BioWare Refuses to Apply For WGA Writing Award

I found this article on GamesIndustry.biz interesting, as it outlines the reasons why both BioWare and Rockstar have refused to submit a script to the Writers Guild of America for Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2, and Red Dead Redemption. Apparently the $60 fee that they have to pay just to be considered for a writing award isn’t enough to have someone actually play the game:

“We ask that all entrants join the Videogame Writers Caucus (VWC), but that is not the same thing as being a member of the WGA.” VWC requires a $60 annual fee, which also entails access to free film screenings and a subscription to the WGA’s Written By Magazine.

“The WGA is a Guild primarily supported by the mandatory union dues of our film and television member-writers. A writer who works on, say, Pirates of the Carribean 4, will contribute 2% of their salary to the union, which in the case of a film like that might be in the range of $100,000.

“The idea that anyone thinks the WGA is somehow getting rich off of $60 fees from videogame writers is laughable.”

The award does have further requirements, however. “We need to see a script with a list of writers’ names on it. For one thing, we need to know who wrote these games: we’re not clairvoyant… we can’t magically peer into some Developer’s internal business structure and divine who wrote what.

“Because of this requirement, however, some game studios have refused to submit a script, even though we’ve gone to great lengths to make it easy for them to do.

Studios electing not to participate included some big names: “Bioware, for example, refused to submit a script for either Mass Effect 2 or Dragon Age this year, and that’s too bad, because both games would have likely been finalists.

“Similarly, Take Two Games refused to submit a script for Red Dead Redemption. Why? We don’t know. Maybe they hate unions, or maybe they just hate winning awards, or maybe they have enough statues on their mantle.

“So another game gets what would likely have been their nomination. Are we happy about it? No… but rules are rules and our rules are clear and very fair.”

I don’t blame them. How can you convey the effectiveness of party banter, branching dialogue, and consequences to player choices in a script? And because the companies didn’t submit one, another game is going to get a writing award that it most likely didn’t deserve? Clearly a good system at work, here.