Making a list of the top 20 anything is always hard. When that something is the careers of a whole pool of excellent game writers, things get even tougher. This feature of mine, “The Gamasutra 20: Top Game Writers,” ran last month. It’s the second such top 20 list I’ve written for Gamasutra.com — last time it was top women in games — and both have been equally difficult to assemble, logistically, politically, and critically.

I originally put “Gamasutra 20: Top Game Writers” together in the late summer of 2008, so I got to look at it with a fresh perspective when it went up too. As much as I respect writers like Ken Levine and Jerry Holkins, I do wish more women had made it onto the list. As it stands, only Susan O’Connor and Marianne Krawcyzk are present representing our fair — and largely narratively inclined — sex. If Margaret Robertson has anything to do with it though, we could soon see a female influence bring nuance and subtlety to game storytelling.