Assassin’s Creed 3 and 007 Legends nominated for WGA’s games writing award

2012 was a particularly great year for writing in video games. There was the harrowing campaign of Spec Ops: The Line, the consistently funny caricatures of Borderlands 2 or, like, a whole 90% of Mass Effect 3. Then, of course, standing way out in front was the emotional bombardment of Telltale’s The Walking Dead. So it was no surprise that when the Writers Guild of America announced their shortlist for the Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing award, they of course included… wait, what?! They included 007 Legends? How does that make any sense?
Here’s the full list of nominations. Set your facial expression to “huh?”

• 007 Legends, Written By Bruce Feirstein; Activision
• Assassin’s Creed III, Story By Alex Hutchinson, Corey May, Matt Turner; Multiplayer Story By Richard Farrese, Jeffrey Yohalem; Lead Scriptwriter Corey May; Scriptwriter Nicholas Grimwood, Russell Lees, Matt Turner, Danny Wallace, Ceri Young; Ubisoft
• Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation, Scriptwriting by Richard Farrese, Jill Murray; Ubisoft
• Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, Writing Consultant Marv Wolfman; Disney Interactive Studios
• Halo 4, Narrative Design Christopher Schlerf; Microsoft Studios
• Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Written By John Garvin; Sony Computer Entertainment America

It’s worth pointing out that a WGA nomination is dependant on a couple of additions. Firstly, the game must have been released between December 1st 2011 and November 30th 2012. Secondly, and this is the big one, “Credited videogame writers must have been or must have applied to become members of the WGA Videogame Writers Caucus at the time scripts were submitted.” WGA membership is less essential in the games industry than in film or TV, so it’s entirely possible that many of the year’s great game scripts simply weren’t eligible.
The awards will be held on February 17th.