Writer's Guild Nominates Game Writing

Ars Technica's Opposable Thumbs blog notes that the Writer's Guild of America stepped back from the picket line long enough to nominate a few 2007 games for great writing. Unfortunately, their nominees suck. The list of nominees consists of: "Crash of the Titans, Written by Christopher Mitchell, Sierra Entertainment. Dead Head Fred, Written by Dave Ellis and Adam Cogan, D3 Publisher. The Simpsons Game, Lead Writer Matt Selman, Written by Tim Long and Matt Warburton, Dialogue by Jeff Poliquin, Electronic Arts. The Witcher, Lead Story Designer Artur Ganszyniec, Dialogue Sebastian Stepien, Additional Dialogue Marcin Blacha, Writers Sande Chen and Anne Toole, Atari. World in Conflict, Story Design Christofer Emgard, Story Consultant Larry Bond, Script Consultant Ed Zuckerman, Sierra Entertainment." No Mass Effect? Nothing at all from the Orange Box? No BioShock? For shame, WGA.

Game writers members of WGA?

[ThePulverizer]

Just speculation on my part: perhaps the writers contributing to Mass Effect/Orange Box/Bioshock are not members of the WGA and hence weren't considered for nomination?

Re:

[EtoilePB]

This is my first thought, too. If the WGA is only nominating union-written games -- which would make sense -- then it stands to reason from the list that union membership isn't (yet?) as pervasive in the gaming world as in the film and television worlds.

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[MBCook]

I'll say that the writing on the Simpsons game was fantastic. From some of the simpler jokes, to the whole plot (and how it ends) they did a fantastic job. It's too bad the rest of the game is so mediocre that it can be trying to play though.

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[ControversialMatt]

I agree, but its storyline doesn't hold a candle to Mass Effect, to say nothing of Bioshock and Portal.

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[Firethorn]

While Bioshock's got a indepth storyline, I'd tend to say that Portal would generally be considered fairly simple.

Considering the titles - I'd tend to agree that the only ones eligible for this award were union written ones.

So, you're saying that Portal was great then?

[DingerX]

Since it didn't waste any time with depth and went straight for quality. It's all economy, no fat. In terms of writing, it was perfect: it's so slight that many folks can discount it as "just a game," but for those who look, it's at one time an implementation of "games as learning" theory and the playtest-intensive approach of Valve and a criticism of it. How much of the game is simply an exercise, and how much of it is being measured by some remote server and being scored as a victory? Portal has some of the most endearing writing because it takes the stereotypes of "test gone wrong" (which built Half Life, among others) and the "lying computer", and twists them ultimately into "test gone right" ("This was a triumph") and "truthful computer" ("The difference between us is that I can feel pain" - prima facie so wrong, but on further reflection, so right).

But it also poses the greatest threat to the WGA. Just look at how it was developed. Yes, they had professional writers in the various cabals, and those guys are venerated for their work. Yet their development structure gave everyone input.

Create an environment where extremely creative people who specialize in different disciplines inspire each other to great heights, and the result is greater than any could achieve in their own domain, were turf boundaries established. To do so, however, requires an egalitarian environment antithetical to the traditional management/labor divide. Enslaved masses, forward!

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[SharpFang]

It was simple, but masterfully done. A story of a hundred plotlines may be just 'inedible', boring. A short, concise, to the point story may be great. Portal had a very standard plot, but the mood was amazing - it was a comedy-horror mix, with the horror part dominating the comedy part, each complimenting the other and the mood being ultimately confusing, a feeling of conflict. You feel from the beginning that the voice is your enemy, so the praises for your achievments don't feel rewarding at all.

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[grahamd0]

Portal has some of the best writing in the history of gaming. The settings are generally visually bland, and the way the writing compliments, contrasts and enhances the environment is amazing.

As the gameplay alone would make that game playable, it shows Valve's commitment to their craft that they took the time and the money to work in dialog that actually made me laugh out loud. In a puzzle game with one talking character!

Having a simple story doesn't mean you don't have good writing.

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[Firethorn]

I enjoyed portal. The plot fit well and it was fun.

Still, what I mean by simple is that the amount of writing, acting, is minimal compared to many games. More than some like bedazzled, but like I said, less than bioshock.

We never got a huge amount of back story, nor met anybody but the computer other than some writings in hidden spots.

Having a simple story doesn't mean you don't have good writing.

Yes, but it might cost you some consideration in an award like this.

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[7Prime]

This is WRITING not story concept. Those are two entirely different things. Just because something has a cool story doesn't neccessarilly mean it was well written. On the contrary, I find that many games escape good writing by titilating their audiences with "neato" story concepts. Mass Effect's writing wasn't bad, but it wasn't all that spectacular either, it was mostly pretty utilitarian, with the dialog being mostly about the subjects immediately at hand, with just enough personality for the characters t

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[twistedsymphony]

The thing most people neglect about the writing in Bioshock and something that is IMO the reason it's such a well written game and should be nominated is the twist near the end... It's something that wouldn't have had the same kind of impact had you been watching a movie because in a game you're an active participant. The writing along provided replay value through it's sheer craftsmanship by encouraging you to play the game again and see it in a different light knowing what you learn in the end.

Add to t

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[elrous0]

You mean you don't think the brilliant writers of "According to Jim" and "CSI: Duluth" could do better? Blasphemy!

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[Anonymous Coward]

While that's a possibility, IMDB'ing some of the names suggest they're probably not WGA members. Artur Ganszyniec for example, is an Eastern European with zero television/film credits. Christopher Mitchell doesn't show up at all. I don't believe you even can join the WGA unless you work an industry (film or TV) job first (and I know a bit about it, having once been an associate member.)

Just a guess but I would bet nominations such as this come from within the WGA, instead of polling the game industry (or

Yeah stepped back from the picket lines alright...

[the_skywise]

A> WGA awards probably only nominate WGA members...
B> Why on earth would the WGA want to promote *game* writing... hmmmm... more union members mebbe?

Re:Yeah stepped back from the picket lines alright

[Cheeko]

Yeah I'd have to assume the Writers guild is the same as the directors guild or the actors guild.

If I recall correctly one of the reason Quinten Tarantino can't be nominated for a bunch of different awards is that he refused to join most of the guilds.

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[ivan256]

The crux of the writers strike is that they would rather work on a continuing revenue basis that with a living wage paid up front. Game companies pay their writers a salary, not a fraction of each sale.

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[Telvin_3d]

The crux of the writers strike is that they are not paid a living wage up front. They don't really expect one as the majority of writing positions in the entertainment industry don't lend themselves well to that kind of setup. However, while they are not getting salaries the studios are being dicks about the residuals that are supposed to make up the difference. This makes things hard on the writers. Hence the strike.

Now, I don't think this model would work very well in the game environment. But in the

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[makomk]

Actually, I think the issue at the core of the writer's strike is that while they are paid a living wage while they're actually working, the vast, vast majority of the writers aren't working most of the time, so they depend somewhat on residuals to make up the gap. (Yes, this is basically the exact opposite of how free markets are supposed to work, because it isn't a free market - the WGA basically have a near-total monopoly over the industry by requiring companies to force all employees to join if they wan

Re:Translation:

[hal2814]

That's what the WGA claims is the crux of the strike but when studio execs agreed to deal provided about a half-dozen unrelated items were considered off the table for discussion [google.com], the WGA refused. The studio execs are willing to negotiate electronic distribution royalties.

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[dq5 studios]

The studio execs agreed to nothing. They offered up their own formula for residuals on internet use that the WGA rejected. The AMPTP (studio execs) then left saying that will be their only offer until the other demands are removed.
The AMPTP isn't willing to negotiate anything, they just want to make demands.

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[mcvos]

From your link:

Talks broke down Dec. 7 after the union rejected an alliance demand that a half-dozen guild proposals be taken off the table, including jurisdiction over reality and animation writers.

I don't understand what they mean by jurisdiction here. Surely the WGA isn't a law enforcement organisation? It's just a union, right? Aren't writers, be they for TV series, animation or games, free to choose their own union to represent them? How can the alliance stop writers from choosing their own union? H

Jurisdiction

[jacobw]

I don't understand what they mean by jurisdiction here. Surely the WGA isn't a law enforcement organisation? It's just a union, right? Aren't writers, be they for TV series, animation or games, free to choose their own union to represent them? How can the alliance stop writers from choosing their own union? How can the WGA demand jurisdiction over them?

As I understand it, the WGA has an exclusive deal with the members of the AMPTP (the producers' alliance) in certain areas. For example, NBC has agreed th

Union monopolies

[mcvos]

Although I can understand that union leaders like deals like that, I can't help but feel that such deals are harmful to the workers themselves (the writers, in this case). If a union has a complete monopoly on a certain kind of labour, that means workers aren't free to choose which union to let them be represented by, they're not free not to join a union, and if they're not in a union, they're not allowed to do the work they want. If a minority of union members disagree with union policy, they're not free t

Re:

[jacobw]

If a union has a complete monopoly on a certain kind of labour, that means workers aren't free to choose which union to let them be represented by, they're not free not to join a union, and if they're not in a union, they're not allowed to do the work they want.

Actually, looking at my previous post, I was unintentionally misleading. Let me clarify:

I mentioned that NBC (for example) has agreed to only employ WGA members for its sitcoms. But what happens if they want to hire you, and you're not a WGA mem

Re:Translation:

[kidcharles]

I have been giving the residuals vs. salary issue some thought recently and here are my initial conclusions. There are two categories of product, finite and infinite. "Finite" products are those that require labor to reproduce, including both goods (cars, computers, etc.) and services (customer support, waiting tables at a restaurant, etc.). Then there are products that are "infinite" (essentially intellectual property), such as scripts, movies, computer games, and recorded music. All of these things can now be reproduced infinitely with trivial effort.

Corporations that sell finite goods can only sell them once; if they want more of them to sell, they must rely on new labor efforts, for which the laborers must be compensated. Corporations that sell infinite goods can sell extremely cheap-to-produce reproductions of their products with no practical limits, and do not require more labor to make them (except for DVD pressings or servers hosting the material for example, which typically represent a tiny fraction of production costs).

Now we address fairness in each of these types of product. Finite products produce a predictable revenue, that can be examined to see if the compensation to the laborers who produced it is considered "fair." Infinite products produce a very unpredictable revenue, that can vary substantially. A movie that performs poorly can make a tenth of what a box office success can make. In this case, the "fairness" of compensation, measured by the ratio of the salary paid to the laborer to the revenue from sales, can vary wildly.

It seems to me that laborers in "infinite" production industries have a very good argument for residuals, from the perspective of fairness.

Re:Translation:

[spectecjr]

It seems to me that laborers in "infinite" production industries have a very good argument for residuals, from the perspective of fairness.

Although frankly, if they want residuals in the games industry, they can get the fuck in line. Behind the programmers, artists, animators, fx guys, et al. (Same goes for the actors - fuck you! You want royalties on a performance that took you at most a week? We slaved over that game for over three years, working evenings, weekends, you name it).

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[SatanicPuppy]

Shrug. The difference between a well written game and a poorly written game is so obvious as to not even need pointing out. A poorly written game with beautiful graphics, is still likely to be a flop, while a graphically mediocre game with excellent writing can be a huge success.

You can't just write it off based on how much time it took. Time is a poor measure of value. If you sic two programmers independently on the same task, the final product matters more than the time it took to produce (within reason).

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[complete loony]

Just because programming a game takes a large amount of perspiration and effort over a long period of time doesn't mean you can demote programmers to the lowly status of labourer. A great programmer is as much of an artist as a great writer. Writing well structured, reusable code is hard.

While I realise having a good writer, like having a good salesman, is indispensable. And can make a huge difference to your profitability. So is having a good programmer. Good talent should be rewarded in every discipline.

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[edwdig]

The difference between a well written game and a poorly written game is so obvious as to not even need pointing out. A poorly written game with beautiful graphics, is still likely to be a flop, while a graphically mediocre game with excellent writing can be a huge success.

A game with great gameplay and crap writing will be a far bigger success than a game with crap gameplay and great writing. Sure, if you're making an RPG, you're mostly relying on the storyline to drive your game. But for the vast majority

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[TheSeer2]

I'm fairly sure you're referring to designers, which are quite distinct from writers.

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[DavidTC]

Okay, I don't know if everyone's enter some alternate universe or something, but residues on computer games are extremely stupid to talk about. At all.

Residues are what you get from later sales. With movies, it's TV and DVDs, with TV, it's syndication and DVDs (and not the internet, apparently).

TV and movie writers are either on a flat salary, or paid per episode/for the movie, which covers them for the original airing. (And with movie writers, often they get a cut of the net.) And then they have residues

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[jacobw]

Although frankly, if they want residuals in the games industry, they can get the fuck in line. Behind the programmers, artists, animators, fx guys, et al. (Same goes for the actors - fuck you! You want royalties on a performance that took you at most a week? We slaved over that game for over three years, working evenings, weekends, you name it).

I agree with you completely, but to be fair, "programmers should get royalties" does not equate to "writers should not get royalties." In Hollywood, gains earned b

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[westlake]

actors - fuck you! You want royalties on a performance that took you at most a week? We slaved over that game for over three years, working evenings, weekends, you name it

You aren't paying for the actor's time.

You are paying for his talent and resources. You are paying because he was right for the part.

You are paying for the marquee value of his name.

In the animated film, the voices are recorded first. The vocal performance, the personality of the actor, shapes the design and animation of the character

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[spectecjr]

You aren't paying for the actor's time.

You are paying for his talent and resources. You are paying because he was right for the part.

You are paying for the marquee value of his name.

In the animated film, the voices are recorded first. The vocal performance, the personality of the actor, shapes the design and animation of the character.

Not the case in games, trust me. Not only that, but I seriously disagree with the practice of using A-list actors in games. I'd much rather use agency voice actors; the big na

Re:Translation:

[naoursla]

You are looking for the terms "rival" and "nonrival".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivalrous [wikipedia.org]

A related concept is "excludability".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excludability [wikipedia.org]

One can make a matrix of these two categories and place most products into one of the quadrants.

Music recordings used to be rival/excludable. You could only get them on CD (or tape). If you were using that CD then someone else could not (rival). CDs cost money at the store and such are excludable. It is pretty easy to make money on goods that are rival/excludable as long as people want those goods.

Digital technology has turned music recordings into nonrival/nonexcludable. I can rip your CD and we can now both listen to the music (nonrival). One could put that recording on the internet making it available to everyone (nonexcludable). It is extremely difficult to make money on goods that are nonrival/nonexcludable. DRM technology is an attempt to move goods like this back towards rival/excludable.

Some argue that once your product becomes nonrival/nonexcludable then you shouldn't try to change your product to be profitable but should instead change your business model to fit the new marketplace. Treat the nonrival/nonexcludable product as advertising to sell something else that is rival or excludable -- like concerts or t-shirts.

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[kidcharles]

IANAE: I Am Not An Economist

I knew I wasn't the first person to think of these things, thanks for pointing out the proper terminology. I guess my contribution, which is probably not some new concept, is to relate the concept of "rivalrous" to labor compensation as opposed to just product consumption. If I was an economics grad student instead of a EE, I might have had myself a juicy little thesis topic.

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[naoursla]

I'm a computer science major. After taking an ecommerce class in graduate school I became much more interested in the world of economics. There is a surprising amount of overlap.

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[servognome]

Treat the nonrival/nonexcludable product as advertising to sell something else that is rival or excludable -- like concerts or t-shirts.

Problem is that t-shirts can be cheaply reproduced (buy the concert t-shirt for $25 or download the images and make one myself for $18 online), and concerts are an extremely limited revenue generator that using CD's & downloads as advertising doesn't make sense.
What we will more likely see is streaming subscription services. Lock the user in, stream the information so

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[naoursla]

Tshirts are not reproducable like mp3s are reproducable.

If your time to reproduce a tshirt is worth less than $7 then it makes sense for you to do that. Now try to sell your bootleg tshirt. You have to undercut the real band so your time is worth even less now. You have to be physically present to sell the shirts so the risk of legal trouble is greater than nearly anonymous file sharing over the internet. The more money you make the more visible you become.

Physical CDs are rival and excludable. You can make

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[servognome]

If your time to reproduce a tshirt is worth less than $7 then it makes sense for you to do that. Now try to sell your bootleg tshirt.

Who says I have to sell the bootleg t-shirt? Just as sharing MP3's is trivial, sharing t-shirt graphics is trivial, and easy for anybody to make it online. You don't have to enter the market to subvert it.

A user with a music subscription has nothing invested (except perhaps commodity hardware) and can switch easily. The ability of a customer to switch to a competior easily

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[naoursla]

Very good, sir!

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[servognome]

Corporations that sell infinite goods can sell extremely cheap-to-produce reproductions of their products with no practical limits, and do not require more labor to make them (except for DVD pressings or servers hosting the material for example, which typically represent a tiny fraction of production costs).

The key thing you are forgetting is that the corporation must sell the "infinite good." Yes the cost to reproduce is cheap, but the cost to find another customer increases.
If you want to sell more of a

Re:

[eyenot]

This can also be expressed in terms of 'tangible' versus 'intangible' goods and services.

Tangible: car; back massage
Intangible: entertainment; pleasantry

The (official) search for the proper way to quantise intangibles has been on for almost a decade, but the last time I read anything about it was in the Wall Street Journal about seven years ago.

Less than impressed.

[Aladrin]

I just looked through the list, and those games don't strike me as having good writing at all. The Simpsons might be the only exception, and it was based on the movie... wasn't it? Not a real big challenge.

And I looked at animation and simpsons gets -most- of the nominations there, too... Where is South Park? I'm assuming they aren't union because Season 11 is definitely my favorite season. (Season 8 is second favorite.)

Personally, if this is the kind of quality the WGA can offer, I'd rather they stay

Re:

[faloi]

Just to clarify on The Simpsons game. It's not based on a movie, it's a game based on them getting trapped in game. A lot of humor is more like old school Simpsons humor, and it's likely (don't tell Congress this) that they get more leeway with the ESRB than they do for public airways.

Not all of the games up there suck... But it's certainly more like a list of games that had union writers than any list of good story lines in games.

Uh oh.

[ControversialMatt]

I wonder if the producers for Bioshock, Mass Effect, and The Orange Box will be able to dig themselves out from under their respective piles of awards to offer an apology to the Writers Guild for not employing their members.

Witcher

[Alexpkeaton1010]

The Witcher is an awesome nominee and I would put it easily up against Mass Effect or Orange Box. I haven't played the other games, but judging by that nomination it is obvious they know what they are talking about. Also, it is writing award, not a hype award.

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[the computer guy nex]

I've played all of them, and leaving off Mass Effect is a crime. The Witcher has a decent story but it takes a back seat to the hack'n'slash gameplay. In Mass Effect, the story is excellent and truly immersive.

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[lidocaineus]

Mass Effect didn't have a good storyline, it just had lots of it. Quantity != quality. The fact that every time I had a conversation with anyone it was the opposite of subtle, and it felt like they were pouring out their heart to me despite not ever having spoken to them before is a sign of BAD writing. Sure, I got the backstory and knew how the world worked intimately, but that doesn't make it interesting, just thorough. A well written game would be able to incorporate all the aspects of the story but

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[KDR_11k]

I'd be careful with extrapolation. World in Conflict, for example, didn't seem to have a very interesting story from what I saw.

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[rk]

I thought the World In Conflict storyline for the single-player game was pretty good. Maybe not great, but it was solid writing. I particularly like the non science fiction alternate history aspect of it.

Of course, nobody really played it, since almost everyone who plays that plays nothing but multiplayer, either at the total-n00b level on the public servers, or the "we're professional gamers who play to make a living" on the clan servers. There doesn't seem to be much of a middle ground, which is why

Re:

[Dutch Gun]

In the demo, I heard one of the characters call a female companion "babe" - not exactly what I would expect in a medieval setting. I'm not saying the game wasn't good (the demo was pretty fun), but I heard some pretty bad dialogue just in the time I played.

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[Anonymous Coward]

That's probably a translation issue - there are a few things that sound out of place in the game - although supposedly Sapkowski's books also use fairly modern language compared to most fantasy, so I'm not sure...

But part of what makes the game good is that it isn't your typical fantasy.

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[ElMiguel]

Did you get a different version of the game than I did? One where most of the dialogs actually make sense?

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[DuranteAlighieri]

I liked the Witcher, but I wouldn't say it had great writing -- perhaps the original Polish version did, but certainly not the translation I played. The one game released in 07 that I'd credit with truly good writing is NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer.

What the hell

[Alzheimers]

When I try to read this article without logging in, it's arranged in the most eye-gougingly, randomly erratic, and thoroughly god awful manner possible. What the hell?!

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[Kalriath]

That's OK. When you log in, Slashdot inserts random 10 centimetre gaps between random comments. On the plus side, they've managed to make comments work as well in IE7 as in Firefox now - they achieved this by making them work crappier in Firefox.

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[biovoid]

They're ads or, in your case, spaces for ads, as you probably have some sort of ad-blocker.

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[Kalriath]

Slashdot puts 20 ads to a page now? Ew? (Should note that although I do block ads, I also give Slashdot money. After all, it IS hours of entertainment! Wait... it's a news site? Since when?!?)

Really

[Steauengeglase]

Am I only only one who is shocked to see that two of the nominees aren't movie cash-ins/tie-ins?

Eligibility for awards

[planetralph]

A lot of speculation on eligibility for awards. The TFA has a link to the awards site that includes eligibility. Here are two excerpts:

"Work that was not produced under WGA jurisdiction may be submitted...."

"At the time the script is submitted, the credited writer(s) of the game must be, or apply to become, a member of the WGA's New Media Caucus...."

The writers work must be nominated, it sounds like typically by a writer. Since these aren't yet high profile awards, the writers who bothered to s

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[mcvos]

"At the time the script is submitted, the credited writer(s) of the game must be, or apply to become, a member of the WGA's New Media Caucus...."

I read this as "WGA's New Media Circus".

World in Conflict

[Jellybob]

I havn't heard of most of them, but World in Conflict had the best plot I've ever seen in an RTS, and possibly one of the best I've seen in a game at all. It's certainly one of the few RTS games I've played where I actually cared about the characters, and felt that I was fighting for a reason beyond "because I am".

What's the "shame"?

[eyenot]

"At the time the script is submitted, the credited writer(s) of the game must be, or apply to become, a member of the WGA's New Media Caucus."

The writer's guild is a business that supports business, just doing the business of making sure that the guild itself will be supported in the future. From the wga article:

"to encourage storytelling excellence in videogames, to improve the status of writers, and to begin to encourage uniform standards"

This isn't the laws of robotics. No doubt the second "purpose" over

An ominous sign

[elrous0]

If this strike has taught us nothing it's that the LAST thing we want is for those self-righteous assholes to get their claws into the game industry too.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for people getting a fair shake. But trust me, dealing with the WGA, SAG, the DGA, etc. is a fucking nightmare of epic proportions. When they come, they bring a whole slew of major headaches.

What?

[culprt]

Drakes' Fortune? No Assassin's Creed? Who are these people anyway to take upon themselves to decide which game to nominate or not. [LOB].

They are only doing this

[geekoid]

as a step to get 'game writers' as part of their guild. This way they can prevent writers from writing on games while there is a strike going on.

Re:

[jacobw]

This way they can prevent writers from writing on games while there is a strike going on.

FYI, this is factually incorrect.

To understand why, you need to know a bit about what the WGA does. Among other things, the WGA negotiates something called the "Minimum Basic Agreement," or "MBA" for short. As the name suggests, the MBA offers a kind of minimum wage. Individual writers are free to negotiate better terms than the MBA provides, but the studios have agreed not to pay less than the MBA decrees.

Now, i