Prince of Persia dialogue writer wins UK Writer's Guild award

by Griffin McElroy on Nov 30th 2009 8:00PM

The 2008 reboot of the Prince of Persia franchise (which, apparently, is getting shut down) featured some of the most enjoyable snark and pith we've ever heard in a video game. Fortunately, Andy Walsh, the man responsible for the Prince and Elika's sharp-tongued exchanges, was recently recognized for his witty dialogue when he won the Writers' Guild of Great Britain Games Award last night in London.

Normally, this is where we'd drop in a quote from Walsh about how excited he was to receive the award, but it doesn't seem that anyone initiated the optional dialogue with him following the Writers' Guild awards ceremony. Too bad, something tells us we've missed out on the best part.

Source

Tags: andy-walsh, awards, dialogue, Microsoft, prince-of-persia, ubisoft, uk, writer, writers-guild, writing, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (47)

gay

you is?

Stop looking in the mirror, then.

Your happy? Good for you!

Your username is gay, indeed.
Someone close off the flood of 12 year-olds.

hey guys, awesome, respond to homophobic comments with more homophobic comments

well a negative times a negative is a positive.

Am I the only one here that never thought the Prince of Persia games were any good?

I just couldn't get into the first (3D) one and the others were the same (The original DOS classic was a different story)

I thought the sands of time was great, after that it went downhill for me

The last game's "prince" was a completely unlikeable jackass. Regardless of the complaints levelled at the game for being too boring / too easy / no challenge, all of that would melt away if the characters were compelling.

It's as if Ubisoft weren't satisfied with the job they did destroying the prince's charm with Warrior Within.

But...but...it was Nolan North!

I wouldn't blame North for the lousy script. In fact, I would only partially blame Mr. Walsh. The fault lies with the producers who insisted upon this hyper-sarcastic American a-hole. His character totally belies the (admittedly beautiful) art style and setting of the game.

Honestly if Walsh, and by extension North, were going for whiny, snarky drivel, then they completely nailed it!

God, why does Nolan North have to be EVERYONE? He was even some crazy/retarded dwarf in Dragon Age!

Which Dwarf? Where? I knew he's 'various voices' in Dragon Age, but I never spotted him in 2 play throughs..

Nolan North is in Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time too!

He truly is in everything.

The writing was awful. How much did Ubisoft pay for this?

I wonder what the other nominees were...

The dialogue was the games only saving grace.

this prince of persia game had some of the worst writing and voice acting of all time. is that what the award was for?

Obviously not, or Two Worlds's writer would have gotten a Lifetime Achievement Award.

verily, forsooth

If you really think that, I don't believe you've played many games before.

@jason - why would make a statement like that? if i don't play tons of games, why would i be on this site? nobody can say they've honestly played every video game ever but i would say i am fairly experienced.

examples of excellent voice acting:
demon's souls.
uncharted 1 and 2.

What about those broad shoulders?
She dresses like woman & talks like one but I don't know about those shoulders...

The writing was great, the don't just judge on depth alone but the humor, relevance, believable interaction between characters, and so on which Prince of Persia had in spades. I loved the banter between the Prince and Elika, it was one of many things that pushed me through the game. I don't get all the hate this game receives, it was one of my favorites of 2008.

I really liked the naturally and quick-witted exchanges between the two characters. I also enjoyed the fact that the characters got closer and more friendly as the game went on, showing a subtlety in growing relationships that is typically ignored in a video game. Usually someone just falls in love with someone else faster than a cheetah hunting down a gazelle and everyone goes along with it like it is perfectly normal.

While I also loved the dialogue between the two, and was sure to press the dialogue button anytime it was available, I have to disagree with your point about "growing relationships." Because the dialogue for each of the areas was different, and you could go in any order, I felt as if the Prince had to start over with getting to know Elika in every area. I really looked forward to watching them grow, like the Prince with Farah in SoT, but I don't feel it ever really happened.

Interesting.
I just paused prince of persia like 2 minutes ago.
Trying to finish it up, I usually use December as my backlog month

The dialog in this game was brilliant, tied in my mind with that of Mass Effect. This guy deserves more awards. That is, as soon as he stops staring at my ass.

The extra dialogue really added a lot to my experience with the game, which I thought was great!

I am sad they seem to be moving away from this new series.

She has shoulders?

This was one of the worst games ever.

Elika: Why are you doing this? Why are you helping me? You're not doing it for me, are you? I've seen how you look at me... I've seen that look before...
Prince: Now look, you're cute, but not 'stay to fight a dark god' cute.
Elika: Would you have helped... if my father had asked you?
Prince: He's not that cute either.

There was too much of that stuff.

The writing was good in the game, but the requirement that nearly every conversation only have 4 lines total and be interchangeable with every other conversation meant nothing could be tied together. If you want quips, it's great, if you want a developed story, it's not nearly as good.

Every area had conversations that were unique to that area. Usually they revealed more information about the Corrupted or the characters or the kingdom. They were skippable, but the development was definitely there.

Are they serious? The dialogue in Uncharted 2 blows it away!

I wouldn't know how the writing in Uncharted 2 stacks up as I have neither the equipment or the enthusiasm to play it, but I'm pretty sure that Uncharted 2 writer Amy Hennig is American and therefore doesn't qualify for the UK Writer's Guild award.

He's right. The dialogue between Chloe and Elena alone is better than the writing in any game in the last two years except for Portal.

That wasn't the point Markusdragon. The point was rewarding mediocracy.

"mediocracy"
Sequel to idiocracy?

The thing was, since you could only have a chat standing still, it got in the way. If you could have had a chat anytime, it might have actually made the game less boring.

Deserving. Half the game was made good with the witty exchanges between the two protagonists.

I did find the dialogue entertaining in this game. Sadly, the gameplay didn't interest me enough to keep playing. I find as I get older there's enough stress in life. I don't need to deal with virtual trail and error. Not to mention not knowing where to go half the time.

But good on the Mr. Walsh. Dragon Age has very good dialogue as well. That should get some recognition I feel.

The worst part of the game was the ending - which was at the very least unbelievable, and forced. You didn't actually have a choice as to what outcome happened.. the credits didn't roll until you made a RIDICULOUS choice.

The dialog, whether funny or not, did not make me believe that they had a relationship. He was annoying and sarcastic, and whenever he acted outside that role, it was not in a believable fashion. There was no romance. There was a guy running around and jumping, and a magic girl automatically saving his bacon.

Slow site double posted me.. and I don't see a way to delete it. Apologies

I love the video game BAFTA's because I know that there are a lot of award ceremonies for video games such as the Golden Joystick Awards and the Spike awards too but there is nothing like the "Oscar's" so I guess this is the video game equivalent right?

http://systemfailnews.blogspot.com/

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Prince of Persia dialogue writer wins UK Writer's Guild award

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