STRIKE! Hollywood Writers Looking To Video Games?

Striking Hollywood writers, currently busy gadding round picket lines in the pursuit of a fairer slice of the money pie, could turn to games to plug the gaps in their incomes. A report in Variety points out^† that the Writers Guild of America (WGA) does not currently cover games writing, although it has indicated that it may do in the future. As such, striking writers with a bit of time on their hands could pursue writing for games without violating the strike.

"It has been an interesting shift", said one agent who focuses on videogames. "The literary agents are now saying, 'Why don't we get our clients over there during the strike?' even though in the past they thought the money wasn't good enough or the work is too demanding."

To gauge industry opinion, SPOnG caught up with game-developer Free Radical's Rob Yescombe, the screenwriter for Haze. Rob feels that there could be room for Hollywood writers in his chosen craft. "Well, there are certainly areas that overlap between TV, Film and Games, so with those areas in mind I'm sure that writers from outside games have plenty to bring to the table".

Before we get all excited at the prospect of Firefly creator, Joss Whedon writing games, there's a big 'But'...

"However, some writers, even so-called game writers, struggle with the concept of interactivity", Yescombe goes on. "In a movie, the script is generally accepted to be the foundation of the entire project, but when it comes to games it's all about design and playability - the script, as frustrating as it may be to a writer, is in a distant second place.

"I suspect that trying to 'have a go' at writing a game in order to 'fill a gap' while the strike is on will be enormously counter-productive for both the developer and the writer, leading to a bit of a half-baked result. I hope and assume that film and TV writers chose to hone their craft over time in order to make the most of their chosen medium. Hence, I would hope and assume that they would do the same for games. God, that makes me sound so negative, doesn't it? Next thing I know I'll be telling film writers to 'stop stealing our women!'"

"Frankly, if they can do it well, then there's plenty of room for quality work", Yescombe concluded.

So that's the creative backwards and forwards on the subject. There are also a couple of practicalities to consider.

Fees, for one, are lower. $50,000 (£24,000) is cited by Variety as a typical fee for a writing assignment in games, while a top screenwriter for film can earn millions of dollars. Assignments can also stretch up to six months in length, with the intensity of the workload varying at different times. With the length of the strike so unpredictable, taking on such projects could be problematic.

With all that said, SPOnG would like to see Joss Whedon write a videogame...

^{†Source: Variety}