Bitmob's Aaron Thomas and his friend, Shanker Srinivasan, journeyed to 2K Marin's studio in Novato, Calif. to play the part of Cubs and Athletics fans, respectively. Going into it with the same kind of "I can do that!" attitude we all have about voice acting, they quickly found how hard it was to be convincing when you're reading 300 lines of dialogue and cheering on phantom players - some of whom are long past dead.

Says Thomas:

After Shanker lit a fire under the Oakland A's, I went back into the studio to cheer for some all-time greats. It was a little weird to scream words of encouragement to Ty Cobb, Dizzy Dean, and Honus Wagner, but I quickly got back into character. I was perhaps a bit too excited when I saw Andre Dawson's name appear on screen. "The Hawk" is my favorite player of all time, but because I never was able to see him play in person, this was as close as I'd ever get to cheering him on. I think I did him justice.

When recording jeering and heckling, the two were reminded that as an E-rated game, wirty-dords were off limits. So was anything impugning the integrity or competence of an umpire. But that didn't kill their creativity.

"I mocked a pitcher's base running skills; Shanker screamed for a player to drop a pop-up. I told the opposing team that payback was coming after they hit one of our players; Shanker informed the opposing pitcher that he had seen Girl Scouts with better arms."

Unfortunately, after signing his contract to appear in the game, "2K Sports basically owns me now," writes Thomas, "but I do get my name in the credits, so that's pretty cool."

Check the whole thing out, it's a very cool read.

My Day as a Voice Actor For MLB 2K10 [Bitmob]

Of course the biggest addition to the Mass Effect 2, Martin Sheen as the Illusive Man, has already been outed, but he's just the tip of the iceberg as far as new cast members are concerned. BioWare has pulled in talent from multiple television and movie properties in order to help facilitate a more emotionally engaging story.

We've got Tricia Helfer and Michael Hogan from Battlestar Galactica playing the voice of the new Normandy and Captain Bailey respectively. From NBC's Chuck comes Yvonne Strahovski as genetically engineered Cerberus operative Miranda Lawson, joined by co-star Adam Baldwin, better known as Firefly's Jayne Cobb, who'll be taking on the role of Kal ‘Reegar. Marina Sirtis from the original Mass Effect taps out and fellow Star Trek: The Next Generation cast member Michael "Worf" Dorn taps in as Gatatog Uvenk. The Matrix's Carrie-Anne Moss portrays Aria Y'Loak, the crime lord who rules the planet Omega. Finally we have Emmy-award winning House of Saddam star Shohreh Aghdashloo will play the role of Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay.

And of course we can't forget returning cast members Seth Green, who had some of the first game's best lines as Normandy pilot Joker, and The Chronicles of Riddick's Keith David, returning as Admiral David Anderson.

BioWare co-founder Dr. Ray Muzyka took the announcement as another opportunity to spout his catch phrase.

"Emotionally engaging narrative is a key design pillar for BioWare, and the top-notch voice talent in Mass Effect 2 helps drive this goal. Credible, powerful personalities are vital to delivering a compelling story experience in BioWare's games, and we have assembled an amazing ensemble cast that surpasses the very high bar set in the original Mass Effect!"

Mostly, SAG voice actors are concerned about a new work classification called "atmospheric voices," in which one actor supplies the dialogue for up to 20 incidental characters for the same $800 fee per four hours of recording. The actors also have a concern that all extra yelling, grunting, and yeaaarghing will place additional wear and tear on their pipes although the deal includes protections against "vocal stress,"

Said voice acting vet Dee Baker to the L.A. Times:

Before, you were doing three characters dying a horrible death. Now you're doing 20 characters dying a horrible death. Not only will this mean less money for more experiences, it's also going to be a lot more vocally difficult.

The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists approved the deal. Its executive director said ratifying the deal is important to give publishers more reason to hire union talent. "A lot of employers are not signatories to our contract," its executive director told the Times, "and part of the reason is that we can't accommodate their budget ... This will keep us in the game."

If you're going to rip the union or its members for rejecting the contract or being too concerned about their vocal cords, at least read this entire article before commenting. Thanks.

Video Game Voice Actors Worry They're Getting Shortchanged [Los Angeles Times, thanks Andrew C.]

That's Adam Croasdell, who plays Walford's Dr Al Jenkins, will also be playing 007 in next year's Activision published, Bizarre Creations developed Bond game. The actor revealed his participation in the game during a recent interview with BBC Asian Network.

"Oddly enough I have just played James Bond in the new James Bond video game - how weird is that? I don't know what the future holds, but I'm always into varying up what comes my way, trying new things."

It makes sense. With Activision planning on serializing the Bond franchise, it was unlikely that Daniel Craig would be available for regular dialogue recording on top of his busy film career. Croasdell is more than happy to step in.

"I think video games and the making of that type of technology, being in a funny one-piece suit and being shot with 60 cameras, I think that's sort of the future. Andy Serkis did it in The Hobbit, and there's a new film Avatar which is James Cameron - it's all that sort of motion capture. I think it's the future, so I was fascinated to see how that would happen.

EastEnders doc plays Bond in game [UK Press Association via Joystiq]

Variety reports that the guild members who work this contract - covering 70 games publishers and all the industry heavyweights - shot it down by nearly 2:1, in defiance of the SAG board's recommendation that it be approved. In particular, SAG's Hollywood caucus considered atmospheric work - one actor performing 20 different characters of up to 300 words at a daily base rate - a "major reduction" from the current collective bargaining agreement, Variety said.

When all's said and done here, this doesn't matter as much as the star power of the SAG name would indicate. Union work accounts for roughly 25 percent of video game voice work. Also, the board of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists gave an "an overwhelming and strong" endorsement that its members approve the contract.

SAG Rejects Tentative Video Game Deal [Variety]

Assuming the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists ratify the contracts, their terms will be in effect until March 30, 2011. Under the deals, SAG gets an immediate 3 percent raise in its scale rate. On top of that, in April, both SAG and AFTRA get a 2.5 percent raise.

Also of note: the real screamer roles - "vocally stressful" they're called under the new terms - will require a notification by employers to actors. The two sides must also work out a set of guidelines for such stressful work by the end of the current contract. Additionally, the contract creates an "atmospheric voices" class of work, which allows developers to hire a single voice actor to play numerous roles in a single recording session.

SAG, AFTRA Renegotiate Acting Contracts With Developers [Gamasutra]

At a panel that took place while I was knee-deep in interviews, Blizzard introduced the new Sarah Kerrigan to the world, smashing previous rumors that voice actress Karen Strassman was taking over the role. Helfer is no stranger to video game work, having appeared in voice form in Spider-Man: Web of Shadows and Halo 3: ODST, as well as a live action appearance in Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. Is Helfer up on her StarCraft lore?

"It's intimidating to come into a game and do a job that you don't really know the history of it, I'm kind of a video game virgin in terms of playing. Personally I'm not technologically savvy," Helfer said at the outset of her introduction to the crowd. "At the time, I didn't know what Zerg and all these things were. It was fun to find out all these little differences."

Along with Helfer, the panel also revealed that original cast members Robert Clotworthy and James Harper would be returning as Jim Raynor and Arcturus Mengsk respectively, putting to rest earlier reports that Clotworthy wasn't deemed worthy to fill Raynor's space boots.

BlizzCon 09: Kerrigan Gets Cylon'd [IGN UK]

"Nintendo's tradition is that the hero or central character never vocally speaks," the game's producer, Nintendo's Kensuke Tanabe, told Kotaku over e-mail. The player's fighter, Little Mac, does keep quiet, as Link, Samus and Mario mostly have before him. "We also followed this tradition for the title."

Nintendo developers have previously stated that they keep their heroes silent so as not to spoil players' own imagined sense of what the characters sound like. But on rare occasion supporting casts have gotten chatty. Little Mac's trainer and opponents talk out loud. In 2007, Metroid Prime 3, another Tanabe-produced game, used recorded speech. And back in 1997, the supporting casts in Nintendo's Star Fox 64 birthed some of the gaming's better-known one-liners (Fox spoke as well, a little).

The developers said that Punch-Out's voice work was included to give its non-playable characters more flair. "We recorded speech to express each character's origins and characteristics, and to make Doc Louis have a larger personality and greater impact on gameplay," Tanabe said. "I believe having fighters' voices during matches is very effective in making the experience more immersive."

The game's developers at Canadian development studio Next Level Games echoed Tanabe's comments. Plus, Next Level producer Bryce Holliday said, there's a nice dynamic to the quiet hero in combat against massive, talkative foes: "Since we used the original camera view from over the shoulder and kept the feeling that the game is about overcoming your fears and knocking out your bullies, it makes sense for Little Mac to talk very little. He is more avatar than character, giving fans an opportunity to put a little of themselves into his character."

Even Nintendo will break its characters' tradition of silence when the moment's right. Link, you can keep quiet for now. But, Doc Louis, keep on carrying on.

A roundtable discussion with the legendary voice of Batman kicked off on Saturday at Comic-Con with Conroy addressing the question, "Is this the first time you've done voice work for a video game?" to which he answered, "Yes, I believe it is." Thus I found myself in the unenviable position of having to correct one of my personal heroes.

Conroy has lent his voice to a number of games over the years, though perhaps none as intensively as the upcoming Batman: Arkham Asylum.

"Recording games is so hard, because it's only you in a studio alone. They record separately. And you do four hour sessions, a morning session and an evening session, so it's 8 hours a day of just you doing five or six different takes on each line for three or four days. It's mind blowing. You have to keep it fresh...keep it real. It's very hard, and you don't have the other actor to feed you energy."

Unlike the cartoon, where Kevin records with his fellow actors, playing off their performances, the video game dialog is recorded one person at a time. This means they have to have him do each line multiple times to make sure they have a take that fits with what the other actors are doing.

With that sort of grueling process in place, it's no wonder he's forgotten the abysmal Batman: The Rise of Sin Tzu and Batman: Vengeance. He's also provided voices for Lords of Everquest, Max Payne 2, and Jak & Daxter, but we'll forgive him for forgetting those bit parts. When you've spent the better part of two decades talking, you can't be expected to remember everything you've said.

As for Rise of Sin Tzu, I told him he was probably better off not remembering. We'd rather not remember it either.

During an Uncharted 2: Among Thieves panel yesterday at Comic-Con, Nolan and the other voice actors present - Emily Rose, Robin Atkin Downes, and the new girl, Claudia Black - talked a great deal about ad-libbing. During the Q&A session after the panel, one member of the audience asked North what his favorite ad-libbed line was, which had the voice actor turning to creative director Amy Henning with the question, "Is it okay to discuss KGW?"

Of course you can't say something like that in front of a room of fans without elaborating, so with a nod from Henning, North explained.

He had been playing Wii Sports Tennis with his then 8-year-old son, Cooper, and failing miserably. Cooper, upon winning the match, proudly exclaimed, "Awww, kitty got wet."

His father was shocked, not because it sounds a little bit dirty, but because it was one of the most awesome things he had ever heard. He immediately questioned his son as to the origins of the phrase.

"He told me he had just made it up. Kitties don't like getting wet. He thought he was in trouble, but I gave him a big hug. The next time I was in recording dialog for punches I was like "Bam! Kitty got wet!"

It's a heartwarming story, unless you think about it too much. I mean, how did Cooper know kitties hated water? Has he been abusing cats? Should we be grateful that the line wasn't "Aww, kitty caught on fire," or "Aww, kitty's in the toaster oven?" Does Nolan North even own a toaster oven?

The story was told (and later retold to me by North, who I ran into outside of the Hard Rock Hotel later in the evening) with the caveat that it might not make it into the game. We cannot have that. I propose that if Naughty Dog doesn't include "Kitty got wet!" in Uncharted 2, we feel just a little bit of remorse when buying it. Just a smidgen, really.

Special thanks to Nolan for repeating his son's name 50 times outside of the Hard Rock to make sure I remembered it, before disappearing and leaving me alone with Claudia Black, who after chatting with me on and off for 10-15 minutes proclaimed, "I'm not sure about you," and disappeared herself.

Michael Abbott talked to a voice actor who explains how the typical tools of an actor aren't just disused, they're a hindrance for many game developers.

The problem, it seems, is that to deliver a believable performance an actor has to be able to understand the character they are voicing. They need to know the story and how their character fits into it. But time is money, and most studios, according at least to the actor interviewed, value first-take, final take actors over actors who want to develop a little more depth for their characters.

The actor Abbott interviewed said they almost never receive the script prior to showing up.

When you arrive for the session you're handed a side [a script with one character's lines and lead-in cues]. You have some time to look it over, and the Voice Director and maybe a producer are there to discuss it with you. But basically, you get the script, you set some levels, and off you go.

Q: So you don't know the story or anything?

A: They'll explain the basic gist of it, but mostly you're concentrating on short snippets of dialogue. I like to know as much as I can, obviously, but you have to remember the clock is ticking, and every minute you're not recording costs money. And, no surprise, they like actors who work efficiently. If you're cooperative and you've got some flexibility, and if they get the sense that you're a first-take / best-take kind of guy, you're going to work with them again.

Q: How do you create a character with so little information?

A: You throw out all your training for one thing. (Laughs) If they know your work they might say they're looking for something similar to what you did on another gig, but maybe a little gruffer or more aggressive or whatever. It's very simple stuff. Inflections and modulation mostly. I'm not sure I would call it characterization.

As a solution, Abbott recommends that developers bring voice actors into the process much early, allowing them to help evolve the script and the characters. Also, allow them to rehearse, play the game and talk to the animators.

Wait, actors working with developers to create a more cohesive product? That's crazy talk.

Reading through the article, I couldn't agree more with Abbott. It sounds like the way some video games are created is more similar to mass producing cars than creating movies. It's no wonder that the results can be so all over the place.

Voice For Change [The Brainy Gamer]

Fans who attended BlizzCon last year or watched the Kerrigan reveal trailer on YouTube were overjoyed when Campbell's voice purred from the shadows towards the end of the clip, assuming that it signaled a return of the character's original voice. Sadly, this isn't so. According to Campbell, the voice work done in that trailer was considered an audition for the role, and Blizzard has decided to go in another direction.

Glynnis has now confirmed with StarCraft Legacy that Blizzard has red-lighted her reappearance as Sarah Kerrigan.

Well, it just figures, doesn't it? Blizzard just gave me my Dear John phone call. Basically, it was "We can still be friends—we just don't want to see you anymore." Ha ha! Ah well...that's showbiz. Anyway, thank you for a wonderful and touching article—it's a great going away present, and I'll cherish it.

Along with this sad news, it also seems that the original voice of Jim Raynor, Robert Clotworthy, will not be reprising his role in the sequel either, though Raynor's increased age and newly acquired drinking problem might have played a part in the new casting.

While I might not be the world's biggest StarCraft fan, I can certainly relate. When Michael Bay didn't cast original Megatron voice Frank Welker to the movie, I was crushed. Then I heard Hugo Weaving growing, "I smell you, boy", and suddenly I got the feeling that Welker actually dodged a bullet. What I am trying to say here, is that sometimes it's better to leave good things behind, before some hot-shot director decides the production needs more boy sniffing.

The Voices of StarCraft II [StarCraft Legacy via StarCraft Wire]

First up is “Characters you never knew had the same voiceover” from GamesRadar. Charlie Barrat lays out 21 examples of voice actors doubling up dubbing duties. Most of them I knew about – Princess Peach & Cortana, Marcus Fenix & Bender, etc. – but a few of them really surprised me. Like Princess Daphne and Smurfette being voiced by the lady that plays evil stepsister Anastasia in in Disney’s Cinderella. Who’d’ve thunk?

Charlie’s piece points out a similar feature run by Gameplayer, which lists the voices behind a ton of video game characters. “70 Great Game Characters Unmasked” makes for heavy reading at six pages of lists a pop, but I’m pretty sure it covers every video game voice I’ve ever heard in my life. Not counting games that let you play with the original Japanese audio.

My all-time favorite voice-over actor, though, has got to be Cam Clarke. Trite, I know – but he was both Leonardo the Ninja Turtle and He-Man Kaneda in the original Akira dub, very huge heroes of my childhood. When I hear his voice, it fills me with love even when he’s playing Solid Snake’s evil twin brother.

ETA: Whoops, wrong He-Man. John Erwin was the He-Man from my childhood. Cheers to James for pointing that out, and please don't ask me why I was watching Akira when I was six.

Characters you never knew had the same voice actor

70 Great Game Characters Unmasked

Grand Theft Auto IV voice actor Michael Hollick made waves last year when he complained to the New York Post about not being paid enough to voice the star of Rock Star's masterpiece, Niko Bellic. His complaints left a bad taste in the mouths of video game voice actors everywhere, and likely didn't make Rock Star too happy either - perhaps not happy enough to be adamantly against calling the actor in to record new dialog for the game's first DLC, The Lost And Damned.

Of course, the "Hell no!" could have been for another reason. They could have just been voicing their heartfelt support for the new main character Johnny Klebitz, or maybe they just like the word "hell" and feel the need to type it whenever possibly. Highly doubtful, but we have to cover all the possibilities. Who the hell knows?

‘Hell No’ - No New Lines For Niko Bellic in ‘Grand Theft Auto’ Expansion [MTV Multiplayer]

Hear her hold forth on being considered a gaming babe, the vagaries and challenges of voice acting a good death ("I hate when I just hear random grunts, because it's ripping you guys off,") and how Samus Aran would handle a relationship with Solid Snake. ("She could kick his butt and keep him in line. She could surpass him, and let him catch up, she could make it work.")

Or, if just listening to Samus/Naomi giggle is up your alley (or other orifice), this will be edifying, too.

Metal Gear Solid's Jennifer Hale Interview [YouTube]

The actor was dining at the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai when militants opened fire. Rudder was hit by three bullets and rushed to hospital where he successfully underwent surgery and is expected to make a full recovery.

You may recognise Rudder's voice from such games as Far Cry Instincts, Prince Of Persia: The Warrior Within (he played the Dark Prince), Jagged Alliance and - somewhat ironically - terrorist-slaying black ops game Splinter Cell.

[UPDATE: to clarify, Michael Rudder did NOT play Sam Fisher in Splinter Cell - that was Michael Ironside, who to our knowledge has never been shot by terrorists of any kind. Rudder provided other voice work for the game.]

Canadian actor recovering in Mumbai after being shot [CBC]

Instead of being immersed in this environment with these characters who are supposed to be a part of whatever world you're playing, you say, "Oh, I recognize that voice," and it brings you back into the real world. It's a very disruptive experience for me personally.

I don't necessarily disagree, but in the swap-over between games and English-dubbed anime, often fans end up hearing familiar voices from one game to another, anyway. These days I always hear at least one voice in a game that I recognize, or think I recognize, and actually have to pause the game to go and look it up and see whether I was right. I guess it depends on the game - many times, character models take influence from major actors (think Tenpenny), and in that case the celebrity actor is a good fit, right?

However, deBeers said that's not the only reason:

I also find, in many cases, celebrities are used to a very specific way of being dealt with and dealing with production, and voice over is very different from that. And game voice over is different from just straight animation or ADR or something in a film setting.

There are some actors that can handle it very well, but I've found that more often than not, the more exposure they've had in the film world, the less they are able to cope in these situations."

Is that a polite way of saying "diva effect," do you think, or is it just different skill sets?

Giving Games A Voice: Sony's Dialog Manager Greg deBeer Speaks [Gamasutra]

This interview sounds like it's taken from the Big O & Dukes radio show on WJFK-FM in Washington. It's a long and in depth talk with Michael Hollick, the voice actor for Niko Bellic in Grand Theft Auto IV.

There's a little too much hero-worship from the hosts, but hey, Hollick is not a controversial guest, I suppose. He gives a really good look at the development of the game, and how the actors match their lines to the motion capture, which sounds almost impossibly hard to manage and remain in character. Newfound respect for this kind of work.

Other highlights: He auditioned originally for motion-capture; the game he was told he was auditioning for was called "Frozen." And he had days where he came in to work to find a script that was "50 pages of just screaming. In these you're jumping off of something, in these you're shooting someone, in these you're being burned alive."

GTA 4 Niko Voice Actor Interview [GameTrailers user Grave, thanks reader Raivis R.]

“Obviously I’m incredibly thankful to Rockstar for the opportunity to be in this game when I was just a nobody, an unknown quantity,” Mr. Hollick, 35, said last week...“But it’s tough, when you see Grand Theft Auto IV out there as the biggest thing going right now, when they’re making hundreds of millions of dollars, and we don’t see any of it.

Unlike other forms of entertainment, the Screen Actor's Guild doesn't have policy in place for video games, so actors don't get royalties on each game sold, even if the game becomes one of the best selling titles of all time.

Games companies aren't exactly itching to hop on the royalties bandwagon either. While it would be easy enough to institute, they fear that soon designers, graphics artists, programmers...basically everyone involved in the production of a video game would be wanting similar agreements. Dogs and cats, living together, total anarchy.

The issue more than likely won't see a resolution anytime soon, but the more games like GTA IV that get released, the hotter the topic becomes, until eventually they start selling kitschy retro t-shirts with cartoon logos on them.

A Video Game Star and His Less-Than-Stellar Pay [The New York Times - Thanks Campion!]