If cinema is fiction, imagine video games. But up to a certain point. In fact, behind video games, especially the most modern and futuristic ones, there are actors who lend their body and voice and who now say enough. And amid protests ranging from the United Kingdom to the USA, they have decided to strike. Two points have caused the bank to fall apart: the first is the request to work on explicit content without any warning, including scenes of sexual violence, fights, assaults. The second is the excessive use of artificial intelligence that in fact limits and copies the functions of the flesh-and-blood actor.
The Interactive Media Agreement, the contract that regulated the actors’ activities expired in November 2022. The works in particular are those of voice-over and motion capture, technologies for which the real action of the actors, who wear special suits equipped with sensors, thanks to technology is transferred into the video game. The agitation has been ongoing for over a month, between protests, strikes, pickets and negotiations that do not take off and has undergone an acceleration due to the explicit content of some games that have infuriated the actors. Sex and violence scenes are in fact quite common in some modern video games but the secrecy surrounding the projects, with scripts kept hidden until the last minute so as not to give the competition an advantage, means that the actors themselves do not know in advance what they will have to play and if (and how much) the script requires them to exceed the limit. British performing arts union Equity has published guidelines on minimum wages and working conditions, including intimate or explicit scenes, which have been repeatedly described as “disgusting”. “We would get an email or a call from a studio saying we needed you on those days for a shoot,” actors say. “I showed up and was told I would have to film a rape scene. I refused,” confirms Jessica Jefferies, an actress and casting director. The same stories concern explicit sex scenes, but also violence.
At the same time, the protest against the abuse of artificial intelligence in the sector continues, the same protest that was led last year by all the Hollywood actors who had effectively blocked productions. The approximately 2,600 members of SAG-AFTRA, the union of workers in the video game sector, are on strike and risk canceling the release of the most anticipated games, usually released by the end of September. «We will not accept a contract that allows companies to abuse artificial intelligence to the detriment of our members.
“That’s enough,” explained Fran Drescher, president of the union. Negotiations continue. Because even in fiction, even if driven by the highest technology available, there is always a part of reality. The human one. Which remains essential. Despite any click.