in the face and said that no-one cares about voices in video games. No one bought a game because of the voice actors in the game. They told us that the work was inconsequential - that they could get anyone off the street to do what we do for $50 an hour.  I was there. Not the best starting point for a negotiation. So we knew we were up against it.


The Importance of Voice Acting

This is a debate that has raged within the gaming community since news of the potential strike first appeared, but the idea that quality voice acting doesn't matter to gamers does not seem to be entirely true. Over on Reddit, the topic has come up multiple times, and even those fans who said that they would not buy a game based on its acting cast have admitted that some of their favorite games would not have been the same without the stellar work of the actors involved, such as the Portal games.

Much like the residual noises of grunts and shouts, a lot of the importance of quality voice acting seems to fade into the background of a player's thoughts when enjoying a game. Their work is often unsung if done right, adding to the overall immersion of the experience in question. However, it's all-too apparent when the acting is off, and it can severely impact on a player's enjoyment of the product in question. The industry has come a long way since the first Resident Evil, and performance matters a lot more in a user's expectations - even if they don't even know it.

The strike has been finding some support from the gaming community itself, but there is also sympathy for the voice actors' requests from within the industry. "When I talk to the producers I actually work with in the studios, they support our proposed new contract, almost unanimously," stated Blanc. Other companies outside of those being picketed also offer up more support to voice actors than the likes of WB Games and Activision. "Great companies like Blizzard and Monolith already implement some of our requests," Blanc explained.

Instead, then, it comes down to a battle between executives and creatives, and there have been suggestions that this ideological split could even be down to the way in which the companies involved think of themselves. Blanc believes that video game producers "like to think of themselves as tech companies rather than entertainment companies," but that shift towards entertainment is very much at the fore of many voice actors' beliefs. "They are competing with film and TV companies for entertainment dollars and players play for entertainment," said Blanc. "Not only that but they are beating them all - game revenue is over 3 times more than film revenue and grew 9.4% last year alone."


The Bottom Line

Within that, however, the stakes for video game creation are sometimes incredibly high. One such example is Square Enix's failure to meet sales expectations for Tomb Raider and Sleeping Dogs, in spite of Tomb Raider surpassing 3 million units sold in a short amount of time and the game eventually becoming the most profitable in the series' history. Production costs are huge for many games, and as such many companies can try to cut corners wherever possible.

This leads on to perhaps the elephant in the room when it comes to the conditions of workers within the games industry - the treatment of development teams during 'crunch' times. There have been notable appalling examples of games creators being forced into 12-hour days and 6-day weeks without any overtime pay, with LA Noire's notorious development sitting as a microcosm of a larger problem.

LA Noire is not alone, either, with other complaints about the work environment at Konami, the working conditions during the creation of Red Dead Redemption, and those implemented by EA during the creation of certain Need for Speed games. In short, the quality of life at some studios has been called into question, with some suggesting that there is a deep-seated value on working extra hours for the good of the project without expectations of anything in return.

Somewhat bizarrely, this treatment of coders and development teams has been used as an argument against the voice actor strike. Critics have claimed that actors have it easier than other development areas, and given the comparative contributions to any given project, then they should be feeling grateful. However, this overlooks the fact that perhaps developers, too, should have their working conditions reevaluated.

JB Blanc even has a suggestion with regards why the corporations have been taking such a hard-line approach with the voice actors. Blanc stated that companies "know that they mistreat and underpay game devs, who often work under appalling conditions." Blanc continued with a reason of his own: "I think they are scared that if they negotiate with us, they will have to negotiate with them. And that is something we want for game devs as well as ourselves."

It's certainly a interesting theory from Blanc, and there have long been calls for developers themselves to be compensated fairly for additional hours worked, or for a more rigid hours system to be put in place to avoid developer burnout. Crunch time is not just found in games, with tech companies and other creative industries also often expecting workers to go above and beyond, but having the honor of creating something should not necessarily come with a prerequisite that a worker must be willing to stop their own life in its tracks for the privilege of doing so.

However, this comes down to a jarring difference in ideology, as with the voice actors strike. SAG-AFTRA members have taken this first step towards standing its ground on what its members feel is important, with successful pickets at WB Games, Voiceworks Productions, and Insomniac Games, and more to come. The guild has made its move, and now it's up to the industry representatives themselves to respond. Whether that leads to a happy conclusion for all, or a continuation of this stalemate, remains to be seen. Either way, it feels as though something has changed in the very core of gaming itself.