You may or may not have heard of Rhianna Pratchett. She is an award winning writer who has won awards for the writing of, to name but a few, the Overlord series and Mirror's Edge. So it’s safe to assume that when she speaks her mind about the state of computer game writing she is worth listening to. Her latest comments about gaming have left us with the distinct impression that there is something wrong with game writing and the writers in the gaming industry themselves.
“Writers and narrative designers are still relatively new positions on development teams.” she said. “This means there’s still a level of uncertainty about how best to use and integrate them. I know from talking to lots of fine people in my field that the writing process can often be done too late, without proper access to the team and under extreme pressure. Thankfully, things are starting to get a little better and more writers are being contacted in the first few months of a project’s lifespan, rather than the last few months. A little more variation in concept and content would be nice as well, which is something writers and narrative designers can help with.”
Her objections seem to have some ground with many movies being made into terrible games and sometimes having very little imagination put into the writing of the storylines. Still, her speaking out like this can only improve the effort behind the writing anyway.
Any there was I thinking it was a Pratchett of the Terry variety, oh well, better storylines and plots would be a major bonus for games.