SpikeTV "Video Game Awards" Results

Last night SpikeTV aired its second annual Video Game Awards. Commentary is available from the Video Game Ombudsman, who did some live blogging during the event. From his post: "Seven Awards in 50 seconds - And that's including the lame intro. and Bloodrayne's 9 second acceptance "speech" for cyber-vixen of the year. Way to stand there, BloodRayne. The categories and winners aren't even vaguely related. And these are major awards, not the largely immaterial technical awards at the Oscars. Oh well, I guess now they can squeeze in another musical number." Grimwell Online is also available for snarky analysis, as is Buttonmashing.com. For non-flash results, Voodoo Extreme has a list of the winners.

Comments

Well, it was on SpikeTV

[MBraynard]

what's their tag line? Oh yeah, "TV for immature men."

That network is the only reason I've ever felt ashamed of having a penis. I can now empathize with the African American's feelings about Amos and Andy.

difference between VGAs and Oscars

[Jabolio]

The difference between these award shows and, say, the Oscars is that the actors who are accepting awards at the Oscars are people we know (not personally, for the most part), and also they can actually speak when they get up to the podium.

On the other hand, the chumps that make video games are usually not very well known (outside of a select few, your Carmacks, your Meiers, etc...), and we as a viewing public don't really give a shit about who they are and what they have to say, because chances are they aren't going to be able to say it interestingly anyway. Just like the technical Oscars.

On the other hand, who's the target demo for this sort of thing? Late teens and early 20's males. Let's cram as much crap as we possibly can into a couple of hours! They should just give in and not bother censoring... Anyone who'd be offended by the tripe they'll show probably isn't going to be watching anyway.

/didn't watch it this year//watched it last year, "meh"s all around.

Grumble.

[jwriney]

Stuff like this makes me sad. The MTV-ization of gaming culture has begun and it's not pretty. The people Spike, G4, and MTV call "gamers" are not the kids that grew up playing Nintendo; they're the kids that grew up beating up the kids that played Nintendo. This is the demographic whose entire gaming universe consists of Madden, GTA, and Tony Hawk.

It's fake enthusiasm, style over substance, blatant product placement, EXTREME! everything bullcrap. Watch an episode of The Screen Savers on G4 if you want to know what I'm talking about. Now that the pointy-hairs have finished lobotomizing the show, the new hosts haven't figured out that reading the teleprompter VERY! ENTHUSIASTICALLY! is no substitute for knowing about or giving a damn about what they're reading. It's acutely unwatchable.

I think I understand now how the old-school punk rockers felt when their culture got subverted by the unceasing quest for corporate profits.

--riney

Re:Grumble.

[Wandering Wombat]

I mostly question their choice of venue... "hip hop". I mean, sure, they're trying to drive home the point that games can be cool, but you don't need to use a friggin anvil to do it. Secondly, most people in my experience who play enough video games to watch the awards most decidedly do not listen to rap music, or "urban", or whatever they're calling themselves this week. Rappists should stick with their existing, large, and vocal fanbase, and stop trying to expand and "bring deir music to da people."