The video game writer is part of the design team, during pre-production, and creates the main plot of a video game but can also focus on the dialogue, the character creation and development or the worldbuilding. During the game development process, the design may change and a video game writer can also be asked to fix the eventual narrative issues. It is also referred to as scenario in Japanese video game development.
The importance of the plot can be minimized by some video game designers, for instance Harvey Smith of Arkane Studios claimed that "The world is very important. The characters are very important. The plot? It can be threw away. Because each gamer will build his own story.".
This is one issue specific to the medium : priority is given to interactive play mechanics over narrative which could lead to Ludonarrative dissonance : a situation when ludic and narrative elements are opposed to each other as Clint Hocking defined the concept in his blog.
Also as video games are more recent than other media, video game writing is still a field to be conquered.