WGA Announces Videogame Writing Award Nominees

[Leperous]

No disrespect to the Writers Guild, but the mechanical aspect of how videogames tell their story might make the WGA a bit unqualified to judge them

Except everyone who votes on the award is a videogame writer, so no, not a valid criticism.

 

[Reaper195]

I've only played AC3 and Halo 4. And out of the two...I enjoyed Halo 4, and didn't spend half the game raging at how shit the story was. Or how uninteresting the characters were. Or how fucking weird the new controls are. In fact...AC3, irrelevant of all it's good reviews...I outright consider it a bad game. There was next to nothing about that game I enjoyed or thought anyone put any real effort into. Especially not the writers, because the writing in that game was fucking horrendous.

 

[Andy Chalk]

Just to clarify, the nominees do NOT need to be members of the Writers Guild of America... they only need be members of our affiliated Videogame Writers Caucus, membership to which is open to any writer who has ever shipped a single game. If a writer is not a member when their game comes out, they can join simply by submitting their game for our award. In other words, EVERYONE is eligible for our award.

Thanks for the clarification - I've updated the post accordingly.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Wow 007 Legends? I mean the other games I guess you could call them well written, in the sense that you know you needed to pad out the nominee list so that it does not look like a run away win for Specs Ops or The Walking Dead (possibly ME3 and Far Cry 3 also) to some degree. But 007 Legends? Really...? REALLY?!

 

[Zombie_Moogle]

No disrespect to the Writers Guild, but the mechanical aspect of how videogames tell their story might make the WGA a bit unqualified to judge them

Except everyone who votes on the award is a videogame writer, so no, not a valid criticism.

Isn't the issue that it's the Writers Guild, which contains very few game writers?

 

[Sixcess]

Is it a bit strange that Halo 4 doesn't actually have a writer, but someone who does 'narrative design'...?

Then again, where does writing end and level design begin?

 

[CJ1145]

While I'm certainly proud of some of the studios for their marked increase in storytelling from previous installments in their series, to put it simply all those games are more or less shit in the writing department and it's a disgrace to the word writing to have them as the nominees for an award.

This entire organization, and any awards it may deign to dole out are, in a word, bupkis.

 

[Voulan]

I've seen indie games with far better writing than those games. I mean, has anyone played The Cat Lady? That game deals with death, suicide, depression and mental illness on such a scale no AAA title would ever dream of. Maybe we should just do our own Escapist Community's Writers Awards, and nominate titles that actually deserve it.

The criteria for nomination is pathetic, and because of that any nominations will be pathetic. It's along the lines of giving writing awards to Michael Bay films.

 

[TilMorrow]

Wait... Liberation, Halo 4 and Golden Abyss all got nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Writing? That's blinking ridiculous. I really hope none of them win as frankly the writing for each of the games' stories were terrible.

 

[Innegativeion]

I think its best if we just ignore the existence of these awards

Uh... lessee, two handheld spinoffs,

a 007 game nobody played

ACIII, Halo,

and... Epic Mickey 2.

Good God. Forget ignoring, we have to try and FORGET these awards just to cope! The world must think we all dropped out of remedial English.

 

[Innegativeion]

nominees must be members of the Writers Guild of America Videogame Writers Caucus

So, like, are these the ONLY six games whose developers are members of the Writers Guild of America Videogame Writers Caucus?

 

[Radoh]

Two of the choices are Assassins Creed III, one's a spinoff I never heard of, another is a sequel I never heard of.
This is making the VGAs look good right now, and that's not okay. Also, only nominating members of the Guild is probably the dumbest thing I've ever heard, I might have to just ignore that this organisation even exists.
WOW that's stupid.

 

[Baldry]

I really hope people tear them to shreds about this, so many good story driven games came out last yeah that shit on these games. Also games that use the plot of films really shouldn't be considered.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

The restrictions are absolutely stupid and now we're left with choices that are mediocre at best.
"The writers must be apart of our special little club or they aren't allowed to play". Bullshit. I hope they get eaten alive by the gaming crowd.

 

[Rorschach II]

Spec ops the line totally deserves to be in there. Regardless of whether or not it has a membership. This just seems silly that Halo 4 can be nominated for outstanding writing when other games are left unmentioned despite the fact they clearly benefit from strong narrative and story telling. Sad face.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Halo 4 would have had my vote by default. The other games I haven't played (or wouldn't pay for).

I would have liked Borderlands 2 to get a mention because the story is what kept me playing it.

But, as it has been mentioned this isn't something the gaming community should really be paying any mind.

 

[The_Echo]

Excuse me, but, what the fuck? Two Assassin's Creed titles? That's bullshit. I've never understood how multiple works from the same source are allowed to be nominated for the same award. It's just unfair, really.

Membership in the Guild being a prerequisite? Bullshit. Just seems unnecessary, no matter how simple becoming a member might be.

A Halo title being nominated for and "outstanding achievement in writing"?

Spoiler: ...

[small]Though I haven't played the series past 2, Halo's writing is decent at best.[/small]

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

This seems more like an award for the Writer's Guild to pat themselves on the back, less about the Writer's Guild actually handing others awards (like the Academy Awards or the much maligned VGAs).

 

[Strazdas]

SO this is basically in-game award to members who want to try themselves out.
nothing that is newsworthy then.
then again, considering that their members consists of these guys i guess its best we ignore the WGA alltogether.

P.S. i love your avatar.

P.S. 2: capcha disagrees: respect me

 

[GAunderrated]

The WGA award is a sham with those restrictions and to put it further they picked VERY poor candidates (for the most part, one or two exceptions) to represent writing in games.

This is why I love the internet and how it doesn't conform to their old dinosaur-like tactics of getting status.