Writer's Guild of America announces nominees for game writing award

The only thing that's consistently more ham-handed and embarrassing than the writing in games is the writing about games. Unlike the latter, however, small glimmers of hope emerge every year with the few games that thought it wise to deliver engaging dialogue and thoughtful plotting. This year alone saw titles like Mass Effect, BioShock and Portal being praised for exceptional writing and the emotional heft it lent to gameplay.

Of course, none of those were nominated for the Writer's Guild of America's first ever Video Game Writing Award, but never mind. The winner to grace the stage during the Writer's Guild Awards held in Los Angeles on February 9, 2008, will be chosen from this list of witty nominees:

Crash of the Titans -- Written by Christopher Mitchell for Sierra Entertainment
Dead Head Fred -- Written by Dave Ellis and Adam Cogan for D3 Publisher
The Simpsons Game -- With lead writer Matt Selman, written by Tim Long and Matt Warburton, dialogue by Jeff Poliquin for Electronic Arts
The Witcher -- With lead story designer Artur Ganszyniec, dialogue by Sebastian Stepien, additional dialogue by Marcin Blacha and writers Sande Chen and Anne Toole for Atari
World in Conflict -- Story design by Christofer Emgard, story consultant Larry Bond and script consultant Ed Zuckerman for Sierra Entertainment.

A game's eligibility hinged on being released between Dec. 1, 2006, and Nov. 30, 2007, and credited writers must have been or applied to become members of the WGA's New Media Caucus. Though we're undecided about which game deserves to win, we're certain that highlighting and rewording the good righting in games are vary importent.

Reader Comments (34)

I'd assume the writers of Mass Effect, Portal, and Bioshock are not part of the guild, then?

Anyways, out of those, i'd give it to The Simpsons Game, though I haven't played like...3 of those lol, soo....

I was thinking the exact same thing, how could BioShock and Mass Effect not be on there? They were both superbly written games.

It is a sin against all things good in this world that Portal is not on this list.

You HAVE to be in a guidl so such abnominations ar The Witcher translation into english are on this list...

"The Witcher -- With lead story designer Artur Ganszyniec, dialogue by Sebastian Stepien, additional dialogue by Marcin Blacha and writers Sande Chen and Anne Toole for Atari"
All should be shot without mercy.

@note to myself - don't post before proof-reading :(

The whole lesbian alien sex thing probably scared them off.

Apparently, Mass Effect pales in comparison to The Simpsons Game.

We must be in Bizarro world.

If you can get past the somewhat poor translation, the story in The Witcher is amazing.

Where's God of War II?

(OT: go WGA - your strike demands are imminently reasonable!)

This seems to me as a means to get more members in the Writers Guild.

Of the nominees, my choice would be The Simpsons game. Despite its short comings, it's really the type of Simpsons game I always wanted. It has the same wit and humor as the series, in addition to all of the same voice acting from the series and cameos from many memorable characters.

But, I'm sure your choice is the correct one.

Whomever thought up, "The cake is a lie. The cake is a lie. The cake is a lie. The cake is a lie." should win the biggest award they have.

Don't you get it? The award is a lie!

Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?

Great selection there. I know I was riveted to my seat in anticipation as I played... none of those games.

Ludwig, you're the best righter evar. :)

Yes, you're vary right.

he speeled rewording coractly even if it was out of context ;)

righting is easy

what is the big deel heer?

I think some striking reality show writers have found joystiq.

It's a shame Portal isn't on this list, because it would take the cake... literally.

WHAT cake? ;)

hmmm.. Out of those my pick would be Dead Head Fred. I enjoyed but I'm sure there were other games with better stories.

You must be fucking kidding me. The Simpson game????

Where's Portal, Biochok, Mass Effect, HL-Episode 2 What the fuck?

Groening must be sucking reeeeaaal good.

No Bioshock or Portal? And yet Crash of the Titans makes the list???

People, please read the entire post. Only games that have writers who've applied or are in the WGA get considered.

That being said, the hate against The Witcher is unneccessary, yes the translation butchered the dialogue, still a great game. World in Conflict, however, deserves to be well above Bioshock.

I'm so damn happy to see World in Conflict get some attention for it's writing because people are completely over looking it's single player and it's a damn shame they don't see an RTS doing the whole package RIGHT for once.

@People clamoring for Portal: As much as I love the game the fact that it's a popular internet meme doesn't make it deserving of honours for writing. This isn't to say it's bad (it's quite good) but it really doesn't stand up to WiC or Mass Effect in terms of overall quality.

What about Uncharted: Drake's Fortune? The plot itself may have sucked, but the writing was excellent.

I was about to say that. That game was written like a movie....a good movie....id pay to see it. It was even more fun playing it.

It was certainly better than National Treasure 2.

Of course well written games will be excluded as the WGA is a shoddy union. Unions serve some purposes, they help keep corporations honest on overtime, rally to get better health coverage, et cetra. Then there are unions that sue or threaten a strike for double profits on free internet downloads in the hopes that they can eventually raise union dues.

The WGA is absolute crap. The people on strike right now should say: "Forget this union, I'll go back to work, and instead... join the Animation Guild."

You are so misinformed - if they join animation, they don't get things like residuals.

What a load of horseshit your uninformed opinion represents!

So, basically, only "slumming" TV and movie writers are eligible for the award. What a crock.

Just to be equally arbitrary I think we need to start limiting "Best Director" awards to members of the Mile High Club...

Now that the guild has proven they can see through the shiny graphics and hype of games like Mass Effect or Bioshock I definitively support there strike.

Now all they need to do is make an "of all time" award so they can give Planescape Torment a prize

Writer's Guild of America announces nominees for game writing award

Reader Comments (34)

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