The Writers Guild of America has revealed the nominees for its annual awards and the line up for the Best Video Games Writing Award is what you would expect – for the most part. The contenders include a number of the most popular, critically games from the last year, with one impossible-to-miss exception: Red Dead Redemption 2.
The nominations went to Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Batman: The Enemy Within (Episode 5-Same Stitch), God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire.
Red Dead missed out seemingly based on a technicality.
The WGA Awards’ guidelines dictate that eligible games must have been released between Dec. 1, 2017 and Dec. 31, 2018 and feature on-screen credits in order to be considered for an award. Red Dead Redemption 2 meets those requirements, having been released on October 26, with on-screen credits.
The rules also require that the credited writers “have been or must have applied to become members of the WGA Videogame Writers Caucus” at the time their scripts were submitted.
The WGA claims that Red Dead Redemption 2 was not submitted for consideration.
People are…not thrilled.
It seems that back in 2011, there was similar controversy over Red Dead Redemption not being on the WGA’s nominees list. The reasons were not officially known, but it did stir arguments over these ‘technicality’ hoops you have to jump through to be eligible for the award.
The eligibility fee required for non-Guild members was perhaps what put off Rockstar Games (although it ain’t much for a company with that kind of cash), or maybe they’re just satisfied with the hefty share of trophies they’re drawing in without the WGA’s. Who knows.
What we do know is that without Red Dead in the race, the general consensus is that God of War is surely going to take gold. But, as Kirsten Dunst once said in Bring It On,
“I define being the best as competing against the best there is out there and beating them.”
Wise words that might haunt the God of War team if they win the title. Though all respect to them for their work on what is undoubtedly on one of the year’s best games.
The winners will be announced on February 17, so we will see if the predictions turn out to be true.