It's not their fault that developers aren't using unions to extract their share of the massive wealth that successful video games generate, and instead choose to work for free.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21520129

On the one hand, programmers are called impossibly naive for trying to organize.

Then when others do organize, rather than revising the claim that it's naive to even think about organizing, they simply resent those who do.

Organizing means losing the right to individual bargaining when signing a new contract.

Edit: I'm not against this, but American Individualism makes people think they can get a better deal by negotiating alone.

It can perhaps be an issue if you feel that you can be more attractive on the market by undercutting the competition, but I'd guess that the majority of game developers are not in that position.

That's not accurate - Actors, for example, conduct individual bargaining all the time. They just get a guild minimum that protects them from being taken advantage of. It's not a cap on earnings.

They're not the usual temporarily embarrassed millionaires. They're temporarily comfortable billionaires.

One would think individualism should encourage a healthy level of skepticism towards corporate FUD, rather than unreflecting acceptance of trivial falsehoods as true.

Not really -- depends on the game. If it's a big budget Batman game you're going to need Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, they don't come cheap.

Even using Troy Baker as a stand in -- fans absolutely notice -- even though Troy is good and big as a voice actor in his own right.

>"Why should someone hurt after any work?"

Because some work is just HARD. It involves dangerous things (chemicals, biologicals, heavy things, powerful equipment, sharp edges, heights, etc.). The world is built by people willing to take on these tough tasks and not all of it can be accomplished by a digital assistant, or through pushing a button.

The bit about the actor bursting into tears from the idea of being paid to read a second day shows a serious lack of self-awareness and perspective.

Ask a stone mason how his shoulders and knees feel after a few days of stacking block. Or the oilfield worker, after a few hours of stacking straws on a derrick. Same goes for the guy in the steel mill working hour 10 of a 12-hour shift, the office janitor tidying up at night, the line cook at the restaurant on the corner, or the long haul truck driver clocking mile 600 with 200 more to go. Some work is just hard.

For the actors, watching a season or two of Mike Rowe's "Dirty Jobs" would be a suitable counterbalance.

Not really. Developers have a monthly salary and a kind of work insurance paid by the company and/or the state in many parts of the world while most actors work in a risky business with sporadic work.

Also, if developers start getting royalties voice actors will receive less royalties or the company income will be reduced and all this could rebalance to, for example, more expensive games or lower developer salaries that at the end could be the same total.

Not saying it is not fair to paid developers royalties, just saying that sometimes there is a state of economic balance and changing it doesn't make it fairer at the end.

I don't think that is what that person said or intended.

I do not think it's necessarily the case that they're paid royalties. I've considered getting audiobooks made for my books and Findaway Voices[1] and ACX both provide options where you just pay per finished hour.

A good narrator can cost $200 or more per finished hour, so it's not bad money and they're not assuming any risk. There are also options where the upfront payment is less and the narrator gets royalties.

[1]: https://findawayvoices.com