So, who writes what?
A good friend of mine linked me to this article a while ago, asking for my thoughts on it. For those too lazy to click the link, the article is all about how writing in games is being taken over by movie writers, and the industry is desperately in need of novelists to come in and save our poor, infant industry. The article is not subtle, and starts with the sentence “There aren’t enough novelists writing videogames.” and ends with the ominous “We can’t let those guys take over.”
The article annoyed me for a number of reasons. First off, part of the article describes how novelists should flock to games to keep themselves in pocket. “A vast new audience is opening up for interactive fictions,” it starts, “With book sales nose-diving, it would seem to be a natural avenue.” Natural to who exactly? The author lists a number of reasons why games should be written by novelists instead of film scriptwriters, but completely misses one glaringly obvious solution: that games should be written by game writers. The notion that game writing (which, by the way, is fundamentally different from film, radio, TV and book writing) should be done by specialised game writers doesn’t even occur to the article’s author, and only highlights how far our industry STILL has to go before it can be recognised as an independent medium in its own right. The image of game writers and novelists arguing over who should write for big budget Hollywood films is absurd, and rightly so, so why isn’t it for games?
Games writers need to quietly cough, wave a hello at the other writers in the entertainment industry, and point out the differences that make games so different and so unique. The biggest difference is obviously interactivity. Yes, other mediums have attempted interactivity: Andrew Ryman’s 253 is a fine example of a hypertext novel (and a fine example of why hypertext novels don’t work), and every now and then you’ll see “interactive movies” popping up online where the user chooses one of a few paths, the most recent that comes to mind being the now dead (oh the irony) The Outbreak.
Genuine interactivity, when the user dictates pacing and plot makes games fundamentally different from movies and novels. Subsequently, the skills required in the staff are also fundamentally different. This applies to writers too, so just as one would rightly expect radio scriptwriters to have different skills from film scriptwriters, game scriptwriters also need different skills. In fact, because of the massive gulf in interactivity, I would happily argue that games writers need even more specialised skills than other entertainment writers. Furthermore, as technology improves, games will have the potential to become even more interactive than they are now. Having film writers and novelists writing scripts for these games risks hindering the potential of our industry, and should be avoided at all costs.
We work in a burgeoning seedling of an industry, one that should be protected as much as possible and left to flourish into its own unique space. I couldn’t think of a good way to finish this article, so I’ll steal the Guardian’s exit line. We can’t let those guys take over.
