4 ms·

That's great, but do you think that's how the majority of people play video games? If all voice actors disappeared, people would just be "huh, oh well"?

Ekaros 3y ago
May be not all. But certainly if those under SAG-AFTRA did certainly. I don't remember specific actor adding much to my experience ever. I don't even recognize their voices or names, so can't be bothered.
- capableweb 3y ago
  Again, fun to hear your personal experience, but you think this is how majority of people playing video games would react?
  - Ekaros 3y ago
    Yes absolutely. Majority could not care less about these actors. And no one should. Just find comparable or superior talent outside this pool.
    - ceejayoz 3y ago
      If this were really a widely held opinion, the Halo series wouldn’t have shilled out for Nathan Fillion. These orgs don’t spend money on voice acting for the artistic purity of it.
      - Ekaros 3y ago
        As if executives really know what is truly good for their products. How much better did Patrick Stewart make Oblivion? How better was the game from him being part of it?
        doktrin 3y ago
        After multiple rounds of doubling and tripling down on your dubiously representative stance you have now reached the “game development studios don’t know how to make games” stage. Maybe stop and consider what led you here, and if this is really a position you sincerely believe and wish to defend.
        Ekaros 3y ago
        And you have entirely failed to provide whatsoever any proof that SAG-AFTRA voice actors are at all needed in video games. Like there must be some research on this? That prove that they positively affect sales.
        doktrin 3y ago
        You’re the one promoting the counterfactual position here, so the onus is on you to substantiate it.
- Spooky23 3y ago
  You’re not a party to the contract, so frankly, who cares. I doubt that the working actor who is in the background of you favorite TV show does much for your experience. But he still needs to get paid.
- WillPostForFood 3y ago
  What games do you like? The voice actors in games like Uncharted, Mass Effect, Last of Us, Red Dead Redemption, and God f War made a huge impact on the game and deserve credit, recognition, and financial reward. Games are in incredibly diverse medium though. I mostly play Hunt Showdown, and the only voice acting is the grunt of punch or cry why getting shot.
  - Ekaros 3y ago
    Those could have been done as well with other voice-actors. And be good enough in their jobs. Are you seriously telling me there is absolutely no as skilled people available outside SAG-AFTRA?
    - WillPostForFood 3y ago
      Can I remind you what you claimed? I don't remember specific actor adding much to my experience ever. If that's true, maybe you've only played games without quality voice actors, and they should have tapped into some SAG-AFTRA talent. Because if you had played any of the games I mentioned, it would be absurd to claim that none of voice actors added much to the experience. To answer you new question, "Are you seriously telling me there is absolutely no as skilled people available outside SAG-AFTRA?" No, I never said anything at all like that. I am only saying voice actors can add value and be memorable. You could find a comparably talented person outside the SAG-AFTRA, who could do an amazing job. But that new person would also add to the experience, be memorable, and deserve recognition and remuneration.
bluepod4 3y ago
Exactly. > and I often will play the game on silent with some other source of audio playing alongside. GP doesn’t listen to any sounds coming from games. That means sound effects, background music, etc. That claim is so interesting to me. I don’t doubt it. But following GP’s logic, he must also think music composers for games aren’t important either. Imagine Ocarina of Time being played without sound lol. Or even a music game being played without sound. Or even games like Overwatch. There might be accessibility modes but if you don’t turn them on, you’re going to be SOL when someone on the enemy team does an audio cue and is about to ult and you can’t see them. I do play games without sound sometimes. (For example, you don’t really need audio cues for League and I won’t listen to sound if my hair is drying and I don’t want to put the headphones on.) But it depends on the game and the circumstances, of course. That’s what I think a reasonable person would say lol Back to specifically voice acting, I do recall the Overwatch voice actors having a huge fan base early on.
- galleywest200 3y ago
  This is a good point about the music, I do find it important. But I also pay for musical soundtracks separately if I am able (Bandcamp.com), those musicians can get money from me by making the album available for purchase and I do. But if I recall the musicians are not on strike and not the topic of the article that was shared.
  - bluepod4 3y ago
    > But if I recall the musicians are not on strike and not the topic of the article that was shared. I know, but you said in general that you don’t listen to any sound. Maybe you shouldn’t have ended your original comment like that lol.
- phpisthebest 3y ago
  I agree with the GP, When I play games I turn off Music, and skip cut scenes, I want to play a game not watch a movie. If i want a movie I watch a movie... the FPS I only leave on sounds required for the game, and most of the time I have my own music, youtube or some podcast on in the background as i am playing. For non-FPS games, I turn off the sound completely. I suspect my style of game play is more common that you would believe. If voice actors disappears from gaming, I would not notice at all.
echelon 3y ago
TTS for dialogue will be high quality in a few short years. You'll be able to dial knobs for the voice itself - pitch, timbre, gender, age. Then adjust more knobs for emotional control (or infer it from other cues). This will allow for fully-dynamic storytelling where the characters know your name and can respond to your infinite array of actions.
- vunderba 3y ago
  It would be too frustratingly difficult to express the desired nuance of a line of script purely through a set of ui/ux. The most likely technological advancement we're going to see is "tonal mapping" which would allow a regular dev to record a line with the desired inflection/emotion and then map this onto an existing TTS voice engine model. This tech already exists now though it is somewhat in its infancy.
galleywest200 3y ago
This is a good point, others may have a strong preference for it. But I have found that most games, at least in the indie space, completely lack any voice acting or it is just done by the developers themselves.

Ekaros 3y ago

May be not all. But certainly if those under SAG-AFTRA did certainly. I don't remember specific actor adding much to my experience ever. I don't even recognize their voices or names, so can't be bothered.

capableweb 3y ago
Again, fun to hear your personal experience, but you think this is how majority of people playing video games would react?
- Ekaros 3y ago
  Yes absolutely. Majority could not care less about these actors. And no one should. Just find comparable or superior talent outside this pool.
  - ceejayoz 3y ago
    If this were really a widely held opinion, the Halo series wouldn’t have shilled out for Nathan Fillion. These orgs don’t spend money on voice acting for the artistic purity of it.
    - Ekaros 3y ago
      As if executives really know what is truly good for their products. How much better did Patrick Stewart make Oblivion? How better was the game from him being part of it?
      - doktrin 3y ago
        After multiple rounds of doubling and tripling down on your dubiously representative stance you have now reached the “game development studios don’t know how to make games” stage. Maybe stop and consider what led you here, and if this is really a position you sincerely believe and wish to defend.
        Ekaros 3y ago
        And you have entirely failed to provide whatsoever any proof that SAG-AFTRA voice actors are at all needed in video games. Like there must be some research on this? That prove that they positively affect sales.
        doktrin 3y ago
        You’re the one promoting the counterfactual position here, so the onus is on you to substantiate it.
Spooky23 3y ago
You’re not a party to the contract, so frankly, who cares. I doubt that the working actor who is in the background of you favorite TV show does much for your experience. But he still needs to get paid.
WillPostForFood 3y ago
What games do you like? The voice actors in games like Uncharted, Mass Effect, Last of Us, Red Dead Redemption, and God f War made a huge impact on the game and deserve credit, recognition, and financial reward. Games are in incredibly diverse medium though. I mostly play Hunt Showdown, and the only voice acting is the grunt of punch or cry why getting shot.
- Ekaros 3y ago
  Those could have been done as well with other voice-actors. And be good enough in their jobs. Are you seriously telling me there is absolutely no as skilled people available outside SAG-AFTRA?
  - WillPostForFood 3y ago
    Can I remind you what you claimed? I don't remember specific actor adding much to my experience ever. If that's true, maybe you've only played games without quality voice actors, and they should have tapped into some SAG-AFTRA talent. Because if you had played any of the games I mentioned, it would be absurd to claim that none of voice actors added much to the experience. To answer you new question, "Are you seriously telling me there is absolutely no as skilled people available outside SAG-AFTRA?" No, I never said anything at all like that. I am only saying voice actors can add value and be memorable. You could find a comparably talented person outside the SAG-AFTRA, who could do an amazing job. But that new person would also add to the experience, be memorable, and deserve recognition and remuneration.

bluepod4 3y ago

Exactly. > and I often will play the game on silent with some other source of audio playing alongside. GP doesn’t listen to any sounds coming from games. That means sound effects, background music, etc. That claim is so interesting to me. I don’t doubt it. But following GP’s logic, he must also think music composers for games aren’t important either. Imagine Ocarina of Time being played without sound lol. Or even a music game being played without sound. Or even games like Overwatch. There might be accessibility modes but if you don’t turn them on, you’re going to be SOL when someone on the enemy team does an audio cue and is about to ult and you can’t see them. I do play games without sound sometimes. (For example, you don’t really need audio cues for League and I won’t listen to sound if my hair is drying and I don’t want to put the headphones on.) But it depends on the game and the circumstances, of course. That’s what I think a reasonable person would say lol Back to specifically voice acting, I do recall the Overwatch voice actors having a huge fan base early on.

galleywest200 3y ago
This is a good point about the music, I do find it important. But I also pay for musical soundtracks separately if I am able (Bandcamp.com), those musicians can get money from me by making the album available for purchase and I do. But if I recall the musicians are not on strike and not the topic of the article that was shared.
- bluepod4 3y ago
  > But if I recall the musicians are not on strike and not the topic of the article that was shared. I know, but you said in general that you don’t listen to any sound. Maybe you shouldn’t have ended your original comment like that lol.
phpisthebest 3y ago
I agree with the GP, When I play games I turn off Music, and skip cut scenes, I want to play a game not watch a movie. If i want a movie I watch a movie... the FPS I only leave on sounds required for the game, and most of the time I have my own music, youtube or some podcast on in the background as i am playing. For non-FPS games, I turn off the sound completely. I suspect my style of game play is more common that you would believe. If voice actors disappears from gaming, I would not notice at all.

echelon 3y ago

TTS for dialogue will be high quality in a few short years. You'll be able to dial knobs for the voice itself - pitch, timbre, gender, age. Then adjust more knobs for emotional control (or infer it from other cues). This will allow for fully-dynamic storytelling where the characters know your name and can respond to your infinite array of actions.

vunderba 3y ago
It would be too frustratingly difficult to express the desired nuance of a line of script purely through a set of ui/ux. The most likely technological advancement we're going to see is "tonal mapping" which would allow a regular dev to record a line with the desired inflection/emotion and then map this onto an existing TTS voice engine model. This tech already exists now though it is somewhat in its infancy.

galleywest200 3y ago

This is a good point, others may have a strong preference for it. But I have found that most games, at least in the indie space, completely lack any voice acting or it is just done by the developers themselves.