Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Wins Videogame Writing Award

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Wins Videogame Writing Award


The big winner of the Videogame Writing Award at the 2011 Writers Guild of America Awards has been chosen, and his name is Ezio.

The mysterious ways of the Writers Guild of America and its nomination process for videogame writing awards were in the headlines recently as Micah Wright, the chairman of the WGA Videogame Writers Guild, stirred up a wee bit of a hornet's nest as he Red Dead Redemption [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107553-Writers-Guild-Executive-Explains-Game-Writing-Awards] from Rockstar, both of which seemed like obvious choices and yet neither of which were even in the running.

But largely forgotten in the tempestuous teapot were the games that did make the list: handed out [http://www.amazon.com/Assassins-Creed-Brotherhood-Xbox-360/dp/B003L8HQ7S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297099215&sr=8-1] on Saturday night, February 5, and the big winner was chosen as Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. Credit for the game's story went to Patrice Desilets, Jeffrey Yohalem and Corey May, while Yohalem got the nod as lead script writer while Ethan Petty, Nicholas Grimwood and Matt Turner were named as script writers.

As Wright explained, the nomination process requires that entrants must be members of the Videogame Writers Caucus, which costs $60 annually, and that nominated games have at least one credited writer. Both Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead Redemption likely would have been finalists for the award, he said, but neither BioWare nor Rockstar bothered to put them up for consideration.


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Apr 28, 2008
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Eh, I kind of wish New Vegas would have won. But Brotherhood is good as well I guess.
 

Woodsey

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Aug 9, 2009
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The Forgotten Sands?

Are they having a fucking laugh, or did they just include everything and anything that could be considered on the "shortlist"?

And can we please get rid of this goddamn Captcha thing, and at the very least replace it with one of the spam filters with legible writing?

And just so my post doesn't consist solely of questions, here is this sentence.
 

Cowabungaa

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Feb 10, 2008
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Irridium said:
Eh, I kind of wish New Vegas would have won. But Brotherhood is good as well I guess.
New Vegas? I love the game, but it's story was incredibly lacking, especially in the early stages. Extra Credits really explained that one well.
 

Catalyst6

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Apr 21, 2010
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Andy Chalk said:
Both Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead Redemption likely would have been finalists for the award, he said, but neither BioWare nor Rockstar bothered to put them up for consideration.
It's kind of like stopping right before the finish line in a racing game, then just sitting there until everyone passes by. You're so superior that you don't even need to place to know that you've won.

Really, this surprised me. I've never played AC:B, but some of the other choices seem like odd ones, seeing that they were received so badly.
 
Sep 17, 2009
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LOL god Bioware and Rockstar are awesome. They didn't even care enough to pay the $60 consideration fee.

I bet RDR would have won though. All the critics loved it.
 

MiracleOfSound

Fight like a Krogan
Jan 3, 2009
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Huh. I thought Brotherhood's story was kind of 'meh'.

AC2 had Ezio developing from a happy young carefree lad into a cold-blooded killer over time and a series of events learning the ways of the Assassins, while Brotherhood's story was just 'They move to Rome kill a bunch of people.'

EDIT: I just had to refresh yet another Captcha 4 times to get something that even looked like a word. Ugh.
 

VulakAerr

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Mar 31, 2010
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Well deserved, out of the nominations at least. Can't believe ME2 wasn't in there, but as the OP said: needs to be put forward by the company.

Loved the AC2/ACB story though. Very involving.
 

Armored Prayer

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Mar 10, 2009
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Congratulations for Brotherhood and its writers.

It may not be a story masterpiece, but it was very well done and I enjoyed it.
 

Super Toast

Supreme Overlord of the Basement
Dec 10, 2009
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New Vegas should have won. Also, The Force Unleashed II and The Forgotten Sands are on the list? Fucking seriously?
 
Apr 28, 2008
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Cowabungaa said:
Irridium said:
Eh, I kind of wish New Vegas would have won. But Brotherhood is good as well I guess.
New Vegas? I love the game, but it's story was incredibly lacking, especially in the early stages. Extra Credits really explained that one well.
Perhaps, but it didn't bother me. I'd rather start with minimal story then start with an insanely stupid story. Like your father just up and leaving without telling anything to his only child, and assuming that the insane vault overseer who hated him and you would do nothing drastic upon learning your father broke the vault's biggest rule.
 

Mr. Omega

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Jul 1, 2010
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I love the AC series, I would even go as far as to call myself an AC fanboy, but even I think it winning this award is a little bit of a stretch. Sure, out of the other options, ACB is easily the best choice, but still...



Also, I'm gonna hop on this bandwagon: get rid of the fucking Captcha. For the love of God, the last time I did it, I had to refresh 5 times, twice because it wasn't legible, twice because there were letters with accents,and once because the Captcha was in CHINESE (or Japanese...)!
 

Mr. Socky

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Apr 22, 2009
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Wow. AC:B had a terrible story. RDR and ME2 should've tied despite not even entering. Besides, the rest of the entries were freakishly bad in the writing department. Force Unleashed 2? The Forgotten Sands? Are you freaking kidding me?!?
 

BenTheWolf

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Dec 21, 2009
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Bit of a shame really. Am I the only one who thought brotherhood felt like there were big chunks of the story cut at the last moment? The story just felt rushed...

In a bid to incite some healthy flame war i'd liek to ask why Halo Reach didn't get into the shortlist. I mean it was no classic (wasn't made by Bioware or Rockstar y'see) but it's story was certainly better than The forced unleashed and imo Brotherhood. js
 

Therumancer

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Nov 28, 2007
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I can see why "Brotherhood won", while not entirely original it uses concepts that aren't as heavily retreaded as a lot of the other games are. I think both "Mass Effect 2" and "Red Dead Redemption" would have gotten blown out as both are decent, but massively stereotypical retreads of genere stereotypes in heavily written generes. A well told story doesn't nessicarly make it the best when there are more creative things out there, or at least fresher material.

I also tend to agree that "New Vegas" should have won, largely because it's a genere that hasn't been visited all that often (though it's becoming more common) and I think it had enough stuff that gets away from convention to overpower "Brotherhood's" spins.

HOWEVER, politics does enter into these kinds of awards and Brotherhood has something of an Anti-Western/Anti-Religion bent to the whole thing even moving away from the Arabic setting of the first game. I think that plays to the biases of a lot of the people giving these kinds of awards since it makes them feel "edgy" and like they are "doing something" by supporting such things. "New Vegas" probably wasn't seen as being 'relevent' enough, and all of the Americana involved probably didn't sit well with the guys doing the awards.
 

Josh123914

They'll fix it by "Monday"
Nov 17, 2009
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BenTheWolf said:
Bit of a shame really. Am I the only one who thought brotherhood felt like there were big chunks of the story cut at the last moment? The story just felt rushed...

In a bid to incite some healthy flame war i'd liek to ask why Halo Reach didn't get into the shortlist. I mean it was no classic (wasn't made by Bioware or Rockstar y'see) but it's story was certainly better than The forced unleashed and imo Brotherhood. js
Yeah, the bit between 1503 to 1507 where they suddenly jumped from Rome to north Spain just sort of screamed THIS WILL BE FILLED WITH DLC!
 

Baldry

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Feb 11, 2009
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Why...are Force Unleashed 2 and Forgotten sands on this list...It...I...but...eh!?
 

JourneyThroughHell

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MiracleOfSound said:
AC2 had Ezio developing from a happy young carefree lad into a cold-blooded killer over time
Yeah.

It also had
aliens.

I'm sure Brotherhood expands on that... but at least there's absolutely nothing so jarring and stupid they could possibly follow it up with.