ABSTRACT
Writing for games as a contractor off-site is, historically, the most common form of game writing. Very few companies think of hiring a writer as a staff member. More and more companies do so every day, but in the past, this has been the exception rather than the rule. This is true for many positions in the industry. After all, the game business has grown over the years from a single talented programmer working on every facet of the game into teams that routinely top 100 members, and many positions that initially were only considered to be part-time or temporary have made the transition to full-time (sound design is a recent example, but even someone classified only as a “designer” was once considered a luxury). With story becoming more and more important in games, more and more writers are moving on staff. One day, contract writers may be more the exception than the rule.
