Hey Blizzard. I was thinking that maybe you can make an open casting call for voice actors. It might be fun for newer voice actors who are just starting to get their feet wet to get a casting call on the forums or on any social media platform.
This is an excellent idea. Some of the voice actors in Warcraft play 5+ characters, which is efficient, but sometimes they sound the same for 2-3 of those characters. With the amount of talent available and the enhancements to the standard voice actor’s studio, it allows the talent pool to expand immensely.
I am sure there are many VAs who also play the game who would have a wonderful pulse on the story and read the lines impeccably.
Thoughts: Blizzard would need to set standards for a voice actor’s specs & studio so it doesn’t sound janky like Black Desert Online. BDO sometimes sounds like the company had 0 standards to convey good lines and the speakers are definitely not in quality studios across the board.
The game has so much talent in its player base, from 3d modelers and texture makers (hi) who would happily lend a hand, to voice actors, who all want to better the game. This would be a great initiative.
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Exactly and like you said the game has so much talent across the board and I think it could easily be able to find the talent it needs to bring in VAs who have good-sounding studios and potentially have VAs who love the material.
This could be something that Blizzard could easily implement into the game and could find a lot of profit because all these recent VAs who found success are so hard-working and really cool in what they do best.
And, of course, Blizzard would need to set standards as they are needing talent who have good-sounding studios. Because they need to keep this great game afloat and I think they can easily do that with an open casting call to see if they meet Blizzard’s standards or not.
Plus it’s fun and Blizzard I think could easily have fun with an open casting call with 10 or more characters each of them getting their time in the spotlight. We could even get a good voice for a new race if they decide to implement it. They could easily have fun with the open casting calls. This could be a great way to give back to the community.
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I see this as an excellent opportunity to market the talent that the community has. We do this with visual art, I view this as another form of art. Plus it is great PR for Blizzard to involve their community in the potential of being part of the game in such a meaningful way.
Hoping others chime in with thoughts. All marketing is good marketing, I think this is great marketing when you can get the community actively involved.
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Yes, everyone, please chime in with your thoughts because I think this has a lot of potential for Blizzard and it would be good PR for Blizzard if they do this.
fans of the game would do it for free most likely.
Well, this would be a great opportunity as it would be a good way to give back to the community, and it would be a good way to give new voice actors a chance to get a role in a big franchise such as World of Warcraft. As I have mentioned before. Plus I think it would be foolish if the voice actor was not paid in some way.
Yeah…but I would bet that the SAG (or whatever guilds voice actors belong to) would be pretty unhappy with that move.
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Actually, I think they’ll be fine with it. As long as certain conditions are met.
Voice acting in Blizzard games is a SAG/AFTRA union job.
They literally can’t hire fans off the street without a lot of hoops.
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Well, I am sure that a lot of people can get through those hoops.
SAG/AFTRA fans of the game? Sure, but they’re on strike currently (I believe, I don’t know if it’s the whole union that’s on strike or just some sectors). They can have their representation respond to open casting calls once they have roles like usual, I’m sure.
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Still, it would be cool to compete with the big SAG-AFTRA Actors like Laura Bailey, Sam Rigel, Travis Willingham, Troy Baker, and others and maybe work alongside them. Maybe not in the same session. Also, the voice actors for video games can still do work on video games they’re not on strike when it comes to video games.
Voice actors most of the time are overworked and under appreciated.
Heck Erica Lindbeck recently just left twitter because she had the NERVE to not want people using AI stuff for her voice in videos.
If you’re one of the big stars then you can be in a lot of big games or movies or tv shows. But a lot of the time its a lot of extra work with higher ups starting to be eager with using AI.
You’d just be some grunt npc making combat noises for many hours
Oh sure it’d be cool, like it’d be cool if movie studios just started pulling in people who liked their movies to be the stars and such. I just want to disabuse people of the notion that it’d be totally easy for Blizzard to just start inviting fans into the studio to voice characters and think that if they’re not it’s because they’re just big Debbie Downers who don’t like their fans.
They’re not allowed according to their contract with the union to have people who aren’t part of the union do voice roles, and in cases like where they wanted to have Metzen keep voicing Thrall he had to join. Trying to do something like where they had the Make-a-Wish kid do a voice in the game would probably be a nightmare of paperwork these days. There are also requirements for joining the union, like you have to have booked official union work, and pay dues.
There was a whole thing in 2016/2017 where all of it got hashed out.
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Heck you can see this too if you watch Hazbin Hotel or Helluva Boss. And the giant legal mumbo jumbo that was dealing with having Kesha voice a character. She wrote a song for it, but couldn’t sing it. But she’s her speaking voice as Beelzebub. And that episode got delayed until Kesha was out of that legal garbage contract.
This is also why some actors could be in Helluva Boss, but Hazbin Hotel had to get new voice actors. What the studios want they get when they’re funding your stuff ( Although I thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiink one or two of the pilot voice actors are in the new show but they might be singing voices. My memory is fuzzy on that )
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Many people in-game have thought that this was a good idea, so I don’t see why Blizzard would see this as a bad thing. Nonoa, can you explain why this is such a good idea?
I’m sure Blizz would love fans with VA talent working for free, but as noted they’re simply not allowed. Legal obligations unless they want to deal with civil lawsuit for breech of contract (and why is that good for profit margins? oh, it’s not!).
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Guys, it would be good PR. I think that they can simply negotiate with the union to help the actor they choose to become part of the union… Problem solved. Also if it has a bunch of paperwork, then how come there are more people joining the union than ever before.
“Blizzard underpays its talent. Blizzard is a bad company. Underpaying their workers is such a bad PR move.”
also
“What if Blizzard got people to do work for free? And just didn’t pay them? Relying on them being fans to doing jobs others do for money…for free? This would be a good move for the company and would increase their PR”
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