Video game actors vote yes to authorize strike, if needed

It’s not difficult for most people to crawl on all fours, Zeke Alton, known for his voice acting and motion capture in games like Ratchet & Clank: A Rift Apart, Saints RowAnd World of Warcraft, told Polygon. But what’s difficult — an Olympic-level feat, according to Alton — is doing this for four hours straight. The video game industry lags behind when it comes to artist safety, in a way that is the norm elsewhere in Hollywood.

“Unlike a TV stunt, there are no wardrobe changes, lighting changes or setup changes,” Alton said. “It’s fall, dive through a table, then do it again for eight hours straight.”

Video game artists at the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) begin negotiations Tuesday for a new contract that addresses pay increases, the use of AI and ensures safety precautions. basic health and safety, such as breaks and stunt coordinators. together, which Alton says isn’t always the case for video game artists.

That’s why video game players with SAG-AFTRA have signaled they will strike, if necessary. The SAG-AFTRA union leadership asked its members for a strike authorization vote before the next negotiations which resume on Tuesday. “Yes” does not mean a strike will It happens, but it lets the 10 video game companies negotiating with the union know they’re serious about a fair contract.

“A year into this three-year contract cycle, we feel the need to step up and apply a little extra pressure so that they are motivated to engage in this process to get us to a fair deal “said voice actor and chair of negotiations Sarah Elmaleh. , known for her work in Come home, rush to the Hi-Fi, And Speeds 5, told Polygon.

As negotiations approach with strike authorization in hand, the union is seeking to ensure fair minimum contracts for the approximately 2,600 artists who work each year under the Interactive Media Agreement. Voting was open to all active members of SAG-AFTRA, all of whom would be affected if they chose to act for a video game. 14,681 active SAG-AFTRA members have worked under an interactive media contract during their careers, the union said. A total of 34,687 SAG-AFTRA members voted, representing 27.47% of eligible members.

Ten video game companies, including Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts and Epic Games, will restart negotiations from Tuesday to Thursday. Audrey Cooling, representing video game companies, said “tentative agreements” had already been reached for more than half of the contract proposals in the interactive media deal. But SAG-AFTRA says several other problems remain.

Video games use actors to give voice and life to characters. The entire work is based on “expressing performance through our voices and our likenesses,” said negotiating committee member Zeke Alton. “More often than not, we license that voice and image as a work for hire for a company to incorporate into their product to generate revenue.”

The problem with AI, he says, is that companies would be able to create new shows without the actor – which removes consent and transparency and poses a potential threat to the profession itself. Video game creators SAG-AFTRA are not calling for a blanket restriction of the technology, but want protections put in place so that players are involved in the process. The use of AI is something actors are already seeing companies try to close deals on, which has been a sticking point for other unions striking in Hollywood.

“We’re asking for three things,” Alton said. “Consent for use, transparency about how it is used, and compensation for that use.” We think this is entirely reasonable. Not only do they protect us as performers, but in a broader sense throughout society’s workforce, these elements are necessary for every worker to ensure that they protect who they are in as a person and we don’t all just belong to companies.

SAG-AFTRA’s Interactive Media bargaining unit also seeks to ensure health and safety measures that Alton and Elmaleh say are standard elsewhere in Hollywood — five-minute breaks per hour, for example. Some problems arise because video games don’t always have a professional director who takes on the role of actor manager; “Oftentimes you’re following instructions from an animator, coder or writer who doesn’t understand that a person can’t squat and walk for 20 minutes straight,” Alton said. The proposed contract aims to protect video game artists from harm.

“We saw bloody fingers, repetitive stress injuries from lifting AK-47s or big guns realistically to perform turns and all these atomized pieces of these animations that come together,” Elmaleh said .

The next round of negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and video game companies is scheduled until Thursday. What comes next is unclear; the union has been negotiating for a year already, but the strike authorization is now in the pocket of SAG-AFTRA if things get bogged down. Again, this doesn’t necessarily mean a strike will happen, but it’s on the table – a tool to show how serious members are about the contract.

“What everyone should know is watch this because you’re next,” Alton said. “We know, by and large, that corporations have been very good at vilifying unions over the last two decades. People have forgotten what unions are for, that without a union, we wouldn’t have a weekend.”

Elmaleh added: “(Companies) will be monitoring this space to see what people are willing to pay for, what they want to play and whether their own workers are showing solidarity. If everyone around them has leverage, it makes a difference.