Comment by forrestthewoods | Hacker News Reader

Comment by forrestthewoods | Hacker News Reader

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forrestthewoods

The problem with this theory is that the gaming industry has to work with the Voice Actors Guild and they are a huge pain in the ass.

The hourly rate is fine. The min/max hours is fine.

The union exclusivity clause is bullshit. They won’t even allow you to use your own company’s employees to record temporary VO. It’s all or nothing.

Expo hall unions are even worse. I have to wait 30 minutes and pay someone $50 so they can plug my surge protector into a floor outlet? Thanks but no thanks.

Working in games I have had to work with different unions on several occasions. Each experience is absolutely dreadful. I’ll pass.

Edit: downvote my opinion if you think it’s bad. that’s cool. Doesn’t change that every experience I have ever had working with unions was absolutely awful.

Oh I agree— certain things with Hollywood Guilds are exclusive for the point of being exclusive. Tech doesn’t need to, nor should it, strive to copy Hollywood exactly. We’re a completely different industry, after all

Exclusivity is a two sided coin. Speaking as someone who dealt with the Teamsters Union at a few expos myself, it can be very annoying to not be able to carry your own boxes, or plug in a new power strip. Honestly, it’s maddening.

The flip side (for me, personally) is that I believe that the conference hall would charge me the same fee with the same restrictions, pocketing a large majority of it. It’s no different than going to a stadium and spending $60 on two beers and a hotdog while the person behind the counter makes a fraction of the sale but cleans the space, warms and hauls the food, handles the sale, and puts it together and gives it to me.

So again, there is pain with the teamsters in a convention space (specifically in this context), I fully agree. But if I’m going to have to pay too much for a service I’d rather it went to working class families with stable jobs in the area I’m visiting and doing business in.

My narrator, Maxwell Glick, just informed me that there is no such thing as "the Voice Actors Guild." It's all part of SAG.

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