Assassin's Creed IV, Arkham Origins Lead Videogame Writing Award Nominations

[Andy Chalk]

Assassin's Creed IV, Arkham Origins Lead Videogame Writing Award Nominations

The Writers Guild of America has announced its nominees for the 2014 Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing award.

Five games have been given the nod by the Writers Guild of America for "Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing" over the course of 2013. This year's cream of the crop includes:


Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Story by Darby McDevitt, Mustapha Mahrach, Jean Guesdon; Lead Scriptwriter Darby McDevitt; Scriptwriter Jill Murray; AI Scriptwriter Nicholas Grimwood; Scriptwriter Singapore Mark Llabres Hill; Ubisoft
Batman: Arkham Origins, Narrative Director Dooma Wendschuh; Writer & Senior Narrative Designer Ryan Galletta; Writer Corey May; Warner Bros. Interactive
God of War: Ascension, Written by Marianne Krawczyk; Additional Writing Ariel Lawrence; Sony Computer Entertainment
The Last of Us, Written by Neil Druckmann; Sony Computer Entertainment
Lost Planet 3, Head Writer Richard Gaubert; Writers Orion Walker, Matt Sophos; Capcom


I haven't played any of the nominated games so I can't comment on the validity of their inclusion (yes, I'm a terrible gamer) but I can't say that any of them strike me as the sort of game that would bring particularly compelling narratives to the table, either. It's worth noting, however, that WGA rules omit a number - quite possibly a large number - of potential contenders.

In order to be nominated, a game must feature on-screen writing credits, and the credited writers must be (or apply to be) a member of the WGA Videogame Writers Caucus when the scripts are submitted for consideration. And they must be submitted in the first place, something that publishers including BioWare and Take Two have refused to do [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107553-Writers-Guild-Executive-Explains-Game-Writing-Awards] in the past.

The Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing Award, along with all other WGA awards, will be presented on February 1 during simultaneous ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York City.


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[cerebus23]

No wolf among us?

stanley parable?

though i suppose since scripts have to be submitted odds were TT and etc just never submitted many games.

Some good games on there though.

 

[hermes]

As soon as I saw the nominees I knew this had to be a union thing. There is no way Arkham Origins, Lost Planet 3 and God of War Ascension can stand on the same level as Last of Us, Bioshock Infinite (not nominated), Papers Please (not nominated), Gunpoint (not nominated) or Saints Row 4 (not nominated).

Heck, I would put Brothers over half those games, and it doesn't even have dialogue.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I looked at this list and scratched my head. AC IV, okay. The Last of Us, yes. Everything else? Really? The Batman game started good, but I felt it sort of collapsed on itself after about half way. Lost Planet 3 is um...moving right along. God of War: Ascension I haven't heard anyone talking about after it came out. I was honestly confused by this list.
Then I read the part where you need to be part of this club in order to be nominated, and suddenly it all made sense.

On a side topic, is AC IV really that good? Everyone I know keeps saying amazing things about it, but AC III's ending left such a bad taste in my mouth--and none of the games had really impressed me up to that point anyway--that I'm leery on picking it up.

 

[Falterfire]

What? No Fire Emblem: Awakening? If anything is an achievement in writing, it's the 500,000 or so words of dialogue (No exaggeration. Based on complete support log transcripts from GameFAQS) in that game. That is definitely an achievement especially since so much of it was good writing.

 

[hermes]

On a side topic, is AC IV really that good? Everyone I know keeps saying amazing things about it, but AC III's ending left such a bad taste in my mouth--and none of the games had really impressed me up to that point anyway--that I'm leery on picking it up.

It is pretty good.
If you didn't enjoyed any of the other games, this will not change your mind, but, for what is worth, it is a lot better than 3.

 

[bigmitch256]

The Last of Us had astounding writing in my opinion.I didn't even take the time to play any of the other sequals, everything just seemed the same except Lost Space..... I mean Dead Planet....you know what I mean!

 

[Rituro]

So, um, BioShock Infinite? Was that not outstanding enough writing to earn a nod over Arkham Origins? I suppose I shouldn't really be surprised - mainstream awards recognizing a relatively new medium will result in some odd nominations in the early going - but even this seems to be a tad out there.

 

[Kenbo Slice]

Arkham Origins had an okay story. I'm still grumpy that it became a Joker circle jerk again. I hope for the next game they let another villain have the spotlight.

 

[Roxas1359]

I find it funny how people are going "why wasn't x game nominated" when it says that you have to submit an entry to be even nominated in the first place. It's even said in the article that Take Two Interactive refuses to do it, and they own 2K Games and their IPs, so that's why BioShock Infinte wasn't nominated. As for Nintendo games, they focus more on gameplay than story so I don't even think Nintendo really would care to submit an entry.
Really in this case the list is based off the best of the ones that entered their game, not what was the "best in writing overall" for 2013 because that would take the Writer's Guild of America ages to go through the games.

 

[Theminimanx]

A list that only includes people part of their special little club. So basically a useless list.
Lovely.

 

[Stormwaltz]

(leaving)

 

[Shuu]

Lost Planet 3?! Who saw that coming?
Well if it does have good writing, it just goes to show that good writing along wasn't enough to make the core market care about it. Pity.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

Assassin's "hey you're playing a Montreal developed game where you play as a Montreal game developer aren't we so clever" Creed IV is in the running for a Video Game writing award?

And Lost Planet 3? Really?

Yeah, WGA's bullshit rules for nomination is fairly well known and pretty much eliminates anybody who would actually deserve it.

 

[Blarg Blargson]

Of those nominated, I would say that only The Last of Us has particularly compelling writing. And most of that game's story is implied, rather than written or said.

I'm not sure what basis these games were selected on, but it's really not representative of the gaming industry's best, or even the AAA studios' best.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

BioWare doesn't bother submitting because virtually none the writers are WGA members (maybe a few of the leads are, like Drew Karpyshyn, Dave Gaider, and Jenny Hepler), and because they demand submission in script format. Which isn't easy to assemble for games that have hundreds of thousands of lines of branching dialogue that only exist in a format meant to be read by internal tool programs.

There's also the fact that Bioware didn't release a game this year. That's also a bit of a damper.

 

[TakerFoxx]

On a side topic, is AC IV really that good? Everyone I know keeps saying amazing things about it, but AC III's ending left such a bad taste in my mouth--and none of the games had really impressed me up to that point anyway--that I'm leery on picking it up.

It's good. I hated AC3 to the point that I stopped playing it partway through and just watched the cutscenes on Youtube to keep up with the plot, whereas AC4 is easily one of the funnest games I've played in recent history, and would be my personal Game of the Year had I not discovered Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines a few months earlier (my personal Games of the Year are judged by the year I play them rather than the year they were released).

...or rather, it's a fantastic pirate game, which is what I wanted, as I love pirates and this game gave me everything I ever wanted in a pirate game and more. As an Assassin's Creed game, it's...all right, I guess. Edward's definitely an improvement over Connor and I might have a slight man-crush on him, and the other historical pirates you meet are just plain great (who woulda thought Blackbeard would be so likeable?), but overall it's quite a bit simplified from its predecessors and while certainly serviceable, is probably one of the series' weaker installments, if judged solely as an Assassin's Creed game.

But as a pirate game it's absolutely fabulous.

 

[BloodRed Pixel]

So the Writers Guild is essentially a self-obsessed group-masturbatory club.

(*mind the contraditory expressions*)

 

[Zetatrain]

Huh that's an....odd list. "The Last of Us" is really the only one I feel belongs up there. All the other entities are just varying degrees of okay (unless ACIV is a lot better than I've heard).

 

[Andy Chalk]

Assassin's "hey you're playing a Montreal developed game where you play as a Montreal game developer aren't we so clever" Creed IV is in the running for a Video Game writing award?

Not just in the running, but a favourite: Assassin's Creed III: Liberation won in 2013 and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood won in 2011.