Oh, videogames, how we love your stories that lift up our spirit and at the same time let us beam it down to the ground by means of an ion cannon. One could say the Writers Guild of America acknowledges this with its announcement for the 2011 WGA Awards nominees for videogame writing, a category that first appeared in 2008.

Then again, this year’s nominees are:Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood,Fallout: New Vegas,God of War III,Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands,SingularityandStar Wars: The Force Unleashed II.

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You have to keep in mind that this is based on submitted scripts for videogames — not on actual in-game writing analysis or whatnot — but even so, some of these titles seem like odd choices, to say the least.

Here’s the full list of credits for each nominee:

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhoodhad a decent story, which was more focused but also less expansive than, and not as engaging as, that ofAssassin’s Creed II. The main setting in Rome and the singular purpose to take down the Borgias felt more like one of many quests inAssassin’s Creed II, although it didn’t make the game feel short or limited in the slightest. Then again, a lot of the story comes from snippets of Subject 16’s hidden messages and the story outside of the Animus.

Fallout: New Vegasmakes me wonder what the script looks like on linear paper, but there ismore to that game’s writingthan meets the eye. Although I doubt the WGA cares about it, the main story and the writing were a big improvement overFallout 3and the world itself felt more alive because of it.

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God of War IIIhad to wrap up the entire Kratos storyline of the past games and it had plenty of classic themes to like. It may not be everyone’s favoriteGod of Wargame, but a nomination nod isn’t too farfetched.

As forSingularityandPrince of Persia: TFS, I only played the latter myself and it was not horrible. The story is pretty basic and there are only three actual characters in the game, but I thought it was done competently. The Prince and his brother felt like actual characters, even though their interaction was pretty limited, and the story was paced well throughout the (admittedly short) game.

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ButThe Force Unleashed II‘s nomination is mind-boggling. Its story was a shadow of the first game’s narrative, with little to no characterization or payoff. Even though it’s mostly Star Wars fans who had issues with the story in this second game in the series, I had no idea there were people out there who thought this was a great example of videogame writing. The only reason I can think of for this title’s nomination is that the script was much better before the game was rushed out to stores, or because the originalThe Force Unleashedwon the WGA award in 2009.

So: noMass Effect 2, noHeavy Rain, noAlan Wakeand noRed Dead Redemption. Personally,Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhoodwould be my pick out of these six because I just love the way Ubisoft dealt with Renaissance Rome, and the endless discussions centered around its ending and the series’ mythology as a whole. What about you?

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2011 Writers Guild Awards Videogame Writing Nominees Announced[Writers Guild of America]

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