Oh what an amazing disaster. Platinum Games has hit back at accusations from Bayonetta’s former voice actor… unofficially, anyway. The whole thing is now an impeccable drama, and while everybody loves drama, the sad fact is that very real issues concerning voice acting will now be totally buried.
#Bayonetta #Bayonetta3 #PlatinumGames #Nintendo #Switch #Controversy #PerformanceMatters #JimSterling #JamesStephanieSterling #Games #Gaming #Videogames
Love the vid. And love the gloves particularly today <3 I need to get myself a pair of gloves like that.
I don’t know about that “15k is still too low” thing. I’d argue hollywood actors are overpaid, if anything. I don’t know many people that make 15k a month. Voice actors in gaming have it rough for how the industry treats them as replaceable assets, but I don’t think that their fight to be payed the same as hollywood actors is one I’m willing to support (unless it meant that hollywood actors also got payed 15k on average, which I’d be totally in for).
James Stephanie Sterling was “technically” correct which is the best TYPE of correct.
Multiple things can be true at the same time. Helena Taylor lied to be sympathetic, but her original point of VAs needing better pay stands.
Platinum Games didn’t tell the whole story, and didn’t help when Kamiya acted like a fucking idiot on twitter. But they aren’t ENTIRELY in the wrong.
As for Jason, he’s like, one of the few good game journalists out there besides Steph herself. No reason to doubt him. Sucks that corporation bootlickers (not implying Jason is one, just saying anyone who sided with platinum from the get go probably feels justified) get a win on this one but the truth is important.
And of course, Jennifer Hale. Who did nothing wrong besides take an acting role. She didn’t deserve the harassment, period. Plus she’s based because she said trans rights are human rights.
Holy shit those opening seconds took me back to sitting on the carpet in the TV room in primary school.
True very true
We have just as much proof “she lied” as we have of her side of the story. So far neither side has produced the e-mails or the paperwork. Many are just as blindly beleiving the second side as the first, as if they weren’t going to say “nuh-uh”. While Taylor claimed her offer was over e-mail and has yet to show a screenshot of said e-mail, the sources opposing her have basically said “Source: You can trust me, bro” and their story is they have ‘connections’ and heard third hand what happened, making it unlikely they’d have proof even if true. All of it, as stated wonderfully by the Sterling host, burying the much bigger issue of everyone else getting fucked over on the regular.
It really shows how fucked up the games industry and “internet discourse” are that I’m hoping this will only set back progress on voice actor fees a couple years instead of a decade.
If only Taylor was being direct by saying, “I was paid 15 grand and that’s garbage for a voice actor,” yeah, fine, Taylor would still be in the right. But now there’s muddied water and we’ll get more excuses for trolls to go on the attack to anyone remotely connected to this. And the corporate sector just LOVES when the peasants are too busy fighting each other.
Hale is a good actor, leave her alone. Even if she was a BAD actor, leave her alone!
I agree, Hellena kind of tainted the discussion here. VA’s deserve better compensation, but they also need to do more than 20 hours of work a year to make, as Hellena put it, “a living wage”. When you consider a yearly wage, no 15k isn’t a lot, but if you could score multiple jobs throughout the year, suddenly it all adds up.
There are actors, in radio? Not presenters? When did this happen?
Worst part is, if she had been honest about the situation I probably would still be a bit sympathetic towards her wanting more pay, because even awful people should get properly compensated for the work they do. You can’t pick and choose that kinda thing when it comes to labour rights imo.
But she lied by omission, caused game devs and fellow members of the VA industry to get threats and harassment, and torpedoed her own intent and cause, so I can only hope that her ship sinks without dragging anyone else down too deeply.
Not sure why Jason Schreier is getting benefit of the doubt here. He’s had PLENTY of sh!t takes defending rampant stupidity in the AAA games industry.
If voice actors get paid more it will mean far less JP games get released in the west, because many jp games barely make any money when they do as it is. Also keep in mind the few hours a VA puts in and that they do not write their own words.
Finally, games don’t just employ 1 group of VA but 2, 3, 4, 5 and on for each language.
In general this isn’t even just a VA issue, this is a development issue in general. While it’s true that actors are used to being compensated better in other fields, so it’s probably way more noticeable to them when it comes to how poorly the games industry treats them, developers and artists are often compensated *even worse* relative to the absurd hours they put in. This isn’t an argument in favor of treating VAs worse because everyone is treated worse in this industry, but rather that we need to completely re-examine how people are compensated for their labor in this industry as a whole.
Hell, a lot of game devs now have just as much job security as voice actors if they aren’t in senior positions as they get hired on to work on a game then laid off after the game is complete.
I can’t boycott Bayonetta 2, it needs to be on PC before I can boycott it.
Oh you meant Bayonetta 3, FFS let’s get past B2 on PC first, then I have to watch reviews, decide I want to buy it, only then can I choose to boycott it, or not.
I just don’t fucking get it. Why on earth would people crap on another voice actor that is bound to recieve the same treatment as the one they’re white knighting?
Actors in other media are overpaid. Corporations charge too much. Too little competition to improve prices for all.
If someone was to get $4000 for 4 hours of work, I have a tough time feeling they aren’t paid enough. Takes me about 3 weeks to make that, and I’m not poorly paid.
I always stand with you on supporting developers and staff who are overworked and underpaid. I will support that voice actors should be paid a good wage. But when I hear someone complaining about missing out on millions for voice acting, I am not suddenly sympathetic to them. I am thinking it’s BS that a company gets to make that much rather than charge less to us.