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[maffyew]

So what are all those striking members of the Writers Guild of America doing right now whilst not writing for TV?

Variety seems to think that they're writing for the web, videogames and graphic novels.
Vidgames may be one of the prime reasons network TV doesn't draw as many viewers as it used to, but it also represents a new market for

Comments

[alex_adventures]

Anything that gets better writing in videogames makes me happy. It's kind of ironic, though, given that the principle point of contention is the lack of royalties from digital distribution of their writing.

[madolan]

The article is probably incorrect. Variety is the mouthpiece of the entertainment corporations, and has no interest in promoting the writers' side of the strike. They've been publishing inaccurate accounts from the beginning. This looks like another attempt to paint the strikers as scabs, to indicate that they're getting plenty of money from other sources, and to discredit the scope of the strike.

The United Hollywood blog debunks a lot of inaccurate media coverage, which is almost the only kind of press they're getting.

[maffyew]

Thanks for the link. I hadn't even thought about it from a "discreditng the validity of the strike" perspective, I just thought "Hey, potential talent moving into videogame script writing? Yay!".

I'm just stoked that these guys can strike so effectively. Few groups can these days.

[madolan]

I can't find it, of course, but I swear I was just reading an article recently about the difficult of hiring into videogames. In short, people who play them assume that means they can make them. Writers assume they can write for them, even though it takes a certain open-option approach to write effectively. The era of the single visionary has given way to the era of the hired company of temp coders, but marketing hasn't caught up with that reality.

The writing stuff particularly interested me. I remember Gabe & Tycho posting a job opening this year, a writing position, for which I was disgustingly underqualified. Humbled me quick. Not just anyone can write for that medium.

[badpauly]

Article sounds like "we paid a media-outlet to make the writers seem like greedy-cunts".

[maffyew]

I missed all that in the frenzy of "Holy shit, there may actually finally be some talent writing for videogames" thoughts that were running through my head.

I got linked to this via Slashdot, who linked via someone else, and both places chose to focus like I did when reading the article. :P

[philgone]

Your grandmother calls them vidgames! And we all play them on the picture wireless.

[maffyew]

I got halfway through replying to this comment but I forgot to keep turning the wooden crank-lever on my computron, and then the cat got tangled in the series of cans and strings I use to connect to the intarwebs.

[woolenthreads]

What do they define as a vidgame or videogame anyway? The only thing I'd call a "Video Game" is the TV/DVD based trivia games.