14 DAY TRIAL // Who says videogames are not art? Who says they are only for kids who lack social lives? The Writers Guild of America, the organization representing the interests of those who create stories for a living, has named the games that are competing for the second edition of the Videogame Writing Award. The winners for 2008 were Dave Ellis and Adam Cogan for their work on Dead Head Fred.
When the award was established in 2008, the organization said that it aimed to “encourage storytelling excellence in videogames, improve the status of writers, and foster uniform standards within the gaming industry.” The downside is the fact that only those game writers who are members of the Writers Guild can be nominated for the newly established award, which limits the prospects of some of the most prominent writers in the industry.
This year’s nominees are:
- writer Haris Orkin and story producer Mical Pedriana for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, from Electronic Arts; -Keith Nemitz, for writing, and Adrianne Ambrose, for additional writing for Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble! by Mousechief; -the team behind Bethesda's Fallout 3, lead by Emil Pagliarulo, with members Erik J. Caponi, Brian Chapin, Jon Paul Duvall, Kurt Kuhlmann, Alan Nanes, Bruce Nesmith, Fred Zeleny, Nate Ellis, William Killeen, Mark Nelson and Justin McSweeney; - Haden Blackman, Shawn Pitman, John Stafford and Cameron Suey for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed from LucasArts; - Eric Lindstrom and Toby Guard for Tomb Raider: Underworld from Eidos.
The winners will be announced on February 7. According to many videogame reviewers, Fallout 3, which includes a huge amount of lines related to the various quests and some of the best writing released last year, deserves the award but the Tomb Raider: Underworld team or the Red Alert people could prove to be the surprise of the day.