Spike TV Video Game Award Winners

Gamespot reports on the results from Friday's Spike TV Video Game Awards. Top Game honor went to RE4, while King Kong and World of Warcraft both took home several category nods. From the article: "As much as Spike might have refined the show over its past pair of efforts, it was clear the network had not yet found a way to perfectly merge the subject matter, the celebrities, and the audience. Nowhere was evidence of this more pronounced than in the significant number of audience members heading for the exits right after Missy Elliott's climactic performance, having seen all they came for and not caring to find out who was going to take home the Game of the Year award. Winners for Best Gaming Publication, Best Gaming Website, and Best Gaming Blog were not announced at the show. "

Comments

Re:Spike dies

[Anonymous Coward]

omg spoiler that shit dawg

Award shows

[Barkley44]

I have a hard enough time watching them for movies, etc (and tend not to), so I can imagine it's very difficult to keep people interested in this. Glad to see BattleFront 2 in there - I enjoyed it.

Re:Award shows

[mordors9]

All I can say is this damn award show had better not cut into the UFC shows on Spike TV. Need blood, gore.... oh wait a minute. Perhaps Doom will be up for an award.

Re:Award shows

[balloonpup]

So long as it doesn't cut into my MXC, I'm all set with it. (Up with TLA's!)

King Kong?

[jayhawk88]

WTF? Is that game even out? If so, has it even been a month? What, did it win for the XBox 360 demo? I know the people reviewing/giving the awards have probably had a copy for a while now, but damn.

Re:King Kong?

[BrynM]

WTF? Is that game even out?

Nope. It comes out on the 22nd of November, but you can pre-order. I smell promotional inclusion.

Re:King Kong?

[KylePflug]

Have you played the PC demo? It's actually quite impressive, and IGN reviewed it very positively. Yeah, it's a little early for awards, I guess, but it certainly has been a surprisingly well-received game. I've played the demo several times, and I normally hate franchise games.

Re:King Kong?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not only that, but the version of King Kong nominated (I looked and laughed at their nominations earlier in the month) was listed as the PS3 version.

That's right, a 2005 "best" award for a game that won't be released for its system until 2006. How much money did Sony give to SpikeTV again?

Re:King Kong?

[KDR_11k]

I've seen it in stores already so I suppose it's out (here in Europe, at least).

Re:King Kong?

[EvilIdler]

King Kong is out in shops in Norway. Released Friday the 18th, it seems.

Re:King Kong?

[bleckywelcky]

I dunno if this is true across the country, but I saw some kid playing it on an XBox 360 display at Walmart yesterday. I was in there to see if they had any information on the cheap laptop coming out yet.

My reaction: Whatever the gameplay may be like, it looked good for a console game. However, I don't think it looks any better than computer games from last year. HL2 looked a lot better.

Awarding not-yet-released games? Boo!

[Eddy Da KillaBee]

Could we at least give awards to games that have been released? King Kong? Come on, that's not shipping till the 22nd of this month.

I'm all for a rewards show, but I really would like for them to concentrate more on games that have been released already (like they did with Resident Evil 4).

Re:Awarding not-yet-released games? Boo!

[NanoGator]

"I'm all for a rewards show, but I really would like for them to concentrate more on games that have been released already (like they did with Resident Evil 4)."

If the reviewers have played a final build of the game, what's the BFD?

Re:Awarding not-yet-released games? Boo!

[Suddenly_Dead]

Except, didn't they do it through vote? I distinctly remember a voting componenet of some sort to last year's. I could be wrong though.

Re:Awarding not-yet-released games? Boo!

[WebScud]

It's like giving an Oscar to an actor who had a role in a move that is yet to be released. Just plain lame.

Re:Awarding not-yet-released games? Boo!

[NanoGator]

If it's being judged by how the audience appreciates it, sure, I totally agree. If they judge it without any particular regard to what the audience thought, then whether or not it's out and ready to be consumed is really immaterial.

Re:Awarding not-yet-released games? Boo!

[-kertrats-]

Yes, when there are categories such as "Best Addictive Game Fueled By Mountain Dew", I know there's no chance of companies paying for advertisement via these awards. They said there was voting, therefore the votes must matter!

Re:Awarding not-yet-released games? Boo!

[VikingBrad]

King Kong for Xbox & PS2 was released in Australia last week. Pretty strange given the movie isn't out till Dec 22.

Cheers
VikingBrad

Re:Awarding not-yet-released games? Boo!

[instarx]

If the reviewers have played a final build of the game, what's the BFD?

Reviewers, reschmooers. Here is the best (but old) example I can give about the value of reviews. The film The Sound of Music was blasted by reviewers as a terrible movie. It went on to be nominated for ten academy awards, and won five. It became one fo the top box office winners of all time.

So the reviewers think King Kong is Best Game? Maybe so, but the generally poor quality of reviewers is what the BFD is about giving out the award before the game is released. Frankly, I smell marketing crap.

Re:Awarding not-yet-released games? Boo!

[Suddenly_Dead]

What? Of course there's a good probability that they got paid to include the game...

I was responding to the guy that proposed that the "judges" may have played the final build of the unreleased game. If votes actually mattered, as the show purports, then that would be impossible. The show is a sham any way you slice it.

Re:Awarding not-yet-released games? Boo!

[matlokheed]

If there was a voting component, there's something wrong.

King Kong won awards for "Best Movie-based Game" and "Best Male Voice Actor".

I'd claim the results were fixed, but that would make it sound as if I didn't they were fixed from the start.

A Word From Carmack

[rsmith-mac]

Last year, John Carmack made a good post about why award shows like this simply do not fit for video games. I'd like to repost that comment, because it's still as true today as it was last year.

I did the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences awards show a few years ago -- I was inducted into the hall of fame one year, then the next year I inducted Will Wright.

I hated it, but it is a big industry, and there is a broad range of people involved. Honestly, I'm almost certainly in the minority. One developer that I was talking to backstage was very bullish about how important it was to legitimize the industry with events like this, but I just don't have any empathy for what I perceive as "Hollywood envy".

Some award show issues are just a result of stupidity -- I felt so bad watching Hironobu Sakaguchi of Squaresoft, a non-native english speaker, being forced to read a long speech written by some PR type about me. I threw out what they gave me to say about Will, and wrote something more to the point myself.

I do feel that there is a rather fundamental mismatch with big awards shows for game development, because game development isn't a performing art. You expect actors and musicians to show well, because that is what they do. Why aren't awards for authors the same glamorous events that the movie / TV / music ones are? Game developers are much closer to authors than actors.

John Carmack

Nothing has changed about these award shows, they're still just as bad as last year.

Re:A Word From Carmack

[sedyn]

I think they are trying to mold them after typical award shows too much...

I mean, best actor makes sense in movies. An actor's performance is cruical to the success of the movie. You know, having the right facial expressions, having body language befitting the situation and having speaking their dialogue correctly.

In a video game 2/3 of those are done by developers.

Now, directors/designers I can give a little more credit to. But a sucessful game is a challenging or fun one. Not one with tons of voice overs.

Then again, what can they really do, have a best developer award show? "And the coder with the fewest bugs is..."

Re:A Word From Carmack

[grasshoppa]

An actor's performance is cruical to the success of the movie.

I hate to break this to you, but no it isn't. It's based off of who has more charisma on the screen, and in most cases, who has the hottest babes.

Acting is very low on the list of things an popular actor needs.

Re:A Word From Carmack

[ZachPruckowski]

So very true. If "acting" is what's important, then why are all actresses (even the B-list ones), with a few minor exceptions, ridiculously hot? I mean, is it a coincidence? Something genetic (genes for hotness and acting related)? I'd buy the idea that hotter girls (and guys, it's the same there) are more self-confident, giving them a slight acting boost. But really, it's pretty clear that hot girl actresses don't need to act well in order to be famous.

Re:A Word From Carmack

[badasscat]

So very true. If "acting" is what's important, then why are all actresses (even the B-list ones), with a few minor exceptions, ridiculously hot? I mean, is it a coincidence?

Man, you guys are cynical. I work in the TV industry, and I've worked on films as well (not as a casting director, but I've worked with them).

The reality is actors are cast because of a combination of ability and looks that fit the part. If a part calls for an 80 year old woman, are you going to cast Keira Knightley in the role? Obviously not.

If a part calls for a 20 year old woman, then maybe you will. Yes, you want the most attractive actors with the best ability. There are plenty of award-winning actors (both male and female) that are not particularly attractive but who fit the needs of a lot of roles in Hollywood - Frances McDormand, Lili Taylor, etc. Of the "hot" actresses in the world, you seem to be pretty insulting towards their ability - is Charlize Theron not a great actress? Did you not see her in Monster? Did you not see Angelina Jolie in Girl, Interrupted? Have you not seen Naomi Watts in Mulholland Drive or 21 Grams?

Not all actresses you see in Hollywood films are the greatest in the world. But A-list actresses by and large are; that's how they became A-list actresses, through their professionalism, their ability, and yes, their look. The fact that the movies surrounding them may not always be written or directed to their strengths says little about their ability; it says more about your taste in movies that this is the only work of theirs that you've seen.

Re:A Word From Carmack

[Anonymous Coward]

Ya I'm a girl - do you have a problem with it, bub?

no, my only problem is that you're fat.

Re:A Word From Carmack

[Raumkraut]

You should watch more British films.

Re:A Word From Carmack

[Mr. Bad Example]

> are more self-confident, giving them a slight acting boost

Self-confident? Do you actually know any actors?

Re:A Word From Carmack

[KanSer]

Umm... Awards show? I thought it was an excuse to show some more T&A. Isn't that what spike does?

Nevermind the fact spike is mtv's bastard lovechild and trying harder to sell records and drop names than honour videogames.

It's not that they don't get it, they don't _want_ to get it. And apparently their audience doesn't either.

Re:A Word From Carmack

[G-funk]

You tool. Most actors are hot because actors are a dime a dozen. Hotties are a dime a dozen. Hence, there's quite a few hot actors. Like sure, Danny Devito can act his ass off, and Jessica Simpsons acting ability is inversely proportional to the character's difference from her own persona. But Being a good looking guy doesn't stop John Travolta being an awesome actor (religion aside), and it's not like Uma Therman or Leonardo DiCaprio can't act. Like don't get me wrong, I hate the little prick, and he's been in some dogs (the beach anyone?), but he can fuckin act.

Re:A Word From Carmack

[Anonymous Coward]

The thing is that the pool of talent is so large in LA that the good looking ones simply rise to the top.

Re:A Word From Carmack

[patternjuggler]

> An actor's performance is cruical to the success of the movie.

I hate to break this to you, but no it isn't. It's based off of who has more charisma on the screen, and in most cases, who has the hottest babes.

This is total bullshit. I have mod points to mod you down with, but since that doesn't do anything for the other modders I'll respond and hope they read this and mod you down for me.

Movies are all about people, or things anthropomorphized to be like people. The people have to move around and say things (the actor's performance), and do it decently, otherwise the movie is going to be incredibly boring or stupid. It's important to have at least one or two attractive people in the lead roles, but everyone else you want to look convincing in their roles.

If the movie is entirely filled with fresh-faced pretty 20-somethings it's not going to be a very good movie, because it's probably a movie about partying in Cancun or starring the winners of American Idol- and both of those movies made basically nothing at the box office. Real movies are going have cops with weathered faces, overweight and/or goofy looking comedians, and so on. Audiences connect with actors who have interesting and unique looks a lot better than they connect with a platinum blonde girl with fake tits in a bikini starring in a beer ad. The more generically good-looking an actor is, the better their performance has to be to convince the audience they aren't an arrogant asshole or an annoying bimbo.

Re:A Word From Carmack

[patternjuggler]

If "acting" is what's important, then why are all actresses (even the B-list ones), with a few minor exceptions, ridiculously hot? I mean, is it a coincidence? Something genetic (genes for hotness and acting related)? I'd buy the idea that hotter girls (and guys, it's the same there) are more self-confident, giving them a slight acting boost. But really, it's pretty clear that hot girl actresses don't need to act well in order to be famous.

The short answer is is that there are a lot of attractive people in the world, probably tens of millions, while the number of people on the A-list or B-list is a tiny fraction of that- so you can be selective with regard to acting ability while still maintaining attractiveness, because attractive people are usually the people who pursue movie careers because they or their friends and family see they are just as attractive as people on tv and are then pushed in that direction.

I think you'll find that a lot of the A and B-list actors are attractive, but attractive in unique and interesting ways- they have facial features, speaking styles, facial and bodily mannerisms that set them apart- the first is more genetics (surgery usually produces bland and generic 'good looks') but the last two I attribute to 'acting' (even if the actor is just being themselves). For audiences it's the difference between wanting to spend two hours watching a hot but annoying bimbo versus a girl who looks good but also seems like a real person they can connect with emotionally.

Best Breakthrough?

[VanillaBabies]

BEST BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGY

Sony PSP (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
Xbox 360 (Microsoft Game Studios)
Nintendogs Voice Recognition (Nintendo Co. Ltd.)
Unreal Engine 3 (Epic Games Inc.)
Facial Mo-cap of NBA Live 06 (Electronic Arts)

breakthrough
n.
An act of overcoming or penetrating an obstacle or restriction.
A military offensive that penetrates an enemy's lines of defense.
A major achievement or success that permits further progress, as in technology.

  Apparently SpikeTV has decided that breakthrough means any new technology, as opposed to a truly significant achievement...Not like we've seen a handheld before, or a console for that matter...

Re:Best Breakthrough?

[Arkiel]

The Sony PSP is an amagamation of existing technology. You want to throw the UMD up there, fine. Christ, did the all-star panel of hip-hop singers do the nominations as well? Viva le Unreal Engine 3! If you think about all the flak people tend to catch for "posing" in the various aspects of anti-culture the people that associate themselves publically represent, you'll see they're all pathetic, grasping at something they don't understand but seem to enjoy. All of them, "posers".

Re:Best Breakthrough?

[mwvdlee]

I guess that having a truely honest "best breakthrough technology" award would be about as boring as a "best new catering placemats" award for movies.
Lets face it; the best breakthrough technology is probably something ridiculously unsexy like a revolutionary AI algorithm or network protocol.

Can you spare a quarter

[segment]

Outside of sounding like a troll, can there ever be a market for a "Video Game" awards show on television. Difference between watching say a music award show, television award shows, etc., is there are physical presences on the show. I don't forsee Duke Nuke Em, Samus, or anyone else making a special appearance. It seems a show like this is geared towards hard core gamers and teenie boppers. So 1) teenie boppers depend on adult revenue often to purchase games. This means its unlikely if I were a sponsor I would look to a bunch of kids with no money. For a show like this, I can't see parents sitting to watch this so any commercial representation of a product would be wasted timeslots. Might seem fun but I can't see the economics involved with showing a "Video Game" awards show. Whomever produced this could have likely saved money, and in fact made more money broadcasting this online. Just my two cents.

Re:Can you spare a quarter

[sedyn]

There is a lot of money to be made from 11-17 year olds. It may not be that intuitive, but it is true.

Read this biased page for some commentary.

Re:Can you spare a quarter

[east coast]

There is a lot of money to be made from 11-17 year olds.

You kidding me? I bet you the prime consumer for these systems are 25-35 year olds. It's about expendable cash. 11-17s don't have the kind of cashpool that a guy just out of college with his first job that pays more than 8 dollars an hour has. Heck, neither of my nephews in your age range has said word one about XBox, I don't know too many people in the 25-35 age group who don't have a serious interest in it. Heck, people in my department are taking the 22nd off to try to get their hands on one.

Not to say that there isn't a serious force of teens who want this but I think gaming is swinging more twords the thirties something crowd and even moreso when you consier the cost of games. Buying a console for your kid is one thing, keeping him stocked with games is another. the 25-35 crowd doesn't need the good will of mom and dad to get them the latest game; they have credit cards, game producers know this.

Re:Can you spare a quarter

[RandomPrecision]

I can tell you that there's no market for it. Given the choice between watching something like that an TV and actually playing what I would consider the game of the year, I'm going to play the game, instead of listening to some 'celebrity' I've never heard of sing a song before announcing that the game I was going to play in that time is indeed good.

Re:Can you spare a quarter

[radish]

I don't forsee Duke Nuke Em, Samus, or anyone else making a special appearance

I saw some games awards show a while ago (forget which) which had a special appearance from Mario. Played by Ron Jeremy. Yes, _that_ Ron Jeremy. Funniest thing I've seen in ages.

Re:Can you spare a quarter

[wernercd]

with a growing pressence of cool moms who will sleep wirh her childs friends to be cool...

its not a far stretch to say parents WILL keep their kids stocked with video games or whatnot

Re:Can you spare a quarter

[Dryth]

Just as re-enforcement of what you're saying, the ESA's latest "Essential Facts" (Warning: PDF). It's consistent with their papers from past years indicating that the vast majority of gaming purchases (~95%) are made by individuals over the age of 18, and individuals 18 and under make up roughly a third of all game players.

There's still a lot of money to be made tapping into minors, but this all rides on the purse strings of their parents. And parents are probably more swayed by which consoles are getting a nod on the morning news and in papers and magazines than the likes of SpikeTV's event. Which leaves me wondering why nobody's bothered to capitalize on this with parent-targeted gaming publications...

Re:Can you spare a quarter

[YomikoReadman]

While you make a really good point about the target demo for video games being 25-35, you're a bit off the mark as to why. It has little to do with the existance of an obviously larger disposable income, and more to do with the fact that these are the people who grew up playing video games. Think about it: if you're 35 today, then you were 13 when the original Famicom came out in 1983, and 15 when it was released in the US in 1985. Personally, I was 6 or 7 when my folks bought me mine, and got my SNES shortly after its launch in 1989. By the time N64 came out, I had my own incomes, which were split between movies, music, insurance and video games.

So yea, 25-35 is the target demo, but because these are the same people Nintendo has been targeting since the mid 1980s. They know what they like, by and large, so they keep selling it to them.

Sony PSP - Breakthrough tech?!?

[Winckle]

BEST BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGY
Sony PSP (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
Xbox 360 (Microsoft Game Studios)
Nintendogs Voice Recognition (Nintendo Co. Ltd.)
Unreal Engine 3 (Epic Games Inc.)
Facial Mo-cap of NBA Live 06 (Electronic Arts)
I don't see how a smaller version of existing technology can be counted as breakthrough, when compared to innovations in tech, such as the nintendo voice recognition, or the facial imaging software, or even the stunning UE3.

Re:Sony PSP - Breakthrough tech?!?

[KDR_11k]

Making a smaller version of existing technology could be a breakthrough (fission reactor in your pocket?) but in this case probably isn't. OTOH the other contenders aren't really breakthroughs, either.

Re:Sony PSP - Breakthrough tech?!?

[grumbel]

### I don't see how a smaller version of existing technology can be counted as breakthrough, when compared to innovations in tech, such as the nintendo voice recognition, or the facial imaging software, or even the stunning UE3.

There is nothing special about Nintendos Voice Recognition, if I remember correctly my Soundblaster2.0 already came with software that did exactly the same years ago. So like the PSP, it doesn't offer anything new, just in a smaller form factor then it used to be.

Did it suck?

[Hackie_Chan]

Did it suck as much as last year?

They're still trying this?

[grasshoppa]

Look, we all know it, so someone might as well say it: Award shows suck.

I'm not sure who they are profitably to, but that can be the only reason we keep trying to put them on.

Further, an award show for games? Your largest demographic typically has to ask their parents for their allowance to *buy* the games in question.

awards are just commercials

[akhomerun]

this award show is full of paid awards.

as in about half of the winners probably won due to payoffs.

PSP as breakthrough technology...BS
King Kong winning a bunch of awards...the game isn't even out yet. real legitimate awards shows have deadlines for eligibility.

there are more, but i'm so disgusted i won't bother reading the rest of the winners, though i'm glad resident evil won a few awards.

No kidding

[Infinity Salad]

And the XBox 360 showing up in the 'best breakthrough technology' category? Come on (though that it lost to the PSP is still funny. I smell a Sony plot!).

Re:No kidding

[Army of 1 in 10]

And the XBox 360 showing up in the 'best breakthrough technology' category? Come on (though that it lost to the PSP is still funny. I smell a Sony plot!).

I wonder what music CDs were played on the computer that compiled the data for the awards...

WTF? Who are these so-called audience

[Dark Coder]

Often in Hollywood, TV game or talk shows hawkers give out free tickets on the street just to fill the seats. In MY first venture out to Hollywood with friends, we all got The Dating Game and watched. (I was even pulled aside afterward, asked to be on, then became a contestant as well; Aaaahhhhhh, my 15 minutes worth of fame - Thanks, Andy Warhol).

Apparently, these so-called audience walked out because they are, in essense, Missy's fans.

The fault lies within the ticket hawkers' (oh so) discriminating taste. Hell! Most of them are RTVF student interns from nearby campuses (UCLA, USC, Occidential, CSUN) learning the ropes of marketing, a'la Apprentice-style.

Sheesh.

BEST GAME BASED ON A MOVIE?!?!?

[Chaffar]

Can they honestly have a category called "Best Game Based On A Movie"?!?!

More accurate would be "Quickest cash-in on popular movie that nobody will remember in 3 months' time"

My all-time winner? : "Austin Powers: Operation Trivia", Yeah Baby!

Re: BEST GAME BASED ON A MOVIE?!?!?

[east coast]

Can they honestly have a category called "Best Game Based On A Movie"?!?!

This really is no different than the Oscar that goes to "Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published".

I think the virtue of translating one medium to another deserves some scrutiny. I would think it would take a good deal of effort to get a really solid translation of a movie or book into a video game without making the game far too static. Then again, I can't think of a single video game I've ever played based on a movie or book... unless you consider "Alice" in any way but we knew that it was never meant to be a translation of the original work but rather only borrowing elements of it for the game design.

they got one right

[BushCheney08]

They got one award right:
BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE PERFORMANCE
Traci Lords in True Crime: New York City

I don't remember that movie though...

Special Appearance

[triso]

...I don't forsee Duke Nuke Em, Samus, or anyone else making a special appearance....

Why not? I think an animated presentation would be great.

Re:Special Appearance

[fwitness]

Yeah a presentation of awards by animated characters. That could never be anything but cool.

REPEAT AFTER ME:

[phoxix]

BIGGEST

WASTE

OF

TIME

EVER

I mean jeebus, they even have a winner for Most Addictive Game Fueled by Mountain Dew category! Can you say retarded product placement ?

The video game industry does not need to sink this low ... those G4 Tech TV people are already annoying enough!

Re:REPEAT AFTER ME:

[zaxus]

I think you misspelled "EVAR". :-)

Re:REPEAT AFTER ME:

[Anonymous Coward]

My personal favourite was "Cyber vixen of the year". Thanks guys. Way to dispel the image of gamers as a bunch of clueless, sweaty, drooling chauvenists.

That, plus the awards to non-existent games and unsubtle sponsorship like you mentioned, really isn't helping them establish any sort of credibility.

Not that it can't work at all. Clean it up a bit and give us some transparency in the judging to assure us it isn't all bought and paid for, and it could be better (or at least, less dreadful) next time around.

This is bad noise...

[east coast]

BEST PC GAME Call of Duty 2 (Activision, Inc.)
F.E.A.R. (Vivendi Universal Games)
Sid Meier's Civilization IV (2K Games)
World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment)
Battlefield 2 (Electronic Arts)

Now we (as in PC Gamers) have our own separate award? I kinda feel like the "red headed step child" knowing that even tho WoW took some awards at the same we're regarded as a separate group from the cool kids who have consoles. It's like having an Atari 2600 category for the home-brew enthusiasts. Such a sad day.

I fart in Spike's general direction.

Re:This is bad noise...

[Suddenly_Dead]

Think of who Spike TV was expecting to watch this show, and this makes sense.

Re:This is bad noise...

[Andrew Lenahan]

Though there's no denying that there's some overlap, generally what makes a good PC game is different than what makes a good console game, and vice versa.

Many genres lead toward one platform or the other, such as sports and racing for consoles, while in-depth simulations like CivIV do better on the PC. Although some genres are split between the platforms, the product is often still different: consider RPGs, for example. Console RPGs tend to be cinematic and linear, like Final Fantasy, while PC RPGers enjoy fare like Diablo, Baldur's Gate, and Neverwinter Nights.

I don't see the seperate category as any sort of slight, it's just an acknowledgement that often PC and console games are different experiences and cannot always be directly compared.

Who are Spike TV?

[CyricZ]

As a Brit, I'm not familiar with Spike TV. I assume they're a TV station.

But who are they? More specifically, what about them gives them any credibility when it comes to judging computer and video games? Does their regular programming even focus on video games?

Re:Who are Spike TV?

[east coast]

Check it out, mate: http://www.spiketv.com/

But who are they? More specifically, what about them gives them any credibility when it comes to judging computer and video games? Does their regular programming even focus on video games?

It's kind of the "station for thirty-something couch potatoes". They play a lot of action movies and TV shows and some sports type of thing. I don't recall and video game only type TV shows but I do know game publishers advertise heavily on the station.

Re:Who are Spike TV?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a good and pathetic channel. It mixes metric assloads of Star Trek with countless instances of low-brow psuedo-porn.

Actually, that probably makes it the geekiest channel on cable in the US. ;)

Re:Who are Spike TV?

[triso]

Spike TV is a hetero man's TV network. It features manly things like wrastling and other sports, customizing cars, guy's movies with large-breasted females and, of course, video games. Check it out at www.spiketv.com to see for yourself.

Re:Who are Spike TV?

[Anonymous Coward]

"As a Brit, I'm not familiar with Spike TV. I assume they're a TV station."

Wow, you sure are perceptive.

Re:Who are Spike TV?

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny you stress "hetero". Let's look at it:

wrestling - oiled men touching each other
customizing cars - customizing? like those interior design shows?
large-breasted females - mother fixation
video games - an almost exclusively male activity

I'm not so sure about "hetero"... you might want to reasses your opinion of that channel.
(Got nothing against gays of course but lets be honest and admit it, eh? And I'm not implying anything about you personally.)

Re:Who are Spike TV?

[Tycho_Atreides]

>>But who are they?

A crappy US cable channel that plays professional wrestling and Star Trek reruns. I dont recall them having any original programming worth mentioning.

>>More specifically, what about them gives them any credibility when it comes to judging computer and video games?

Nothing.

>>Does their regular programming even focus on video games?

Not really.

Re:Who are Spike TV?

[oogoliegoogolie]

station for thirty-something couch potatoes

Sure, 30-somethings that have the mentality of 12 year olds.

Re:Who are Spike TV?

[zerocool^]

Well, I figured someone else had given a real answer to this, but reading the other 6 responses at this point, no one has.

SpikeTV is the "First Network for Men", a slight at Lifetime and Oxygen, two networks that focus programming on women. It's kind of the "only white men aren't in a minority, and that makes us feel like a minority" thing.

Anyway, SpikeTV used to be "TNN", or "The Nashville Network". It's programming origionally was very country-music-culture oriented. That's hard to explain to someone from outside the US - I have no idea how "country music" is understood or digested in the UK. But, we have a channel over here called CMT, which is MTV for Kenny Chesney and Garth Brooks, also known as the special olympics of television. TNN, prior to becoming SpikeTV, had an odd mix of country music videos, documenteries on country music stars, hoe-downs (the redneck version of MTV's The Grind, i guess), and country themed shows like Bass Fishing and Dukes Of Hazzard reruns, "Walker, Texas Ranger", and others, as well as the WWF-slash-WWE's Monday Night RAW (professional wrestling).

Someone bought TNN, or whatever, and decided to change the format. The first thing I remember them doing is purchasing the syndication rights to "Star Trek - TNG", and when they did, they ran all-day marathons of TNG - seriously, from 9-am to 3-am (almost all US stations show infomertials in late night), nothing but episode after episode of Star Trek (it was heaven). They slowly moved away from the redneck-only programing, and now they air an eclectic mix. Their current lineup highlights are TNG, Deep Space 9, syndicated episodes of CSI:Crime Scene Investigation (the first 4 or 5 seasons only), Ultimate Fighter (pro wrestling, but people actually try to beat the fuck out of each other), and TNA Wrestling (WWE's competitor - WWE for some reason has jumped ship back to USA, where they will be more censored and pre-emped for dog shows several times this year alone).

There are other shows they air, like MXC, Cops, and a variety of others, but there's still several hours of both TNG and CSI each day.

Hope this helps.

Why, yes, I am between jobs at the moment. I start my new one on Monday, and I've been sitting at home with the wife and 18 month old for 3 weeks now.

~Will

Re:Who are Spike TV?

[Anonymous Coward]

Video games almost exclusively male? 43% of gamers are women.

More women over 18 play than boys under 18.

Re:Who are Spike TV?

[Trip Ericson]

Someone bought TNN, or whatever, and decided to change the format.

That would be Viacom, owners of CBS, UPN, Nickelodeon, MTV, BET, VH-1, etc.

Re:Who are Spike TV?

[rco3]

Well, they do run MXC, which is based on dialog-replaced Japanese enactments of life-size video game-style contests. So it's kinda about video games. Funny as shit, too, if your tastes aren't too fastidious.

Re:Who are Spike TV?

[slothman32]

What gives anyone any credability for judging anything. I know I don't care about the Acadamy awards. Does what a random group of people know better than me?
I don't listen to awards. They are just what people think which is often wrong, at least it is until the shows come out and people believe it.

Re:Who are Spike TV?

[cowscows]

Man, all that Star Trek all day was awesome during my unemployed stretch. Although it probably helped increase the length of time I was jobless. Who's got time to send out resumes? I still have three seasons of DS9 to catch up on!

Woo, I start a new job on monday as well. Yay us.

Re:Who are Spike TV?

[east coast]

Sure, 30-somethings that have the mentality of 12 year olds.

Sometimes thats even giving them too much credit.

Unreal 3 engine

[AutopsyReport]

For those who couldn't quite remember (like me) why the Unreal 3 Engine got the nod for breakthrough technology, here's some videos I dug up that serves as a good indication. The engine really does look fantastic, despite the poor video quality from E3.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and finally, Part 4.

Re:Unreal 3 engine

[TheZorch]

I've got a better quality video (quicktime format) of the Unreal 3.0 engline demoed by nVidia at E3 earlier this year. It is incredible!

Basically the Unreal 3 engine packs all of the features found in the Half-Life 2 engine and a few more. Most of these are features that make graphical features look 3D while using the least amount of polygons such as bricks sticking out from a wall or the grill on a air vent. I can't wait to see the first games using this new engine.

Of course, many of the new features only work on the newest nVidia cards and only if you have DirectX 9.0c.

And Spike TV replies:

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, watch it. My brother is almost but not quite an accountant (just the finals, man, give it another go), and he actually counted the votes!

Wanna make something of it, buddy?

(I just wanted to make use of the captcha, today's word is necking. As you can tell, I have nothing to contribute)

But there have been fantastic movie-based games...

[Anonymous Coward]

For the most part you are correct, games based upon movies can have a ruinous effect on fortunes. One need look no further than the ET debacle to see that. However, some of the most fun, and most exciting games have been based on movies. I offer the The Two Towers, The Return of the King by EA and Nintendo 64's Goldeye as evidence of that.

That having been said, the problem with most video games based upon movies isn't that they're horrible pieces of crap, or even totally forgotten, it's that they're not meritorious of hate or love...

since when does it work that way?

[YesIAmAScript]

Awards shows are the original reality shows (well, outside of sports).

The key to them is they are a cheap way to get big-name stars. Just give out some trinkets, and if you do it right, big stars will show up and then people will watch your show, then you can sell ads during it.

That's the long and short of it. Qualifications don't really come into play.

It's embarrassing.

[euxneks]

Doesn't anyone else find these awards extremely embarrassing as a gamer? Missy Elliot? What the fuck dude. What does rap have to do with games? Edgy and popular my ass. Fuck off with the "stryker" and "MOST XTREEM!" gaming crap already.

Re:It's embarrassing.

[Anonymous Coward]

it sure is
if they need to have music... at least have the composers that do music in games.
or if they need lyrical, people that actually sing for games (ala 50 cent)
just my opinion

Re:It's embarrassing.

[SetupWeasel]

Well, Missy Elliot was so fat that she needed gastric-bypass surgery, and she is as annoying as hell, so she has a lot in common with the average fanboy. ^_^

Re:It's embarrassing.

[Xenious]

Hell yes! I mean it's one thing to feature a song that was in a game or composed for a game, but just to bring unrelated songs in for showmanship and to cash in on advertising...jeez, is it a sha.... hey, wait a min!!! ;)

Cow Faeces

[Anonymous Coward]

Resident Evil 4 wins "Game of the Year" (And rightfully so), but loses in it's Action Category. Doesn't make sense 'yo.

Re:OUTGOING

[The Hobo]

Can someone explain this troll to me?

No Gamecube mention = No Legitimacy

[BTWR]

I know Spike is after the drunken jock demographic, and they play into the "OMG! Gamecube is all Fisher Price games!!!" mentality, but leaving out Gamecube entireley is just a joke. Nominating Resident Evil 4 for PS2 and not Gamecube (or even "multiconsole") is a flat-out joke. Not only is the Gamecube version better in every way - controller, graphics, loadtimes, etc (yes, there is an extra mission in the PS2 one not related to the main game at all, and... for some reason, a "laser gun" in a european village), but it just shows they have zero legitimacy.

Re:No Gamecube mention = No Legitimacy

[ionpro]

You do understand that a large portion of Spike's programming is Star Trek: TNG and Star Trek: DS9, don't you? I don't know a *ton* of drunken jocks who adhere to that particular type of programming.

Re:OUTGOING

[Anonymous Coward]

My god! The internet has come alive and is trying to speak out against the spikeTV award show! Unfortunately it learned english from the most widely made program in existence and can only say "hello world".

Graphics! Gameplay

[MMaestro]

I hate to break this to you, but no it isn't. It's based off of who has more charisma on the screen, and in most cases, who has the hottest babes.

By that logic, all Hollywood needs to do is legitmize showing breasts and they'll suddenly be able to make profits that'll make Titanic look like a failure. Yes, that movie had nudity but lets face it, people didn't go back to watch it repeatedly just to see Kate Winslet's breasts.

Same thing can be applied to video games, by your logic Nintendo should have been killed and buried after the N64. The Dreamcast should have killed the PS2's pathetic hardware. The Xbox should have smashed into first place and the Xbox360 should ensure Microsoft's dominance in video gaming history for the next five years. Oh and the Revolution? Thats Nintendo's corpse rising from the dead as a zombie only to get killed again by a double-barreled shotgun to the face by Microsoft and Sony simultaneously. /sarcasm

White Men

[Anonymous Coward]

White men are in the minority. There is no majority now. I'm not sure when the last time that white men actually comprised more than fifty percent of the population of any major country was. Did they ever?

White people were only ever a majority when women and men were in the same group. Nowdays, white men are actually a pretty small group. Many states don't even approach a white majority. Try being an ordinary white man in Maryland.

Most of the people with a lot of money are still white men, but the other white men are being punished for that pretty inappropriately. They're told "You cannot have an identity because other people who were white and male have been bad. If you *must* have an identity, you are only allowed to be a fattish, smelly and insensitive pig who is slowly learning to live in a world of vastly superior and yet underpaid 'minorities.' In exchange for humbling yourself this way, you may ogle fake breasts even after marriage."

This lack of identity is creating major problems for white men, who no longer know how to behave because society expects nothing positive of them. Fifty years of television have given them mostly bumbling, incompetent dads as role models. This trend runs from Danny Thomas through Dick Van Dyke and right up to the insipid David Schwimmer as "the one who forgot entirely about his first child so the series could jump the shark later."

White men in our society are essentially overgrown children. It's very sad. Spike TV only facilitates this.

Re:White Men

[zerocool^]

And the sad reality is:

1.) I feel dumber and somehow less useful to society if I watch star trek or CSI on spike tv, but I do it anyway

2.) If anyone says in public what you just said (white males are facing an identity crisis in a sea of minorities where society expects nothing good to come from them and they have no role models), you're accused of being a member of the Aryan Brotherhood or the Imperial Klans of America.

~w

Obligatory Vic Romano reference.

[SetupWeasel]

Indeed!

A true farce...

[D'Arque Bishop]

The Spike TV VGA nominees came out less than a month ago. Of those nominees, several of them had not been released yet. Cut to the actual awards show, and three games that won awards (Aeon Flux, True Crime: New York City, and 50 Cent Bulletproof) only came out this past week. Another (King Kong) won't be out for another few days. For that matter, when was the voting closed and the votes tallied? Were the previously mentioned games even out when the voting was closed?

How am I supposed to believe these awards are in any way legitimate if at least one of the winning games wasn't out when the votes were tallied? It would be like an unreleased movie being nominated for the Oscars. Sure, the Academy voters might see it, but what about the general public? For all we know, these wins were bought and paid for. (Granted, this is possible even with the Oscars, but then at least they wait a few months for the year to be over before announcing nominees...)

The saddest thing about this whole fiasco is that a lot of people will watch the broadcast when it comes out in December and probably won't realize it's pre-recorded... and won't realize that unlike at the time they're watching the awards, some of the winning games hadn't been out for more than a week...

Just my $.02...

Re:A true farce...

[talksinmaths]

It would be like an unreleased movie being nominated for the Oscars.

Your comment is dead on. I'd go so far as to say it's more like if they'd awarded King Kong the best picture Oscar last winter. I'd be shocked if more than a handful of these 'awards' weren't bought and paid for in the early planning stages of this fraud.

Big News Outlets

[Lord_Dweomer]

I would LOVE for big news outlets and game magazines to publicly blast this show for the crap paid-for spectacle that it is. Its not just the horrid product placement categories.....its the fact that they vote for games that aren't even out yet, which to us gamers is just plain fucking insulting. It insults our integrity, our intelligence, and our loyalty to gaming. If anybody knows the email addresses of the people behind this farce, please by all means post it here so we can let them know how we feel. For now, you can go to the feedback page and leave them a note. I tried to find a marketing persons email address through their media kit section, but you have to REGISTER TO GET THEIR MEDIA KIT! As someone in advertising.....I have to say thats bloody ridiculous. Great way to keep people from getting more information about advertising opportunities with you idiots. Although maybe thats for the best now that I think about it.

Re:Big News Outlets

[Shinino Kage]

We're not big, but I definitely blasted Spike over these awards. Here's the link for you: http://www.gamingtrend.com/News/news.php?NewsID=43 98 .

Enjoy!

Not trolling here, I promise

[empvirus]

How could they have a best PC game category and not even mention Counter-Strike: Source or Half-Life 2? Like the others here on slashdot have said, this little award show is far from legitimate; it's hardly more than a giant commercial.

Re:Not trolling here, I promise

[Fred Or Alive]

Apart from the fact that Half-Life 2 was nominated and won the best PC Game award... last year.

Half-Life 2 was released in 2004, it would be odd for it to be turning up in a 2005 awards show. (Although this entire award show does seem to be a load of crap).

Original song?

[El_Muerte_TDS]

Ok, so a lot of people got their chance to pick on a thingy of this (######) award show. And here's another addition.

So, what qualifies as original music? Existing music that was licensed for the game?
Apperently.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
"Maybe We Crazy" by 50 Cent in 50 Cent: Bulletproof (Vivendi Universal Games) "Lights and Sounds" by Yellowcard in Burnout Revenge (Electronic Arts)
"When I Get Angry" by Spider Loc in Madden NFL 06 (Electronic Arts)
"Getting Up Anthem: Part I" by Talib Kweli and Rakim in Mark Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure (Atari, Inc.)
"Error Operator" by Taking Back Sunday in Fantastic 4 (Activision, Inc.)


Same for BEST SOUNDTRACK, did they really bother to lisent all the really original music of the other game?

Luckily the BEST ORIGINAL SCORE category wasn't all licensed music, but... best soundtrack and best score? Isn't that the same thing? The game music composers are not appreciated enough, these money bagging ... (something with money, riaa, etc) ... artist get most of the attention but do not deserive it.

PS. MTV is pulling the same crap with their game awards.

Re:Original song?

[Anonymous Coward]

Same thing happened last year. Not a single song from Katamari Damacy was nominated for best song, even though that game has one of the best game soundtracks ever recorded. Chalk it up to the need to nominate songs that were "edgy", by which we mean "RIAA produced."

Gin and Tonic and Red Red Roses, forever.

It hasn't been "Tech TV" for a while

[Lagerhowen]

Since Kevin Rose left, there was no "Tech" in their Tech TV. That part is gone from G4's name. It's G4 Videogame TV now, which really sucks. Before, Leo Leporte and Kevin Rose would take apart stuff, reverse engineer and the like. I think thats why Kevin left and is helping out Leo here http://www.thisweekintech.com/ I wonder if G4 was getting cease and desist letters from M$ about xbox modz...

Video Games bigger than Hollywood

[Lagerhowen]

Its hard to imagine that video games are bigger than Hollywood, but having thier own award show is just stupid. The first time I heard about this, I was like wtf? Who's retarded idea is this? I'm sure not many people watched Spike's award show last year and G4's award show a few months ago. Just because they're bigger than Hollywood doesn't mean they have to copy them http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chron icle/archive/2004/12/18/MNGUOAE36I1.DTL

Music awards, game awards - what's the difference?

[SenorCitizen]

Further, an award show for games? Your largest demographic typically has to ask their parents for their allowance to *buy* the games in question.

Well, the music in MTV's award shows is also typically what the allowance crowd buys, so I don't see why they wouldn't try to pull the same thing with games.

Whatever Happened To...

[TheZorch]

Whatever happened to the "Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences"? A few years ago they had a really good awards show on the Sci-Fi channel hosted by Herbie Hancock and Thomas Dulby. The show gave out awards to the top video games for all of the consoles as well as awards for all of the latest technologies for games and graphics development.

It was a great show and not mega-hype driven like the current crop of videogame awards shows. The first G-forgia awards show was also better, but not its turned into a raunchy circus to promote XBox and PS2 games. Its the kind of lifestyle that videogames don't need to promote right now with all of the crybaby conservatives trying to ban M rated games all over the place.

Re:WTF? Who are these so-called audience

[BushCheney08]

How very true. I used to live in Venice, CA, and would get offered tickets to half a dozen different shows every time I went down to the boardwalk (which was often, I had an early shift). I never took any of them up, but I could've seen tons of gameshows and bad sitcoms live had I wanted to. I'm sure there were crappy awards show tickets available, too.

UE3, baby!

[Anonymous Coward]

have you even *seen* unreal engine 3? look at when this thing was created and tell me that it's not a breakthrough.

Re:UE3, baby!

[KDR_11k]

I've seen it but it's not the only thing that can do these graphics and it's certainly not a huge step above the previous versions (a few effects and features added but mostly the same).

Just an Idea

[Puhase]

After reading many of th eposts above I came up with an idea that would do at least something to improve these award shows, computer generate them. What better way to truly show off the industry than by having the away show come to us in the form that we are awarding. I know it seems gimmicky, but no more than what we have already. Much of the feigned enthusiasm could be cut and some seriously cool stuff could be shown off. As well, game designers could have their studios make their own acceptance speeches using the characters from the games that won. This would only be a first step in improving the innane nature of this show, but it would at least remove much of the ridiculous celebrity self-congratulation that goes on currently. I mean, I really don't care if some movie star plays the same games I do.