I recently had the pleasure of picking up a game that a voice over client of mine had booked Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. He was really excited about it when it came out, as he booked the title character Captain America. It turned out to be a really fun brawler with a huge cast of characters. It reads like a whos who of some of my fave voices, Larry Cedars, David Sobolov, Kim Mae Guest, Phil LaMarr, James Horan, and of course my pal Trev Broudy (as Cap). I wrapped the game up on easy in little under two days (a good amount of game for a button masher), and was pretty satisfied with the experience.
After watching the epilogue, I decided to sit through the credits to see who voice which characters, that and its just fun to see your friends name in production credits. I got frustrated though, as it took a while to get to the voice cast.
A LONG WHILE...
I was waiting for that long while, seeing all the names of the people that worked on the game (script writers, animators, motion-capture engineers), then the Marvel production folk, then the special thanks (wtf?), then These are the names of the babies that were born during production (WTF?!?!), then after another pause FINALLY the voice over people.
Last. DEAD friggen last.
Granted there arent any serious A-List actors in here, but how amazingly insensitive to marginalize the voice cast this badly.
These people arent paid much, to yell and scream into microphones for hours, and they dont even get the courtesy of being credited above the BABY LIST!
As a gamer Im kind of pissed. Decent writing, direction, and amazing art are marching into gaming. Gaming is currently where the big money is, but as long as the voice acting is being treated like the fast food of performance (and paid as such), gaming as a whole will never rise above and become a truly artistic medium.
Even from a business perspective, its already discouraging enough to watch a game reach millions of people (grossing hundreds of millions of dollars), and to know all of your hard work will only be blurb.
Whatever your feelings on voice acting, or video gaming, this kind of behavior would never be tolerated in any other medium. We have systems in place to fairly credit voice over in film, TV, and animation.
Why arent these systems in place for video games?
-Some Audio Guy
I recently had the pleasure of picking up a game that a voice over client of mine had set-aside Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. He was really unrestrained about it when it came out, as he engaged the title character reference Captain America. It turned out to be a genuinely fun brawler with a huge cast of characters. It reads like a whos who of some of my fave voices, Larry Cedars, David Sobolov, Kim Mae Guest, Phil LaMarr, James Horan, and of of course my pal Trev Broudy (as Cap). I wrapped the game up on easy in little under two days (a good come of game for a button masher), and was pretty satisfied with the experience.
After observation the epilogue, I decided to sit through the credits to see who voice which characters, that and its just fun to see your friends name in production credits. I got thwarted though, as it took a while to get to the voice cast.
A LONG WHILE...
I was waiting for that long while, sightedness all the names of the people that worked on the game (script writers, animators, motion-capture engineers), then the marvel production folk, then the special thanks (wtf?), then These are the names of the babies that were born during output (WTF?!?!), then after another pause finally the voice over people.
Last. DEAD friggen last.
Granted there arent any serious A-list actors in here, but how amazingly insensitive to marginalise the voice cast this badly.
These people arent paid much, to yell and scream into microphones for hours, and they dont even get the courtesy of being credited above the BABY LIST!
As a gamer Im kind of pissed. Decent writing, direction, and astonishing art are marching into gaming. Gaming is currently where the big money is, but as long as the voice acting is being treated like the fast food of performance (and paid as such), gaming as a whole will never rise above and get a truly artistic medium.
Even from a business perspective, its already discouraging sufficiency to watch a game reach millions of people (grossing hundreds of millions of dollars), and to know all of your hard work will only be blurb.
Whatever your feelings on voice acting, or video gaming, this kind of behavior would never be tolerated in any other medium. We have systems in place to middling credit entry voice over in film, TV, and animation.
JCBagnell (SomeAudioGuy) is a voice over director and recording engineer living in LA. Recording for 10 years now, the last 5 of which focusing on VO, He also writes a blog on audio at someaudioguy.blogspot.com, and is passionate about helping voice actors improve their reads and recordings.
