Writers Guild Reveals Game Writing Award Nominees

Keane Ng

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Sep 11, 2008
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Writers Guild Reveals Game Writing Award Nominees



The Writers Guild of America [http://www.wga.org/] has revealed its nominees for the best videogame writing of 2008 award, and they span a wide breadth of genres from well-known titles like Fallout 3 and The Force Unleashed to a relative unknown like the quirky indie Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble!

The Writers Guild of America, when it wasn't too busy negotiating the end of a strike last year, seems to have time to play a few games. The ones they thought had the best writing are up for an award, one that, according to Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble [http://weblogs.variety.com/the_cut_scene/2009/01/writers-guild-videogame-award-nominees-announced.html][/I]!

A pretty varied selection, to be sure. Fallout 3 obviously gets credit for the absolutely behemoth amount of writing that went into its dozens of quests and NPC conversations, even if some would argue that the writing itself might've proven that quality will always triumph quantity. The Force Unleashed, I recall, got more acclaim for its story than its gameplay, with cast [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/5311-Review-Star-Wars-The-Force-Unleashed]. As for Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble!, I think that title alone probably warrants some kind of recognition.

The nominees and winners are chosen by the Writers Guild's Videogame Writers Caucus. Any writers who were in the Caucus could submit their own games for nomination (this is how Dangerous High School Girls made it in). Of course a game had to be submitted to be eligible, so if you're seeing a game you think ought to have been recognized, it may very well just not have been submitted for nomination. Where is Gears of War 2, you might wonder. After all, who can forget the best line [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz3nWY_fegw] from all of videogames in 2008?

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Feb 13, 2008
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Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble is actually a really good game. If you can imagine Saved By The Bell or Grange Hill (Country varying) in the 1920's, then you've just about got it. Oh, and throw in some Cluedo as well.
 

PedroSteckecilo

Mexican Fugitive
Feb 7, 2008
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Don't forget

"There must be a Shit ton of grubs down there!"

"More like ten shit tons"

and my personal favorite...

"Jus lemme light up Betties titties"

Quality stuff...

Also, despite the game being bleak and completely Fun Starved(tm by Rockstar), where the hell is GTAIV, most of Niko's lines in that game were pretty damn good.
 

CoverYourHead

High Priest of C'Thulhu
Dec 7, 2008
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Personally I liked the story of TFU, gameplay wasn't great, but I loved the story. I wish they made a movie on TFU more then any other crap.
 

Keane Ng

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Sep 11, 2008
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PedroSteckecilo said:
Don't forget

"There must be a Shit ton of grubs down there!"

"More like ten shit tons"

and my personal favorite...

"Jus lemme light up Betties titties"

Quality stuff...

Also, despite the game being bleak and completely Fun Starved(tm by Rockstar), where the hell is GTAIV, most of Niko's lines in that game were pretty damn good.
Dom: You ever seen them eat this stuff, Marcus?

Marcus: They can eat s**t and die for all I care.
 

Logan Westbrook

Transform, Roll Out, Etc
Feb 21, 2008
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The nominations are only for games that head their script submitted to the WGA, which is why the list looks a little weird.
 

Fightgarr

Concept Artist
Dec 3, 2008
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Wow. Evidence that games need to start hiring better writers? Right there. While I've never played the Dangerous HS Girls in Trouble! and am not really familiar with the C&C storyline, the others weren't exactly masterpieces of literature. More like pulp fiction.
 

Jhereg42

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Apr 11, 2008
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Vlane said:
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Seriously?
Actually, the writing and voice acting in the game were beyond good. Seriously, this deserves consideration for the award.

Complaints about bugs, how the game was too short, or how the character could not platform to save his life (the most common complaints) have little to do with the script. This is not Game of the Year, it's best writing.
 

Ronmarru

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Aug 17, 2008
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What about Metal Gear Solid 4? It might have been confusing and drawn over a decade but I loved how it wrapped up all the loose ends. Also considering that a good chunk of the game was story.
 

Samah

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Jul 7, 2008
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It's a pity they couldn't go as far back as the Infinity engine games. Planescape: Torment and the entire Baldur's Gate series outshines all of them in terms of writing.
 

sheic99

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Oct 15, 2008
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Dectilon said:
"What about Metal Gear Solid 4?"

"Writers Guild of America"
You forgot that it takes a flow chart to understand the story if you haven't played the other games.