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Possibly the worst selection of nominees for “best writing” in 2011

6
12 Jan 2012
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by Ryan Saul

This selection of nominees from the Writer’s Guild of America for best writing in video games seems…misguided?  No, this is the writer’s guild after all, so let’s use a thesaurus.  I’d say its: disinformed (I’m citing thesaurus.com on that word, its realness is questionable).

Apparently the Writer’s Guild of America has put together their nominees for the best video game writing of 2011 and it seems just a little bit off.  Hit the jump and see if you can spot some of the questionable choices.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, Story by Alexandre Amancio, Jean Guesdon, Corey May, Darby McDevitt; Multiplayer Story by Stéphane Blais, Richard Farrese, Jeffrey Yohalem; Lead Script Writer Darby McDevitt; Script Writers Richard Farrese, Nicholas Grimwood, Corey May, Jeffrey Yohalem; Greek and Turkish Ambient Dialogue Writer Vincenzo Beretta.

Batman: Arkham City, Lead Narrative Designer Paul Crocker; Story Written by Paul Dini, Paul Crocker and Sefton Hill.

Brink, Lead Writer Edward “Bongoboy” Stern.

Mortal Kombat, Story by John Vogel, Brian Chard, Dominic Cianciolo, Alexander Barrentine, Jon Greenberg.

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, Written by Amy Hennig.

Maybe I won’t get into what I  think are the wrong choices.  Let’s just consider some of the ones that apparently didn’t make the cut: Portal 2, Bastion, The Witcher 2.  Seems like there’s actually a wealth of great writing out there that didn’t make it.

I should remind everyone that a requirement of being nominated for a WGA award is that you actually need to be a member of the guild.  Many game writers may just not have been, but I at least expected Erik Wolpaw, lead writer of Portal 2, to be one.  Anyway, those are your best nominees for people who belong to a mostly irrelevant guild in the world of video games.

  1. hardband January 12, 2012 at 9:37 am Reply
    What is Brink doing there? It had a great premise, but the actual story was pretty much non-existent xD I also question Mortal Kombat, I mean it's got a relatively good story compared to other fighting games, but how does that beat the narrative in bastion? I do think the other three are pretty decent choices (even if uncharted 3 is a bit block bustery).
  2. giantsbane January 12, 2012 at 10:34 am Reply
    I feel like it's difficult to comment on this. Have you played all of these games thoroughly enough to say that the plots are inferior to those present in Poral 2, Bastion, or the Witcher?
    • Ryan Saul January 12, 2012 at 10:43 am Reply
      I can thoroughly comment on how Batman's dialog was pretty lame most of the time and the plot a little too complicated for its own good. Waiting to play Assassin's Creed Revelations, haven't heard great things, but a team of a dozen-odd writers feels like a bizarre nominating choice. Mortal Kombat....played only a few matches, never looked into the story. You got me there, maybe its the most brilliant story of the year. Brink's story was awful, I played more than enough of it to confirm this. The way the game was structured also made it extremely confusing to follow. I'll admit the concept was cool though. Haven't played Uncharted 3, but this actually sounded like the best choice on the list, so I'm not calling it out. Also, best writing doesn't necessarily mean "best plot". Usually its more to do with the dialog of the game, but I don't speak for the nominating process.
      • giantsbane January 12, 2012 at 11:34 am Reply
        I've played some Bastion...that's it from this list. I get what you're saying though. It's conceivable that the writing for some of these games is excellent, but seeing Mortal Kombat on the list did make me do a double-check (I wasn't even aware that there was a new iteration of that series). I'd expect some sort of RPG to be on the list as the plot or writing is generally one of that genre's selling points.
        • Ryan Saul January 12, 2012 at 11:37 am Reply
          Bastion actually wasn't on the list (thought it should have been), did you mean Brink?

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