#industry bullshit

[yusuke-of-valla]

GAMES MADE BY PEOPLE WHO ARE PAID MORE TO WORK LESS

[so-idialed-9]

It's been over two weeks since Liam, and I'm...still not that OK. And I don't know if I will be. It hit me so much harder than I imagined. It still feels like we are in the wrong universe. This never should have happened. So this is just a rant about how I am feeling, in case you are feeling it too. Please, don't forget Liam. And don't let hangers-on steal his truth again.

I find relief and joy seeing videos and photos of Liam, or reading fanfiction about him. Thinking of him as joyful and silly and complex and loved and having challenges he can triumph over...we should never lose that. I never want him to be erased. I'm glad that wasn't stolen from us.

Seeing the fandom come back together, new people fall in love with Liam, and Directioners not let his entire life story be simplified or tragically recast or the bullshit narrative they tried to place on him, has been mixed.

On one hand, I'm deeply grateful Directioners were cultivated to analyze the shit out of PR-spun industry bullshit and know exactly how to undermine it LOUDLY. Without that, the sloppy, contradictory, false narrative about Liam would've been fully accepted. And now it never will be no matter how hard they try.

But I'm also sad because I would give anything for Liam to have had five minutes in a world that openly adored him as much as he deserved. See him bashful and glowing as people raved about his voice, dance moves, leadership, songwriting abilities...his warm eyes and cuddly affection and kindness to so. many. people.

I feel rage thinking about how Liam was FUCKING TELLING THE TRUTH about everything. He told the truth when he said the band was formed around him, that Simon promised him. He told the truth about leading the band - ten seconds of watching This Is Us shows that. He told the truth about Zayn's lack of parental support especially from his father, which must've impacted him severely. He told the truth about the industry and what he lived through. And people unfollowed and laughed at him, made him into a joke, but he was telling the truth the whole time.

And now, my biggest fear is that we could lose another member. I'm very worried about Zayn but almost afraid to not worry about the others as much. I know that all my worry isn't helping anyone and that feels worse, that there's nothing I can do.

And I fear that soon, people will stop paying attention and forget him all over again. Or let his story get swallowed up by people who never did anything but opportunistically live off of him.

[yusuke-of-valla]

Hey! Fun fact! Did you know that because America is 50 tiny countries in a trench coat, this is illegal in some states but not others?

California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Washington are all "two-party consent" states which mean you have to make sure everyone in the conversation is aware that they're being recorded and that they agreed to it!

I don't know how that works across state lines but hoo boy it would be unfortunate if more people who lived in those states knew that!

HEY DISCORD USERS!!

unfortunately, discord continues to be the Worst Messaging Company Of All Time with its updates, and this time, its one that is not only a privacy violation, not only enabled by default, but ROLLED OUT SILENTLY, MEANING YOU MUST KNOW IT EXISTS TO TURN IT OFF.

i am talking about "clips", an exciting new feature /s that allows people to record you in voice chat without your knowledge or consent! Wow!

fortunately, you can turn this off, but its kinda shitty how they didnt tell you this existed at all, yeah?

settings > clips> the button should be clicked to turn it off

(note that it should be ON by default, you will have to click the button to turn it off)

thanks, discord, for Telling Us This Violating Setting Exists In An Update And Making Sure It Is Off By Default. /s.

reblogs are appreciated to spread the word.

[smieska]

Can I start a movement or a hashtag called storyboard drawings are meant to be ugly?

Im ready to scream

[yusuke-of-valla]

WE LIVE IN A HELL WORLD

Snippets from the article by Karissa Bell:

SAG-AFTRA, the union representing thousands of performers, has struck a deal with an AI voice acting platform aimed at making it easier for actors to license their voice for use in video games. ...

the agreements cover the creation of so-called “digital voice replicas” and how they can be used by game studios and other companies. The deal has provisions for minimum rates, safe storage and transparency requirements, as well as “limitations on the amount of time that a performance replica can be employed without further payment and consent.”

Notably, the agreement does not cover whether actors’ replicas can be used to train large language models (LLMs), though Replica Studios CEO Shreyas Nivas said the company was interested in pursuing such an arrangement. “We have been talking to so many of the large AAA studios about this use case,” Nivas said. He added that LLMs are “out-of-scope of this agreement” but “they will hopefully [be] things that we will continue to work on and partner on.”

...Even so, some well-known voice actors were immediately skeptical of the news, as the BBC reports. In a press release, SAG-AFTRA said the agreement had been approved by "affected members of the union’s voiceover performer community." But on X, voice actors said they had not been given advance notice. "How has this agreement passed without notice or vote," wrote Veronica Taylor, who voiced Ash in Pokémon. "Encouraging/allowing AI replacement is a slippery slope downward." Roger Clark, who voiced Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2, also suggested he was not notified about the deal. "If I can pay for permission to have an AI rendering of an ‘A-list’ voice actor’s performance for a fraction of their rate I have next to no incentive to employ 90% of the lesser known ‘working’ actors that make up the majority of the industry," Clark wrote.

SAG-AFTRA’s deal with Replica only covers a sliver of the game industry. Separately, the union is also negotiating with several of the major game studios after authorizing a strike last fall. “I certainly hope that the video game companies will take this as an inspiration to help us move forward in that negotiation,” Crabtree said.

And here are some various reactions I've found about things people in/adjacent to this can do

And in OTHER AI games news, Valve is updating it's TOS to allow AI generated content on steam so long as devs promise they have the rights to use it, which you can read more about on Aftermath in this article by Luke Plunkett

[so-idialed-9]

"Tell Simon Cowell to go fuck himself. Team 1D." -Fin Power, vocalist/guitarist for Stone

Edit - here's a link to the TT

Takeaways -

People aren't as afraid of Simon tanking them - his power is fading

Simon's recruitment isn't going well, per the article

He's recruiting someone already with a record deal and years of performing - which matches what former X Factor contestants and industry people have said for years about how things happened with X Factor, Modest, and Syco, lending credibility to other aspects of their stories

- Katie Waissel, X Factor contestant, said she had been touring and making albums and doing collaborations, and when Simon recruited her she said no repeatedly. She said he sent people to her recording sessions to pressure her, then suddenly her other deals went bad, her own lawyer who it turned out shared an office with Modest's team pressured her to sign with Simon as written which turned out to be a horrible deal for her

Fuck Simon Cowell

[yusuke-of-valla]

The correct amount of crunch is 0 crunch, sorry. Professional project heads should not lead their team to the same situation as a college Sophmore writing a ten page essay in 24 hours because they forgot the due date.

Jesse what the FUCK are you talking about, how does the 30 second same sex kids tank a fucking movie? Are you stupid, homophobic, or both?

Hmm hey I want any project manager on this to go look at what happened to Cyberpunk 2077 at launch. Like it's good now but you can't really wait years to release DLC for an animated movie that makes it better.

Unironically everyone should study some of the worst disasters in video games if they want a leadership position because if games are good for one thing it's being wayyyy ahead on terrible ideas

jesus fuck, this article

[xamiipholia]

This is a really important read. (fyi the title refers to the upcoming LIS, not True Colors)

Rebekkah Valentine is the real deal, she does great fucking investigative journalism.

Honestly it seems like a miracle that True Colors is as good as it is. Fuck Square Enix.

[casinocircus]

I'm a stiff breeze away from custom ordering my own organic fabrics and making my own damn clothes and im not joking

[yusuke-of-valla]

I know this is an old post but just for future refernece

A strike authorization does not mean they're going on strike, it means that they're asking if members are willing to go on strike so that when they return to the negotiating table, the comittee can use that as reference

However in this case the strike authorization did pass with like a 98% yes from the people who voted, and the deadline to make a deal with the relevant companies was yesterday (9/28) so while a strike has not been called yet it is increasingly likely and I would pay attention to what SAG-AFTRA says in the next couple of days

TL;DR: No strike yet but voice actors and mocap actors might go on strike soon so keep an eye out

VIDEO GAMES ARE GOING ON STRIKE?

[wankelmuth]

Brandenburg, 2024

Photo: Roland Helbig

[bmpmp3]

not used to this kind of mascot

[so-idialed-9]

I just really want to higjlight these previous tags 🤣 from @daggerandrose @swallows-are-for-hope and @fefeyuen

Things that didn’t happen.

Claiming Harry listened to his podcast and rang him to say how happy he was in 1d.

[gamer2002]

Companies falling due to them not delivering products that sell is a good thing that improves the overall quality of the industry.

And people were telling you for years that you were making a mistake. You have smugly replied that such people were no longer your audience and you were going to be appreciated and supported by the fabled modern one.

You were proven wrong, you have nobody else but yourself to blame, and the people whose warnings you have ignored have every right to feel vindicated.

And the alternative to the current situation is companies getting subsidized from our tax money, just so you could produce crap that we do not want to buy. Quite frankly, if this is what you wish for, you are proving Ayn Rand right about parasites.

[yusuke-of-valla]

So, Video Game Voice Actors Are On Strike: A Quick and Dirty Guide for Tumblr Users

Starting on July 26th, SAG-AFTRA members that are part of the Interactive Media Agreement (so mostly voice actors for video games) will be on strike. If you're a member of SAG-AFTRA with questions, I would speak to them.

Most of this information is coming from the SAG-AFTRA website, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about anything or ask if you need anything.

If you are a random tumblr user who wants to know what's going on, here we go.

Why are video game voice actors striking?

AI, as one could expect. From the union's statement:

Although agreements have been reached on many issues important to SAG-AFTRA members, the employers refuse to plainly affirm, in clear and enforceable language, that they will protect all performers covered by this contract in their A.I. language.

Which Games Are Being Struck?

Games from: Activision Productions Inc., Blindlight LLC, Disney Character Voices Inc., Electronic Arts Productions Inc., Formosa Interactive LLC, Insomniac Games Inc., Llama Productions LLC, Take 2 Productions Inc., VoiceWorks Productions Inc., and WB Games Inc. are all being struck.

There is also a website to confirm which union projects are being struck but you'd need to be a member actively working on it to use it.

Ok so I'm not a voice actor, union or otherwise, I just like games. What should I do.

I can NOT stress this enough. Do NOT stop playing games. The union has not asked for this, and is instead asking for people to amplify our messages online using #LevelUpTheContract, #VideoGameStrike and #SagAftraStrong."

You can also sign this petition in support of voice actors getting a fair deal.

I'm not a union representative but if a game you're looking forward to is being covered by the struck companies, I'd blow up your social media and their mentions with how much you love the voice acting and the actors deserve a fair contract, but other than that you are not being asked to boycott any games or not cosplay or attend events.

A Streamer is playing a struck game! Is that crossing the picket line?

No, SAG-AFTRA explicitly says that is fine, and in fact encourages it.

An actor is promoting/promoted a struck work at SDCC, is that crossing the picket line?

No, the statement explicitly says those attending SDCC can still do work there because of the short notice, they are also fine.

Wait didn't SAG-AFTRA already do some weird bullshit regarding video game voice actors and AI?

Yes, at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, SAG-AFTRA signed a deal with Replica AI to allow their members to create digital replicas, it was a whole thing and many voice actors were pissed.

So they're hypocrites?

Ok it's more complicated than that. Their logic for the Replica AI thing is rather than allow companies to do whatever they want, it was better to have a system in place to be able to clearly say when a company was breaking the rules and ensure that talent got some compensation.

We can debate the efficacy of that strategy all day and voice actors at the time were not happy, BUT the companies being struck here refuse to even rise to THAT standard and will not agree to the most basic protections for actors, which is worse.

People and organizations contain multitudes and it is not a betrayal or hypocritical to disagree with SAG-AFTRA leadership on the Replica AI situation and side with them, and more importantly their members in this case.

Why aren't game devs striking/ It's not devs on strike so I don't care

The Screen Actors Guild covers actors, so it would not be in everyone's best interest if they were to try and negotiate on behalf of people in different fields with different needs.

However, one way to build support for the various movements to unionize at places like Activision-Blizzard and Bethesda is to support labor movements everywhere and show solidarity whenever it comes up.

Why are the actors striking when the developers should be paid more.

They should be paid more! And they should not be laid off as much. One way to help with that is to be able to point to voice actors and say, hey they got a raise, I want one too.

[yusuke-of-valla]

Zack Zweizen is making an effort to chronicle every industry layoff over at Kotaku and not even a month in we're almost at 4,000 people who have lost or will lose their jobs.

I do reccommend everyone try to keep track of this because it's important to be aware of, and try to support devs where you can

five hundred and thirty people laid off from riot. We aren't even one month into 2024.

there is no security in the work within game development. My dad would tell me 'just work hard, be essential and earn your place' but that isn't how it is anymore. You could be the best, most amazing artist, as so many of my friends who were laid off were, and it doesn't matter. They will get rid of you just as easily. I don't even know what to feel anymore, but as someone who had been laid off in the past, I cannot convey how devastating it is to have your life uprooted just like that.