WGA announces game writing nominees

By Ellie Gibson Published 15 January, 2010

Assassin's! Uncharted! Wolverine! etc.

The Writers Guild of America has announced the nominees for the 2009 Videogame Writing awards.

As reported by Kotaku, those in the running include Assassin's Creed II (written by Corey May, Joshua Rubin and Jeffrey Yohalem) and Uncharted 2 (Amy Hennig).

Then there's Wet (Duppy Demetrius) and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Marc Guggenheim). There may not be room for all the writers on the stage if Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 wins (written by Jesse Stern; additional Writing by Steve Fukuda; story by Todd Alderman, Steve Fukuda, Mackey McCandlish, Zied Rieke, Jesse Stern, Jason West; battlechatter dialogue by Sean Slayback).

The winner(s) will be announced at the Writers Guild Awards on 20th February.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (26) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • LiveForever #1 2 years ago

    They should also include all the writers for all the movies that contributed to MW2. The Rock comes to mind.
    I really hope they don't win cause the story was fun but very weak. Chimps with typewriters come to mind.

  • Golgo #2 2 years ago

    I thought the dialogue in Uncharted was mostly ad libbed, not scripted, hence why it feels so fresh and so far from atrocious...

  • Doctor_What #3 2 years ago

    I also liked the Uncharted 2 script, and ACII is good so far too.

  • Weebleboy #4 2 years ago

    MW2? Jesus fucking christ.

  • munki83 #5 2 years ago

    That list is awful uncharted 2 is probably the best written of those in mentioned in the article. Personaly I would of voted for Batman would of loved to of voted for DA:o but I didnt find the story as compelling as other bioware games. Oh just thought Tales of Monkey Island should be in that list.

  • Ninja_Tino #6 2 years ago

    Amazing how Uncharted is written by a single person (officially) and yet it takes half a dozen to produce the mess that was MW2. Perhaps that right there is the reason for its messiness. Still, Tales of Monkey Island should definitely be on there, as well as Time Gentlemen, Please. It's hard to make comedy work in general and it's even more of a challenge in games and both of these nail it, albeit in different ways.

  • Murton #7 2 years ago

    Both Uncharted games have great stories that rival any summer blockbuster out of Hollywood. Assassins Creed also has a pretty good story, at least what we get to see of it, it's more than a bit fragmented. and that's before you look at the ten year gap in which one of your closest allies is killed, your greatest enemy becomes Pope and even more importantly Ezio decides to grow a beard

    edit: if somehow, someway MW2 manages to win this despite it's weak story and dialogue then it will prove that these awards are pretty much meaningless, the most popular game is not necessarily the best game.
    Edited by 1 at 15/01/10 @ 11:18

  • schnide #8 2 years ago

    Every level I get further into MW2, I'm shocked how they've tried to handle such a massive story with such piss poor transition between each level you play.

    You're in an airport undercover! You get shot! Wait, now the entire US is under attack? You reveal this in a brief voiceover and some dots on a map instead of showing the absolute utter shitstorm that would entail first?

    Golden rule of visual storytelling mediums: Show It, Don't Say It.

  • Vinchio #9 2 years ago

    WOW, I had no idea there was an award for game writing. no Batman AA? the writing (bad ending) was pretty awesome.

  • thesombrerokid #10 2 years ago

    @schnide
    the funny thing is they're in an interactive storytelling medium, whose golden rule is let the player do it, don't show it, DEFINITELY DON'T SAY IT!

  • darkmorgado #11 2 years ago

    Assassin's Creed II's story was great until it descended into the alien race created mankind and enslaved them in biblical times but are now warning mankind of the the end of the world rubbish.

  • SirDespard #12 2 years ago

    Someone called Sean Slayback wrote MW2 battle dialogue? Nomnitive determinism strikes again?

  • Shadders #13 2 years ago

    Batman should have won it, but in its absence I'd say Uncharted. The inclusion of MW2 makes a mockery of the whole thing though to be honest.

    Now that I see how many writers it had, it explains why the story was so disjointed.

  • kangarootoo #14 2 years ago

    This reminds me of that article a while back, in which Cliffy B (in defense of GoW) talked about how hard it was to write good stories and dialogue, to which half of us responded "that is why you hire a pro instead of doing it yourself".

    The long list of names for MW2 makes me think members of the dev team wrote it all, instead of getting a proper writer in (as was the case for UC2, for example).

  • Abscido #15 2 years ago

    Nomnitive determinism strikes again?

    What the f**k are you talking about idiot!!??

    - Jim Replieslikeacunt

  • RobotRocker #16 2 years ago

    The long list of names for MW2 makes me think members of the dev team wrote it all, instead of getting a proper writer in (as was the case for UC2, for example)

    Jesse Stern is a professional script writer who works on NCIS. So they did bring in a professional writer and a fairly good one at that as NCIS is a great show.

    MW2's "gimmick" is that you are a grunt and you don't know jack shit till you hit the ground. Hence why you only get short briefings and most of the story was told to you through game play. I can see some people getting frustrated that there was very little plot being explained via cut scenes and its quite jumpy, but it works with the fast pace and quite frankly it would be better off not having MGS4 levels of plot.

  • mkreku #17 2 years ago

    I would definitely vote for Uncharted 2. I don't think I've ever played a game with such a likeable cast of characters!

  • nuanimal #18 2 years ago

    Modern Warfare 2 had a plot!?

  • Boomerang #19 2 years ago

    lol, top posting Mr. Replieslikeacunt :D

  • Zephro #20 2 years ago

    Oh dear that's not good.

    They should probably just scrap it and give the writer of Planescape Torment a retrospective award. That or Batman.

  • sarcasmoidosis #21 2 years ago

    Wet? MW2? Wolverine?

    I thought Brutal Legend could have counted for this, given their "standards". It had an imaginative story at least.

  • Slipstream #22 2 years ago

    Uncharted 2 without doubt. since the first game it has excelled when it comes to narrative within a game. U2 pushed the boundries even further, not forgetting to mention the perfect job applied by the actors. Naughty Dog you outdone yourselves, this award should be yours.

  • Skurmedel #23 2 years ago

    NCIS great writing? Oh dear.
    Edited by 1 at 16/01/10 @ 01:10

  • man.the.king #24 2 years ago

    If MW2 wins for game story writing, it would be a travesty. MW2 was enjoyable and fun, but as far as it's SP campaign went, all I could think of in relation to this article is: "what story"?
    Edited by 1 at 16/01/10 @ 05:44

  • DanWhitehead #25 2 years ago

    The reason for the somewhat bizarre choices, Uncharted aside, is that I believe since it's a Writer's Guild award, only writers who are members, usually because they have film or TV credits, are eligible. In other words, the vast majority of people writing for games wouldn't be able to win it anyway.

  • schachmatt #26 2 years ago

    Dan beat me to it. Only members are eligible, which means two things: They are pros and they write movie/tv scripts.
    This leads to big games having the same forgettable stories as most big movies.
    Forgettable, but at the same time decent enough and (or should that be because) we're already used to insane storylines anyway.