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. "

A Word From Carmack

[rsmith-mac]

Last year, John Carmack made a good post [slashdot.org] 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 [slashdot.org].

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...

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.

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:King Kong?

[BrynM]

WTF? Is that game even out?

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

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.

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.

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: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.

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.

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...

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 [spiketv.com] 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.