@Slust: ... ... I don't know where to start. The Writers Guild is not some sort of Mason's Club, it's a union to protect the intellectual property of it's members contractually and legally, and provide benefits like health and dental NOT COVERED BY EMPLOYERS (considering most screenwriters are independent and not permanently employed to a company but rather to a project). The guild is in place to keep wages fair and employers honest about their contracts and international agreements.

It isn't about the quality of writing; it's about the quality of life and I wish we lived in a world where we could all do honest work without being shafted by our employers. When studios do not honor the contracts of independent writers there is no organization other than the WGA who will step in take action. They are a watchdog organization who protects it's members.

And about the awards... The WGA is not a press outlet, they are not 'Gamespot Reader Awards' they are internal awards given to members who are judged by their peers (the voting pool is done by members only). The way this is done is identical to the Writer's Guild Awards for Film and Television.

Stop judging and making stuff up or assuming about organizations and unions you don't understand.

art_zombie

BioPort: Would you kindly part with your companion cube?

Both games had good lines, but it was the voice acting that stood out in Bioshock, and Portal isn't particularly great other than the hilarious comments from GlaDOS. Can't really recall what the best overall story would be from last year, though.

formina

@Jayl3w: Rofl.. you are saying because a game was influential enough to spawn a "meme" it is a better written game than Dead Head Fred?

In that case, I guess Pokemon should have taken the cake huh :P

Now had all games been eligible for this award, I'm sure the outcome may have been a little different.

Aex

@Jayl3w: Ok i agree with your point on portal. But my main point wasnt championing dead head fred over either, its that far too often we get caught up with the hype and the blockbusters to the point that interesting games like Dead Head Fred get passed over. Which is somewhat ironic because Portal could easily have been one of those games that got passed over had it not been included in the orange box. All im saying is i dont think its fair to write off a game that not many people have played simply for that reason.

That being said i do agree with antialias' point to some extent but i think we're forgetting that the wga is use to just about every writer being part of their union it just so happens video game writers dont fit in this instance which sets up conflicts like this.

One more point id like to make is that at least there is an award for video game writing from a reputable organization. That just gives more credence to the video games as art movement.

snakepliskin

@snakepliskin: The writing in Portal was subtle, but influential enough to spawn a 'The cake is a lie!' fad. The writing also had a foothold in the visual aspect, implying the insanity of most of the previous test subjects, your own mortality, and things of that nature (the little back room with the dead cameras and scrawlings on the walls, that sort of stuff).

I'm not going to bother arguing for Bioshock, theres too much to say and I don't need to type THAT much, I'm sure someone else will do it.

Again, not to say Dead Head Fred wasn't a well-written game, but still not as striking as the other two.

Jayl3w

Just cause its no name doesnt mean the writing for it wasnt good. Popularity doesnt equal good writing. Will and Grace was popular as hell but the writing was awful.

Also being fun to play also doesnt mean good writing. Portal was fun to play but theres no real script there. Bioshock had a great setting, backstory, and graphics but they all exist independent of a good script.

snakepliskin

@GrandfatherParadox: Not so much that it didn't deserve to win as other games deserved to compete much more. The fact that it didn't get a chance to go head-to-head with Portal and BioShock is the travesty here.

It wouldn't be as big of a deal except people actually pay attention to what the WGA thinks, sometimes. Go figure.

antialias02

Any guild or association from an industry that requires membership to be included in it can FOAD. It's like asking people to join a club so everyone in the club can suck their own dicks.

After the Writer's strike, I must say I do not support the WGA. Not that anything I watched was actually affected by the strike, but because I believe mainstream media writers are a bunch of fucking hacks who 90% of them write the same predictable stories we've all seem a million times, and they felt their "talent" was worth more money because they wanted more money.

Write stories that people can't predict, but maintain an artful sequence of events that provoke emotion, then maybe I'll care about your little "guild".

Slust

@HaydenTenno: It was good, that doesn't make it any less no-name. There have been PLENTY of outstanding games that got no hype or notice, but that didn't get them out of the no-name label.

@GrandfatherParadox: It was great, yeah, but did it measure up to Bioshock and Portal? Not so much. It wasn't a HUGE gap, but it still wouldn't have beat out those two, even forgetting how little notice the game got.

Jayl3w

Dead Head Fred is great, it just suffers from an unnecessary high level of difficulty when it comes to beating down enemies.

hagridore

Bioshock's story was a bit overrated to me. Started out well and I loved the whole Atlas Shrugged theme, however the way it turned out was just poor. Contact via radio only, blinding following a voice you've never met, storytelling through picked up recorders...its like they didnt realize that storytelling in games had evolved since System Shock 2, and the technical limitations didnt exist anymore for that delivery to be a good idea anymore. Still one of the better games this year though, and certainly more deserving than the actual winner.

JocktheMotie

That center skeleton reminds me of that gangster zombie from Mother/Earthbound Zero. Thats pretty much all I came here to say.

jive238

@GrandfatherParadox: Did it? worth a complete playthrough perhaps. I just didn't like what I started with I guess.

AndrewG009

They shouldn't have to be members, because then this happens.

mfwahwah

Congratulations, you won an award because the better writers weren't apart of your guild and therefore victory was by default. The two greatest words in the English language: De-Fault. . .

AndrewG009

Dead Head Fred had *great* dialogue.

Just because it's less popular than Bioshock and Portal, it didn't deserve to win?

That's just silly.

GrandfatherParadox

Dead Head Freed needs a ps2 port yesterday.

RudeAnimat0r

Stupid Canadians and their WGA...

Zenrick

It's a sad little cycle. They don't have the members to make their awards seem more legitimate, yet until their award seems legitimate, they won't be getting those members. Poor little start-up WGA...the sob story of start-ups everywhere. :(

Pammeh

Make that sense. No WGA for me...

HJungle

Dead Head Fred has excellent writing and characters. The gameplay wasn't bad either. It's a shame that everyone overlooked it and now we have people questioning its brilliance with 'no-name' arguments. Maybe more people need to try it out before talking next time. Just a thought.

HaydenTenno

It's a sad cycle. They don't have enough members to consider big-name games for awards, but until they have big-name game writers as members, no one really will take their awards seriously. :( Poor random WGA.

Pammeh

Perhaps if we understood the criteria involved with the awards it might make more since.

HJungle

@Mommar: GLaDOS = easily my favorite disembodied voice in a game of all time.

Still Alive is still my most played RB song lol.

Jayl3w

I call Shenanigans! SHENANIGANS!

Salen

As much hype as Bioshock and Portal get for their writing, they aren't exactly the pinnacle of video game storytelling. There was plenty to pine after with those games.

I want to see what list they come up with if they aren't paying attention to WGA membership.

Garro

@Shiloa:
Except for the near constant stream of comments from GlaDOS.

Mommar

What a stupid set of awards. That's like saying the Moviemakers Club held an awards show and Universal Soldier: The Return was called the best movie of the century, but only because it's writers/directors are members of the Moviemakers Club and no one else is.

Idiotic.

DaPress

@Shiloa: Yeah i dont think anyone should be upset about that one, especially since theyre not part of the union.

Too bad no one played "Dead Head Fred" its probably the best psp game no one has ever heard of.

snakepliskin

...what the shit is "Dead Head Fred"?

The_Foo

So... what they're saying is, they want gamers to pay attention, but they aren't important enough to the industry to have anyone that really matters as members.

And I was just thinking it was to put a kibosh on fanboy fights. Pick a neutral title and tell everyone to go to hell. lol

Jayl3w

Portal had hardly any writing anyway. =\

Shiloa

It will either get people on board, or push people away -- right now it appears as if it knows nothing about games. Logical membership issue aside, this is the way they have framed themselves.

Snake726

It wasn't obvious that WGA awards would only be given to WGA members?

smcallah

Well, more ammo for future distribution rights and MONI.
WGA must have been clueless to pick a number from it's own hat.

If it initiates a floodgate of game writers boarding the WGA locomotive, I am all for it; as long as it doesn't head to silver town.

PsycheE

That's pretty silly, but I actually liked Dead Head Fred quite a bit!

Wolfers

haha...the best doesn't always win because he didn't pay his membership fee

RET_Ghost

out of the blue PSP love :D

noliferuin (PSN+XBL)

@snakepliskin: You have a good point, on all counts there and I definitely see where you're coming from. It's true, we tend to look over games that don't get the same type of hype as the blockbusters, and yes, to be honest, Dead Head Fred still deserved some sort of recognition for the exceptional writing. It'd still be nice if they could have all gone at it, see who came out on top.

I don't know if I'd call them 'reputable' though... I dont't have much faith in their little club.

@Aex: Theres a difference between a 'meme' (who the hell still uses that netarded term?!) and a cultural standing point. HUGE difference between the idiotic 'i herd u lyk mudkips' and 'The cake is a lie.'

One is blatant, mildly amusing stupidity and the other is a quote from a slightly psychological point in the game. It has a purpose and meaning, Mudkips only have one purpose:

To look stupid when people make a full team of them and play on wifi.

Jayl3w

@formina: Agreed about Portal. GLaDOS' dialogue consists in a stream of brilliant one-liners (coupled with pitch-perfect delivery), but a writing award should probably go to something a bit more structured and developped.

Not having played Dead Head Fred, I have no idea whether the award was "deserved" or not. But then, are they ever?

@art_zombie: Thank you for that. I can personally relate to what you just wrote, so I couldn't agree more with your explanations.

People who blamed the WGA for the strike will sure be happy when TV is filled with reality shows written by famished, non-unionised writers.
And if we want our games to be written by 20-year-old fanfic writers who'll sell their scripts for a dime, sure, don't let the WGA slide its stinkin' foot through the industry's door.

Antiterra

@art_zombie: No one is saying the guild doesn't take care of it's members, but I question the addition of a game award being added to the WGA's ceremony if (and I am guessing here) a large majority of games are being written by writers who aren't members of the guild. The WGA doesn't even include game writing as a 'unit' of eligibility to join their little club so how would people who strictly write for games even become members? Are games considered 'New and Unique"? Does anyone outside of Lake Wobegone even do 'radio plays' anymore?

[www.wga.org]

noisemaker

Welcome to the film industry folks

grizzlywilliam

If Jethro Tull could take home the first Heavy Metal grammy, anything is possible.

Trust me, I'm a doctor

Dead Head Fred?
I don't think I've even heard of it. *looks into it* PSP title? Cool, had no idea such a title existed.

*looks at box art* No wait, I saw this on some 1up ads on the 1up Show...
Huh.

Zeouterlimits

Another totally meaningless video game award show. Nothing to see here, folks...

fuchikoma

@noisemaker: Part of the strike that you don't hear enough of is that every time the contract is up, writing for animation and reality comes up to be added to the list of eligible Guild membership. It is always, however, struck down during negotiations by the studios. Writing for video games is logically the next group of people they'd like to include under the WGA umbrella but who is and isn't covered by WGA's charter is decided upon by the STUDIOS and not the GUILD.

To clarify, writing for video games is not an officially recognized group under the WGA's charter. The WGA would like to have it included but first feels that animation and reality television is first in priority to be added. Without the consent of the STUDIOS in contract negotiations, none of these can be added. The Guild wants these people included (broader influence, fair industry standards, evolution of the medium, etc) but cannot due to contract limitations.

art_zombie

The writers guild isn't biased by gameplay like we are. For them it's about story and writing and not some nerdy-fantasies... cough bondage Glados cough fake cakes and hunting little girls ;)

Garo

Dead Head Fred (a game that I re-bought yesterday because my friend broke my first copy) is an incredibly well written game. The voice acting is top notch. While not being realistic (noir combined with B-movie horror film being intentionally cheese-filled), the game managed to craft an endearing world full of unique characters. The screen-play (for the cutscenes) is incredibly well done, and often displays one of my favorite writing styles, the "seen, not told" kind of presentation. All in all, Portal has the Half Life universe to give it weight (what will happen in portal 2? What is Aperture Science's motive?) and Bioshock had a thrilling narrative that got incredibly old after a while. The stories in both those games were and are amazing, but I think Dead Head Fred beats them in actual writing -quality-. Just my 2 cents.

And for all who have a PSP- the game is only $15 now. You should look into it. If you have trouble with a fight- mash Square+Square+X repeatedly. It's fast, it disrupts any attack, and it is a life saver in the first boss fight.

Jayge

@Jayl3w: "Theres a difference between a 'meme' (who the hell still uses that netarded term?!) and a cultural standing point."

[dictionary.reference.com]

Learn the definition of a meme maybe :p

Aex

@Jayl3w: Obviously you do not know what a meme is, as you seem to find it necessary to create your own definition of the word each time you attempt to argue against it's usage in my statement.

I am not the one arguing semantics here, it is you.

Aex

@art_zombie: "To clarify, writing for video games is not an officially recognized group under the WGA's charter."

Then why on earth have a award for it? That's like the NFL giving out an award for best football game - the pool of potential winners is limited by money and politics.

noisemaker

@Aex: I know what a 'meme' is, I also know that when applied to things with practical usage, it's used in a disparaging way, not as a classification.

Arguing semantics is no way to prove your point.

Jayl3w

the WGA can go screw themselves. First they cause us to have no television for months on end, then they try to fuck with games.

dtroyt

"They don't have the members to make their awards seem more legitimate, yet until their award seems legitimate, they won't be getting those members."

Um, I really don't think people join unions for the chance to win an award.

cdammers

Any award that requires people to be members of an association is a hollow award at best.

As far as i know the Nobel prizes don't use this method of selection... neither should any other 'prize' givers.

Duoae

@noisemaker: "The logic behind the list, explains Jacobs, is that writers had to be members of the WGA's New Media Caucus to be nominated. But few writers in the industry currently belong to the WGA, much less the Caucus."

They are a part of the 'New Media Caucus', not formally recognized as a catagory such as 'Writing for Television'. Basically, special rules under special circumstances which translates to few benefits. While they have every right to have such an award for the catagory I do concede that this feels a bit too early and rushed to give an award before establishing a wider base to judge.

Look at this as WGA writing in games awards v1... Hopefully later iterations will be more inclusive (from both the catagorical standpoint and members).

To be more accurate, it's more like the NFL MvP award. They choose the best player out of the pool they have, you don't see Canadian football players being awarded the NFL player award.

art_zombie

As it's being used in this context, a meme is exactly as Aex has been defining it. The Cake is a Lie is definitely a meme. And heaping tons of people still use the "netarded" or whatever that word is term.

Jayge

@Aex: Well, since an argument has to be started by one person disagreeing with what another says... wouldn't that, again, make it you on the opposite end here?

I said what I thought, you bumped in saying I'm wrong, because it's a 'meme', so therefore is invalid as a well-written quote? You're playing a modified 'I know you are but what am I' game, and from here-on-in, I'll willingly ignore your shenanigans.

Jayl3w

@Duoae: "Any award that requires people to be members of an association is a hollow award at best."

+1

Quilt

Poor Bioshock and Portal, they only got a ridiculous amount of attention.

RaepGoblin

So basically, its a worthless crock of sh*t awards scheme.

Crankyhobo

This is funny as hell, I'm a member of the WGA, I better make a flash game as quickly as I can.

masterdingo

@Antiterra: I thought my TV was already filled with crappy reality shows?

It's nice that they set up an award but I'm sure they aren't serious about it until they get at least 50% of game writers in the guild, otherwise it's just a joke. Would be nice for them to ask members to pick their best overall just to see what WGA members believe to be the best going round.

el_rezzo

The Witcher is actually the exact opposite of good writing

bhlaab

Good to see World in Conflict getting some recognition but the game industry doesn't need another organization further fragmenting its representation.

GreyFoxV1

@Jayl3w: I am willing to ignore what has happened between my first comment and your last to finally end this discussion, and so I will.

First, let's make this clear, we never actually discussed your premise's validity because you decided to follow tangent arguments about the definition of the words "meme" and "argue". And while I do think you are wrong in using that premise to support your original stance, it doesn't mean that I disagree whether or not Portal is a well-written game, or that you couldn't still make your argument that Portal is a well written game without it.

To Answer your question, "I said what I thought, you bumped in saying I'm wrong, because it's a 'meme', so therefore is invalid as a well-written quote? "

No, I am not saying a meme is invalid as a well-written quote. Plenty of memes can be well written quotes, but that doesn't matter for the point of our argument.

I'm saying, that just because a quote is a meme or has a significant cultural impact, it does not lend justification that a "script", in this case the game, is well-written overall, or at least more well-written than another game that has not had the grace of the same popularity.

No need to reply, as it would probably only lead to more "Shenanigans"

Aex

World in Conflict should have won this!

sirspankalot

Why does WGA even have any say in the video game world. There really really needs to be a new union for Video Games. The WGA is stuck in the silent movie era in terms of understanding of electronic media, etc.

I hope there is a video game only unionization across the board.

rudolphdude

Doesn't that automatically count out EVERY Japanese game as well? I mean, No More Heroes could have been nominated; and I'm sure there are countless JRPGs with epic hundred hour story lines.

It's not like there's a Hollywood for video games; they have to be considered on a worldwide scale. I find it hard to take the WGA award seriously because of that rather then because there is a lack of eligible writers.

NeoStarr

You gotta love groups that only hand awards to their own members.

Gouki4u

well...there is still a future in communications since very little is happening.

I mean seriously bitches? Who here has heard of or even played that winning game?

What criteria was used in this "Award"?

I'm sure this has been said already, but yeah...

Jethro Tull / Metallica comes to mind.

Nubius

@GrandfatherParadox: Not because it wasn't as popular, because it wasn't as good.

Also, if the writers of BioShock and Portal aren't members of the WGA, than the WGA and this award are probably not worth bothering with.

Solertia

Of course only WGA members would be nominated for a WGA award, and there's nothing wrong with that in any way. That's how that industry works. It's well enough, in my opinion, that video games are even a category.

I'm sure that as the industry grows more and more that there will be video game writers in the WGA.

Esnel_Pla