October 11, 2007
Writers Guild Recognizes Game Writing
The East and West organizations of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) have announced the creation of the WGA’s inaugural Videogame Writing Award to be presented for the first time ever at the Los Angeles ceremony of the 2008 Writers Guild Awards … The new award was developed by the WGA and spearheaded by the guild’s New Media Caucus “to encourage storytelling excellence in video games, to improve the status of writers, and to begin to encourage uniform standards” within the gaming industry.
Which reminds me that I’m looking forward to the forthcoming revised version of the IGDA game writing whitepaper. The 2003 version put a rather less rosy face on the conditions to which WGAW president Patric M. Verrone alludes in the Gamasutra article: “By recognizing the skill and craft of video game writing, the Writers Guilds intend to raise the profile of these writers so that they can get WGA contracts and benefits for this work. We aim, we shoot, we score.”
Nominations are open until November 21st (at noon) and the form is available on the awards web page.