234 Negotiation, Erosion, and Resistance - June News Round-Up (Part 2)

Gaming the System – June Gaming News (Part 2)
This week, we dive into two simmering stories that might not make headlines, but could have lasting impacts on the gaming industry.  From the tentative end to the year-long voice actor strike, to the steady erosion of corporate commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion, we’re asking: where do we go from here?

Jem hosts alongside Alex and Matt, tackling topics ranging from AI exploitation to the erosion of progressive values in major studios like Rockstar and EA. As always, we’re pulling no punches and holding the industry to account.

In this episode:

• The SAG-AFTRA strike might be ending, but is the fight really over?
• “Diversity of thought” is being used to quietly erase DEI in gaming.
• Grand Theft Auto,  executive orders, and the rising authoritarian creep.

“Even with the best of intentions, the potential for the wording change to be used by bad actors is significant.”

If you care about representation, workers’ rights, and the politics seeping into every corner of our media, you won’t want to miss this one.

#SAGAFTRAstrike #VoiceActors #AIandGaming #ProtectPerformers #UnionStrong #AIethics #DEIinGames #DiversityMatters #InclusionNotIllusion #DiversityOfThought #RepresentationMatters #ResistRollback 

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Transcript

Matt: 0:03

they've proven that reason this has taken a year to get somewhere tentative is because the companies that they're negotiating with don't want to negotiate.

Jem: 0:16

one of the hardest things that I've had to get my head around since Trump came into the

Alex: 0:23

Hmm.

Jem: 0:24

House Is how quickly and how easily so many organizations and people have fallen. Into

Alex: 0:33

Yeah. lockstep

Jem: 0:35

with his views.

Alex: 0:36

a fun and interesting reminder that actually what we're talking about is a game, but it's, it just shows how I dunno what the word is, I guess, invasive. This administration is across all areas of, of society and how it's just pushing into all these different places, and it is a worrying thing to, to comprehend,

Jem: 1:16

Hello and welcome back to another episode of Gaming the System, the podcast where three intersectional feminists examine gaming and games through a feminist lens. I'm your host for today. I'm Jem, and I'm here with my friends Alex and Matt. So before we get started, if you want to support us, you can subscribe to our patron at patron.com/gaming the system for some exclusive content. Or you can send us a one-off donation via PayPal to our email address. We are gaming the system@gmail.com. the voice actors strike has been going on for nearly a year now. But this week, just in the last couple of days, they've reached a tentative agreements, Between them and the major game studios. So that's Activision ea, epic Brothers, Disney. And basically it provides some guardrails around ai in order to protect performers voices. And also their likenesses within games. We have talked about this a couple of times on the pod in that. AI is coming for all of our jobs, but it's definitely coming for voice actors and they're more than voice actors'cause they often go in there and do all of the physical acting as well these days. So the acting for games because these. Figures are digitalized and the voices are digitalized. It obviously makes it a lot easier for AI to be utilized to. Take these people's voices and their likenesses port them into the games and then get away with not paying them anything or paying them a much reduced price because you only need them to come in and do a, a much smaller amount. And then you can utilize those. Elements it is a big issue when it comes to workers' rights, and so they've been. Striking since July 26th last year. they're still striking right now until this agreement is ratified. However, it looks like they might have made some progress in this discussions. So what happens next? Well, National Board of sga, AFTRA has to endorse the deal. Then they have a union wide vote on it. And then if that goes through, then they will formally end the strike and then the work can kick off again. Hopefully that will happen and hopefully it is a good deal that the actors can get behind. It's been really good that they, that the voice actors have. Made a stand and demanded some reassurances, demanded some guardrails be put in place around this because that's what we're going to need to do in many other industries. And this will be quite an interesting thing for, in the future, for people to look at and see, as, guidelines for how we go, in other areas so I was just wondering, whe whether you guys have heard about this and what your thoughts are on it

Matt: 4:50

everything about it worries me'cause we. One of the critical lessons I learned in when I was doing courses about union organizing is that function of a union is, constant vigilance. You don't agree to one thing and then go, ah, that's okay. It'll be fine. From now on. to realize that the pe the people that you are negotiating with. going to try and squirm and screw you over in any way that they possibly can. they've proven that reason this has taken a year to get somewhere tentative is because the companies that they're negotiating with don't want to negotiate. Dragged kicking and screaming to negotiations because of strike action. And. It's just I haven't seen any union that is militant enough make me relax into it because the union side of things, they always have to be reasonable and so accommodating. And so gradual and gentle and soft in the way that they negotiate things. When the other side can do literally whatever they want, anything underhanded they can think of. unions need to do is to be as cutthroat and brutal as the people they're negotiating with.'cause this isn't too partners coming to agreement on the best way to do things. It's a cutthroat business. A capitalist corporation. Profit is the only thing that matters to them. You're not working on the same level, so the only way that you can get them to negotiate in good faith, it's to do something that is really punishing for them. is, you don't have to go, okay, we are going to, three weeks time, we're gonna go on strike for the weekend or the planning things, all the regulations around striking that we have in the UK because corporations have bought our government. So it makes it incredibly draconian any union organizing here. what you need to do is go okay, this weekend we are going on strike for a month and we're not gonna talk to you for a month. just gonna go on strike for a month, then after that we'll talk to you. We'll have our first negotiation of what you want, rather than going, oh, can we talk about this? Oh no, we'll go on strike a little bit later. No, you need to be militant and aggressive and go, this isn't pussyfooting around. This isn't this isn't a game. is serious stuff. That is going to matter incredibly powerfully in the next few years, but it'll only stick if the unions go, okay, the we, if we sign this deal, we are not safe. We can't relax forever after this because they're gonna go, oh, we've actually created this brand new AI that is almost as good as any voice actor. So we're just gonna use that from now on. The future is just too uncertain and every union that I've seen is too soft, and so when I see things like this, it's better than there being no union, not doing anything. But at the same time, it hasn't stopped any of the mass layoffs. That have happened in the last year. It never feels like we've won something substantial and permanent it's very easy to celebrate a victory in one battle. But then if you lose the war, then it, it doesn't matter. And we need to be thinking of we need to win this war.

Alex: 8:56

Yeah, I think the tentative part is obviously not anything concrete yet, and you've gotta wonder, they've been striking for a very long time. It's been a whole year almost. For it to have taken this long to even get to a tentative agreement shows how much, they haven't really budged on anything up till now. Which reiterates Matt's point there's a little worrying and, I just feel for everyone involved because at the end of the day, it's their livelihoods at stake, so it's not an easy thing.

Jem: 9:29

The devil is in the detail, isn't It?

Alex: 9:31

this Yes.

Jem: 9:32

As you say, Matt, this, it is a constantly changing situation and at the moment, these are not two partners who are working together to come to a mutually beneficial conclusion. And really we have to work towards that actually. We have to work towards a scenario where that is the case where it isn't adversarial, it's about this is happening. We wanna make as much money as possible. We wanna get paid for doing a job and not be made redundant. How do we reach a conclusion that works for everyone? We're not in a collaborative world at the moment, and sadly, we are seeing a shift to a more oppositional, attitude, really across the board, I think. The question is what? Is the alternative at this point in this current situation, the power of the unions and the individuals is limited. And, that's the issue, isn't it? How far can people go Withholding their work without getting into a sort of more militant activities.

Matt: 10:57

Yeah, that's mindset that. Certainly we were brought up in, and definitely America's brought up in and in lots of, and all over the world is that institutions have power. Corporations have power. Wealthy people have power. They get to exercise power individuals, normal individuals, they don't get to have power or exert power equal to. These things that we've been told are, these are the ruling class. They have power. We can't, we can't possibly match that kind of power. And that's I think, the biggest mindset that needs to be broken out of when Union organizing is done. Because the course that I did and. The, so the core thing that the, um, the woman who was running that course was you need to get a super majority of workers, and the super majority is 90% of the workforce. That's the hardest thing to do. That's where the hardest work of unionizing is building up to that 90%. then the truth is of that, you can get 90% of the workforce act in unison, you have equal power to whoever is on the corporate side of that. That's just maths. It's just fact is this, 90% of people acting in unison is equal to that power. And then. What I want, which is the millitant side of thing, is rather than building, if you say you build up that 90% and then you go, okay guys, we've got enough power now to force you to negotiate. Let's have a conversation and see what happens. And then if it doesn't go our way, then we'll strike when What I want'em to do is build up that 90% and then do something big and just damaging to the company. In terms of going right, we're, it would be for if we're partners on both sides trying to come to best thing, you go, yeah, we'll strike for a weekend in two weeks time and give you plenty of time to do it. Whereas you need to go, right, we're gonna strike for a month. We've built up a strike fund that is enough to support us and all our people for this amount of time and. You need to flex. You need to go, we're equal power here. That's the mindset you need to be when you are coming up with your positions.'cause if you start from, oh, what meager things can we expect from where we are? You go to, we can ask for anything that we want now and go from that.

Alex: 13:51

When I was, um, refreshing my memory on it.'cause obviously it has been a year. There is actually a huge majority. I think it's about 98% of the people in that union voted to strike, which is an incredibly high percentage. So the, there is the, the appetite there for, for fight.

Matt: 14:12

So what that says is that 98% of the union members

Alex: 14:16

Right.

Matt: 14:17

which is good, which means that

Alex: 14:18

yeah.

Matt: 14:18

all on the same page of what they do. The super majority bit is about the percentage of the workforce that is part of the union.

Alex: 14:27

Ah.

Matt: 14:27

So if you've got a thousand, a thousand employees. And then 200 of them have unionized, and then 98,

Alex: 14:35

That's not a,

Matt: 14:35

them vote to strike. That

Alex: 14:38

actually that many people. Yeah.

Matt: 14:40

Yeah. Whereas if you get 900 of those people in the union and then 98% of

Alex: 14:46

Yeah that's, yeah. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah.

Jem: 14:51

Yeah. Is, there is definitely power in numbers and that's why so much of. Of what we're seeing going on now is about dividing us because then we're much more easy to push around. that leads us nicely onto the next topic which is about Grand Theft auto publisher who have swapped out the term DEI for diversity of thought in their annual report. In 2024 there was a clear equity and inclusion section, which called out support for, LGBTQ plus rights scholarships for minority game design students, social justice efforts, and employees celebrating cultural differences. And that language has been stripped out of the 2025 report, and diversity is only referred to in the phrase, and I quote,"We firmly believe that diversity of thought drives the innovation that is integral to our success.". And they've taken the DEI section and they've rebranded it as community and engagement. And they've also removed references to lgbtq plus awards and other factors have been taken out. They do talk about how they want everyone to feel that they're respected and heard and that everyone has a place and that they value the importance of having different perspectives and all of that. But they've basically taken out the very clear language, uh, in their annual report. So this is, they are not alone in this. There are other organizations who are doing similar things at the moment. And we're seeing Activision Activision Blizzards and Electronic Arts are doing it. And then we've also got other bigger uh, media organizations like Disney, Google. cetera, Intel, who have all been making changes. Now, I'm pretty sure that we all know that this comes. Down to a lot of the stuff and the rhetoric that's been coming out of the, American administration since, Donald Trump entered the White House in January. This is in line with that. We're seeing this general shift away from the DEI support. Now there's different perspectives on what this actually means. So some people are saying, you know, they're capitulating and they're changing their attitude, and this is just part of a general shift away from supporting diversity. Others are saying. The day-to-day support of this within the organization is still there, they've, they're reducing it openly so they don't have to with people like Trump and his right wing cronies complaining at them about it. Is this a genuine move away from supporting, DEI or is it a sleight of hand to basically ensure that they're left alone and they can just get on doing? And does it matter?

Alex: 18:42

I would hope it's the latter, but I think both things can be true. And I think it depends basically on which side you fall on, how you choose to interpret it. Because with all these things, this is what's so interesting about language, it can be interpreted in a lot of different ways and. I was reading the article you shared with US Gem, and it highlighted something that I immediately thought of when I heard the term diversity of thought. And uh, I've got a quote here from the article. It says, um,"diversity of thought may not be a problematic concept in theory, but right wing personalities have adopted it as a talking point that can provide cover for racist, sexist, or transphobic views." I'd add ableist into that little pack there. It can be used to cover views that are discriminatory that are aggressive and derogatory in nature. And say oh no, that's just, it's my right to to say these things because it's my diversity of thought. It's my free speech. You know, it's, it's fitting right into that side of things. There will be people on both sides within the organizations that are doing these things. And I think there will be people fighting for. DEI and for inclusion and accessibility in those organizations that will be using these terms as cover and still trying to do the work that they're doing. But there will also be those that will try and bend it to their advantage and say, well, well, I'm allowed to say that now because we, it's my diversity of thought. So I think it's, it's ripe for. Manipulation, whichever side is on. And it's a, it's an interesting but also particularly dangerous way in which language can be used to further people's agendas in ways that might not be good and might be problematic. So yeah, it's, it's, uh, something in the arsenal of tools, which right wing people, unfortunately are very keen to use.

Jem: 20:58

There's really good assessment of it actually, Alex, It's that aspect that even if it's being done with the best will in the world, If it's being done as a way to keep people off their backs so they can carry on with it. The potential for the wording change to be used by bad actors is, significant. Even with the best of intentions, it's really problematic and they've chosen to take this. Step, and I think, I mean this is a sidestep from what we're talking about, but for me it's been There's been, obviously there has been pushback. We've seen that from the courts. We've seen that in what's happening in LA with the riots at the moment with, we are seeing plenty of people standing up against it.

Alex: 21:53

I.

Jem: 21:53

I've been shocked and dismayed by how many organizations and people who I would think had. More. Backbone that they've basically turned round and gone. Yep, sure. We'll do that. When it isn't even law. It's just the words of a man. That's one of the reasons why presidents don't use executive orders to this degree because they don't have any holding power. They have to go through the full process in order to make these things stick. Doing an executive order can just immediately be undone by the next president, so it

Alex: 22:37

Hmm.

Jem: 22:37

Have longevity. And yet, Trump says something and everyone's yeah, sure, I'll do that the next day, almost instantly. And you No, didn't have to. You could have just faffed about for six months. I mean, nobody's gonna complain. Things take ages to get through any kind of system. So the fact that people have so quickly picked up on this has been really disappointing. Changing the language in this way so, easily, so quickly is problematic. Whatever, whatever their motivation. What about you, Matt? What are your thoughts?

Matt: 23:16

the foundation of the right wing populism and the global right wing rising is. It's founded on vagueness. We talked about woke. is as vague a term as you

Alex: 23:33

Yeah.

Matt: 23:34

something America great again. That's as vague as something could be.

Jem: 23:40

Yeah.

Matt: 23:42

The diversity of thought is as even more vague'cause they. Trump is quite in that it's his stupidity that allows him to be making these massive sweeping changes because he, he just says the, he just says the thing that a satirist would say, but then, so he, he just. He's beyond satire to do,

Jem: 24:18

Office.

Matt: 24:19

the right wing is grows further and further beyond satire. And their power is they have the institution, they have power over the institutions, but it's not to do the legitimate things the institutions do. It's to give them the freedom to do whatever they want. I saw there are some. Serious disruptive riots happening in LA at the moment. I dunno anything more other than they've been, there's been violence and there's been arson and destruction of property and someone asked a Republican what the difference is between what's happening in LA and what happened on January 6th in 2020 the fact of it, it is people with a particular political view committing acts of violence in some way. And that's the problem. Just like with the union stuff the left wing and the workers, we are not allowed to fight. We are not allowed to be as aggressive in whatever way as the people that we are dealing with because like with the George Floyd protest, a year of protests, a year of just sending the police into beat the shit out of the protestors, and then nothing changes. That's what happens when the left wing tries anything, even if they're just peaceful protests throughout. History. get met with unbelievable institutional violence and aggression. And when the more vague, guidelines and support, like like in this, like in any like diversity and inclusion and protected status rights Is a terribly bad. Thing to happen because it means that when you say diversity of thought, which means includes everyone, that is the buzz word for the right wing people who go, that means I can do whatever I want It's diversity of thought. I'm not just, I'm just not just being a piece of shit, is how I feel,'cause of the way I feel about people. When people are protected now, they're less protected. And then the thing that just cracks my mind constantly is the cognitive dissonance of them. Them being able to say and do something then say, and do the exact opposite thing still think that the, There. And still not have just gone mad from the two things existing in the same space. And it just gets more and more and more, I see a new, a new word, like diversity of thought and go that's a joke from 30 years ago that Would make when there weren't any black people in, in the business room. That's the sort of They'd put on the thick of it or any, or Veep. That's, you go, why are there only, I haven't seen anyone who isn't white, a white man for ages, and it goes, oh yeah. We believe very firmly in diversity of thought. And that means that you can plead ignorance and innocence at any point because of how vague all the bullshit is. And it just makes me want to scream, ah.

Jem: 27:57

Yes.

Alex: 27:58

Yes.

Jem: 27:58

Yes. It's, yeah, it's a watering down of their position. I agree absolutely. That it's the vagueness of it and that's where all the problems get in, isn't it? And those little gaps there.

Alex: 28:14

I did read an interesting comment actually at the bottom of the article, which kind of reminded me that what all this is about is GTA at the well. Yeah. So I'll read it to you. It's uh, from a commenter called OPR Cosplay. They say we've entered the age of discussing the ethics and standard of representation of responsibility towards gender and race representation of virtual criminals, and I freaking Love it. So unless we forget, GTA is basically a game where you play a criminal and, what we're talking about really is representation in, in GTAI suppose if you think about it from that angle, which is, I'd completely forgot, while I was reading the articles. Actually that's what it's, that's what the next game will be a fun and interesting reminder that actually what we're talking about is a game, but it's, it just shows how I dunno what the word is, I guess, invasive. This administration is across all areas of, of society and how it's just pushing into all these different places, and it is a worrying thing to, to comprehend,

Matt: 29:27

and you can slaughter the police and the GTA. And that's again the cognitive distance The same person who go, oh, diversity of thought hate woke ism. Hate political correctness are also the Blue Lives Matter. People who go,

Alex: 29:41

Yeah.

Matt: 29:42

the police, you should be able to do whatever they want, then Can kill them and without just with reckless abandon in a game. And you go, well, what about those two things? They go, oh yeah, and then nothing changes.

Alex: 29:57

Yeah.

Jem: 30:00

absolutely. We'll leave it there and we'll be back every Thursday with a new show. And we'll be talking about these kind of things all the time. So if this is the sort of thing that interests you or if you have story that you think we should cover, please let us know and we will see you very soon. Thank you. Bye.