For the first article in the group I thought I'd make a small comemoration of the groups founding day! In the article below I'll elaborate on the whos and whys of the groups creation and about our plans both short term and long term.
If there's one thing I've noticed during my years here on moddb, it is that it isn't exactly a site that is filled to the brim with voice actors. Which is perfectly understandable, as moddb is geared towards a modding community, and strictly speaking you don't really need voice actors to mod a game.
Regretably it seems a lot of potential voice actors have been of the same erronous mindset when you look at the sound section of the forum.
The section is mostly populated by composers and sound designers asking for work or feedback.
Only once in a blue moon have I seen a voice actor/actress sneak in, post a "Hey I'm a voice actor! I need something to do" before they slink back into obscurity again.
This might not seem like a big issue to most modders out there, but as mods become more and more ambitious, there is only so far the stock voice clips can take you.
You might also ask yourself; "But there are already at least two other voice acting groups on this site! What is the point of founding another group if it is like you say that the voice actor base here is so small?"
That question has to answered in two parts. First of all, if you look at the membership activity in both the two voice acting groups on the site, they don't look very active, at least not to me. They were active when I joined in 2007, at least the VAU was and then when the VAU started to black out the VoiceActors group got founded, but now it doesn't look like neither groups leadership have any interest sticking around on moddb anymore, not having logged in for a year or even two.
Secondly, the already existing voice acting base on moddb might be small, but through drawing people from other Voiceover sites who are interested in videogame voicing and educating the already present voice actors (those who need or want it of course. There are lots of good Voiceover Artists here.) will slowly but surely build a strong voice acting community within moddb.
So in summary, I have created this group because I want to see a Voice Over Artist group here on moddb that can stand the test of time. I want a group that developers can see as reliable, not only by getting a response when you write us, but also a place where you know that you will get good voice over work done and done when you need it if you contact us.
The group is currently relatively small, and consist of myself and two of the voice actors I have met here on moddb whom I both trust and respect.
First of all there is Joseph Bracken, also known as Bingo Bango here on moddb.
His past work entails among other things a number of characters from the HL2 multiplayer mod "Pirates Vikings and Knights 2", having voice the Skirmisher and the Gestir.
He is currently engaged as a voice actor for an animated shortfilm.
Secondly you have Ian Wiese, who goes under the name DrDoozer. He has among other things the HL2 mods "1187" and "Titan XCIX" under his belt.
And then lastly there's me. I've been working on a lot of Command and conquer mods lately, and I've also voice on the project "Titan XCIX" mentioned above as well as "Cry of Fear", both projects that will most likely be released this autumn.
Looking over the mods I've listed, you might notice that there are a lot of Half Lifey stuff there, but do not let that deter you from writing us about other projects. We voice for ANYTHING. Just name the format you want the voice in and we'll do our damndest :)
Now for our plans for the future.
Short term, there's currently two things that we're looking to get done. First of all, the groups graphics. If you're familiar with photoshop you might have found the groups banner and thumbnail to be a bit amateurish, which would come to me as no surprise as I made it myself, and I'm no photoshop-phantom.Bingo Bango asked one of the PVK2 developers "Rumface" if he would be interested in making some new graphics for us, and he was cool enough to agree :DSo for the time being you'll be stuck with my photoshopfail until we get it all replaced.
Secondly, we're looking to build our stall of voice actors. So if you're a Voice Actor and you don't feel that you get enough work, if you want a place where you can exchange feedback or if you simply just want a place to stick around in, send us an application.
Preferably write me a PM directly and mark is as Voice Over Group Application. That way I know immediately what its for.
For our long term plan we have only one goal at the moment. And that is to start building the groups resources. I'm going to start transfering the tutorials I wrote that I linked to "Operation Black Mesa" to this group and then start writing new articles and tutorials so that budding voice actors have some place to start. The plan however is that the groups resources will be selfsustainable after a while without needing me to make it all :)
Thats all for this first article in the groups history!
Until next time, DragonNOR
