WGA Announces Game Writing Award Nominees

The Writers Guild of America announced their nominees for the first-ever awards for video game writing, meant to honor outstanding achievement in game writing in 2007. The nominees include:

• Radical Entertainment's Crash of the Titans (PS2, PSP, Wii, X360)

• Vicious Cycle's Dead Head Fred (PSP)

• EA Redwood Shores' The Simpsons Game (DS, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, X360)

• CD Projekt Red Studio's The Witcher (PC)

• Massive Entertainment's World in Conflict (PC, X360)

Eligibility for entry requires that the games must have been released between December 1, 2006 and November 30, 2007. The WGA also requires that the credited game writers must be or have applied to become members of the WGA's New Media Caucus, which may very well be the reason for such an unusual lineup of nominations.

As one of the most standout years in gaming history, 2007 featured some of the finest writing ever seen in a video game. A list that includes Crash of the Titans and a heavily edited localization of The Witcher but omits 2K Boston's BioShock (PC, X360) and Valve's Portal (PC, PS3, X360)—both of which were recognized for their writing in Shacknews' Game of the Year awards—seems like a list where technicality, not deliberate choice, won out in the end.