{"id":7417,"date":"2022-10-18T11:41:06","date_gmt":"2022-10-18T09:41:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/18\/pushing-buttons-the-voice-actors-speaking-out-against-ndas-code-names-and-poor-pay\/"},"modified":"2022-10-18T11:41:06","modified_gmt":"2022-10-18T09:41:06","slug":"pushing-buttons-the-voice-actors-speaking-out-against-ndas-code-names-and-poor-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/18\/pushing-buttons-the-voice-actors-speaking-out-against-ndas-code-names-and-poor-pay\/","title":{"rendered":"Pushing Buttons: the voice actors speaking out against NDAs, code names and poor pay"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Stars of huge titles claim they get peanuts as games companies rake in millions. Now the lead actor on Bayonetta is asking fans to boycott its new game in protest<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/info\/ng-interactive\/2021\/nov\/24\/sign-up-for-pushing-buttons-keza-macdonalds-weekly-look-at-the-world-of-gaming\">Don\u2019t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I have spent a few weeks talking to video-game voice actors, the real humans who bring verve and humour to our gaming experiences. Some of them have won major awards for their work. None of them have had a meaningful pay rise in over 10 years, despite the industry\u2019s exponential growth. They are furious \u2013 and they have every right to be.<\/p>\n<p>Over the weekend, Hellena Taylor, who played the lead character in Bayonetta, Platinum Games\u2019 stylish action series about a hypersexualised angel-killing witch who fights with extreme flair, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/games\/2022\/oct\/16\/bayonetta-actor-hellena-taylora-boycott-video-game-pay-row\">went public with her frustrations<\/a>. She says she was offered just $4,000 (\u00a33,500) to reprise her role in the third game, out this month. In a series of videos she urged fans to boycott Bayonetta 3, and she has spoken about how being underpaid and overworked has affected her mental health. \u201cI didn\u2019t want the world. I didn\u2019t ask for too much,\u201d she said. \u201cI was just asking for a decent, dignified, living wage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of performers, I spoke with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/games\/2022\/oct\/17\/immortality-video-game-murder-mystery-hollywood-films-sam-barlow-\">the cast and director of Immortality<\/a> \u2013 a game that\u2019s taken up permanent residence in my brain, and one so complex and mysterious that even its actors couldn\u2019t figure out how it was going to work. I greatly enjoyed speaking to everyone involved in this game.<\/p>\n<p>This guy uses household objects to create <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kommanderkarl\/status\/1577099901900447745\">pretend reload animations<\/a>. Fascinating.<\/p>\n<p>Oh dear, Meta\u2019s flagship Horizon metaverse is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/meta-metaverse-horizon-worlds-zuckerberg-facebook-internal-documents-11665778961?mod=hp_lead_pos7\">almost deserted<\/a>, the Wall Street Journal reports. Murder Village is so quiet there\u2019s nobody to murder. There are no hot girls in the Hot Girl Summer Rooftop Pool Party. This WSJ story on Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s underperforming virtual world is full of gold: \u201cThe next day, a male Journal reporter visited a \u2018house party\u2019 in which he was one of two people in attendance \u2026 The other avatar never spoke and the game ended after about 10 minutes. The reporter\u2019s avatar later fell into the pool and couldn\u2019t figure out how to get out. There was no one around to help.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Horror aficionados of the PlayStation 2 era will be delighted to learn that the Silent Hill series is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/silent-hill-series-return-to-be-detailed-this-week\">coming back<\/a>. Konami will spill the details this Wednesday at 10pm BST.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/games\/2022\/oct\/18\/ndas-code-names-and-poor-pay-the-voice-actors-speaking-out\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/9038b207e74c4c2ba0e59b2011e3232d6d8d23a7\/58_0_3885_2333\/master\/3885.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=eb46a7a09e1ca8255a0ba497e4d7380e\" title=\"Pushing Buttons: the voice actors speaking out against NDAs, code names and poor pay\" \/>Stars of huge titles claim they get peanuts as games companies rake in millions. Now the lead actor on Bayonetta is asking fans to boycott its new game in protest<br \/>\nDon\u2019t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here<br \/>\nI have spent a few weeks talking to video-game voice actors, the real humans who bring verve and humour to our gaming experiences. Some of them have won major awards for their work. None of them have had a meaningful pay rise in over 10 years, despite the industry\u2019s exponential growth. They are furious \u2013 and they have every right to be.<br \/>\nOver the weekend, Hellena Taylor, who played the lead character in Bayonetta, Platinum Games\u2019 stylish action series about a hypersexualised angel-killing witch who fights with extreme flair, went public with her frustrations. She says she was offered just $4,000 (\u00a33,500) to reprise her role in the third game, out this month. In a series of videos she urged fans to boycott Bayonetta 3, and she has spoken about how being underpaid and overworked has affected her mental health. \u201cI didn\u2019t want the world. I didn\u2019t ask for too much,\u201d she said. \u201cI was just asking for a decent, dignified, living wage.\u201d<br \/>\nSpeaking of performers, I spoke with the cast and director of Immortality \u2013 a game that\u2019s taken up permanent residence in my brain, and one so complex and mysterious that even its actors couldn\u2019t figure out how it was going to work. I greatly enjoyed speaking to everyone involved in this game.<br \/>\nThis guy uses household objects to create pretend reload animations. Fascinating.<br \/>\nOh dear, Meta\u2019s flagship Horizon metaverse is almost deserted, the Wall Street Journal reports. Murder Village is so quiet there\u2019s nobody to murder. There are no hot girls in the Hot Girl Summer Rooftop Pool Party. This WSJ story on Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s underperforming virtual world is full of gold: \u201cThe next day, a male Journal reporter visited a \u2018house party\u2019 in which he was one of two people in attendance \u2026 The other avatar never spoke and the game ended after about 10 minutes. The reporter\u2019s avatar later fell into the pool and couldn\u2019t figure out how to get out. There was no one around to help.\u201d<br \/>\nHorror aficionados of the PlayStation 2 era will be delighted to learn that the Silent Hill series is coming back. Konami will spill the details this Wednesday at 10pm BST. Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stars of huge titles claim they get peanuts as games companies rake in millions. Now the lead actor on Bayonetta is asking fans to boycott its new game in protest Don\u2019t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here I have spent a few weeks talking to video-game voice actors, the real humans &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/18\/pushing-buttons-the-voice-actors-speaking-out-against-ndas-code-names-and-poor-pay\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Pushing Buttons: the voice actors speaking out against NDAs, code names and poor pay<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7417"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}