After people complained about Dead Head Fred winning last year’s award (the reason being that the nominated game in question had to feature writing from a member), it looks like the Writers Guild Association is trying to redeem itself this year. The organization announced this year’s nominees, which includes an excellent indie game from Mouschief. See this year’s nominees after the break.
Downloadable content will be announced very soon for both the PC and Xbox 360 versions of Left 4 Dead, according to Valve’s Chet Faliszek, who spoke at length with the Kotaku crew during its recent holiday podcast. That new DLc will include the addition of the single player campaigns “Dead Air” and “Death Toll” to the Versus mode, the PC SDK for developing content for the PC version of the game and some additional undisclosed content.
Chet Faliszek, who started out running the wonderfully funny web site Old Man Murray, is responsible for retooling the stories for both Portal and Left 4 Dead, among other things. The way the story is told through audio cues, light dialogue and character interaction in Left 4 Dead is one of the primary reasons I chose it for our Game of the Year Awards. Sadly, it could not beat out the glory of Fallout 3, but the game is a monumental achievement in storytelling and multiplayer in my book.
GameSpot is slowly putting the pieces back together after the firing of Jeff Gerstmann and the exit of several key members of its editorial team with the announcement that it has appointed Ricardo Torres as its new Editor-in-Chief. While the popular gaming destination has its share of problems right now, Torres certainly has the credentials to handle the job (he’’s been with the company since 2001).
I”m excited to have the opportunity to help further GameSpot’’s position at the forefront of the industry, said Torres in a press release issued by CNET Networks today. I”m eager to continue the site’’s tradition of excellence and I”m confident we can move forward into 2008 and set a new industry standard for how video games are covered.
The press release also featured a quote from former Editor-in-Chief Greg Kasavin, now working at Electronic Arts:
Ricardo was one the hardest-working, most dedicated people I knew during my 10 years with GameSpot, and he always had a real vision for how the brand could keep growing to best serve game players around the world. As a former colleague and a fan, I”m excited to see how GameSpot will evolve under his direction.
It’s tough to be cynical about Ricardo Torres taking the editorial helm when Kasavin speaks so highly of him, but I suspect he”d speak highly of most of his former employees.
Here’s to hoping that 2008 will be a less controversial year for GameSpot and that it can turn the corner, returning to the principles on which it was founded.
Despite the ongoing strike putting the brakes on Hollywood, the Writers Guild of America is still moving forward with the inclusion of videogame writing as a part of its annual Writers Guild Awards show. The nominees for the Guilds” inaugural Videogame Writing Award, honoring outstanding achievement in videogame writing during 2007 include:
Crash of the Titans (Sierra Entertainment): Written by Christopher Mitchell
Dead Head Fred (D3 Publisher): Written by Dave Ellis and Adam Cogan
The Simpsons Game (Electronic Arts): Lead Writer Matt Selman, Written by Tim Long and Matt Warburton, Dialogue by Jeff Poliquin
The Witcher (Atari): Lead Story Designer Artur Ganszyniec, Dialogue Sebastian Stepien, Additional Dialogue Marcin Blacha, Writers Sande Chen and Anne Too
World in Conflict (Sierra Entertainment): Story Design Christofer Emgard, Story Consultant Larry Bond, Script Consultant Ed Zuckerman
According to the WGA’’s statement, the WGA’’s inaugural Videogame Writing Award was developed by the WGA and spearheaded by the Guild’’s New Media Caucus to encourage storytelling excellence in videogames, improve the status of writers, and foster uniform standards within the gaming industry, spotlights quality work by videogame writers, raising their profiles, and validating their contributions to this rapidly maturing medium.
Due to the ongoing strike, the show for the WGA Writers Awards has been canceled, but the winners will still be announced at a press event on Feb. 9.
