Will the writers strike affect video games? Nope

[gum_drops]

Just when you think its not possible to jam the broadcast trash can with any more reality shows or talk shows a strike happens. Bye bye daily show and SNL. Hello The Bachelor: Dustin Diamond Edition and Vh1's Renegade of Love starring Lorenzo Lamas.

At least our good ol trusty video games wont be affected.



ARTICLE

http://ds.ign.com/articles/832/832871p1.html

"Writer's Strike: Will it Affect Videogames?
When TV and movies abandon you, games have your back.
by Daemon Hatfield

November 5, 2007 - 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."

[boatofcar]

No kidding. I think it's pretty obvious most video games are not written by "real" writers.

[Terminusvitae]

I don't know which is worse: a surge in even more derivative and degrading reality shows, or the otherwise continuation of derivative schlock scripts and atrocious serials...

[koster]

I don't know which is worse: a surge in even more derivative and degrading reality shows, or the otherwise continuation of derivative schlock scripts and atrocious serials...
Combining the two!

Who Wants to be a Hollyword Writer? - a degrading reality show about creating derivative schlock scripts. :)

[thehistorian]

OP is right.. the stike doesn't affect the writers for Vid Games.

[robotriot]

Besides, it's not like a company has to make a new game every day or week. It takes years to create a good game, so a writer's strike wouldn't affect the development much.

[crazyjackcsa]

Wait... there are stories in videogames? I wonder what the plot will be in the next Doom game? Next years Madden? One thing that bugs me is that these "funny" people of TV don't right their own stuff. So what do they do exactly? What do they bring? A pretty face? And 90% of the crap on TV actually needs to be written? Good god, it's even worse when you think they are actually trying to come up with this crap.

Long term, could this affect movies?

[cyberfluxor]

Besides, it's not like a company has to make a new game every day or week. It takes years to create a good game, so a writer's strike wouldn't affect the development much.
True but depending on the current stage of planning it could affect it by pushing back launch dates which are very costly indeed. This is quite doubtful though as I'm sure someone else would take over the role and begin fudging the game plot leaving holes like Swiss cheese. :D

[heybtbm]

Bye bye daily show and SNL. Hello The Bachelor: Dustin Diamond Edition.

Please tell me this is a joke. Of course, anything's possible (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dustin_Diamond#Sex_tape).

[thehistorian]

Besides, it's not like a company has to make a new game every day or week. It takes years to create a good game, so a writer's strike wouldn't affect the development much.

Actually if you have a company that publishes Korean and Chinese MMOs in the US then you need translations and writing work on a more constant basis. As you can imagine the translations often need to be tweaked and taylored to a western mind.

[Ed Oscuro]

This doesn't affect gamers negatively at all, but this sort of confrontation might eventually happen in gaming - although we've had a discussion about game developers' unions before and it looks like the young average of developers and turnover rates are significant impediments to any unions forming. It still could happen, though.

I wouldn't mind if game companies needed to give more profits over to their developers, although the amazing amounts of detail being put into games right now seem to be raising the bar of who gets hired, at least in the art department.

[hbkprm]

lucky