Koei Warriors Rant Series Part 35: Are English dubs and voice actors being appreciated enough?
(NOTE: In this part, I mostly speak about Japanese game companies localising their games to the West, like Square Enix, Koei Tecmo, Nintendo or Bandai Namco.)
Just today, I became aware that the voice actors’ union SAG-AFTRA is taking a vote on whether to go on strike or not. According to the information I’ve seen (the official site is here), it seems that voice actors are not being treated fairly, with proposals from their employers to impose fines for actors arriving late on set or agents that don’t send actors out for background voices. Also, the union wants royalties (they say “performance bonuses”) for every 2 million copies or downloads sold.
This may be a theory, but it seems that for the Japanese game companies, it provides them with another excuse not to implement English voices in localisation. If voice actors are being paid unfairly like this, this could be a sign that game publishers dislike English voices just as badly as dub haters.
Even though I support the union with their proposed strike action, I have a concern: how long will the strike go for? The union states that all members would be unable to work during the strike and they ask that non-members follow suit as well. If this happens, what will happen to the games that are being localised with voices at that very moment? Will the publishers have to stick with Japanese voices or delay the games until the voice actors are available again? I honestly doubt they would choose the latter, despite the backlash they would get from fans.
Now, I’m going to speak to all the dub haters out there. You do not realise that if you disrespect English voices in Japanese games, you are disrespecting the voice actors who are trying to provide entertainment for players of localised Japanese games. What about your Western games like Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed? Some of your favourite voice actors in those games might voice characters in a localised Japanese game. Are you sure that you want to disrespect English voice actors when you know that they are in your other favourite games?
How about the publishers of localised Japanese games? Do you really hate English voices that much? If you’re treating your voice actors like this, you might as well not bother with English voices in your games. If you really care about the fans, and you want to give them English dub, then you will treat voice actors with the respect they deserve.
English dub fans, I hope that you can support the voice actors with getting the demands they want in order to be treated fairly.
If anyone has any thoughts on this, feel free to reply or reblog!