With voice acting on the rise and more mainstream than ever, video games are one of the main contributors.
Jodina Scazzola, a professor at San Diego City College since 2018 in the Film, Journalism & Media Production department, had her start in radio as a host for the now-defunct KPRi station, prior to teaching at City. This allowed her to do some voiceover work.
“And in radio, you have to do a ton of commercials and ad-libs. And so it was kind of like a natural thing,” Scazzola said. “Agents started sending me video game auditions, and I already had the experience, so I started booking.”
Some games that Scazzola voiced in include Killer Clowns from Outer Space: The Game, Ready or Not and Star Trek Online.
Gaming is making its mark in the industry, paving a way for people to live-stream game playthroughs through one of the most popular streaming platforms, Twitch.
Alongside the community and networking aspect, it allows people to attend panels where professionals can voice their advice and experiences at their annual event, called TwitchCon.
Damien Haas, a streamer, YouTuber, and voice actor since 2009, has liked video games since a young age, which led to him lending some of his talent to a few game franchises.
Some include Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, Fortnite, and Fallout 76.
One of his first gigs was Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, which he recorded remotely during the pandemic.
“I got an audition for Fire Emblem Heroes,” Haas said. “And thankfully, I booked it, and I’m recording it in my closet, because that’s what we had to do with that time,” Haas said. “The directors were like, ‘Oh, wait, do you play this?’ And I was like, ‘Dog, I was playing it before the session today.’”
As gaming and voice acting grow ever so popular, our technology grows as well.
Due to modern technology developments, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an ever-growing concern for the industry, especially within voice acting.
“It’s (AI) absorbing those entry-level positions, that’s where it’s causing us a lot of problems,” Scazzola said. “Honestly, I’ve heard some that I can’t tell the difference.”
Some companies prefer to use AI rather than paying for a voice actor. Making it harder for actors to book roles.
“I keep hearing from industry professionals that, you know, it’s the next thing, and we have to figure out how to work with it, but I personally don’t see it being necessary,” Haas said. “You can’t replicate perfectly what a human can make.”
While the more business-oriented companies are making the switch to AI, game developers still opt to use voice actors.
“I still have clients that I work with that still want to use my voice on things,” Scazzola said. “Most of the video games that I know of are being voiced by people.”
Those who oppose AI within creative projects, which result in fewer jobs, are passionate about minimizing its overall effect.
“I’ve been really inspired to see how voice actors have really rallied against it,” Haas said. “Why do actors and artists always have to be the ones suffering the brunt of technological advancements that are supposed to make things easier to create and not leave people out?”
This story was edited by Tresean Osgood and Nadia Lavin.
Update, Oct. 19: Story has been updated to add coverage graphic, as well as titles for reporter and sources mentioned in the headline.
