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The Videogame Oscars
Gamasutra has responses to its weekly question of the week, this time looking at whether there will ever be an Oscars for games. The responses focused on some of the current crop of awards currently handed out, from the GDCA to Spike's debacle. From the article: "No one in the industry has taken the previous attempts at an award show seriously because they shows seem to offer up an award to the highest bidder and not the one most deserving. The only exception that I've seen come close to being a decent awards show is the Interactive Achievement Awards put on by AIAS. So how about we stop having rappers involved with the award shows based on the grounds that they like to play their Xbox? Or if we must have them involved, how about having Will Wright host the BET Awards Show? That makes about as much sense."
It would just be dominated by casual garbage like EA games and GTA.
Like we really need another back-patting award ceremony for entertainment that critics love and audiences ignore.
Although I think its a valid art form, I would be a little scared to see the 'fashion pre-show'...
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.-TJ
Crash was a mediocre movie at best, but they spent almost as much promoting the film for oscar as they spent to make the film. check it out
So why would a video game awards show be any different? And how would a 'serious' awards show for games improve your gaming experience?
It wouldn't.
Like films, you're more likely to find quality entertainment via reccomendations from friends that share your interests. Awards shows are just another promotional oppourtunity, and will always benefit the highest bidders.
Starsucks
What is the problem with the Game Developers Choice Awards? For me it is a great award, although not perfect, of course.
-- SouNerd.com
The guys at Penny-Arcade (http://www.penny-arcade.com/ have had the right idea for an awards show for a while: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/12/22 The're right you know...
All awards are little more than masturbation for the community. We see all these "top 100 games ever" type of things every year filled with just the latest flashy fad game. Why not instead of wasting money on this crap they spend it on supporting companies who make awesome games but are having trouble right now, or set up contests like NASA does.
I like muppets.
If you don't like Zonk's stories, there's a wonderful option on the preferences page to hide stories from him...
They would have to get Wil Wheaton to host the thing. Humor and geekiness all rolled into one.
From: http://www.interactive.org/awards/IAA-9/winners.as p
The Interactive Achievement Awards have been presented annually since 1998.
Interactive Achievement Award recipients are determined by a vote of
qualified Academy members. As such, selection as an Interactive Academy
award finalist or recipient represents the strongest possible peer
recognition.
----
9th Annual Interactive Achievement Award Winners
The award winners in each category are as follows:
Game of the Year:
Overall . God of War
Computer . Battlefield
Console . God of War
Outstanding Innovation in Gaming . Guitar Hero
Outstanding Achievement:
Animation . God of War
Art Direction . Shadow of the Colossus
Soundtrack . Guitar Hero
Original Music Composition . God of War
Sound Design . God of War
Story and Character Development . Call of Duty: Big Red One
Game Play Engineering (Tie) . Nintendogs - Guitar Hero
Online Game Play . Battlefield 2
Visual Engineering . Shadow of the Colossus
Game Design . Guitar Hero
Outstanding Character Performance:
Male . God of War
Female . Jade Empire
(Game of the Year In) Genre Awards:
Sports . SSX On Tour
First-Person Action . Battlefield 2
Role-Playing . Jade Empire
Fighting . Soul Calibur 3
Action/ Adventure . God of War
Racing . Need For Speed: Most Wanted
Children's . We Love Katamari
Downloadable . WIK: Fable of Souls
Family . Guitar Hero
Simulation . The Movies
Strategy . Civilization IV
Massively Multiplayer /
Persistent World (Tie) . City Villains - Guild Wars
Handheld . Nintendogs
Cellular . Ancient Empires II
AIAS Hall of Fame Honoree Richard Garriott is the ninth member to be inducted and joins an already impressive fraternity of gaming icons, including Trip Hawkins, Peter Molyneux, Yu Suzuki, Will Wright, John Carmack, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Sid Meier and Shigeru Miyamoto. Garriott is best known for creating and publishing the best-selling Ultima series, including the first commercially successful online game, Ultima Online.
Looking down at that current list of award-winners, I see they've continued their tradition of awarding acclaim to popular big-budget titles from large, mainstream publishers.
Many Bothans died to bring you this sig.
Game reviewers and magazines and things like gamerankings.com already do a great job for gamers. No need for an awards show. To me, finding a half-decent movie to downl^H^H^H^H^H rent is a harder thing to do. Also, if music and movies had come to be in their present form of easy access like video games in the age of the internet, the internet would be the only decent place to get information about them, just like video games.
They also refused to recognize Resident Evil 4 because Capcom is not a member
I'd like my afternoon shot of Slashdot with a splash of Racism, please.
Come on, it's not that hard to build a good analogy here instead of tossing out a complete non sequitur about BET.
Fun with Anagarams! LADS HOST, SHALT DOS. HAS DOLTS. AD SLOTHS, HATS SOLD. ASS HO, LTD.
Correct me if I'm wrong, (and someone will) but isn't Shadow of the Collossus a fairly underground game that was love by critics and sold poorly?
Just based on that list, and the fact that I just recieved my latest bonus, I think I know what my next eBay purchases will be...
I can see it now, sitting on my couch saying things like:
"Put your message in a modem, and throw it into the cyber-sea." - Rush
On a commerical for the Spike's VG awards there was a song by The Used. The Used is screamo hardcore.
I wouldn't call it undergound at all. It was the "spiritual sequel" to ICO, probably the best game ever to come out of Sony's development arm. As such, Shadow of the Colossus was one of the year's highly anticipated releases.
Me, I'm at once proud that they put Katamari Damacy on the list, and sad that they didn't award it Game of the Year. (Half Life 2 may be fun and all, but when people look back on 2005, they're going to remember Katamari.)
Game devs are not performing artists, a glitzy show does not make any sense here.
Thought not. A room full of geeky guys with a token actress-presenter. Usually gets shown...sheesh, on the slowest of news days, for about 15 seconds.
The Oscars work because people like seeing sexy, glamorous people cavorting about in expensive clothes.
Until the game community starts being sexy, glamorous people cavorting about in expensive clothes, we may have to put the Game Oscars on hold.
Unless it's EXTREME! All the kids love EXTREME!
What were you expecting?
The british Bafta awards have a Games awards section, with various categories. Not something many people know, and perhaps is a bit too much UK orientated for the Oscar US crowd. I still enjoy the Bafta's more then the Oscars however.
Especially as Half-Life 2 was released in 2004.
We love Katamari best childrens' game? I think that shows how seriously we should take these awards.
No one in the industry has taken the previous attempts at an award show seriously because they shows seem to offer up an award to the highest bidder and not the one most deserving.
So... Remind me how this is different from the Academy Awards again?
no clue why you were modded down - now that you mention it, i did hear that it was the same group that did ico.
Who actually watches these giant steaming piles of drivel? How anyone can watch fours hours of self praise and asinine humor is beyond me.
Is anyone else completely appalled by the fact that god of war is incredibly uninspired everywhere EXCEPT graphics? I played it and kept thinking... been here done that.. I had to put it down after a few hours. What a waste of a rental. BOOOOORING.
G4ia is a VG award show, but it sucks like all the others...
Fundamentally, the Oscars are about a community of people that, lets face it, do what they do because they love the limeilight and telling stories, giving an awards show that put's them in the limelight, getting rewarded for telling stories.
"You like me . . . You really LIKE Me!" is funny, because there's truth in it. For actors and actresses, this is an incentive. Why *ELSE* would somebody wait tables for ten years doing commercials waiting for their "Big Break"? There's money to be had lots of places. It's an incentive that is useful for the studios et al, but if the actors and directors *didn't* enjoy it on balance, it would have died years ago.
It's not the same incentive to Game programmers. For one thing, those that are on their game - know who they are. Sid Meier, Peter Molyneux for god games. Bioware for D&D, Taldren knows they made the best Star Trek game ever whelped. For purposes of ego inflation, the best names in the gaming industry don't really need an "awards show". Sid knows he can destroy the U.S. Grade point average any day he feels like it - Just whisper the words "I think I'll do Master of Orion IV" and sit back grinning as the IT economy tanks . (Come on Sid - you know you want too).
Nobody waits tables to do game design - it's not that kind of industry, and the same incentives don't work. And the only real reason for this kind of awards show is either an incentive to the programming trams, or an ad campaign for the studios. They're not interested in the former, we're not interested in the latter, and until I see a programmer that looks like Charlize Theron, neither of these things are likely to change.
Pug
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