if so A timely reminder of the dangers of viral social media activism, the regrettable saga of Bayonetta voice actor Hellena Taylor must be it. In what seemed like record time, it became an objective lesson in waiting for all the facts to surface in controversy, and how social media can completely stifle this urge to be cautious. It also exposed the profound dangers of summoning a mob on social media.
Earlier this month, Japanese game studio Platinum Games revealed that the upcoming third installment in the smash hit Angel Hunt series won’t feature Tyler as the protagonist’s voice like the first two. On October 15, Taylor posted a video to her Twitter account in which she made an explosive allegation and made an equally explosive request to her followers: She claimed to have only offered the character $4,000, people should boycott this game. Fans are on their feet in what appears to be the latest episode of the gaming industry’s exploitative attitude towards voice actors, which led to a year-long strike by the SAG-AFTRA union between 2016 and 2017.
Taylor seems to be the embodiment of this exploitation, and as a woman, her voice helped the team become a global hit, not only being stripped of residuals, but paid below living wages.Except, according to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier and his sources at Platinum Games, Taylor severely misrepresented her proposed compensation; instead, she got $4,000 per recording session, the number of meetings totals at least $15,000, which is higher than the union rate. Andy Robinson of VGC News confirmed this.
Tyler’s Torch and Pitchfork rally chants were noticed by many angry gamers and fans who saw a clear case of injustice unfold before them. But there are some warning signs that caution is needed. Legendary voice actor Jennifer Hale has been tapped to play Angel Hunt in the upcoming film, while Taylor, In a follow-up Twitter video from the same thread, to Hale: “I wish her all the happiness in the world, I wish her all the work, but she has no right to say she is the voice of Bayonetta. I created that voice. She has no right to be Bayonetta. Sign the merchandise.” This strange possessive rhetoric was not widely noticed by the mob that Taylor had assembled—perhaps it was politely ignored. Or maybe it sounded too good because, as widely reported, Jennifer Hale was under enormous pressure for angry and harassing comments on social media in response to Taylor’s allegations.
In many ways, this is a corollary of the social media movement. Things like this almost always lead to harassment as the mob finds someone to blame and a villain for a scapegoat.Apparently some of Taylor’s supporters found one in Hale, who was under a nondisclosure agreement anyway and couldn’t talk about it publicly in a way that some asked (she later posted very fair statement). It doesn’t need to happen this way, but this is just the latest in a long line of episodes in which people who want to do the right thing are weaponized for far less noble purposes.
A driving Twitter video ahead of a big story is only part of it. In a social media climate that requires all involved to be timely and makes us all succumb to the ego of instant communication (including people like me who are tethered to the economic mast), the pressure to speak out or respond right away is also great Many of us give in too quickly.
