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Voice actors have found themselves in a bit of a pickle lately. With the rise of AI, companies are looking for ways to cut costs however they can. Research shows that the top three easiest jobs to replace with AI in the gaming industry are CEO, COO, and Diversity Specialist. After carefully reviewing this data, many game companies have come to the conclusion that voice actors are next. After all, they’re just “talking,” and, well, pretty much everyone can do that, right?
Naturally, this has upset many of the voice actors in the gaming industry, because their “talking” is what actually allows them to afford things like food. And according to Health Canada (we fact-checked this), voice actors need food too.
To get a better sense of the actual hardships voice actors face, we reached out to a few industry veterans for their take on the real challenges of their jobs. “I said the word ‘boy’ so many times, it lost all meaning to me. I have to call my son ‘dude’ now,” says Christopher Judge, voice of Kratos in God of War. Another voice actor, who provided the iconic screams for R2-D2 in LEGO Star Wars, shared that his entire role was basically just “screaming for death animations repeatedly. I couldn't even tell my wife I loved her because my voice hurt so bad.” Apparently, fans loved throwing R2D2 off cliffs so much just to hear him scream, and the dev team just rolled with it.
But not all voice actors are so...dramatically affected by their work. One VA from the Dark Souls series, however, seems to think it’s the easiest gig ever. “It’s the easiest job in the world,” they said. “I don’t even actually read or do anything 90% of the time. They just put me in a room with a chair and recorded me getting up from it and grunting a few times. Then boom, I’m done.”
While voice actors certainly have their challenges, it's clear that their work shouldn’t be overlooked. Sure, AI might be able to replace a lot of things, but maybe this isn’t the best place for game companies to start. Perhaps instead of replacing human voices, AI could be put to better use, like creating an actual half decent AI companion. This way, maybe we wouldn’t all want to blow our brains out anytime we have to play a forced escort mission.
Source: Trust me, bro.
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