The Writers Guild of America has announced its nominees for its sixth annual video game award.
The award honors the best game script submitted to the WGA. In order to be qualified, writers must be credited on-screen, and must be a current or applied Videogame Writers Caucus member (which requires a $100 annual fee).
Judges for the award are all either caucus members, or WGA members actively working in games. The winners will be honored at an awards ceremony on February 17.
Three of this year's five nominees represent Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed or Sony's Uncharted franchises, which should be familiar names to those who have followed prior awards, as the winners of the past three years were given to previous installments in these series.
The nominees for the WGA's 2013 Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing are as follows:
007 Legends, Written By Bruce Feirstein; Activision
Assassin’s Creed III, Story By Alex Hutchinson, Corey May, Matt Turner; Multiplayer Story By Richard Farrese, Jeffrey Yohalem; Lead Scriptwriter Corey May; Scriptwriter Nicholas Grimwood, Russell Lees, Matt Turner, Danny Wallace, Ceri Young; Ubisoft
Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation, Scriptwriting by Richard Farrese, Jill Murray; Ubisoft
Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, Writing Consultant Marv Wolfman; Disney Interactive Studios
Halo 4, Narrative Design Christopher Schlerf; Microsoft Studios
Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Written By John Garvin; Sony Computer Entertainment America
And for reference, here are the previous winners:
2012: Uncharted 3
2011: Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
2010: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
2009: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
2008: Dead Head Fred
Cool! Thanks for an accurate account of the WGA award for game writing. In past years, many journalists were perpetuating a lot of myths about entering. It's not much different than entering any other game award competition.
I think, when I entered, and received a nomination :-), the fee was $95, and you remained a member of the caucus for three years. The price changed a couple times since, and I guess, the length of membership now has as well.
How much do people care about WGAs? I mean, last year they nominated Mortal Kombat, which is quite funny, also they chose Uncharted 3 as the winner and in that game levels were created first and then the story was tacked on, so the characters, like Talbot for example, are just inconsistent. Things don't make much sense in general in Uncharted 3, so i'm just wondering how credible these awards are.
I think, when I entered, and received a nomination :-), the fee was $95, and you remained a member of the caucus for three years. The price changed a couple times since, and I guess, the length of membership now has as well.