Solidarity My Union Brethren!...or not...

The National Executive Committe of the Screen Actors Guild has rejected the contract the members of SAG approved with the videogame industry regarding wage increases and benefits. For those not in the know, SAG was planning on striking over the fact that VO actors in videogames don't get residuals of the games they appear on. The union didn't get the 60% "Yes" votes it needed to strike, so they bargained and came up with a proposal that everyone seemed onboard with...except for a small faction of powerful, money-hungry motherfuckers.

As one of those people who on the rare occasion provides voices to characters in videogames, I'm appalled at the complete lack of forethought and general intelligence of my 'colleagues' who are supposed to care about making sure people like me are getting work, but have now effectively frozen us out of the market. Who in gods name is going to want to hire a SAG actor now that we've shown we're not capable of honoring an gentleman's agreement. All the VO gigs will go to AFTRA folks now - too bad I couldn't afford to join them too, especially in the light that as a voiceactor, I must be rolling in the dough with the buckets of money being poured on me for all of my work...oh yeah, that's right. I'm not getting any work anymore!

Thanks, you goddamn asshats. Good to see my dues aren't going to waste.

UPDATE: An interesting letter from someone who feels my pain. :)

UPDATEY-UPDATE: It's up for a revote! I filled out my ballot...gee, guess what I voted.

UPPITY-UPDATEY-OOH! (Aug 11): Balance to the cosmos has been restored as my fellow actors have pwn3d the jackals that feed off our hard work by voting in favor of the new interactive agreement 81% to 19%. Eat it, you bastards.

Videogame Cliches

This is an interesting read by Sam Hughes. Think back to pretty much every videogame you played growing up as a kid, or even nowadays and see if this article strikes a chord of familiarity within you.