Video Game Performers Expose the Industry’s Darkest Secret
By Movieguide® Contributor
While working on video games may seem like the dream for millions of people, insiders revealed the industry is not always glamourous as motion capture performers and voice actors are asked to act out violating scenes.
Just as in movies and TV shows, scenes of intimacy or abuse are commonplace in video games. While there are ways to approach these scenes that limit the negative impact on performers, the current standard in the video game industry leaves many feeling violated and taken advantage of.
The problem mainly lies in the industry’s secretive nature, with most performers being given extremely limited information before they show up at a set to perform.
“We’d get an email or a call from a studio saying we need you on these day for a shoot,” Jessica Jefferies, a professional casting director who used to work as a motion capture performer, told BBC. “That was all the information we’d get.”
This would sometimes result in them performing extremely graphic scenes that they likely would have turned down had they known about them prior. Jefferies recalled one such situation.
“I turned up and was told what I would be filming would be a graphic rape scene,” she said. “This act could be watched [in the game] for as long or as little time as the player wanted through a window, and then the player would be able to shoot this character in the head. It was just purely gratuitous in my opinion.”
“There [was] no nudity involved, but it [was] still an act and there’s an intimacy in that act and also a violence in [that] situation,” Jefferies continued. “So, yes, there may be a layer of Lycra between us, but you are still there and still having to truly immerse yourself in [that] scene.”
Though she expressed her opinions and made it known she did not want to do this scene, her desire was ignored, and the scene was shot anyway.
These experiences are common in the video game industry and are not limited to only those working in the motion capture side of the process. Voice actors face similar situations when they are asked to voice these types of scenes — similarly only finding out about them the day they show up for the shoot.
“We have to sign NDAs [non-disclosure agreements], we’re told almost nothing,” a voice actor told BBC, recalling a time of violation.
“[I was given] a full-on sex scene,” the voice actor continued. “I had to [vocally] match the scene and through the glass in the booth was the entire team, all male, watching me. It was excruciating…at that stage I had been in the games industry a while, and I had never felt so shaken.”
The problem with the industry is that it does not have the same standards that other entertainment mediums do. Jefferies is trying to change this and require games studios to disclose the nature of the performance they are hiring an actor for, as well as needing to hire an intimacy coordinator if anything sexual is taking place.
“These guidelines are just to bring [the industry] in line with the best practices in the film and TV industry,” Jefferies said.
While this is a major issue in the industry, it remains unclear if these new boundaries will be forced upon the studios. The video game workers in Hollywood are currently on strike to better their contracts with major studios, however, the focus of their bargaining is on better AI protections, and it is possible an issue like this could slip through the cracks.
Movieguide® previously reported:
After more than a year and a half of ongoing negotiations, video game actors represented by SAG-AFTRA have decided to go on strike due to unresolved issues in the realm of AI.
“Eighteen months of negotiations have shown us that our employers are not interested in fair, reasonable AI protections, but rather flagrant exploitations,” said Interactive Media Agreement Negotiation Committee Chair Sarah Elmaleh. “We refuse this paradigm — we will not leave any of our members behind, nor will we wait for sufficient protection any longer.”
“We look forward to collaborating with teams on our Interim and Independent contractors, which provide AI transparency, consent and compensation to all performers, and to continuing to negotiate in good faith with this bargaining group when they are ready to join us in the world we all deserve,” Elmaleh continued.
Negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and video game studios began in October 2022. Even as the dual strikes struck Hollywood last summer, video game performers were willing to wait for the large studios to come around to fair AI protections without forcing their hand. Unfortunately, their patience has not paid off, and with negotiations at a standstill after nearly two years, they have been forced to strike.
