Those of you not living in the tremendous shadow of Harry Knowles may not be aware of this, but the Writers Guild of America — the union containing almost every film and television writer in Hollywood — is on strike. Since it appears the studio execs are comfortable running reality TV and living off of their wealth during the strike, and the public outcry has been basically non-existent, the writers have been looking for new ways to supplement their now missing income, and gaming is apparently being seen as a viable alternative. GI.biz has a quote:
According to a report in Variety, work in videogames is something that the WGA is keen to embrace at some point, but as it hasn’t yet its members are free to work on them during the strike.
Their piece goes on to say that a move to game writing would be a monetary hit for most WGA members, but when the decision eventually becomes one of “monetary hit vs eating your children for sustenance,” we assume we’ll be seeing more Hollywood-types being hired on at EA and Activision.
Then again, if you’ve seen a movie, television show or the city of Los Angeles any time recently you’ll be as terrified of this prospect as I am. Gaming has made incredible strides recently with titles like Portal, and giving the reins of a virtual world to the guy who wrote that episode of Heroes where Hiro travelled back in time to fight a body inhabited by Dr. Sam Beckett in front of the 1919 Chicago Black Sox would be almost as stupid as his “creative output.”
