The Genshin Impact Union Drama

So for those who don’t know or don’t care, there has been a lot of drama going on with Genshin Impact that seems like it’s never ending. Starting with there was drama about people not liking the designs for Natlan’s characters and the drama with the SAG-AFTRA strike that’s still going on. However, I’m going to talk about the latter.

What is the strike?

Technically. It’s not a strike. But I’ll get into that later. The strike was about protections against AI. Since SAG-AFTRA signed a deal that would have allowed for AI protections for video games or something, and a lot of voice actors got upset about it. I’m not entirely sure and haven’t really paid that close attention because I don’t really play Genshin that much and sometimes the community is so hateful that I don’t want to be apart of it.

It’s on the levels of League of Legends.

But at any rate it was about ai protection.

But doesn’t China already have a law that protects against AI?

Yes. Yes, they do.

There was a court case last year where a voice actor in China sued a company for using their voice to train or use their voice without their consent. The Chinese government sided with the voice actor and I believe put in protections in their civil code. Japan has similar protections. You can read about this here. The United State on the other hand will likely never have such protections. Especially with the current administration but I don’t want to get into politics right now. I write enough about that on my pagan blog without trying.

But at any rate, if Mihoyo/Hoyoverse is in a country that has protections they kind of have to follow those laws of the host country. That might sound weird to some people but I have experience with Chinese based companies have to follow Chinese laws. Doesn’t matter if they cater to Westerners or Foreigners. But all games have similiar things that are shared between China and the United States. I saw this alot with Perfect World International, a really old mmorpg that was based on Chinese mythos and it’s home country is well China.

So Mihoyo/Hoyoverse using AI is unlikely. Even on the international versions, they still have to follow those laws.

So what is this really about?

So technically it’s not a strike. It’s just SAG-AFTRA voice actors refusing to work because they want Mihoyo/Hoyoverse to sign a contract with SAG-AFTRA because Mihoyo/Hoyoverse isn’t a union based shop.

Which is a thing because under their contracts they can either get in trouble with the union for working on non-union work, though there some caveats but it’s confusing. It’s also because the original VA of Kitsch decided to not do any work along with his fellow VA’s and Mihoyo/Hoyoverse. So they gave the job to Jacob Takanashi, who has been getting disparaged and bullied by SAG-AFTRA VA’s and their fans.

Honestly, what the original va did was job abandonment. And it’s what other VAs are doing. And if Mihoyo/Hoyoverse decided to recast EVERYONE on NA, I wouldn’t be surprised. They are within their rights.

And ironically there are voice actors who are working in non-union games or games that have a strike against going on against them. But they want to call Jacob a scab, whereas they’re the ones who ARE the scabs. And hypocrites.

Are unions the answer?

Personally my family has been split down the middle when it comes to unions. My grandfather worked at Illinois Central Railroad (They were bought out by Sante Fe) during the early 60’s up until 2004 and had enjoyed things that the union gave him. I never talked to him growing up about it nor as an adult and he passed away two years ago. My parents were against unions. My dad is an engineer as has spent 34 years working on machines and doing motion control for a lot of major industries over the years. My mom worked as a recruiter at staffing agencies. Basically her job was basically putting people to work.

Now for me unions can be a good thing as they ensure that people get higher pay, health care, family leave, sick leave, better hours, etc. However, I can also see them as being bad.

Case in point, my dad works for a major engineering group who has machine builders in the US. The machine shop he was hired out of isn’t union based. However, he had to do work at another machine shop that was union based. My dad needed to get a screwdriver and was told to ask a union rep to use a screwdriver.

Yeah. I’m not kidding. I remember thinking about how stupid that was. My dad works on machines with different parts that are responsible for different things like cutting material. If you can’t use a screwdriver safely then you should’nt be an engineer or a machine builder.

Personally, I think that unions should not prevent people from working. They shouldn’t interfere with someone’s job. Their role is to help protect them in case of ensuring they get paid what they’re deserved and have a living wage. Their role is also to protect them from overall danger just not the potential of danger that you would do to yourself. I don’t think that people should be forced to join a union, nor do I support anyone bullying someone. That’s not fucking cool.

Now Right to Work state laws aren’t the way to go either because you can get fired at any time. They protect you from unions but…if you do what the SAG-AFTRA VAs have been doing, they would promptly lose their jobs.

Unions Should Be More Worker Friendly

Unions right now or at least SAG-AFTRA seems more like a cult that something that is for workers. To join, you have to pay dues of either $3,000 - $4,000 which some people might not be able to pay for or if they pay they might not get in. If they truly care about the workers then the fee should be something affordable, like $100, or $50 and allow EVERYONE to join. Just not a select few. Otherwise you look like Scientology.

People should be allowed to work in non-union groups, the union can only act again when it comes to ensuring that workers get those benefits like a living wage, or if there is danger. People shouldn’t try to convince or convert a company into a union. And any bullying or attacking someone for simply accepting a job that replaced another worker, would be kicked out of the union and have to undergo anger management classes, harassment classes, and see a therapist for three months, all of this would be paid for by the union, however the worker is suspended from accepting work for this period until they learn their lesson.

There needs to be a reform because what’s going on is fucked up.

Overall

The current drama is a giant mess where it turns out that the VA were lying about why they weren’t working and decided to dogpile on someone who wanted to work. The whole purpose of a union is supposed to be for the rights of the worker. In any case, if I do play Genshin and Honkai, I’m switching to either CN or JP voices. I hope that Mihoyo/Hoyoverse recasts the English VA, and that the people who want to work gets the job and anyone taking part in this bullshit harassment should have some consequences for their actions. Because it’s disgusting to watch.

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