funcroc Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3935...ame_writers.php Chris Avellone - Creative Lead and Co-Owner, Obsidian Entertainment Richard Dansky - Central Clancy Writer, Ubisoft Tom Abernathy - Writer, Microsoft Game Studios Patrick Redding - Game/Narrative Designer, Ubisoft Montreal Erik Wolpaw - Writer, Valve Drew Karpyshyn - Lead Writer, BioWare Ken Levine - President and Creative Director, 2K Boston Kazushige Nojima - Freelance Game Scenario Writer Marc Laidlaw - Writer, Valve Emil Pagliarulo - Lead Designer, Bethesda Software Dan Houser - Vice President of Creativity, Rockstar Games Jerry Holkins - Writer, Penny Arcade Hideo Kojima - Head, Kojima Productions Jonathan Blow - Founder, Number None Susan O'Connor - Game Writer, Susan O'Connor Writing Studio Jesse Stern - Writer and Co-producer, CBS's "NCIS" Sohei Niikawa - Producer, Nippon Ichi Software Yuichiro Tanaka - Scenario writer, Atlus Marianne Krawczyk - Freelance game writer Tim Schafer - Creative director, Double Fine Productions
Morgoth Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 Where is George Ziets, David Gaider and David Cage? Rain makes everything better.
Moatilliatta Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 Hideo Kojima? Really? Also woooooooo Avellone wooooooo! This game in particular took a number of commendable risks when it came to including content -- like the potential for a lesbian love side story. Whaaat? There is also a notable lack of Tornquist. @Morgoth I'd imagine that Gaider couldn't be on since he hasn't released a large work since... BG:ToB or something?
xvtc Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 So apparently Emil Pagliarulo's writing on Oblivion and Fallout 3 is considered impressive now? Seriously?
Starwars Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 While it's nice to see Chris Avellone get the recognition, the list as a whole is down right laughable. Listen to my home-made recordings (some original songs, some not): http://www.youtube.c...low=grid&view=0
Purkake Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 (edited) This game in particular took a number of commendable risks when it came to including content -- like the potential for a lesbian love side story. Whaaat? Maybe they didn't care enough to look up the actual anatomy/social structure of the Asari to see that they are actually asexual. And even then it still LOOKS like a lesbian love story to the uninitiated. So apparently Emil Pagliarulo's writing on Oblivion and Fallout 3 is considered impressive now? Seriously? Maybe Dante's Inferno swooped in and lowered the bottom end so much that even Pacman is considered good writing now? Edited February 20, 2009 by Purkake
xvtc Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 Maybe Dante's Inferno swooped in and lowered the bottom end so much that even Pacman is considered good writing now? I couldn't even finish watching that first trailer for it, it was... embarrassing. No wonder why it's hard for many to take narratives seriously in video games when the industry praises people like Emil and allows a game like Dante's Inferno to more than likely molest a highly praised literary work.
Mamoulian War Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 Lacking big japanese names aswell Sent from my Stone Tablet, using Chisel-a-Talk 2000BC. My youtube channel: MamoulianFH Latest Let's Play Tales of Arise (completed) Latest Bossfight Compilation Dark Souls Remastered - New Game (completed) Let's Play/AAR Europa Universalis 1: Austria Grand Campaign (completed) Let's Play/AAR Europa Universalis 2: Xhosa Grand Campaign (completed) My PS Platinums and 100% - 29 games so far (my PSN profile) 1) God of War III - PS3 - 24+ hours 2) Final Fantasy XIII - PS3 - 130+ hours 3) White Knight Chronicles International Edition - PS3 - 525+ hours 4) Hyperdimension Neptunia - PS3 - 80+ hours 5) Final Fantasy XIII-2 - PS3 - 200+ hours 6) Tales of Xillia - PS3 - 135+ hours 7) Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2 - PS3 - 152+ hours 8.) Grand Turismo 6 - PS3 - 81+ hours (including Senna Master DLC) 9) Demon's Souls - PS3 - 197+ hours 10) Tales of Graces f - PS3 - 337+ hours 11) Star Ocean: The Last Hope International - PS3 - 750+ hours 12) Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII - PS3 - 127+ hours 13) Soulcalibur V - PS3 - 73+ hours 14) Gran Turismo 5 - PS3 - 600+ hours 15) Tales of Xillia 2 - PS3 - 302+ hours 16) Mortal Kombat XL - PS4 - 95+ hours 17) Project CARS Game of the Year Edition - PS4 - 120+ hours 18) Dark Souls - PS3 - 197+ hours 19) Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory - PS3 - 238+ hours 20) Final Fantasy Type-0 - PS4 - 58+ hours 21) Journey - PS4 - 9+ hours 22) Dark Souls II - PS3 - 210+ hours 23) Fairy Fencer F - PS3 - 215+ hours 24) Megadimension Neptunia VII - PS4 - 160 hours 25) Super Neptunia RPG - PS4 - 44+ hours 26) Journey - PS3 - 22+ hours 27) Final Fantasy XV - PS4 - 263+ hours (including all DLCs) 28) Tales of Arise - PS4 - 111+ hours 29) Dark Souls: Remastered - PS4 - 121+ hours
Wrath of Dagon Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 While it's nice to see Chris Avellone get the recognition, the list as a whole is down right laughable. Yeah, instead of the top game writers, that list should be called 'writers who were recently involved in big games', with a few exceptions. "Moral indignation is a standard strategy for endowing the idiot with dignity." Marshall McLuhan
Llyranor Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 This list is made obsolete by the inclusion of Jonathan Blow (Approved by Fio, so feel free to use it)
Niten_Ryu Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 Have to agree on many of those. I was hoping to see long time writer for Rockstar games, Lazlow Jones in the list (Radio channels dialogue is great). But I guess Dan Houser got the spot in the list. Let's play Alpha Protocol My misadventures on youtube.
Morgoth Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 Erik Walpow is awesome, he wrote for Portal, and he was also the Co-Writer on Psychonauts. Tim Schafer is simply a genuis as well. Drew Kaprpeshyn is okay-ish I guess. He did a good job on Mass Effect. Hideo Kojami is an awesome dude, he directed the awesome MGS4. Ken Levine dude is the Thief/System Shock2/Bioshock dude. Therefor, he's an awesome dude too. The rest I don't know/is garbage. Rain makes everything better.
Gromnir Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 chrisA has gotten 10 year's worth of credit for ps:t. isn't it about time he followed it up with something else? chrisA's contributions to iwd2 were arguably noteworthy, if limited, but he was complete hit & miss for kotor2. nwn2:motb was a wonderful example of chrisA recycling ps:t... but the new stuff were often craptacular. gotta do something more than come up with wacky concepts to gets a "top writer" label. has anybody since salinger gotten so much mileage out of 1 effort? keep in mind that ps:t is Gromnir's favorite crpg, but we thinks that chrisA is perhaps the most overrated crpg writer... evar. chrisA is still better than most crpg "writers" but he ain't near the super-groovy-keen master o' writing that bis/obsidian fans suggest that he is. chrisA lugubrious introspection and kooky concept stuff worked perfect for ps:t, but not every game is ps:t. HA! Good Fun! "If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."Justice Louis Brandeis, Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927) "Im indifferent to almost any murder as long as it doesn't affect me or mine."--Gfted1 (September 30, 2019)
Morgoth Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 (edited) Well, he was the lead writer on Kotor 2 as well for starters....which sold about 2 million units. HA! Good Fun! Edited February 20, 2009 by Morgoth Rain makes everything better.
Wrath of Dagon Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 Ken Levine dude is the Thief/System Shock2/Bioshock dude. Therefor, he's an awesome dude too. Did he actually write anything for Thief though? It doesn't say in his article. Btw, the guy who did the Cradle level in Thief: DS is supposed to be heading up Bioshock 2, that could be very interesting. "Moral indignation is a standard strategy for endowing the idiot with dignity." Marshall McLuhan
Morgoth Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 Ken Levine dude is the Thief/System Shock2/Bioshock dude. Therefor, he's an awesome dude too. Did he actually write anything for Thief though? It doesn't say in his article. Btw, the guy who did the Cradle level in Thief: DS is supposed to be heading up Bioshock 2, that could be very interesting. Yes, Thief I think was his first job in the game industry. He wrote the story. Rain makes everything better.
Gromnir Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 Well, he was the lead writer on Kotor 2 as well for starters....which sold about 2 million units. HA! Good Fun! the transformers move sold how many tickets? Gromnir already recognized that chrisA were writing for kotor2, but am not sure we would hold out as an indicator o' writing excellence... and if you wanna use units sold as measure o' good writing, you is gonna find self standing on a very slippery slope. HA! Good Fun! "If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."Justice Louis Brandeis, Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927) "Im indifferent to almost any murder as long as it doesn't affect me or mine."--Gfted1 (September 30, 2019)
Morgoth Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 In this industry, you only get recognized if you're good and sell tons of units. And in addition to Kotor 2, Chris also did work on NWN2 and MotB, which many of us are very fond of. Rain makes everything better.
Slowtrain Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 (edited) So apparently Emil Pagliarulo's writing on Oblivion and Fallout 3 is considered impressive now? Seriously? ANybody who worked as a writer on either Oblivion and/or FO3 should be immediately disqualified from inclusion. Ken Levine ... Bioshock Edited February 20, 2009 by CrashGirl Notice how I can belittle your beliefs without calling you names. It's a useful skill to have particularly where you aren't allowed to call people names. It's a mistake to get too drawn in/worked up. I mean it's not life or death, it's just two guys posting their thoughts on a message board. If it were personal or face to face all the usual restraints would be in place, and we would never have reached this place in the first place. Try to remember that.
Morgoth Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 Emil Pagliarulo though comes from Looking Glass fame. He's a good guy, he worked on Thief 2 as a level designer. And it's still better that he did the writing in F3 rather than Toddy boy. Rain makes everything better.
Morgoth Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 That's what happens when you sell your soul. But he can at least feed his family! Rain makes everything better.
Slowtrain Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 (edited) [quote name='Morgoth' post='920827' date='Feb 20 2009, 01:21 PM'But he can at least feed his family! Very true. And I can't say I wouldn't have done the same. It must have been frustrating to work on 2 great games that made so little (any?) money. It's just too bad that his mainstream approach on Bioshock, while it made him a lot of money (apparently), resulted in such a comparatively inferior game to what he had done before. Maybe now that he's got it out of his system, he'll return to his previous form. edit: You know though, as I think about it, I can't really blame him for wanting to sell a lot of copies of a game even if that mean dumbing it down for a mass audience. Bioshock was just such a disappointment that it makes me sad. Edited February 20, 2009 by CrashGirl Notice how I can belittle your beliefs without calling you names. It's a useful skill to have particularly where you aren't allowed to call people names. It's a mistake to get too drawn in/worked up. I mean it's not life or death, it's just two guys posting their thoughts on a message board. If it were personal or face to face all the usual restraints would be in place, and we would never have reached this place in the first place. Try to remember that.
Morgoth Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 The only game that kept Irrational over water was SWAT4 - which sold 800k. Not bad for a PC game with no story. Funny, it was the only Irrational game where Ken wasn't involved, and voila'! It sells. Tribes Vengeance and FFvs3rd Reich bombed hard. I'm curios what he's doing these days? I really hope he's involved in that rumored X-Com game. Rain makes everything better.
Morgoth Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 It's just too bad that his mainstream approach on Bioshock, while it made him a lot of money (apparently), resulted in such a comparatively inferior game to what he had done before. Maybe now that he's got it out of his system, he'll return to his previous form. edit: And I should say that my comment about selling his soul is probably a bit harsh. I can't really blame him for wanting to sell a lot of copies of a game even if that mean dumbing it down for a mass audience. Yeah, Bioshock really took shape and the team was assembling the game together to a little masterpiece, until Ken made the decision to cut everything down and basically make it a straight forward shooter. It's not bad as it was released, it just screams so much after "More potential!". Maybe he did the right business choice, but he didn't do the right artistic choice. Rain makes everything better.
Slowtrain Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 ANd the writing was really the best part of Bioshock anyway. SO I guess it doesn't really disqualify him from this thread. It was the rest of the game that was so tedious. Did Levine actually write Bioshock himself? Or did he just control the overall design of the game? Notice how I can belittle your beliefs without calling you names. It's a useful skill to have particularly where you aren't allowed to call people names. It's a mistake to get too drawn in/worked up. I mean it's not life or death, it's just two guys posting their thoughts on a message board. If it were personal or face to face all the usual restraints would be in place, and we would never have reached this place in the first place. Try to remember that.
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