The Game Awards Are Losing Their Luster (theverge.com) 25
The Game Awards, which broadcasts tonight on Twitch, YouTube, and Prime Video, has become the biggest night on the video game calendar since launching in 2014, but the show's treatment of developers has drawn increasing criticism. At the 2023 ceremony, acceptance speeches were often cut off after roughly 30 seconds while Hideo Kojima received five minutes to discuss his upcoming game OD -- enough time for 13 acceptance speeches, Aftermath calculated. That year's show also ignored the industry's mass layoffs entirely; host Geoff Keighley acknowledged the labor crisis only at the 2024 ceremony.
The show's Future Class program, launched in 2020 to celebrate game makers representing an inclusive future for the industry, has quietly ended. No new class has been named for two years. "At this time, we are not planning a new Future Class for this year," organizer Emily Weir told Game Developer.
The show's Future Class program, launched in 2020 to celebrate game makers representing an inclusive future for the industry, has quietly ended. No new class has been named for two years. "At this time, we are not planning a new Future Class for this year," organizer Emily Weir told Game Developer.
Can't lose what you never had. (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Can't lose what you never had. (Score:4, Interesting)
And I would go one step further: Whatever respect or luster games journalists once had, it's all gone and replaced by Twitch, Youtube, Steam Reviews, etc. Who needs a game journalism industry that exists in a perpetual conflict-of-interest grey zone with the industry they cover when you can get all of the info you'll ever need from actual people playing the game? And who would trust industry awards anyway?
Steam should just take 10 minutes and perform metrics on "Total Downloads", "Total Hours Played", "Total Concurrent Users" and "Average Review Score" and whammo, there are your annual game awards.
Re: Can't lose what you never had. (Score:4, Interesting)
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If movie awards were judged the same way, the Oscars best picture nominees would go to Lilo & Stich, A Minecraft Movie, Zootopia 2 and Jurassic World: Rebirth. No thank you. We don't need to Game of the Years awards perpetually going to the likes of Fortnite, Call of Duty, MineCraft and Roblox.
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The only time it had luster was when it was pinned against the SpikeTV VGA's
When your competition is Funkmaster Flex rapping about how Good Madden was after it won Game of the year, you win by default.
Those layoffs weren't new. (Score:2, Insightful)
Why would a game industry awards show acknowledge layoffs? Layoffs have been part of that industry for decades. A studio gets hired by a publisher to make a game, finishes the game, then lays off half the team because the next project will be smaller. Or there is no next project and the entire studio tanks. If game industry people think their layoffs are bad they should go talk to some 40 year olds working in Palo Alto about how many times they've been laid off.
The Game Awards Can't Support "Luster" (Score:3)
"The biggest night on the video game calendar" was never going to be The Game Awards. There are very, very, very few industry awards ceremonies that people care enough about to watch unless they're personally involved in that industry and video games are not one of those industries.
Movie and TV awards are chock full of beautiful people, charismatic personalities, popular music, haute couture, comedy, and themes that span generations. Gaming, by comparison, is significantly more niche and (as widespread as game-play is) there isn't enough emotional investment for the people **who otherwise go completely unseen** to attract an significant and enduring audience.
In regards to the complaints about the lack of recognition of layoffs and other issues: "What the hell did you expect?" No one builds an awards ceremony around the airing of dirty laundry.
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If they could actually bring video game characters (not cosplayers) to the events, it would be the equivalent to the Academy awards. Otherwise it's just some nerd standing up there. Nobody buying Call of Duty or FIFA gives a rat's ass about a programmer.
Nerds would rather go to a comic con or sci-fi convention. A lot of those are held in high regard, and have been around longer than The Game Awards.
Re: The Game Awards Can't Support "Luster" (Score:2)
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"The biggest night on the video game calendar" was never going to be The Game Awards. There are very, very, very few industry awards ceremonies that people care enough about to watch unless they're personally involved in that industry and video games are not one of those industries.
Movie and TV awards are chock full of beautiful people, charismatic personalities, popular music, haute couture, comedy, and themes that span generations. Gaming, by comparison, is significantly more niche and (as widespread as game-play is) there isn't enough emotional investment for the people **who otherwise go completely unseen** to attract an significant and enduring audience.
In regards to the complaints about the lack of recognition of layoffs and other issues: "What the hell did you expect?" No one builds an awards ceremony around the airing of dirty laundry.
The only reason anyone knows about them is that the BBC had an article about them this morning.
I suspect it's very much a circle jerk like the British Sandwich Awards (called the Sammies, I'm not making it up) and at best a well paying job for a mid-level commedian-slash-light-entertainer to host.
Gaming in general has always struggled to get any kind of gaming centric event on the social map, E3 before it collapsed and maybe PAX but even that seems passe now so the best we can hope for is a mention in
Steam Awards (Score:2)
Aren't these the only ones that actually matter?
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Pretty much. Steam is based on the customer's opinion -- the one that gamers actually care about.
From the website [thegameawards.com]
Not one gives a shit about a bunch of shills giving awards over games.
The main thing gamers care about is:
Is it worth playing?
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are... uhm...
Are there any?
Politics (Score:1)
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*Well, I didn't hate it, I just didn't like it. I hated that it wasn't actually a sequel to Bloodlines, just a boring first-person stealt
Mr. Meeseeks (Score:2)
These presenters remind me too much of Mr. Meeseeks.
"Hey, look at me, I'm giving out awards! I don't give a shit what they're for, what's important is that I'm the one giving them out!"
The "luster" was such a thin veneer that it cracked and fell away long ago... years ago, in fact. Now anyone can see through it to its rotten core.
https://www.penny-arcade.com/n... [penny-arcade.com]
The what now? (Score:2)
Uh (Score:2)
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