CDPR hires Ubisoft writer as lead writer for Project Orion

[animalfather]

Here is her interview: https://news.ubisoft.com/en-us/article/1ZAAybpJDRz0MUCKmplCYG/women-of-ubisoft-anna-megill

Honestly, I can't say I'm very excited about this news, having played ubisoft games I always felt their writing to be lacking. My honest question is why not have Mike Pondsmith be the main writer since he knows the world better than anyone. I'm not saying she couldn't do the job I'm just asking why not hire someone with more cyberpunk cred as the lead writer for such an important project.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

My honest question is why not have Mike Pondsmith be the main writer since he knows the world better than anyone.

Just a guess, but I think Mike Pondsmith already have a job and he's more than likely not "available" for a full time job as a writer for Orion
Beside, games are mostly "team" work. So even if in Ubisoft games stories aren't that great, it might not relfect what Anna Megill is capable of...

Edit : Knowing that Mike Pondsmith/R.Talsorian and CDPR keep "working" together, I'm not worried at all

 

[Boonatron]

I think most gamers know the sorry state that Ubi is in. Anyone going down the same road will meet the same end.

That said, I don't see any serious red flags and, like everyone, someimes you just have to give the boss what they want.

 

[ExSteam]

A little digging on the OP part and they could have easily found this. Not just a writer for Ubisoft.

Anna has worked for some of the top studios around the world, such as Ubisoft, Square Enix, Arkane, Playground, Remedy, and Nintendo.

Anna was narrative lead on Control, which received multiple Game of the Year and Best Story awards in 2019 and was hailed by many critics as one of the best games ever written. Her work on Dishonored: Death of The Outsider earned a Writer's Guild of America Award nomination for Best Screenplay in 2017.

I wont be surprised if Mike Pondsmith is working with CD Projekt Red as he did on Cyberpunk 2077.

 

[koalahugs]

A little digging on the OP part and they could have easily found this. Not just a writer for Ubisoft.

Anna has worked for some of the top studios around the world, such as Ubisoft, Square Enix, Arkane, Playground, Remedy, and Nintendo.

Anna was narrative lead on Control, which received multiple Game of the Year and Best Story awards in 2019 and was hailed by many critics as one of the best games ever written. Her work on Dishonored: Death of The Outsider earned a Writer's Guild of America Award nomination for Best Screenplay in 2017.

I wont be surprised if Mike Pondsmith is working with CD Projekt Red as he did on Cyberpunk 2077.

100% this.

I would say "Ubisoft writer" is a bit misleading because it sort of implies Ubisoft somehow manufactured her with their DNA but that's really opposite to the reality here. It's like how Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij wrote The OA for Netflix (which is one of the best written TV shows ever made IMO)... but I can't imagine referring to them as "Netflix writers", which would give a totally different impression of who they are as creatives. Same thing here.

Anyway, just to echo what @LeKill3rFou said, it's a team effort anyway. OP, have you seen the credits for Phantom Liberty? It's a big team of directors and writers and so on:

Also, from the link in the OP:

"
What does a lead writer do?

AM: It varies from studio to studio. My job as a lead writer is to help my team do their best writing, help them grow as writers, help them stay on tone, stay true to the lore of the project. We all have a vision presented to us by the creative director. It's our job to help realize that vision. A big part of my job is just ensuring that we're following that vision and the path that the creative director has laid out for us, and that the writers are doing their best work. I'm like a mediator between the writers and the creative director's vision.




And who's the creative director for Orion? From CDPR's press release from February 6th:

"
Project Orion is currently in the early stages of development, with studio veterans previously involved in Cyberpunk 2077 and its spy-thriller Phantom Liberty expansion spearheading the project, including Gabriel Amatangelo (Game Director), Paweł Sasko (Associate Game Director), Igor Sarzyński (Creative Director), Andrzej Stopa (Cinematic Director), Kacper Niepokólczycki (Environment Art Director), Sarah Grümmer (Acting Lead Quest Designer) and Kacper Kościeński (Engineering Director). This group is now part of a larger team based in the newly created CDPR studio in Boston, Massachusetts.

Looks like it's Igor again (I'm assuming creative director is basically the same as narrative director or story director?). Gabe is the overall director again too. It seems to me that they feel they've really figured it out with Phantom Liberty, and they've got all of these PL vets running the show for Orion. Sounds like more than safe hands to me.

I mean, if CP77 was the big experiment where they were pushing the envelope and learning how to walk again, then PL was when they were running in the Olympics. I have a feeling they'll do pretty well with Orion.

As for Mike Pondsmith being Lead Writer, given what that job actually entails, I don't see why he would even want to do that? Continuing in the same role as consultant makes a ton of sense though.

 

[GrimReaper801]

This goes to show a few things:

First, people don't actually know much about the way the creative process works. It's not just "lead XYZ decides everything and entire studios just go with it".

Secondly, shows how little the average person actually research these people before hating or loving them.

Thirdly, shows how working for a specific studio can seriously taint or improve the public's perception of someone. Regardless of their other accomplishments.

Which leads to these kinds of post, some of which will definitely gather a lot of traction, which in turn can actually hurt a game before anything is even known about it.

Personally, I'm zero worried at this point in time. Regardless of Anna's accomplishments, which are nothing to scoff at, it's still CDPR. They have standards. They know their audience and they're not Ubisoft or Bethesda. Bringing in talent from those studios wouldn't immediately signal they are shifting to lesser writing quality and it's a bit ridiculous to get worried this early.

 

[Agent-94]

Anna has worked for some of the top studios around the world, such as Ubisoft, Square Enix, Arkane, Playground, Remedy, and Nintendo.

I enjoyed the Dishonored and Prey series by Arkane. I am cautiously optimistic.

 

[Toonen1988]

When a company is bad, it doesn't necessarily means the employees are bad aswell.

Ubisoft doesn't fail because of the employees. No, Ubisoft fails because of the management. Triple A studio's are run by business people, who probably doesn't even give a f... about games. They only want to see money being generated.

Take for example Skull and Bones. The people who worked on the game, feels relieved and free after the development was done. They knew the game was going to suck, they hated to work on that game.

This says more then enough of how toxic triple A studio's can be. The real victims are the gamers itself but also the employees of those companies.

And sometimes I even feel bad, not only because I bought again a bad game, but also the hardworking people who are limited and controlled by people who doesn't give a f.... about gaming, but just want to generate money.

I would give everyone a chance, no matter for which company they worked for. Since I judge people individual and I dont tar everyone with the same brush. So she would definitely have my benefit of a doubt and hopefully CDPR won't limited her full potential, which a company NEVER should do.

Me personally, I would never work for companies like Ubisoft, EA games or for example Activision. To much toxicity....

 

[Hoplite_22]

Better to call them the narrative lead on Control, which was an amazing game with a very well baked story, and while others are correct, no one writes a game this large on their own, it was a well lead team and that is a good sign.

 

[DonLuzolvaz]

I enjoyed the Dishonored and Prey series by Arkane. I am cautiously optimistic.

control too. she was the narrative lead that worked on the game.

Honestly, I can't say I'm very excited about this news,

I'm the opposite, when I see a writer who has worked on Dishonored, Prey and also lead the narrative in Control, I get quite excited.

Edit: Checked her works and she also was a writer on Murdered: Soul Suspect. That game was really good story-wise. I recommend to everyone who hasn't played that game, give it a go. The gameplay is not great but the story is engaging.

 

[Shafir]

having played ubisoft games I always felt their writing to be lacking.

Yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. And indirectly questioning her competence is not particularly fair. It's always a question of whether someone can develop their full potential in a project or whether they have to follow predefined limits. And since no one is solely responsible for the story or stories in such a large project, I see no reason to rate this recruitment report poorly.

 

[northwold]

OK. Put a writer on a Bethesda game, where the studio mantra is the gamer must be able to make ANY choice, play ANY way, and ALWAYS end up the hero. Put the same writer on a CDPR game, where the mantra is basically, "to the extent possible, choices must have consequences". You're not going to get the same output.

Games are the products of teams of creatives and, also, what the house as a business wants to achieve. I wouldn't assume anything about the capabilities of any one member of such a team based simply on where they worked before.

See also in TV legend writers for something like Star Trek The Next Generation, who must reset the chess pieces at the end of every episode so the show can be sold in syndication and shown in any order, versus writers on something like Game of Thrones, who can kill lead characters with abandon. The writers are just as talented in either case but you end up with very different results.

 

[LadyMiseryAli]

OK. Put a writer on a Bethesda game, where the studio mantra is the gamer must be able to make ANY choice, play ANY way, and ALWAYS end up the hero. Put the same writer on a CDPR game, where the mantra is basically, "to the extent possible, choices must have consequences". You're not going to get the same output.

Games are the products of teams of creatives and, also, what the house as a business wants to achieve. I wouldn't assume anything about the capabilities of any one member of such a team based simply on where they worked before.

See also in TV legend writers for something like Star Trek The Next Generation, who must reset the chess pieces at the end of every episode so the show can be sold in syndication and shown in any order, versus writers on something like Game of Thrones, who can kill lead characters with abandon. The writers are just as talented in either case but you end up with very different results.

You're acting as if a writer can't write different genres or adapt to a new theme...

 

[animalfather]

You're acting as if a writer can't write different genres or adapt to a new theme...

Can but its not their forte. A crime novelist wouldn't be as good as writing dragon fantasy novels and vice versa, not all writers are the same and have the same skill set.

 

[TheGheist]

Anna being the narrative lead on Control, ups my confidence. I loved that game! I read every single data file I found. I was deeply immersed in it. lol

 

[Spockprime]

I'm in the minority who think that the writing of individual missions in CP2077 was sometimes great, but the overall story was a disaster.

So, good luck to her. I'm not troubled at all. Maybe she won't give us an open world with a story that kills the main character in two weeks.

 

[Tarille]

Maybe she won't give us an open world with a story that kills the main character in two weeks.

And maybe the main character will be the main character and not sidelined by some random douchecanoe....

 

[LeKill3rFou]

I'm in the minority who think that the writing of individual missions in CP2077 was sometimes great, but the overall story was a disaster.

So, good luck to her. I'm not troubled at all. Maybe she won't give us an open world with a story that kills the main character in two weeks.

And maybe the main character will be the main character and not sidelined by some random douchecanoe....

Hey, you can't please everyone. As far as I know, Cyberpunk 2077's story is rather praised.
There is one thing I am 100% sure, it's that no matter who are the writers and how talented-good-skilled they are, there will be always people to claim how bad the story is!
It's a certitude, maybe the only one for now

 

[Shafir]

Quite apart from that, apart from the craftsmanship, it is very often simply a matter of taste. What is great for some is boring for others. There's hardly anything you can do about that.

 

[GrimReaper801]

Can but its not their forte. A crime novelist wouldn't be as good as writing dragon fantasy novels and vice versa, not all writers are the same and have the same skill set.

Whenever I see this kind of argument I can't help but bring up Heath Ledger and how people were shitting all over him when it first got announced he was going to be the next Joker. Because, clearly, you can't excel in another genre. You are good in one genre and that is it.

Skills can be learned and genres can be studied. Passion is something you either have or do not have but having it will definitely allow you to cross genres and still excel.

Regardless, it's a ludicrous comparison since, as we've repeatedly mentioned, writing the narrative arcs for a game like CP2077 is a team effort.

Hey, you can't please everyone. As far as I know, Cyberpunk 2077's story is rather praised.
There is one thing I am 100% sure, it's that no matter who are the writers and how talented-good-skilled they are, there will be always people to claim how bad the story is!
It's a certitude, maybe the only one for now

Yup, show me a "universally acclaimed" story and I'll show you a thousand people who dislike it. No story will ever please everyone, it's unavoidable.