The Force Unleashed Wins Writers Guild Award

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed has won the second annual Video Game Writing Award from the Writers Guild of America. The winners were announced in a ceremony on February 7. Writers Haden Blackman, Shawn Pitman, John Stafford and Cameron Suey were honored with the award, beating out fellow nominees Bethesda Game Studios' Fallout 3; Electronic Arts Los Angeles' Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3; Eidos' Tomb Raider: Underworld and Mousechief's Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble. The award was first given in 2008, with its stated goal to "encourage storytelling excellence in videogames, improve the status of writers, and foster uniform standards within the gaming industry." During last year's nominations, the WGA's selection process, which requires entered games to be members of the Guild's Videogame Writers Caucus, came in for criticism, because many professional game writers do not belong to the organization. The requirement to be a member of the Caucus is still in effect for this year's awards. Last year the honor went to Vicious Cycle Software's Dead Head Fred, written by Dave Ellis and Adam Cogan.