Has Michael Unsworth left Rockstar Games?

[BakeWithMe1000]

41 minutes ago, Kris194 said:

Two out of three writers who wrote RDRII story seem to be gone, people who say, that it won't affect Rockstar must be crazy.

We'll see, who knows the new writers will be more creative 

[sanjay3207]

3 minutes ago, BakeWithMe1000 said:

We'll see, who knows the new writers will be more creative 

They have huge shoes to fill.

[Short Dawg]

5 minutes ago, sanjay3207 said:

They have huge shoes to fill.

It’s easy to say that now but tbh , people were dismissing and ignoring his role all this time while shilling for Leslie Benzies and Dan houser after they left , this is probably the most attention the community has ever given this guy up to this point , we also gotta remember that there’s people he more than likely influenced, mentored and groomed to take his place at some point in time as well…or the story could just not live up to expectations for some and he’ll be the community scapegoat 

[Jason]

There's likely other writers there who may be pushed up, R* do typically promote from within. I do wonder if they'll contract writers in though, going forward. Similar to how they do a lot of their OST's, they work with people they know well on a game by game basis, it works well for them, so I wonder if potentially they may seek out some great writers and get them to work on a game, be it a GTA, RDR, whatever. They have all the pull in the world you'd think, to go write a R* game would be a pretty big deal.

[Short Dawg]

1 hour ago, Kris194 said:

Two out of three writers who wrote RDRII story seem to be gone, people who say, that it won't affect Rockstar must be crazy.

The next R* game most likely won’t be until the 2030’s anyway so his departure now is irrelevant as far as GTA VI is concerned given that his role is already complete 

[sanjay3207]

45 minutes ago, Short Dawg said:

It’s easy to say that now but tbh , people were dismissing and ignoring his role all this time while shilling for Leslie Benzies and Dan houser

 

I am aware of this. In the past I made comments about how both michael unsworth and rupert humphries co-wrote the stories for rockstar games since 2008. People would either downvote my comment or reply that dan houser did the heavy lifting and they are not important. The users would always downplay his role. Now, the same people are suddenly concerned. The hypocrisy is appalling, Especially from the people on reddit and youtube. GTA forums and sometimes the main rdr 2 subreddits are good have these conversations, but at other gaming communities. 

 

These so-called rockstar fanpages [Especially gta 6 twitter leak accounts] do not know anything about how rockstar works but would be the first post it on internet or make a clickbait video out of that regarding any rockstar news. 

 

45 minutes ago, Short Dawg said:

we also gotta remember that there’s people he more than likely influenced, mentored and groomed to take his place at some point in time as well

Like I said in my previous post, The new writers have huge shoes to fill. Rockstar did hire a experienced writer who goes by the name roger drew. But, If these new writers and roger drew somehow end up topping rdr 2's writing, they would be celebrated in the rockstar community [The community probably won't care about the writers until they leave the company after gta 6 but who knows]. 

 

This is also rockstar's first female protagonist, There is a lot riding on rockstar's first portrayal of a female protagonist. They gotta get it right, They can't mess that up. Many big name AAA studios have already done a female protagonist. Rockstar is the only studio who have not done it. Many women who have been playing gta games since the release of gta 3 or women who got into gta will be looking forward to lucia's character and the gaming industry in general would be looking forward to rockstar's female protagonist. 

 

Sam houser back in 2013/2014 said that if they are gonna do a female protaganist, it will be probably base on cocaine cowboys 2, Which itself is based on real life 1980's miami drug lord named griselda blanco. Lucia probably is based on her.

 

That's the reason I said that they have a huge shoes to fill. People are already concerned about the writing in gta 6. Dan houser and michael unswoth leaving have left the fans concerned. On top of that, the writing in gta online isn't on par with original gta 5 writing. GTAO isn't written by the main writers, But the community would judge the writing in gta 6 based on gtao. The new writers should come up with a really good female protagonist and also come up with really excellent story. If they don't do that the clickbait youtubers, the youtubers who are already against a female protagonist and say the game is "woke" and would use lucia's character as a scapegoat.

Edited September 4, 2023 by sanjay3207

[sanjay3207]

13 minutes ago, Jason said:

I do wonder if they'll contract writers in though, going forward. Similar to how they do a lot of their OST's,

I don't about know about writers, But rockstar did contract directors for in-game cutscenes in rdr 2. 

[Saiyam]

I hope the writers who wrote dialogues for tuners and drug wars update for gta online don’t get promoted

[Spider-Vice]

8 minutes ago, sanjay3207 said:

I don't about know about writers, But rockstar did contract directors for in-game cutscenes in rdr 2. 

They search for writers fully internally, hand-chosen instead of public job listings. As you yourself have mentioned earlier in this topic, and I have mentioned before as well, there's plenty of other writers at R*, a lot of them listed in the updated full credits for RDR2/GTAV and even on LinkedIn.

 

An amount of those will have worked alongside Michael, Dan if they were already there, etc... Don't forget Rupert Humphries is still there, but I fully expect the man to retire or something as well at some point. It is as already discussed in this thread when it comes to these big figures.

[sanjay3207]

13 minutes ago, Saiyam said:

I hope the writers who wrote dialogues for tuners and drug wars update for gta online don’t get promoted

The dialogue for los tuners was written by the person who played KDJ in the update. Rockstar's script was different. Here's a great interview about him working on the gta online and about his music and his work with rockstar games.

 

https://www.gq.com/story/moodymann-grand-theft-auto

[Leonida Man]

19 minutes ago, sanjay3207 said:

The dialogue for los tuners was written by the person who played KDJ in the update. Rockstar's script was different. Here's a great interview about him working on the gta online and about his music and his work with rockstar games.

 

https://www.gq.com/story/moodymann-grand-theft-auto

"My character can get a little irritating"

Yeah no sh*t 

[Kris194]

1 hour ago, Saiyam said:

I hope the writers who wrote dialogues for tuners and drug wars update for gta online don’t get promoted

What do you mean? Writer of it should get an Emmy award

 

 

Edited September 4, 2023 by Kris194

[Jimbatron]

1 hour ago, sanjay3207 said:

This is also rockstar's first female protagonist, There is a lot riding on rockstar's first portrayal of a female protagonist. They gotta get it right, They can't mess that up.

Agreed it’s hugely important, but I’m not worried on that front. R* have always done good female characters, and showed their range with RDR 2 in particular. And as we’ve all more or less agreed, current changes won’t affect GTA VI as we have to assume other than tweaks it’s already written (the risks for me being can they get credible leaders to replace DH and MU are for GTA VII and beyond.)

[Sneaky Queeky]

1 minute ago, Jimbatron said:

Agreed it’s hugely important, but I’m not worried on that front. R* have always done good female characters, and showed their range with RDR 2 in particular. And as we’ve all more or less agreed, current changes won’t affect GTA VI as we have to assume other than tweaks it’s already written (the risks for me being can they get credible leaders to replace DH and MU are for GTA VII and beyond.)

I guess I'm one of the few who thinks Abigail is an extremely realistic portrayal of a woman surrounded by idiot men on white horses. Her scene with Arthur; "I was always a good thief, Arthur..." "That you were..." gives me goosebumps. 

[sanjay3207]

9 hours ago, Jimbatron said:

Agreed it’s hugely important, but I’m not worried on that front. R* have always done good female characters, and showed their range with RDR 2 in particular. And as we’ve all more or less agreed, current changes won’t affect GTA VI as we have to assume other than tweaks it’s already written (the risks for me being can they get credible leaders to replace DH and MU are for GTA VII and beyond.)

 

I mean I agree that R* have always done good female characters. I am not really worried about how hardcore gta fans will react to it. When jason schrier's article revealed that gta 6 will have both female and male protagonists, Surprisingly gta fanbase was positive about it. They didn't worry about female protagonist and were excited about it. The same happened when the leaks happened, Most hardcore gta fans were happy that rockstar were actually working on a gta game set in vice city. The negative reception was the community who are not hardcore gta fans or the vocal gaming community who were making gta gone "woke" videos and were commenting about it everywhere. Like it or not, Even if rockstar somehow ends up topping rdr 2's writing, The conversation around Lucia as a character would be a sh*tshow. It will be like conversation that happened around TLOU2, But on steroids. I wouldn't be surprised if the next gta is controversial just because it has a female protagonist. If rockstar want to avoid that, they have to make lucia character writing bullet proof, Any kind of unfair criticism that female protagonists get in general from gaming youtubers should just disappear when it comes to lucia's character.  

 

 

 

 

[Goldstein]

12 hours ago, Jason said:

There's likely other writers there who may be pushed up, R* do typically promote from within. I do wonder if they'll contract writers in though, going forward. Similar to how they do a lot of their OST's, they work with people they know well on a game by game basis, it works well for them, so I wonder if potentially they may seek out some great writers and get them to work on a game, be it a GTA, RDR, whatever. They have all the pull in the world you'd think, to go write a R* game would be a pretty big deal.

 

They could contract Absurd Ventures, heard they have good writers.

[donkeyass]

13 hours ago, sanjay3207 said:

Like I said in my previous post, The new writers have huge shoes to fill. Rockstar did hire a experienced writer who goes by the name roger drew. But, If these new writers and roger drew somehow end up topping rdr 2's writing,

Well, they are all really good writers and it is really uncommon to see people like them in the videogame industry BUT... the level in the videogame industry is surprisingly low, given how much money is made. Most games' story is childish, stupid or rushed. Of course there are several other aspects to take care of, it is not like a movie, but Hollywood and Literature are still several steps ahead of videogames. Take a look at Elden Ring, the game is literal gold when it comes to story and apparently George RR Martin didn't even take it seriously. 

 

But how many games with a good (real good, not just okay) story can you think of? Last of Us 1, RDR2, GTAIV, maybe some Uncharted, Elden Ring and Kojima games. Other than that, maybe indies, not that i'm aware of. 

 

What I mean is there is plenty of writers either in the movie business or in literature that are very very good and may create some real good videogame stories but for some reason (maney) developers don't want to invest in story and prefer to do it in marketing/software. Rockstar has had a record of taking good care of this aspect of the game, so I would not go like "OMG they were the only writers this is literally a nightmare"

[sanjay3207]

9 minutes ago, donkeyass said:

Rockstar has had a record of taking good care of this aspect of the game, so I would not go like "OMG they were the only writers this is literally a nightmare"

Yeah, I agree. Surprisingly there aren't that many devs in the industry who give a lot of importance to writing.

 

10 minutes ago, donkeyass said:

Hollywood and Literature are still several steps ahead of videogames. Take a look at Elden Ring, the game is literal gold when it comes to story and apparently George RR Martin didn't even take it seriously.

You are kinda right here, Because, Rockstar went and hired roger drew who has zero background in video game writing, But he wrote a lot of televisions shows and radio since 1995. He also wrote the thick of it and he won a emmy for writing VEEP.

[Jimbatron]

I agree computer games are generally not up there.

 

However, for me, RDR 2 in terms of story and acting is up there with the very best of them. Honesty, in terms of ensemble cast and the performances put in, I rate it ever bit as good as GoT or Breaking Bad.

 

This is not just fanboyism. I’ve enjoyed every R* story but I really feel RDR 2 raised the bar and is in a different league the others didn’t quite reach, as great as they were.

 

Thats just my opinion so of course feel free to disagree, but maybe it also explains my concern on any news about changes at the top of the writing team. I don’t think asking for something better than RDR 2 is realistic, hitting the same heights would be an achievement in my book. Obviously if you believe you can’t go up, making changes is more likely to pull you down (generally speaking). If you don’t feel as passionately as I do about RDR 2 then maybe you’ll feel more optimistic.

Edited September 5, 2023 by Jimbatron

[Zapper]

2 hours ago, donkeyass said:

Hollywood and Literature are still several steps ahead of videogames. Take a look at Elden Ring, the game is literal gold when it comes to story and apparently George RR Martin didn't even take it seriously. 

 

The bolded statement cannot be further from the truth. Practically nobody is saying Elden Ring is the gold standard when it comes to video game storytelling or storytelling in a traditional sense. Martin only worked on the world-building part. The execution was still fully in From's in-house style. I don't think anybody will think about him when playing that game, nor do I think the game would've been any worse without his involvement.

But what Elden Ring does and many other games like Red Dead 2, Fallout 2, New Vegas, Disco Elysium, Bloodborne, GTAIV, V, and many other games do is virtually impossible to pull off in any other medium. They're all very different, but they're unique in a way that's not possible to recreate in another medium without sacrificing what makes them special.

 

Video Games are inherently interactive. It's flexible in a way no other medium is. They can do things that are beyond the capabilities of other mediums. Also, that interactivity makes it harder to replicate what other mediums do best, but it's not impossible, unlike the other way around. The very best of video games can go toe-to-toe with great movies or shows. In a way, Interactive Art is a more apt description than simply calling Video Games.

 

Games are still very young as a medium, and people are still trying to figure out how to approach basic things. Obviously, the average level wouldn't be the same as in other established mediums.

Movies were ridiculed and had to fight for prestige when Theater was the big thing. Television was ridiculed as well, and even though there have been many great, groundbreaking shows (The Twilight Zone, Miami Vice, Twin Peaks, etc.), its breakthrough moment arguably was The Sopranos, and that was merely 24 years ago. Television has been around for close to 100 years, but it took more than 60-70 years to become what it is today, when it's arguably better than Hollywood when it comes to storytelling. Comparatively, the Golden Age of Hollywood was in the early to mid-1900s, or the Golden Age of Theatre was in periods between the 16th and early 20th centuries, depending on countries.

Literature, however, is ahead of everything in every metric by sheer virtue of how old the medium is and how flexible it can be. It's as mature as a medium can be, just like Music.

[TheOverlookHotel]

5 hours ago, donkeyass said:

But how many games with a good (real good, not just okay) story can you think of? Last of Us 1, RDR2, GTAIV, maybe some Uncharted, Elden Ring and Kojima games. Other than that, maybe indies, not that i'm aware of. 

You really need to expand your horizon past Rockstar and Naughty Dog...

[Sneaky Queeky]

6 hours ago, Jimbatron said:

I agree computer games are generally not up there.

 

However, for me, RDR 2 in terms of story and acting is up there with the very best of them. Honesty, in terms of ensemble cast and the performances put in, I rate it ever bit as good as GoT or Breaking Bad.

 

This is not just fanboyism. I’ve enjoyed every R* story but I really feel RDR 2 raised the bar and is in a different league the others didn’t quite reach, as great as they were.

 

Thats just my opinion so of course feel free to disagree, but maybe it also explains my concern on any news about changes at the top of the writing team. I don’t think asking for something better than RDR 2 is realistic, hitting the same heights would be an achievement in my book. Obviously if you believe you can’t go up, making changes is more likely to pull you down (generally speaking). If you don’t feel as passionately as I do about RDR 2 then maybe you’ll feel more optimistic.

I agree you with and IMO RDR 2 is the best Western in any genre since Unforgiven and Lonesome Dove. Maybe better than both, but then we would have to get into a discussion of video games vs movies as an art form, a can of worms I don't want to open in this thread. But I cannot think of a western movie, tv show or book that quite reaches the heights of RDR 2 since both that movie and mini-series released in the early 90's. 

 

Blood Meridian is better than all three titles I've mentioned, and that's a book, but again I don't want to compare different genres like that.  

[Ballbreaker_]

8 hours ago, donkeyass said:

Well, they are all really good writers and it is really uncommon to see people like them in the videogame industry BUT... the level in the videogame industry is surprisingly low, given how much money is made. Most games' story is childish, stupid or rushed. Of course there are several other aspects to take care of, it is not like a movie, but Hollywood and Literature are still several steps ahead of videogames. Take a look at Elden Ring, the game is literal gold when it comes to story and apparently George RR Martin didn't even take it seriously. 

 

But how many games with a good (real good, not just okay) story can you think of? Last of Us 1, RDR2, GTAIV, maybe some Uncharted, Elden Ring and Kojima games. Other than that, maybe indies, not that i'm aware of. 

 

What I mean is there is plenty of writers either in the movie business or in literature that are very very good and may create some real good videogame stories but for some reason (maney) developers don't want to invest in story and prefer to do it in marketing/software. Rockstar has had a record of taking good care of this aspect of the game, so I would not go like "OMG they were the only writers this is literally a nightmare"

 

Different medias, different challenges and resources. Some people in Hollywood would say animations or animes shouldn't be taken seriously as well. I call it horsesh*t.

 

Just take a look at what happened with HBOs The Last Of Us. Yes, it's a fine adaptation, but the game version is far superior. There are many games with excellent stories, the kind of stories that probably wouldn't be as remarkable if they were done in another media.

 

Every man to his trade.

Edited September 5, 2023 by FamousActor_

[L Del Rio]

Just need Rupert to leave now

 

At least we know the writing of the story and maybe dlc is finished.

 

But I think that was finished when Dan left.

[donkeyass]

2 hours ago, Sneaky Queeky said:

Blood Meridian is better than all three titles I've mentioned, and that's a book, but again I don't want to compare different genres like that.

Blood meridian is the best fictional work (including films, books and videogames) about the Old West and maybe one of the best novels of the 20th century so maybe its not fair for the rest. 
 

About other comments which i won’t quote because i am too lazy. I was just trying to reflect how the work of a writer can be seen in many aspects. Maybe i said story when i meant lore, sorry for the misunderstanding. And yes I quoted only R* and Naughty because i was thinking only in AAA terms but yeah I get your point. 
 

And of course it is a different media but rockstar stories are really similar to movies as they intend to do it that way, which was my point as they have the most potential bc they work as a bridge. 

8 hours ago, Zapper said:

its breakthrough moment arguably was The Sopranos

God I love that show. But yeah you make a good point. Still young and hard to connect the pieces. I just feel that videogames have the resources to do it right. 
 

God lot of points in my redaction now that i re-read

Edited September 5, 2023 by donkeyass
Meh

[Sneaky Queeky]

1 hour ago, donkeyass said:

Blood meridian is the best fictional work (including films, books and videogames) about the Old West and maybe one of the best novels of the 20th century so maybe its not fair for the rest.

Yeah, you are right; Blood Meridian is on a level that has rarely been reached by anything in any medium. I still wish they could make a movie out of it; but I doubt it can be done properly. 

[Trafficante]

Blood Meridian absolutely slaps. HBO ought to make a show about it, if anyone at any point gets a green light. There are far more brutal movies out there than what’s going on in the book, though I guess it’s the impact that matters.

 

I haven’t played TLOU (Xbox guy), but HBO did an amazing job with it. Wish they had gotten the rights to The Witcher before Netflix did.

[Sneaky Queeky]

40 minutes ago, Trafficante said:

Blood Meridian absolutely slaps. HBO ought to make a show about it, if anyone at any point gets a green light. There are far more brutal movies out there than what’s going on in the book, though I guess it’s the impact that matters.

 

I haven’t played TLOU (Xbox guy), but HBO did an amazing job with it. Wish they had gotten the rights to The Witcher before Netflix did.

In an alternative reality, Kubrick directs and Brando plays the Judge, but I think that old rumour is just internet lore. 

[donkeyass]

Just now, Sneaky Queeky said:

In an alternative reality, Kubrick directs and Brando plays the Judge, but I think that old rumour is just internet lore. 

I think Kubrick's interest is pretty much confirmed, Brando is just a fancast because of his role in Apocalypse Now. Clint Eastwood and Scorsese also tried to adapt the book and gave up after a while. Recently the director of "The Road" has confirmed he is working on a storyboard after discussing the possibility of a movie with McCarthy himself for years.

 

But anyway, we are going a little bit off-topic. Let me try to link it with GTA VI and Rockstar a little bit. Blood Meridian is probably one good example such as Moby Dick of books which translation to movies is really difficult (near impossible). Funnily enough, since the Kid is just a Voyeur of the story and just survives and shoot his way through it, a man can only dream with a videogame of such size and complexity but damn it would be glorious. Give us a free-roam exploration which accentuates the detail the author puts in EVERYTHING surrounding the Kid (plants, rocks, animals, people) and good cinematics for the story-parts and you have Read Dead Unredeemable.

 

Of course adapting a story to the videogame world is hard but it can be done, and wonderfully. That is not an excuse for the industry not to have good writers from other media. Nothing is gonna turn from mediocre to good just because. It requires effort, fails and bad games. I'm all-in for cross-working between media, that's why i don't see this new as the end of the world

[Retro_Causality]

so we actually dont know if he got promoted or left right?