Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood won the Writers Guild of America Award for Videogame Writing last night. As you may recall, it was part of a shortlist of nominees with some odd choices that we all complained about. However, the WGA has come out recently to explain who is eligable for nominations.
Micah Wright, chair & steer committee member of the WGA Videogame Writers Caucus, explained it in the (last) comments of the above link, as well as on GI.biz. In a nutshell, you need to be a member of the Videogame Writers Caucus ($60 a year) to be eligible, there has to be a credited writer, and there needs to be a submitted script that people can read in order to judge it.
Both statements are worth a read, but long story short: there are valid reasons behind the nomination process, the process is improved every year, and people are simply not going to play through every single American game to judge it when no script is submitted — which was why Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead Redemption were not nominated.
Anyway, Brotherhood was the best of the bunch, so deserved congratulations go to Patrice Desilets, Jeffrey Yohalem, Corey May (who talks about storytelling here), Jeffrey Yohalem, Ethan Petty, Nicholas Grimwood, and Matt Turner!
Also, The Force Unleashed 2 didn’t win, so between that and the WGA statements clarifying things, we can all stop complaining now. And good luck to anyone who had to judge L.A. Noire if Rockstar decides to send its script in next year.
