Writer's Strike: Will it Affect Videogames?
Today the Writer's Guild of America (WGA) went on an anticipated strike over new media residuals. TV programs like The Tonight Show with Jay Leno will begin airing reruns tonight because of the strike. The union does represent some videogame writers and is giving an award for best videogame writing at next year's Writer's Guild Awards. So will the strike affect us here in the game industry?
Not to worry.
A Writer's Guild representative told IGN today that only a handful of game writers are currently represented by the union, and that they fall out of the jurisdiction of the current strike. Part of the impetus for the Videogame Writing Award is to draw more game authors into the WGA fold.
"By recognizing the skill and craft of videogame writing, the Writers Guilds intend to raise the profile of these writers so that they can get WGA contracts and benefits for this work" WGA West President Patric M. Verrone said at the award's announcement back in September.
While the film and television industries will be inconvenienced by the strike, we gamers should be in the clear.
http://uk.psp.ign.com/articles/832/832868p1.html
I do not believe that this strike will matter in regards to video games...
If only a handful of writers for video games are on strike then I do not believe that there will be too much of an impact on the video game industry. After all, a large portion of the video game industry involves games that do not have plots and ports or enhanced versions of older games.
Of course, I am not saying that this is a bad thing, considering that a lot of people tend to miss some very good and memorable games as the technology used to play them changes and the script is usually the least important aspect of a good action or puzzle game.
