Assassins and Apocalyptic Wastelands Get Nod for Writers Guild Award

[Logan Westbrook]

Assassins and Apocalyptic Wastelands Get Nod for Writers Guild Award

The Writers Guild of America has announced its six picks for the best videogame writing of 2010.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Fallout: New Vegas top the nominations list for the videogame writing portion of the upcoming Writers Guild of America's 2011 Awards. Previous winners have included the likes of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed [http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Force-Unleashed-Xbox-360/dp/B000R0URCE/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1294397075&sr=1-1] and Uncharted 2: Amongst Thieves [http://www.amazon.com/UNCHARTED-2-Among-Thieves-Playstation-3/dp/B002I0F5I2/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1294397128&sr=1-1].

Unfortunately, not every game is eligible for the award, no matter how well written they might be. In order to qualify for this year's awards, the game had to have come out between December 1st 2009 and November 30th 2010, and have a separate writing credit. That writer must also have joined the WGA, or have applied to join, by the time the script was submitted for consideration.

Of course, it's not entirely surprisingly that the WGA isn't tripping over itself to include non-members in its awards ceremony, especially not when it makes no secret of the fact that it hopes to drum up more members from the videogame industry.

Plenty of games do qualify though, and the nominations for the award are:

• 
  [li]Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood [http://www.amazon.com/Assassins-Creed-Brotherhood-Xbox-360/dp/B003L8HQ7S/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1294396904&sr=1-1]
  Story by Patrice Desilets, Jeffrey Yohalem, Corey May
  Lead Script Writer: Jeffrey Yohalem
  Script Writers: Ethan Petty, Nicholas Grimwood, Matt Turner;
  Publisher: Ubisoft[/li]
  
  [li]Fallout: New Vegas [http://www.amazon.com/Fallout-New-Vegas-Xbox-360/dp/B0028IBTL6/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1294396932&sr=1-1]
  Creative Design Lead/Lead Writer: John Gonzalez; Writers: Chris Avellone, Eric Fenstermaker, Travis Stout
  Additional Writing: Tess Treadwell, George Ziets, Jason Bergman, Nick Breckon, Matt Grandstaff, Will Noble, Andrew Scharf;
  Publisher: Bethesda Softworks[/li]
  
  [li]God of War 3 [http://www.amazon.com/God-War-III-Playstation-3/dp/B000ZK9QCS/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1294396961&sr=1-1]
  Written by Marianne Krawcyzk
  Additional Writing by Stig Asmussen, Ariel Lawrence, William Weissbaum
  Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment[/li]
  
  [li]Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Wii) [http://www.amazon.com/Prince-Persia-Forgotten-Sands-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B0030GBU8W/ref=sr_1_3?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1294396983&sr=1-3]
  Writer: Benjamin McCaw; Story Dialogue Editor: Marianne Krawczyk
  Publisher: Ubisoft[/li]
  
  [li]Singularity [http://www.amazon.com/Singularity-Xbox-360/dp/B001UWGDC6/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1294397016&sr=1-1]
  Written by Marc Guggenheim, Lindsey Allen, Emily Silver
  Additional Story and Writing: Jason Henderson, Adam Foshko, Michael Cassutt
  Story and Script Consultant: Adam Foshko
  Publisher: Activision[/li]
  
  [li]Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II [http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Force-Unleashed-Xbox-360/dp/B0030EU3TG/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1294397046&sr=1-1]
  Executive Producer-Writer: Haden Blackman
  In-Game Script: David Collins, John Stafford, Cameron Suey
  Additional Writing: Tid Cooney, Ian Dominguez, Tony Rowe
  Publisher: LucasArts[/li]

The awards will actually have two ceremonies: one in Los Angeles for WGA West members, and one in New York for WGA East members. Both ceremonies will take place simultaneously, with the folks in New York presumably in for quite a late night. The ceremonies take place on Saturday, February 5th.

Source: 1up [http://www.1up.com/news/god-war-3-fallout-wga]




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[mattttherman3]

The fact that the Force Unleashed 2 is on here for best writing makes this list completely bullshit. Is this thing sponsored by LucasArts or something?

I guess Bioware doesn't have any writters on staff that are part of the WGA. And if they do, wtf, you cannot tell me Mass Effect 2 had worse writing than TFU2, or even God of War 3(great game, but really all about revenge, and opening pandora's box a second time, not really original).

I would say Assassins Creed and New Vegas do deserve to be on this list however, did not play Singularity or Prince of Persia(not that hard to beat the writting of the previous one though).

No Heavy Rain?(ignore the fact that hypothermia should have played a role lol).

No Red Dead?

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Star Wars? Really? I am REALLY confused.

 

[Fuselage]

If Force Unleashed 2 is on there Mass Effect 2 should be there too, This is just the biggest piece of bullshit I have ever been fed.

 

[Centrophy]

The fact that the Force Unleashed 2 is on here for best writing makes this list completely bullshit. Is this thing sponsored by LucasArts or something?

I guess Bioware doesn't have any writters on staff that are part of the WGA. And if they do, wtf, you cannot tell me Mass Effect 2 had worse writing than TFU2, or even God of War 3(great game, but really all about revenge, and opening pandora's box a second time, not really original).

Quoted for truth. Odds are though that the writers for ME2 aren't part of the guild which is why they aren't on the list. In either case the writing for ME2 was mediocre IMO. The dialogue was great, but dialogue and writing tend to be classified differently for these kinds of things.

Also, just to further emphasize my opinion and yours I would wager... God of War 3's writing was terribad, by the time I finished it I said to myself... wait what the hell just happened... what was this about? How does Athena still exist... why does Kratos need or even want more power to kill the Gods when throughout all three games he kills them just fine.

SWTFU2... what a great example of a piss poor cash-in, but I can't really fault the writing... odds are they brought the writers in later after they designed and started production on the game. TLR the whole game was bad.

 

[The Almighty Grigard]

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Wii)
Writer: Benjamin McCaw; Story Dialogue Editor: Marianne Krawczyk
Publisher: Ubisoft

WHAT!!?!?!

Is the Wii version some sort of heavily altered directors cut version? I played it on the 360 and absolutely hated everything in it. That includes how awfully written it was.

 

[GeneticallyModifiedDucks]

You know you gotta take these guys seriously when they award gems like The Force Unleashed and Uncharted 2.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Wii)
Writer: Benjamin McCaw; Story Dialogue Editor: Marianne Krawczyk
Publisher: Ubisoft

WHAT!!?!?!

Is the Wii version some sort of heavily altered directors cut version? I played it on the 360 and absolutely hated everything in it. That includes how awfully written it was.

I don't know the details, but I played the Wii version for a bit and it was NOTHING like the PS3/360/PC version.

 

[Mako SOLDIER]

The list of games that won is just a very telling indication of how few videogame writers are WGA members.

 

[Eruanno]

...wait, wait, wait, wait... The Force Unleashed 2? Are... is... how... okay, where's the hidden camera? Ha-ha, really funny, you guys!

 

[DTWolfwood]

StarWars makes it to the list again HA HAHA HAHAHA HA... what a joke.

Yeh guess videogame writers don't want to join the WGA lol

 

[Daedalus1942]

God, I'm going to be so ropeable if God of War three gets it over Singularity.
That will ruin my year...
-Tabs<3-

 

[Zhukov]

SIngularity made the list? Really? That's pretty bloody ridicul...

Wait. Did I just see...

The Force Unleashed?!

Really?

Well WGA, there goes your credibility down the toilet. And the membership thing doesn't help matters.

 

[brunothepig]

Hopefully this encourages more writers to join that guild...
I mean, admittedly I've barely played most of those games. But Force Unleashed 1 was... Okay not terrible. But totally predictable. And not good...
Haven't played much of NV, haven't played Brotherhood, but I did like the AC2 story. It was good, and if Brotherhood's story was the equal of AC2 it's the best on the list. It's still not brilliant.
The story of God Of War II was basically only there to drive the slaughter of mythical creatures. It was, same as SWTFU, no better than average.
So basically I may not be the most qualified to judge these stories. But I haven't heard any being praised for brilliant story, and in my experience none of them have a brilliant story.

 

[Daedalus1942]

SIngularity made the list? Really? That's pretty bloody ridicul...

Wait. Did I just see...

The Force Unleashed?!

Really?

Well WGA, there goes your credibility down the toilet. And the membership thing doesn't help matters.

What? Singularity had a better plot than God of War and the Force Unleashed. Why is that so hard to believe? Singularity was actually a pretty solid game.
-Tabs<3-

 

[Snotnarok]

I was interested and thought it was cool till I saw that Star Wars Force Unleashed was on there.

Some may say God of War 3 doesn't have a good story but then I'd like to challenge that statement by asking what game like that has a story that rivals God of War in general? Actually 1 had a pretty awesome story...

Hell just the setting and whole adventure was interesting with GoW

 

[ZiggyE]

None of those games deserve to win.

Anyone else notice they are all high budget and highly publicised games?

At least Black Ops isn't there >.>

 

[JEBWrench]

Well WGA, there goes your credibility down the toilet. And the membership thing doesn't help matters.

Because, you know, unions are notoriously kind to non-members.

Some day Drew Karpyshyn's going to be found in a ditch with a quill in his back.

 

[Zhukov]

SIngularity made the list? Really? That's pretty bloody ridicul...

Wait. Did I just see...

The Force Unleashed?!

Really?

Well WGA, there goes your credibility down the toilet. And the membership thing doesn't help matters.

What? Singularity had a better plot than God of War and the Force Unleashed. Why is that so hard to believe? Singularity was actually a pretty solid game.
-Tabs<3-

Uhh... yeah, Singularity did have a better plot then GoW III and Force Unleashed. But they both had awful plots. It's like saying Clash of the Titans (the new one) had a better plot then The Expendables. It's true, sure, but it's still not much of a compliment.

Anyway, the main thing I remember about Singularity's plot is how forgettable it was. It was painfully bland and utterly devoid of interesting characters.