Dead Head Fred wins WGA's first Video Game Writing Award

by Christopher Grant { Feb 15th 2008 at 11:00AM }

Now that that silly writer's strike is under control, it's time to get back to the busy work of ... video game writing awards! The Writer's Guild of America has chosen the winner – from amongst five nominees – of its first-ever Video Game Writing Award. Congratulations to the team at Vicious Cycle Software for their work on Dead Head Fred.

As much as we enjoyed Dead Head Fred (it even made one of our Best of the Rest '07 lists), there's still that part of us that says it wasn't a fair fight. In a year that included some of the best video game writing we can think of, the fact that the WGA's nominees didn't include titles like Mass Effect, BioShock, or Portal leaves us feeling ... well, uneasy.

We understand that the game's writers must have been or applied to become members of the WGA's New Media Caucus in order to be eligible for the award so, fair enough, perhaps the other games weren't. Regardless, highlighting quality game writing – regardless of the game – is a noble task in an industry where all your base are belong to the master of unlocking, y'know?

Tags: D3, Dead-Head-Fred, Video-Game-Writing-Award, WGA

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

StarFoxA @ Feb 15th 2008 11:06AM

WTF? Why didn't Carnival Games win? :|:|:|:|

Mr.ESC @ Feb 15th 2008 11:11AM

I actually wanted to buy this game but the reviews were pretty bad.

FOXHOUND @ Feb 15th 2008 12:21PM

Honestly, if this had been an interactive comic game like MGS:DIGITAL GRAPHIC NOVEL(or how DEATH JR *should* have been); this game probably would've been even better. The gameplay was just too repetative and there was more backtracking than the early RESIDENT EVIL games. x_o" If you can find this game for under $25, it's worth a purchase though.

Mr.ESC @ Feb 15th 2008 1:55PM

MGS:DIGITAL GRAPHIC NOVEL

I have that comic,is freaking sweet.I always wanted to get the secodn title.

Silent Hill experience is also a great title,is one of the few non-game UMD titles I have.

Marty @ Feb 15th 2008 11:12AM

Never even heard of this game before this article.

ViagraFiend @ Feb 15th 2008 11:21AM

It was ok. The writing was witty at times but the clunky gameplay ruined it for me.

Portal should have won. In fact, Portal should win every award. Ever.

Cesaria @ Feb 15th 2008 11:58AM

Agreed. Portal is easily one of the best written games ever made, if not THE best.

koehler83 @ Feb 15th 2008 11:20AM

I was waiting and waiting for this game when it was announced..

When the launch day came, I went looking for it.. But as far as I can tell, it was never put on shelves. I have literally never seen this game before.

MarMar @ Feb 15th 2008 11:38AM

The problem with Mass Effect's writing is that it lacks originality. I don't even watch that much sci-fi, but it seems like every couple days I hear about another thing Mass Effect ripped off. And yeah, it's cool to borrow or whatever, but sometimes the paralels are simply direct lifts -- like the Terra Prima "Earth First!" people you run into you are racist against aliens or whatever. I was reading about Star Trek in wikipedia, and there was an organization of that exact name and function in the prequel series! (and they, similarly, got in the way of Earth's efforts to join/form an interplanetary government thingy-ma-bob). That's just one example, there's a billion others, but I don't want to get in a comment war with some fanboy, so I'll leave it at that. But anyways, you probably shouldn't expect much recognition from the WGA when your writing copies other guild member's concepts and terminologies.

DEllis @ Feb 15th 2008 1:58PM

In order to have been considered for nomination for the WGA award, the development team or publisher had to submit the game script to the Writer's Guild for consideration. So, it's more likely that the games in question (BioShock, Mass Effect, and so on) simply were not submitted for consideration.

We only found out about the awards about two weeks before the deadline, so it's not surprising that some might have missed out on submitting. Or maybe weren't interested in submitting.

So...there's really no need to feel "uneasy" about it. Just encourage your favorite developers to submit their scripts next year if you want to see a particular game win.