Comments on: Writers Guild Videogame Award Nominees

By: ru

ru — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 03:34:36 +0000

i am grateful few of the best-written games are on this list. if they won, they’d have wga writer credits. though i don’t know the mechanics of their contracts, but i know the wga make hollywood a closed shop and their strike left us with a weak television season and an even weaker year for movies.

By: mister slim

mister slim — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:45:24 +0000

Who’s “Toby Guard”?

By: ohnoabear

ohnoabear — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 06:40:24 +0000

The only writing award Fallout 3 can win in good conscience is “Most Writing.” The sheer amount of dialogue in the game would be impressive if 90% of it wasn’t ridiculous garbage that no person in their right mind would ever say.

I think Red Alert 3’s writing is underappreciated, though. It perfectly fits the goofy camp quality the whole game is so obviously going for. For the first time in a C&C game, the cutscenes have been fun to watch rather than painful. They’re a guilty pleasure (like the rest of the game), but a pleasure nonetheless.

Also, I’m surprised that Keith Nemitz of DHSGiT is a member of the WGA. Or did they open the awards to nonmembers this year?

By: Spartacus Morbidia

Spartacus Morbidia — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 03:00:20 +0000

Fallout 3 did not have exemplary writing. Competent for the amount there was, but not award-worthy. Left 4 Dead has a lot of good one-liners, but I don’t think that really merits an award for best writing of the whole year. Penny Arcade deserves a writing award. The words that showed up at the start of a battle (”Peril!”) were pretty funny, but when I was greeted by “OH FUCK!” in a whooshing, red font, I ended up losing the battle because I was laughing too hard. That, and the scene with the model ferris wheel deserve an award. I also thought I Fell In Love With the Majesty of Colors had really interesting writing.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 01:18:03 +0000

jackflash said:

I can’t really remember a game I thought had incredible writing since Planescape : Torment. Deus Ex, I suppose, but that was a long time ago, too.

I was going to say The Longest Journey, but then I looked up its release date and it actually came out a month earlier. :P

By: teko

teko — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:07:26 +0000

So, I’m guessing the nominee list sucks because it can only include writers that are members of The Writers Guild?

There’s a lot more independent games with better writing than these…

By: Funky Badger

Funky Badger — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:17:13 +0000

YOU SEE ME NOW!?!

*ahem*

By: SofS

SofS — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:14:04 +0000

Funky Badger: I had forgotten about Bas! That was one of the few bellylaughs I got out of a game the whole year. I’m entirely unsure that his part was “written”, though. It sounded like it could have been extemporaneous.

I like the fact that plotting is apparently important for these considerations. Good dialogue is important, but I’ve never enjoyed it as part of a story that I didn’t care about (hence why I’ve never understood the appeal of Jane Austen).

By: c0wb0y

c0wb0y — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:17:44 +0000

WHY ISN’T LEFT 4 DEAD NOT ON THE LIST??? oh, you must need tons of annoying cut scenes that no one wants to watch in your game to get nominated. Making believable characters you can identify with is for chumps, suckers, and fat people!

By: ScubaV

ScubaV — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:50:39 +0000

Whether you judge it on plot or dialogue or both, Fallout 3’s writing was terribad. But since people have mentioned only a small subset of games even qualify for the awards, it makes sense that some garbage is going to have to be propped up.

By: Funky Badger

Funky Badger — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:30:29 +0000

GTAIV, by a mile. I really liked Florian, and especially Niko’s acceptance of him. And the only thing to top Bas Rutten turned up to eleven in games this year was Little jacob talking to (Real) Badman…

(An aside on the 360: GoW2’s scripting and performances were very good, again)

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:06:37 +0000

I loved playing through Fallout 3, but I will admit that the stories weren’t … award-worthy. I enjoyed it more for the stories I was able to create around my character. The strange things that happened, like The Republic of Dave going completely aggro on me and mobbing me out of the place; just imagine walking up to the gate, seeing the little girl cower in fear and knowing that some crap was about to go down (still don’t know what happened), accidentally starting a war with and having to kill all the slavers, and having to indirectly murder Paladin Hoss(blew up a car next to him) because he stole some guns out of my home, after following me around for nearly 75% of the game. Honestly, I can’t really remember a game in recent memory that truly had good writing, the last ones I can think of are the Baldur Gate games, I would say Warcraft 3 as well. Say what you will about Blizzard (but we all know you’re just trying to be a unique and beautiful snowflake), they can at least write very well.