[Note: The winner of this challenge was Stan Rezaee, who wrote a great article about rebooting S.T.A.L.K.E.R.]
Hey gamers!
Welcome back to the GameSkinny Writer’s Workshop.
You guys did an awesome job with your last challenge. For those of you who might have missed it, we asked you all to write about your Game of the Year and tell us a little bit about why your chosen game deserved the title. Congrats to Zach Long, whose piece about Civilization: Beyond Earth was the winning article for Challenge 1.3.
As we were looking through all the articles that came in, it seemed like you guys were really eager to express your opinions. We thought it’d be harder for you to create and support arguments than it would be to report facts, like you did in the news articles from the first two GSWW challenges. But you proved us wrong.
So this week, we’re doing another opinion piece.
This should look and feel a little bit like your last challenge, and you’ll be using a lot of the same skills. (Those of you who missed it last time, click here to read the challenge lesson.)
As I’m sure a lot of you have heard by now, there’s a Ghostbusters reboot in the works with a gender-swapped cast. Some people are really excited to see some ghost-busting girl power, and others think the idea is gimmicky at best. Regardless of how you might feel about the new Ghostbusters project, I’m sure you have your own list of movie franchises that you’d love to see rebooted.
Same goes for game franchises. It’s common for gamers to pine over how amazing it would be if so-and-so franchise was brought back from the dead. We all have that one series that we would just love to breathe new life into. And we have all kinds of reasons for wanting reboots. For some of us, our franchises never got the games they really deserved. (This is especially true for D&D-style tabletop games that just NEED video games.) Other franchises had great game after great game, and then they just stopped. (I’m looking at you, Half Life.) And others, we just want to see brought into the modern age. (Personally, I would love to see some Neverwinter Nights with current tech.)
Though the reasons may vary, we’ve all got our picks for reboot material. The question is what makes a good reboot.
We’ve seen some major successes. Bethesda’s Fallout 3 was a great reboot that kept the Fallout series from fading into obscurity after its original developer went bankrupt. The 2013 Tomb Raider reboot brought a new and improved Lara Croft to current-gen consoles.
But we’ve also suffered through some major failures. Some of these, like the recent Thief reboot, have just been disappointments. Others have been outright terrible – like Duke Nukem Forever, which was so bad that some gamers found it appalling.
This week, we want you guys to tell us what franchises you’d like to see rebooted.
Tell us exactly what the reboot would look like. What would you keep from the original source material, and what new ideas or mechanics would you introduce?
Because you’ll probably have a lot to say on the topic, we’re going to use this challenge to get you all a little bit more accustomed to writing longer form.
Don’t get too intimidated – we won’t overwhelm you. When you’re working on your articles this week, see if you can write 300 words or more. For some of you, this’ll be a breeze. For others, it’ll be a little more difficult. But that’s okay. Writing long form takes time and practice. If you can’t get to 300 words with this article, don’t get discouraged. You can always try again next time. Do as much as you can. We just want you to push your comfort zone a little bit so you can start expanding your horizons as a writer.
It may seem like you won’t be able to talk about one thing for that long, but trust us when we say that you can. And we’re going to help you.
One of the hardest parts of writing is deciding exactly what to say.
So we’re gonna give you a few different questions to consider as you write. You don’t have to cover all of these in your article, but they’ll definitely help you if you get stuck. (And they’ll get you closer to that 300-word mark, too.)
- What does a good reboot look like to you? What elements does it keep from its original franchise? What does it change? Is it an exact remake, or a fresh game with certain similar elements?
- Why does this particular game deserve a reboot?
- Who would make the reboot? The same developer or a new one? Why?
- Describe your reboot to us. What exactly would you keep/change in your reboot? Consider your answer to the first question and apply it here. Try to make us share in your vision.
Now it’s your turn to give it a shot.
We’re stoked to see what you all come up with. You’ve all got great visions in your heads, and here’s your chance to share one with the world. Be as descriptive as possible.
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Mission Objectives
- Try to hit the 300-word challenge mark, but make sure you write at least 150 words.
- Make sure you’re descriptive. Help us see your vision.
- Be sure to answer some of the questions we asked above.
- Fill out all parts of your Bonus Points tab.
- TAG YOUR POST’S BONUS POINTS TAB WITH THIS WEEK’S CHALLENGE TAG: GSWW 1.4
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Remember to invite your friends to join our GSWW challenges!
And follow our tag, #GSWW on Twitter, Facebook, etc. for updates, hints, and questions.
Again, this week’s tag is: GSWW 1.4
(We can’t keep track of your piece if your tag isn’t there!)
The winner of this challenge will be announced during our live Twitch.tv GSWW stream. During these streams, I (your loyal weekend editor) will sit down with you all to workshop, promote, and feature some of your articles.
Note: We Have A New Workshop Time!
Because of some scheduling changes, our workshops will be happening on Wednesday nights for the forseeable future. That means our next workshop will go live on Wednesday, February 11 at 9:00 pm EST. To watch, click here.
Good luck, gamers. And happy writing!
Published: Feb 2, 2015 01:14 pm