The Force Unleashed Wins Writers Guild Award

Keane Ng

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The Force Unleashed Wins Writers Guild Award



Star Wars: The Force Unleashed won the Writers Guild of America's award for best videogame writing in 2008 last night, beating out other nominees like Fallout 3 and Tomb Raider: Underworld.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 [http://www.lucasarts.com/games/theforceunleashed/].

Congratulations are undoubtedly in order for the writing staff of The Force Unleashed, who crafted a story some [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/5311-Review-Star-Wars-The-Force-Unleashed] say not only puts the game's mediocre gameplay to shame, but even rivals that of the best of the Star Wars films. Still, the award does lose a bit of its luster when you consider not the competition that The Force Unleashed faced but rather the games that it didn't have to beat out, because they weren't even in the running in the first place. 2008 was no slouch for games writing - this was a year that brought us Braid, Grand Theft Auto IV, and No More Heroes. But those three games, along with a whole slew of others I haven't played much less mentioned, weren't even eligible for the award to begin with.

Seems a bit bogus, doesn't it? The Writer's Guild required membership in their videogame writers caucus for credited writers to be eligible for a nomination. Membership costs $75, but when you consider that some of these games, including The Force Unleashed, had multiple credited writers on staff, the fee for entering your name for an award that isn't entirely that prestigious (yet), getting an award might not have been worth the price of admission. An indie game like Dangerous High School Girls In Trouble could front the cost more manageably, because it had a small staff. Or, aside from that, it's possible that companies that had very eligible games just didn't want to buy into the guild out of plain old anti-union sentiments, theorized [http://weblogs.variety.com/the_cut_scene/2009/01/videogames-that-are-not-for-the-wgas-consideration.html] Ben Fritz at Variety.

And maybe some of the writers just didn't like the idea of having to pay to get an award at all. "[The awards are] a membership drive masquerading as an award ceremony, and that's a large part of the insult," outspoken Braid developer Jonathan Blow wrote [http://braid-game.com/news/?p=427]. "So, here's what's going on: they are giving out pretend awards, in order to get people to join their caucus. Implicit in this action is the message that we are too dumb to notice what they are doing, or else vain enough that we don't care what's going on as long as we get some awards. I don't take either of those as a compliment."


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uppitycracker

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...... WTF?!?! It's funny, because I had waited and waited and waited for this game, for the story alone. I was even forgiving of some frustrating game play, and features that I didn't completely agree with, because the story started out so well...... then it took a nosedive into something that should have NEVER happened. And it beats out all these other games? I don't get it, not one bit...
 

SomeBritishDude

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Tenmar said:
SomeBritishDude said:
Jesus...I thought that said Sonic Unleashed for a moment
Sorry as much as I liked the wii version of Sonic Unleashed(there was structure in that game compared to the 360 and ps3 version) a cliche anime story does not deserve an award.
Err what? You think I think it deserves an award?! I'm seriously offended.
 

The_Prophet

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mattttherman3 said:
Fallout 3 would have won if the ending didn't suck
In my opinion the ending was awesome and made me feel proud of my character. If you want to do more quests you just load the save before you enter the chamber, SIMPLE!
 

SomeBritishDude

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Tenmar said:
SomeBritishDude said:
Tenmar said:
SomeBritishDude said:
Jesus...I thought that said Sonic Unleashed for a moment
Sorry as much as I liked the wii version of Sonic Unleashed(there was structure in that game compared to the 360 and ps3 version) a cliche anime story does not deserve an award.
Err what? You think I think it deserves an award?! I'm seriously offended.
Okay hold up I'm lost here SomeBritishDude. How are you offended? I was just commenting on how Sonic Unleashed's story was a cliche anime story and that as a whole I like the game. I did not mean to offend you.
Haha, ok hold up, one of us is not reading each other posts properly,

-I didn't like Sonic Unleashed AT All.
-The story was terrible
-I said "thought it was sonic unleashed for a second" because it seemed like a funny thing to see and it made me do a double take, as a couldn't see a game with such bad voice acting getting that award
-I'm not that offended, i'm not being serious

We understand each other now?
 

Littaly

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Okay first off, award ceremonies in February -.-

Second, What a joke -.-
 

Tsuki Tanaka

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uppitycracker said:
...... WTF?!?! It's funny, because I had waited and waited and waited for this game, for the story alone. I was even forgiving of some frustrating game play, and features that I didn't completely agree with, because the story started out so well...... then it took a nosedive into something that should have NEVER happened. And it beats out all these other games? I don't get it, not one bit...
I agree with much of the sentiment here; it's baffling how SW:TFU managed to beat out other amazing games such as Fallout, GTA4, No More Heroes, etc. I mean, don't get me wrong, the story wasn't downright HORRIBLE, but it was no where near worthy of beating out any of the above listed games, and hen some others.

If anything, my vote would have to go to Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

I mean, come on, Crab battle. Instant win.
 

D_987

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Tsuki Tanaka said:
uppitycracker said:
...... WTF?!?! It's funny, because I had waited and waited and waited for this game, for the story alone. I was even forgiving of some frustrating game play, and features that I didn't completely agree with, because the story started out so well...... then it took a nosedive into something that should have NEVER happened. And it beats out all these other games? I don't get it, not one bit...
I agree with much of the sentiment here; it's baffling how SW:TFU managed to beat out other amazing games such as Fallout, GTA4, No More Heroes, etc. I mean, don't get me wrong, the story wasn't downright HORRIBLE, but it was no where near worthy of beating out any of the above listed games, and hen some others.

If anything, my vote would have to go to Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

I mean, come on, Crab battle. Instant win.
Read the OP again, the only one of those games in the running was Fallout 3.
 

D_987

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Indigo_Dingo said:
mattttherman3 said:
Fallout 3 would have won if the ending didn't suck
And if a frog had wings it wouldn't bump its ass when it hopped.
If Frogs had wings - Frogger would be a lot easier.
 

Break

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Sep 10, 2007
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Congratulations are undoubtedly in order for the writing staff of The Force Unleashed, who crafted a story some say not only puts the game's mediocre gameplay to shame, but even rivals that of the best of the Star Wars films.
Really? Was it actually that good? I mean, it was better than most of the dreck that passes for videogame stories, but come now. Vader turns his coat so often, that the biggest surprise for me was when he doesn't change sides again after the scene on that snowy planet. If you can sense great potential in a tiny child, you should be able to sense when somebody has so much power, that he can take down the Emperor on his own. And the thing about starting a rebellion in order to root out dissidents? That's a perfectly good plan, if there had been any dissidents in the first place. It took several major strikes against the Empire before anyone would consider discussing the possibility of a rebellion, which makes them look more like opportunists, than rebels.

Well, I don't care that much about those points, to be honest. The thing that threw any credibility the game may have had for me, was the ending. Either of them. No matter how strong in the force he is, there is no way in hell a teenage skinhead with daddy issues can defeat the Darth Vader or the Emperor in a straight fight. No. It just doesn't happen. This can't be canon, I'm going to stick my fingers in my ears, close my eyes, and say "nananana" in a loud voice if you try to prove otherwise.
 

Lord_Ascendant

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is it just be or does Jonathan Blow hate stories for some reason. Did a book crush his puppy when he was 3 or something?


Fore was "eh" gameplay and "meh" story for me