Assassin's Creed III: Liberation Wins 2013 Writers Guild Award

[Timothy Chang]

Assassin's Creed III: Liberation Wins 2013 Writers Guild Award

The PS Vita's take on Assassins versus Templars takes top gong for this year.

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) recently announced their nominees for the 2013 Videogame Writing Award [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121580-WGA-Announces-Videogame-Writing-Award-Nominees]. It's a line-up of titles that pales in comparison to some more obvious choices, but votes were cast and the results are now in. This year's winner goes to Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed III: Liberation, winning the award for Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing.

Liberation, a PS Vita exclusive, managed to beat out other titles such as Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, Halo 4, 007 Legends, and Uncharted: Golden Abyss. Scriptwriters Richard Farrese and Jill Murray were credited with the story of the Assassin Aveline de Grandpré and her antics in Louisiana.

For those of you wondering why the list of nominees is lacking titles such as The Walking Dead and Spec Ops: The Line, the reason is two-fold. Nominated writers need to be members of the WGA Videogame Writers Caucus (which costs $100 per year), and publishers must submit their scripts for consideration. As a result, the nomination process has led some publishers to neglect submitting their script to the awards [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107582-Assassins-Creed-Brotherhood-Wins-Videogame-Writing-Award].

Judging was carried out by panels of volunteers in the aforementioned Caucus, as well as other WGA members concerned with videogame writing. If the panels are unable to find an outstanding script, no one receives an award at all, so hats off to Liberation, it seems.

All nominated scripts will be stored at the Writers Guild Foundation Shavelson-Webb Library, sharing space with previous winners such as Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and The Force Unleashed.


Source: The Writers Guild Awards [http://www.wga.org/wga-awards/nominees-winners.aspx]

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[RA92]

When your competition is 007 Legends...

 

[ron1n]

When your competition is 007 Legends...

Sad thing is someone actually bothered to submit the script for that game as a candidate...

 

[Terramax]

And Walking Dead came out the same year?

I mean, I haven't played that game, but pretty much every gamer and their mother is telling me it was written by God himself.

 

[Froggy Slayer]

Nominated writers need to be members of the WGA Videogame Writers Caucus (which costs $100 per year)

Yikes, even awards are pay to win these days? This problem is getting too damn pervasive.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

When you have to pay money to even be eligible for an award, the whole thing loses credibility in my eyes.

Also, Walking Dead wins all the things.

 

[Zombie_Moogle]

When your competition is 007 Legends...

...and your big brother is assassins creed 3...

...and the previous champion to win this prestigious award was The Force Unleashed....

 

[Whitbane]

What a crappy award. Really, Assassin's Creed Liberation? Really? Even that list of nominees is just awful. Halo 4? Come on, now. I like Halo 4 but it's story is god awful.

Spec-Ops and Walking Dead were best Story games to me in 2012.

 

[Your Fearless Captain]

Why does the Writers Guild have a video game category? It's always shitty games with crappy writing.

 

[Alandoril]

Hmm, you'd think that the bigger publishers would pay that fee and submit more scripts. But I guess it's just another way in which game writing will continue to be overlooked.

Also the award isn't pay to win, you just need to be a member of the caucus which is no different to needing to be a member of the Screen Actors Guild or other such official body.

 

[Falterfire]

If this is what wins the 'official' writing awards it's no wonder some people still think Vidya Gaemz aren't art.

Admittedly, I have played ACL, but I have serious problems believing it was the best written game in 2013. Heck, I'd be surprised if it even beat out Borderlands 2.

Alsoalsoalso: A competition for videogame writing based on script alone? That seems a bit silly. A videogame with truly excellent writing shows a lot of it through the gameplay and visuals instead of actual dialog.