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Writers Guild of America Stands Up For Writers (And Itself)
The Writers Guild of America has endured some flak from gamers for its annual awards, which always seem to have glaring omissions when it comes to recognizing the best storytelling of the year. The organization claims that the blame rests with publishers who won't recognize their talent.
For example, in this year's awards (which AC: Brotherhood won, by the way) you won't find Heavy Rain, Mass Effect 2, or Red Dead Redemption on this list of nominees, though they were regarded as having some of the year's best narratives. Previously, this was thought to be because the nominees had to be members of the guild. In a guess column at GamesIndustry.biz, WGA spokesman Micah Wright says that's a misconception, and that the only membership requirement is belonging to the Video game Writers Caucus, which costs only $60 per year.
The real problem is publishers not giving credit where it is due when it comes to a script. "The first year, several games which people believed should have won our award were not eligible because the developer didn't bother to credit the people who wrote those games," says Wright. "That's an insult, and as a guild of professional writers, we're not about to give an award to either a mystery person, or to a company which can't be bothered to honor the workers who made their game."
Still, something about that explanation doesn't seem totally right. That would mean that Sony Computer Entertainment was reluctant to credit David Cage for Heavy Rain, or that EA didn't want to give props to Mac Walters and Drew Karpyshyn for Mass Effect 2, despite the fact that singing these individuals' praise was a main part of the hype machine leading up to the games' releases. On the other hand, maybe the companies didn't want to admit that these people were not solely responsible for all of the writing.
(Source: GamesIndustry.biz via Joystiq)
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