WGA Strikers to Switch to Games?
With the Writers Guild of America strike in it's fourth week it's beginning to look like strikers will be taking their business elsewhere. Apparently, in spite of previous hemming and hawing, video game writing isn't covered by the WGA, leaving a previously woefully ignored industry looking ripe for invasion from the starving masses of WGA members.
With recently released games flexing their "epic storyline" muscles, a bevy of screenwriters doesn't seem like such a bad idea. However, with video games taking up more and more of consumers "prime time" hours one is given cause to wonder whether this is the beginning of the rats fleeing the sinking ship. Granted, that particular analogy might sound a little alarmist, but let's face it, media is rapidly approaching a fully interactive bent. Advertising has even become interactive with the advent of ARG's, and if you think literary minds haven't been bent to the disturbing task of mass marketing with viral media you're sorely mistaken.
As it stands, it appears video game writing will simply remain a stopgap until the WGA can settle it's dispute with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (a villainous name if ever I've heard one). Video game writing simply isn't as lucrative as screenwriting and the demands on time can often be much larger than the bashing out of a screenplay. Until games and interactive media hold a larger percentage of the audience's attention the people writing for them will remain those doing it for the love of the game.
