Since almost a month ago, voice actors representing the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Arts (SAG-AFTA) organized a protest against video game companies. Actors like Jennifer Hale of "Mass Effect" and Elias Toufexis of "Deus Ex" are among the participants who (ironically) 'voiced out' their grievances.
For 25 days, neither the video game companies nor the strikers have ever come near to a resolution regarding the issue. And in the past few days, a few video game productions have been interrupted due to a lack of dubbing staff.
Case in point: "Injustice 2" by NetherRealm Studios. In an article published by Jobs & Hire, one of the main causes for the delay of the much-awaited release was directly caused by the protests of SAG-AFTA voice actors under their payroll.
So what caused the voices behind iconic heroes like Commander Shepard, Solid Snake, and Adam Jensen to 'scream' for justice? They revealed the sad reality about video game voice acting being a generally stressful and under-compensated profession.
CBA News reports how actress Hale described her job as 'acting on steroids.' Deus Ex actor Toufexis stated that he temporarily lost his voice a day after two hours of shouting to record intense action scenes and death throes. In extreme cases, some actors underwent throat surgery after several sessions of dubbing.
In essence, voice actors do at least twice the more stressful and damaging workload than game developers yet paid a fraction in comparison. The compromised production pace of NetherRealms is just one of the many specific cases resulting from this ongoing protest.
A story published by LA Times describes the concern of the entire entertainment industry regarding these demonstrations. This prolonged rally is just a few screams away from Hollywood labor unions joining starting their own strife.
