If you follow me on Twitter (and haven’t been chased away by all the political posts) you know that for awhile I spent a lot of energy talking about the voice actors strike that started in October of last year and is still ongoing. Due to the nature of video game schedules, this is a battle that will probably last a long time before we see any results. In addition to that, we also have another writer’s strike looming. I shared a thread on twitter that in very simple terms laid out why that one is happening. I thought I’d expand on my thoughts and feels about both strikes, why they are important, and what we can do to help.
First, let’s look at the voice actor’s strike. Why is this happening? Simply put, voice actors were renegotiating contracts to include getting better compensated with residuals. They also wanted to include better safety precautions to avoid vocal stress for certain roles. Video games have come a long way from watching a couple dots bounce around a screen. People expect not only better graphics, but to have interactive moments with characters in-game. This is why the hashtag “performance matters” has been the rally cry for voice actors participating in the strike. People expect more in their games, and many gamers would be disappointed if less qualified people tried to bring these characters to life. Voice actors just want to get better compensation that shows how valuable their contribution is to the games they lend their voices to. They also want protection from damaging the most important tool in their work environment (their voice) for games that might require more strain (for example, the various shooter games that the brunt of their voice work is lots of screaming). I don’t think it’s too much to ask these people get properly taken care of in their jobs. Some video game companies disagree, hence the strike. There is currently a petition on change.org that people can sign. I honestly don’t know how much help it will do, but it can’t hurt either.
Next up, let’s look at the pending writer’s strike. Like I said, there’s a great thread on twitter that I shared with the basics of what’s going on here, but I’ll give a brief summary here as well. Remember the last writer’s strike? That one was about how the times were changing and people were viewing tv differently and writers wanted to make sure they didn’t get left with less than they were worth just because cable was seen as a fad and they were writing for a cable show so they were worth less than someone writing for NBC. Obviously cable tv was not a fad, proof being that Walking Dead is on AMC and one of the highest rated shows currently. This is where the problems is, because if, for example, I get paid per episode but NBC guy gets paid more per episode than I do for Breaking Bad or Walking Dead then I’m getting paid less even though I wrote a more successful show. This writer’s strike is just cleaning up a bit and also trying to give pay raises since networks tend to ask for smaller orders per season (13 episodes instead of 22 or 23), so if I get paid per episode I’m now getting less money than I maybe deserve. Since we all saw what happened with the last strike, I think it’s fair to say that writers are important and deserve to be paid what they’re worth.
One thing I will say about the writer’s strike that works in our favor – even though we might have to deal with a season of repeats or terribly written filler episodes, we also might get another Dr Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog. Not literally, unless everyone suddenly has lots of free time thanks to the strike and wants to revisit it. What I mean is, Dr Horrible was a result of Joss Whedon having lots of free time and energy and putting that into this stupid little internet thing just because he could. Who knows what we’ll get with some other great writer’s free time if it comes to that. Obviously I want everyone to work things out before it comes to that, but the possibilities of what side projects could come from this are a bit exciting.
What would you like to see happen if the writer’s do strike and have extra free time? Let me know either in the comments or on twitter/facebook!
PS – bonus points if you figured out what my title was referencing this time