Tue, Feb 09, 2010 | 20:31 GMT

Uncharted 2, AssCreed II nominated for 2009 WGA

wga

The Writers Guild of America has announced the 2010 nominees for Videogame Writing, and a few on the list may surprise you a bit.

Here’s the rundown:

  • Assassin’s Creed II, Story by Corey May, Script Writers Corey May, Joshua Rubin, Jeffrey Yohalem; Ubisoft Entertainment
  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Written by Jesse Stern, Additional Writing Steve Fukuda, Story by Todd Alderman, Steve Fukuda, Mackey McCandlish, Zied Rieke, Jesse Stern, Jason West, Battlechatter Dialogue, Sean Slayback; Activision
  • Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Written by Amy Hennig; Sony Computer Entertainment
  • Wet, Written by Duppy Demetrius; Bethesda Softworks
  • X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Script Writer Marc Guggenheim; Activision

If you are wondering why some games considered to be literary works in and of themselves weren’t nominated, like BioWare games or some MMOs even, it’s because the WGA pulls its nominees from a list of members.

If you’re not a member, please leave before we call security, basically.

Last year, publishers of Grand Theft Auto IV, Dead Space, CoD:WaW, Mirror’s Edge, Far Cry 2, and No More Heroes didn’t send a copy of the game scripts in and didn’t have credited writers join the guild due to what each called “politics”

Apparently, many felt the whole ceremony is a facade and nothing more than a recruitment drive for the Guild.

Regardless of what it is or isn’t, we’ll find out who won come February 20.

Full press release through the official site (via GI.biz).

19 comment-trail-alt Posted in: America, Awards, Politics, Shows
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19 comments

#1

pha1r
16/01/10, 2:52 pm

MW2 nominated for good writing?
Honestly, Killzone even had a better script and it’s story was terrible.

#2

Johnny Cullen
16/01/10, 2:59 pm

Assassin’s Creed II – yes.
Uncharted 2 – yes.
Modern Warfare 2 – debateable.
WET – no.
X-Men Origins – no.

#3

Dralen
16/01/10, 3:12 pm

For me it’s Uncharted 2 or Assassin’s Creed 2 for the win.

#4

Edward Cullen
16/01/10, 3:15 pm

what is x-men doing there? at least infamous.. or any other games should have make it there? surely?

#5

polygem
16/01/10, 3:18 pm

pha1r, nice that you mention killzone 2 here. it was released early 2009 wasn´t it? i play it again right now and the 2. playthrough is even more fun. i wonder why this game is not mentioned at all in all these 2009 list (i think ign nominated it as best shooter for ps3, but that´s it). every year they are all focused on the q4 releases and seem to forget about the cool q1 games…killzone 2´s singleplayer is definately much much better than the mw2 one…also it looks so much better.

#6

Stephany Nunneley
16/01/10, 3:21 pm

Apparently, Killzone writers do not have a paid membership to the guild, ergo, no nomination.

I don’t know what the membership fees are (guess I could look it up), but its the same with the screen actors guild (SAG). Actors pay annually $116.00 plus 1.85% of all individual earnings between $1 and $200,000; and 0.5% of earnings from $200,001 through $500,000; plus 0.25% of earnings from $500,001 to a maximum of $1,000,000.

Only actors who are members of SAG, which most are, get an award. Guilds are basically country clubs.

#7

Psychotext
16/01/10, 3:49 pm

Killzone 2 had a script?

#8

polygem
16/01/10, 4:10 pm

yes the story was about some tough soldiers that all suffered very bad from tourette syndrome. because this was so annoying they were banned on an alien planet where they could kill everything in sight and keep on with all that swearing…

#9

NiceFellow
16/01/10, 4:39 pm

That many people on MW2 to write so little terrible dialogue, wow.

Clearly from that list it’s Uncharted 2 easily, with AC2 a bit behind. Everything else on that list has terrible writing.

So MW2 should pick it up then.

#10

AHA-Lambda
16/01/10, 5:52 pm

Killzone should have been nominated easily over MW2. At least killzone had ****ing direction (aswell unlikable pricks but still)

#11

onlineatron
16/01/10, 6:29 pm

@AHA-Lambda

Unlike pricks = no nomination in my books.

I need to relate and feel for characters to deem the writing good and Killzone 2′s characters are/were awful!

How come popular games like Prof Layton aren’t nominated.

Either way, Amy Henning deserves the award. She penned the fantastic (if slightly over dramatic) script of Soul Reaver and Uncharted 2 has the best writing in a big budget poster title i’ve seen.

#12

AHA-Lambda
16/01/10, 6:38 pm

@11 – I definitely agree with you on that but at least killzone’s story was easily followable and told in a logical way. I ain’t saying it deserves a nomination but it does over MW2 (BTW I ain’t hating on MW2 I seem to be one of the few who like it)

But yeah Amy Henning FTW :P

#13

Captain Fruitloop
16/01/10, 6:59 pm

The WGA Games awards are a farce, as are the UK equivalent ones run by the Writers Guild of Great Britain.

Any awards system open only to paid-up members who can then nominate themselves is a recruitment tool, pure and simple, and not really an award at all.

These aren’t awards. They’re a membership drive. Remember this, the next time the WGGB games writing awards roll by.

#14

Psychotext
16/01/10, 7:29 pm

“killzone’s story was easily followable and told in a logical way”

All six minutes of it. Unless you’re talking about Killzone 1, which was actually quite well done.

#15

AHA-Lambda
16/01/10, 7:35 pm

yes all 6 minutes of it yes :P

IMO followable 6 minutes > 6 hours of mess

#16

YoungZer0
16/01/10, 7:48 pm

Seriously? Modern Warfare 2? The whole story was a joke. This award has no credibility if they nominate something like MW 2.

#17

No_PUDding
16/01/10, 7:51 pm

When it comes down to it, I dont think EITHER should be nominated for best writing.

And it’s extremely clear who should win.

#18

rabing
17/01/10, 9:00 pm

@ Captain Fruitloop, the WGA ask people to be members, but the WGGB don’t. There is no membership requirement for the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain awards.

#19

sg1974
18/01/10, 12:39 am

MW2 is the biggest piece of hyped up crap ever. It’s just one big joke – and the joke is on us for buying this shit.

Story is utterly ridiculous (who wrote it, a bunch of 14 year olds with wet dreams about guns and war?). The dialogue is apalling. The progression is laughable. The cutscenes are lazy. The voice acting is lousy. The graphics are crap. The AI is poor. And the campaign is about 7 hours to short.

Like GTAIV this did well simply because of three characters from the alpbabet: in it’s case, “C” “O” and “D”.

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