Metal Gear Solid's David Hayter Throwing up on His Mic Is One Reason Game Voice Actors Are on Strike

Voice actors say four-hour screaming sessions are the unhealthy industry norm.

[Tom_Hopkins]

woah...

[Axonometri]

If anyone needs a fill-in Look me up. I'll work for half the pay but I will be stopping, when my throat says so.

[gigoran]

are we still talking about voice acting or are you offering to walk the street? lol

[Axonometri]

5 dollar?

[FunkyGoron]

Title is somewhat misleading… Hayter said he threw up “because I had to make a bunch of vomiting sounds in a row”. Still sucks, but it’s not like he was doing a 4-hour session and violently threw up on himself, unprovoked.

That said… Work conditions should be fair and decent for ALL employees in ALL careers. I am no voice Dr or specialist so I will take their word for it on how the sessions affect their voices. But I will not support the notion that ANY of these voice actors deserve residual payments for their services. None of my friends who play games actually play them for the voice actors. Sure I like Troy Baker or Nolan North but I won’t buy/not buy a game based on their involvement.

-Why did I buy UC4? Naughty Dog
-What made Axiom Verge great? Tom Happ the sole dev
-Why do people buy Fifa? – not b/c of the announcers

We play games because of the creator(s) behind them, regardless of size or genre. I am ALL FOR royalties to developers. People who spend 1-5+ years of their lives creating something from nothing. They can take my money for the enjoyment every time.

Not the voice actors who will be in 5+ games a year b/c they only need to spend 2-4 weeks recording, maximum.

[TheBeguiler]

It's a weird line tbh. Because even in film for say animated movies voice actors are usually second to the actual animation. Now that doesnt make them lesser, but they don't have as much of the star power or draw if their actual faces were on screen. In terms of gaming I think it depends on the game and the series. Someone who has been with a series like Metal Gear for ages should probably have a pay increase over time because he became iconic.

That being said, if they don't have good working conditions are are forced to do hours upon hours at a time of screaming then maybe something should change. Again though, we have to take their word for it as it stands which could be one sided or slightly skewed

[FunkyGoron]

I am all for raises or increases in pay for employees/Voice Actors who deserve it or who can work that deal for themselves.

I personally have a hard time with profit-sharing models that incorporate people OUTSIDE of the company making the profits. Yes David helped with MGS franchise, but he wasn't a member or employee of Konami or Kojima Studios. The devs that actually took salary from Konami deserve a profit-sharing model, not the contractor hired outside of the company.

Still wouldn't like voice actors vomiting each session!!

[Sirk7x]

Good voice acting and sound engineering in general are a large part of what makes some of those games so great though. Remember back to some games you've played in the past with poor voice acting. It's cringe worthy and pulls you out of the immersion. When an actor is doing their job very well, you hardly notice, as it flows with the gameplay. Put a crappy actor in front of the mic, and you're suddenly very, very aware when you're playing. Sound plays a bigger role in games than many of us realize, especially in regards to ones with story. Go back and play any Final Fantasy game on mute. It's not very fun. I am, however, against the residual pay. They were payed to do a specific job and that's it. If they're well known and deliver worthy performances, they should simply charge what they believe they're worth.

[Aquacure]

I can agree with this. Back during the PS2/Dreamcast/GameCube days, I was excited for a games sequel. The first game in the series was mostly inside with the occasional trek outside so this game took the fight outside, "the city is alive, and after YOU". They also added a second playable character, and you'd be able to experience the story through her eyes. There was a whole second disk for her story. Finishing the game unlocked a third playable character. If you've read up to this point you may think I was talking about Resident Evil 2, yeah, wait for it..... The preview also stated using the walls to evade or set up combos, this was a big selling point. Wanna know the name? Devil May Cry......(deep breath) 2. I can say that, as far as previews go, it delivered on those promises, but ONLY those promises. It lost its charm; the wisecracking badass who didn't flinch facing a giant lava covered spider/scorpion and referred to a difficult shadow demon as "kitty" probably only had 7 lines of dialogue and he didn't seem particularly interested in being there, even though he set out to find that place. If he didnt care, how can the audience? And when all that riveting silence wasn't on screen, Lucia and the boss dude were busy hacking it up or phoning it in. The acting, or lack thereof, is mainly why I've never returned to Devil May Cry 2.

[DillyDilly]

They wont be missed the visuals do all the work

[THRASHMOUTH]

And here I am, busting my ass 10 hours a day just to get by...

[SlightlyRetarted]

I'm 28 and both my knees are busted. My left knee kinda snaps if there is weight and slight twist on it. Work about 25-30 hours on my knees every week.

[THRASHMOUTH]

I feel your pain man. If only they'd pay me to scream into a mic for 4 hours...

[MrsNesbitt]

Preach!

[Sam Fisher]

It would be funny if the developers said" thats the sound effect we were looking for!!!" When he actually threw up

[medman]

Sounds like more of a problem for whoever had to deal with the messy mic......that's the person who should really be on strike. That said, I definitely support the actors/actresses.

[Christopher]

I agree with some of their demands, especially in not having long sessions in a row that can destroy their throats. But, here's my issue:

"Further, the actors want to be recognized by the industry as a crucial part of its commercial success and artistic growth."

There are so many people involved in making a game who go through a ton more work and worse conditions than VO artists that they need to back off on this. Everyone deserves to get something from the success of a game, but VO do not deserve this just because they are VO. They put in so little time compared to even the people who sit in the sound booth and integrate what is recorded into the game, let alone the level designer, engine developer, or QA team members (who tend to put in some of the biggest hours in the game, with some of the lowest pay, hardest jobs that oftentimes get ignored for what they find and ask to be fixed). And those QA people walk away with less money per year than the VO people while putting in 40-60 hour work weeks on a regular basis, usually 60 the last few months of a game's release.

You want better pay? Fine. You want better work conditions that are aimed as reducing any form of risk to your livelyhood? Great. But, I do not think you deserve more pay just for the success of a game. The line for who deserves that is already around the block and you belong near the end of it.

[DillyDilly]

Aside from a certain few I doubt most people playing games knows who they are listening to. Games will do just fine without voice actors most dont know the names of anyway

[rainslacker]

Well said. Thank you for that. Sure many people who work in development would agree.

As far as my view, I feel if they want residuals, they should stipulate that in their contracts. If the studios really want those actors they will bend. Otherwise, there are plenty of actors out there, and all this strike is likely to do is make studios move away from guilded actors and go out and find local actors which are actually plentiful in most places where these kinds of things are done....like say in California, Houston, and Central NC, not to mention the rather large cities around the world where sound and mocap studios exist which tend to have plentiful art scenes with plenty of high quality actors who would probably love some work without the need for recognition.

One thing that people would see if they really look at the VO industry is that it's even more insular than the game development community. There is quite a small circle of actors who do a disproportionate amount of the voice work out there between games, TV, animated movies, etc . Just look at some of the known voice actors out there and you'll see that in one year, they can work on 20-40 projects, sometimes doing multiple parts within the same project. Then you go and look at the more high profile VO projects like say a Pixar film or big movie production, and they move outside this circle, and they get more well known actors, and you can bet those actors don't just take work, they demand better conditions, and work it out in their contract what they want ahead of time, and not complain years after the fact.

Voice actors, like most contract employees should come to realize that they are replaceable....probably more so than in some of the game development community who gamers would never recognize the name of, and do the work because they have a passion for it, and unlike VA's, do not always have agents with a new gig lined up when the inevitable dismissal comes in once their project is completed. I'm honestly more surprised there hasn't been a game developers strike to date...as it can be pretty bad in some places. The whole game developers union fell pretty flat though when there was some clamoring about it a few years ago.

I'm all for better working conditions for them though. No one should have to be subjected to poor working conditions, particularly with things that involve their actual livelihood. However, I do feel that the reasons for the stress on the voice comes more to the way the schedules are made, where a VA may do a lot or lines within a day or two....sometimes with another project the next day....if not the same one. This is something that could be worked on when it comes to actual planning, but it will depend on the project because sound booth or mocap studio time is usually not flexible enough to spread it out to something more reasonable.

[MrsNesbitt]

What if the game is a flop? I wonder who they blame then. Equally, would they take a pay reduction? :P Agree with your comments Chris completely. I have family in the development industry and the hours they work are unholy!

[hells_supernova]

this is a fine line. If developers unionize then the cost of video games is going to skyrocket.

[Chinkyinc18]

They lost me at residual payments; no one in the the life of gaming has said the sole reason I bought this game is because Nolan North is in it. Also, kinda hard to feel bad for people working four hour sessions when programmers and leader positions spend 10-14 hours working almost everyday.

[OrangePowerz]

It looks like a double edged sword. I get it that screaming for 4 hours straight isn't great and splitting up sessions would be a lot more practical and voice actors can make a good game better or worse depending on the quality of the voice acting.

The residual money part. Compared to other people that work on those games, their work load is considerably smaller. Even if you factor in extensive motion capturing like Naughty Dog does, and the actors they use are doing an excellentl job, you have on the other side the people that put in extremely long hours over a long period of time. They give up weekends, holidays, time with their families and have to deal with a huge amount of stress and pressure to make those games.

[dizeestl]

oh these poor babies. someone is holding a gun to their head and forcing them to work hard to make a living. we should just cup their balls and give them kisses to make it all better.

[Rachel_Alucard]

I agree with 2 of their of their demands because it's actually hindering them in their livelihood. However, like everyone else has been saying the residual payments thing is pushing it too far. The devs that made the entire game don't even get residual payments, why should they get special treatment? Also it's pretty screwed up that the VA for Kellogg in Fallout 4 had no idea he was doing a role for it after doing the role for a year and half working on lines.

[oof46]

I remember when Omar from The Wire blew his voice box out from all the screaming while doing VO for Battlefield 4.

[Igihara]

Baker-bot & Nolan do just fine.

[mechlord]

Give residual payment for everybody. How much profit loss would it be for the publisher? i loved journey for the art and gameplay..loved gow for kratos' voice...both are needed in equal measure.

[SilverClock]

"It gets so bad, in fact, that Hale claimed a friend and fellow voice actress needs to have vocal surgery that will put her out of work for a couple months."
Yep, that needs to be stopped, at least. Pretty cut and dry there.