Game biz coders want fatter paychecks, too

The video-game industry's geek workforce has something to say to Hollywood actors: Get in line for your share of the industry's profits.

"I'll back (the actors) when game programmers and artists get residuals first," said Mark Long, co-CEO of independent game-development company Zombie Studios. Based in Seattle, Long's 12-year-old company is behind such titles as America's Army and Shadow Ops: Red Mercury. "(They're) nuts if they think they deserve residuals for a half-day of voice-over work," said Long. "A development team (might) slave away for two years to produce a title."

The Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists recently contacted members who have worked as game voice-over actors to request authorization of a labor stoppage against about 70 game publishers. The unions argue that actors who voice game characters should be entitled to a share of the industry's skyrocketing profits.

But the actors' demands have sparked renewed protest in tech circles that game workers deserve better treatment, too. If actors deserve residuals, the argument goes, then so do the people who write the code, build the characters and make things blow up.