Eggo:
Mass killings of splicers/the many isn't mutually exclusive from artistic though.

A first person shooter will not get hampered down by compelling characters, settings, and events.

Yeah, failed at bringing my point across lol, anyway, you're right, but I think what I tried to say is that since books are so story driven, I'd hate to see gameplay or story be sacrificed for one or the other.

Let's see... you've got

Act of War (Dale Brown)
Demon Stone (R. A. Salvatore)
Betrayal at Krondor/Return to Krondor (Raymond E. Feist)

You've also got some that went Book -> Movie -> Videogame. In these instances I think the author is less involved in the actual creative process / writing.

such as

Harry Potter and the x (J. K. Rowling)
Eragon (Christopher Paolini)
Golden Compass (Philip Pullman)
Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkein I'm fairly certain the FIRST film adaptation pre-dates the first video-game adaptation.)

There are other ones that come to mind that exist in pre-written worlds, or are inspired directly by books such as..

Dune/Dune 2/Emperor of Dune (Frank Herbert Dune series)
Bioshock (Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged)

I think it's probably a better plan to know the universe like it was written in book form, or like an author of a novel knows the universe, with timelines, important events, what's shaped it, who caused what, the overall story, and then have your game exist in just one piece of it, telling the story only so far as is important to the game. A game that read like a book wouldn't be much fun, nor would a book that read like a game.

The only way for a writer to effectively write for a game would be to seperate the story and gameplay, and even then the writer still wouldn't have the freedom he/she was used to. If they had to write a game with gameplay and story hand in hand.... they really wouldn't have much power at all, unless "writer" also allowed them to be the director of the story, which could work.

I am of the belief that most famous writers would not make good video game writers. The differences between games and books is too great. While having a notable author write the outline for a game might be a good idea. I doubt they would have the time, desire, or patince to deal with all the smaller nuances of creating a game.

Even if an author did contribute greatly to a game's design, I suspect the end product would be far to linear for my taist. Splinter Cell comes to mind.

You (OP) discount the one that has.

I'd love to see Warren Ellis write the story/dialogue for a game. I think comic book writers would have a much easier time adapting to game writing, as they are already used to having someone else handle the visual elements of a story.

EDIT: A sudden flash of inspiration! Imagine Pyschonauts with Neil Gaiman helping out with the writing. I'm in awe of my own idea.

Khell_Sennet:
My thoughts would be the ruination of good works.

A book made into a film, often doesn't measure up to the original.
A film made into a game is usually a cheap trend-marketing ploy or substandard in all aspects.
A book made into a game may actually work, but with the two above points, there's a great chance that a game from books would butcher the novel so bad that the author looses fans.

As to games from authors' works that weren't novels, already they exist. RA Salvatore was the core writer in the FR game "Demon Stone" by Stormfront Studios.

I recently had this thought.
If you take the average book as well over a hundred pages long, and the average film to be 1 and a half to 2 hours, theres no way you can fit all that in.
Then the games have to pad everything out because theres not enough.
If you effectively "cut out the middle man" that is the film, I think we could see some really great games.

Ares Tyr:

Eggo:
American Gods is so badass.

You are correct, sir. And modified a little (like beating up the new Gods and their henchmen with the help/powers of old Gods) it'd be potentially fucking awesome.

I for one would absolutely love to see this made, but thats off topic.
i think the main reason more writers haven't been involved is because studio's haven't invited them, for reasons of cost, and generic mass production, sticking to perceived safe genres

Incidentally i made a topic about what books people would most like to see games made from before i found this one
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.70518
please add to it

oh and Pratchett was heavily involved in the scripting of both discworld adventure games, though i think his world deserves better than those games delivered.

I guess most of them are just busy... writing?
Seriously though, video games have a bad rep when it comes to storytelling, and not without reason. A lot of gamers have no interest in stories, just like a lot of people watching movies have no interest in anything but tits and explosions. As the artier games start to get more attention and developers become more willing to take risks, there will be a greater chance that we'll see serious authors considering writing for games.
I have to wonder though... do authors simply have no interest in games? Becuse I would think that someone who genuinely cares about writing would see or play a game and think "I could do so much better" - and then do it! It definitly baffles me that a guy like William Gibson, being a huge techno-geek who's been around for twenty years has never ventured into this new media.

Because they wouldn't go that low! terry pratchet never devote urself to a game! don't waste your rapidly dissapearing brain power!

Didn't Orson Scott Card write the story for 'Advent Rising'? Although the promised trilogy failed to materialise the universe they created and the story of the first game were brilliant. BioWare also got Drew Karpyshyn to write the story for 'Mass Effect', also the first of a planned trilogy and they've already released a tie-in novel.

There are likely other titles that have been written in whole or in part by big names from the literary world, and hopefully there'll be more to come. Although I would imagine that it's only really the adventure, sci-fi and fantasy games that would benefit from having a master storyteller. Racing, puzzle, fighting and shooting games are not really story-driven primarily, or at least any story is not a player's primary draw.

KingsGambit:
Didn't Orson Scott Card write the story for 'Advent Rising'? Although the promised trilogy failed to materialise the universe they created and the story of the first game were brilliant. BioWare also got Drew Karpyshyn to write the story for 'Mass Effect', also the first of a planned trilogy and they've already released a tie-in novel.

There are likely other titles that have been written in whole or in part by big names from the literary world, and hopefully there'll be more to come. Although I would imagine that it's only really the adventure, sci-fi and fantasy games that would benefit from having a master storyteller. Racing, puzzle, fighting and shooting games are not really story-driven primarily, or at least any story is not a player's primary draw.

Yes he did and there was supposed to be another game with him involved floating around I don't know what happened to it though.

nilcypher:

EDIT: A sudden flash of inspiration! Imagine Pyschonauts with Neil Gaiman helping out with the writing. I'm in awe of my own idea.

Problem is though : Once you finish playing it, you would never want to go near another summer camp ever again.

I think "Advent Rising" is the perfect example as to why more writers don't get involved in the video game creative process. The devlopers spent a bundle on it, and it didn't pick up any momentum at all.

I'm a huge Orson Scott Card fan, and bought the game, but have to say I wasn't at all impressed. It had some good ideas and an interesting storyline, but it didn't come together smoothly and the gameplay/controls were a bit finicky.