Opening up this article bluntly, Spike TVs annually televised Video Game Awards have never been a guiding light to anything in the industry. Back during its earlier days when WWE programming was associated with the channel, whoever was running the sham would shamelessly hand out high profile awards to Smackdown games with WWE wrestlers actually seated in the audience. Flashing forward to more recent years, the ceremony was at least tolerable and actually distributing nominees and awards in a logical thought process. Youd be hard-pressed to find a wealth of gamers visibly upset over Uncharted 2 or The Walking Dead winning Game of the Year. Commercially and critically those games are highly lauded and rightfully so. The more recent panel has also done a very admirable job at toning down on kissing the behind of any game trending worldwide for all of the wrong reasons cough Call of Duty and spreading awards out with the thoughts of legitimate gamers in mind. When you turn on the Oscars you dont see Twilight nominated for Best Picture, you get a panel that intelligently nominated and voted across a myriad of categories. Quality is rightfully of the upmost importance. The cancerous and overbearingly painful presentation is what we gamers actually hate. There was always an abundance of Hollywood celebrities presenting various awards, which would be understandable if they were legitimately gamers and not grinning their way through a teleprompter loaded with bull****. Marlon Wayans isnt there because he loves gaming; hes there as a D list celebrity eager to cash a paycheck because most humans would rather have chronic diarrhea than pay him for a ticket/Blu-Ray of A Haunted House. A celebration of gaming should not involve Hollywood celebrities seeking attention. There is no correlation unless aforementioned celebrity deserves to be there, like Ellen Page for her sincere dedication to Beyond. I know she wasnt present yesterday and trust me, its obvious why- but if she was, thats a legitimate case of Hollywood and gaming crossing over. Gamers want to see their heroes on stage, and those heroes arent a random D list actor. Gamers want the industry leaders and most crucial figureheads present because thats who were honoring. Its not the time for toilet humor, abysmal sketch comedy, fake personas pandering to an audience that doesnt care about them, and musical performances that are completely unrelated to gaming. Spike, Geoff Keighley, and the entire panel seem to have taken the hint too, issuing this statement online.
While its roots lie in the Video Game Awards, VGX will abandon the traditional Hollywood style award show to feature more world premiere game trailers than ever before, plus extended deep dives into the next generation of games, new looks at gaming culture, one-on-one interviews with the industry's most visionary creatives and expert panels digging into what's coming to consoles in 2014 and beyond. The new format features more games, less fame, in an intimate studio setting, and the live stream will be hosted by Joel McHale and Geoff Keighley.
To say that these people didnt try with creating an awards show ceremony that better reflects what a passionate gamer realistically wants is an understatement. They took the feedback to heart, but they also churned out an event even more embarrassing, which theoretically should be freaking impossible In other words it seems that the producers and panel still have no idea what true gamers actually want to see at an event of this magnitude, so here are 5 aspects Spike needs to fix.