As many of you may or may not know, there is still a strike going on between SAG-AFTRA, the main actors union, and various studios over the use of said actors voices to train AI voice generation models.
The long and short of it is that voice actors see what the studios are trying to do, know that isn't in their contracts, and want no part of it. But because the strike is still ongoing and several studios haven't come to agreement on this subject, there are still shows and games that are being affected, such as Genshin Impact.
This came to mind, because I started playing Genshin Impact again, and am seeing through datamining that for the Lantern Rite event (the in-game annual event celebrating the Lunar New Year/Chinese New Year), there are over a dozen playable characters who will not be voiced, which includes of the playable cast from Liyue (the second nation you go to in Genshin, based off of pre-WWI China). I know how most of the people here feel about English voice actors, but I do hope the various studios come to an agreement with SAG-AFTRA at some point, because I didn't even realize the strike hadn't ended until now.
I for one hope that the Film Actors Guild is totalled over this.
It is a Soviet Front Group that must be destroyed.
I don't. Let them learn to coal mine.
I look forward to the return of dialog boxes and silent protagonists.
Meh, I haven't been impressed by a dub actor in a while. The industry is pretty cancerous, stagnant, greedy, and the new wave of "talent" has been just untrained influencer garbage from what I've seen.
As someone who once had dreams of getting into anime voiceover, but had said dreams crushed by how leftarded almost everyone in the dubbing business is, to the point of ruining the lives of anyone they find out is even vaguely Christian and/or pro-Trump:
Strike more, strike harder. Bring the whole business down.
GET FUCKED.
Same in NIKKE: Goddess of Victory. Hell, the winter event, fully voiced, had eight characters that had new voices, and the 2nd Anniversary/latest campaign chapters had some voice swaps too. I'll tell you this though- Michelle Marie as Anis is likely to never change... as the chances of her getting such a perfect main role of sassy, loveable, and popular ever again after this is quite low, she can't afford to strike against this role; she and Shifty are even featured in every event 'livestream' (pre-recorded).
Stop being part of the problem
I'm almost positive the only reason those games exist is because western game devs refuse to make good looking female characters.
It's more so because of how many people fall for cheap Skinner Box psychological manipulation.
No, gachashit existed before, even back when good games were still being made. Kantai collection for example is literal plays itself waifu collecting gachashit. It was a browser game, but still. And trash gacha mechanics and freemium garbage came from korean mmos decades ago, predating the rise of mobile games.
That's true, but the reason they're more tolerated than before is because other games are gachashit with the added benefit of having to buy the game.
It'd be like if an arcade had a cover charge to get in which covers only a handful of the machines, and the rest are pay to play. It's not really any different than the arcade where it's free to get in but you pay for every play, but it doesn't feel like a scam.
Paid games with freemium mechanics are actual intolerable disrespect. The marketing goblins behind that should have their hands removed.
Hmm? Kancolle isn't a gacha game even if it kind of seems like one in some respects. Waifu collecting shitfest, sure. But not a gacha. I played it for years and while there are microtransactions and pay to win, there isn't a gacha that you pay into.
New ships are introduced as event rewards and drops for clearing event maps. Not through ship construction. You don't buy from the shop to roll for ships or equipment.
Oh it wasn't? I don't play literal garbage slop, so I may be confusing it with another. Those mechanics existed a long time ago though.
You can find people saying no and people saying yes; it kind of exists on the edge. But as someone who played it for years I would definitely say no seeing as you don't buy currency or resources to gamble on receiving things.
There is an RNG system for constructing certain ships and equipment, but generally not the best ships and equipment, and one doesn't use resources from the shop to use those systems even if they spend money on the game.
So it depends where you personally draw the line.
I can’t stand hearing the same fucking voice in seemingly everything. If I watched anime I’d be going subs just so I don’t hear spike speagal anymore. I swear all the female characters sound the same over acting 3 people.
If you watch enough anime you eventually run into that problem in Japanese too, it's just significantly less frequent.
I hope the agreement is "Same wages as the Japanese get. Same benefits if any. Same lack of long-term promises. Take it or be replaced by AI and get nothing."
Because after everything the English Hollywood crowd has done to any ideological dissidents (I.E. see Vic Mignona's career nosedive because he ate someone's gummy bear and therefore clearly that was rape (no euphemisms, literal situation) and was un-personed instantly from all long-term contracts totally not because he's religious right), to even be offered the chance to not be replaced by AI is arguably more than they deserve, but I am generous this New Year.