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Annual Redundant Awards of the Year Awards

Microsoft versus Sony, Battlefield versus Call of Duty and Forza versus Gran Turismo. These are some of the rivalries that can get people talking about console wars. “Game On or Game Over” is your place to get inside the minds of Nicholas and Andy as they seek to find the true meaning of gaming and tackle some of gaming’s most controversial subjects. Both are award winning authors – although the awards haven’t been mailed or created yet — but trust them. Would they lie to you?

Andy: As we wind down to the end of the year we’ve reached that point where games are pretty much done being released and we are deep in the cycle of marketing toward those who are buying gifts for gamers and not really gamers themselves. Of course with the closing of the year we come to the inevitable Video Game Awards show that tries to be the Emmy’s or Oscars for video games. Yet, we have another video game awards show in the books and I was literally bored about fifteen minutes into the event. I kept it streaming on my computer hoping against hope that something interesting would be shown and it never did.

Geoff Keighley has the charisma of a mortician selling you a casket for your grandmother’s funeral. There was just so little energy in the show that it was hard to be excited for anything. Every award that they announced and presented seemed like it was an afterthought or really rushed. In fact I’m not sure they ever even announced the best shooter award, but hey, at least they were able to have “music” and I use that term loosely by Deadma5. Because nothing says Video Game Awards show like Deadma5 doing some “new” “original” music right?

Before I get too far into the specifics of the show did you get a chance to watch the show or see any segments of it? What did you think about it if you did? If you didn’t any reason why?

Nicholas: I didn’t even know there was a Video Games Award night, so I guess to answer your question, no, I didn’t watch it. Hahaha. First and foremost, like I’ve just said, the fact I didn’t know it was happening is perhaps the biggest reason, but even then to be honest, it’s just not something that I find interesting enough to watch. Much like most award night events, it’s something I never see the appeal of. Typically awards nights comes across like the societal elite patting themselves on the back for a job well done, and it’s just something I’d rather not waste my time on.

When it comes to video game awards it’s also a case of “so what” for me. It doesn’t interest me what a panel of gaming journalists (or whoever come together to decide the winners) think is the best shooter or best narrative for 2015. I already know which games I want to check out (or already have), and if I really wanted to hear an opinion then I’d read a review. As I type this I also think about the awards that games get given throughout the year. Think to E3 and those games that had countless awards for ‘best at show’ or what have you. It seems like there are more awards than actual games, and in the end, does an E3 award actually mean anything for the final product? In the same way, some end-of-year award ceremony does nothing about how I’ll feel about these games myself.

Perhaps I’m just being cynical though. What is the draw that drives you to watch these in the first place, and what are your ideas of these award shows to begin with?

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Andy: I don’t think you’re being cynical at all. I was talking about the game awards with a friend and he said “So what, how many games come out with Game of the Year editions and haven’t won anything?” He’s right when you think about it. How many games have been re-released in the last couple of years as Game of the Year additions that haven’t won an award. Or, how many different awards are out there? It seems like every site and every publication have their own Game of the Year awards. The term Game of the Year I think has lost a lot of significance.

As to why I watched them this year, I honestly don’t know. Not much else was on TV aside from a hockey game, and in the past they have revealed a few new games or extended looks at upcoming titles. This year even that felt flat. Their big “world premier” was for Rocket League on the Xbox One, but anyone with half a brain already knew that was going to happen. There was a little bit of an extended look at Quantum Break but didn’t offer anything new their either. Overall, game-wise I was really underwhelmed with the show.

There were two moments that stood out to me as positives though. The first was Greg Miller’s thank you speech after winning the “Trending Gamer” award. Putting aside what a terrible award that is for a video game awards show, the message behind his speech was very good. The developers put in long hours to make a game happen, and without them we wouldn’t be able to experience these amazing titles. But, for me, the highlight of the night was a very personal tribute by Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime on the passing of Satoru Iwata. I think you would be hard pressed to find a gamer who hasn’t in some way played a game, or system, that Iwata had a part in making. That was probably the most genuine part of the show for me.

I’m sure you’ve looked at some of the stuff from the awards show by now, is there anything that sticks out to you as being either really nice or maybe at the other end of the spectrum just a terrible waste of time?

Nicholas: I agree with you that the tribute to Iwata was probably the best aspect of the event. It’s interesting that we don’t often speak or think about the people behind the companies and their games, but it was really sad when news broke about his passing earlier this year. You mentioned that there aren’t many people who haven’t experienced a game or console that’s had some influence by Iwata, and I think it just played at the heart-strings when we found out he was no longer with us. Nintendo has been such a fundamental aspect of many gamer’s upbringing (mine included) and I think it’s truly a estimate to the impact he had on so many people.

You mentioned their big reveal being that Rocket League was coming to the Xbox One, but it seems so underwhelming that an Arcade-esque title is big news these days. Don’t get me wrong, just because it’s not a AAA title doesn’t mean it can’t be just as enjoyable, but a soccer car game and this is what we’re meant to be excited for? Once again, maybe I’m just being cynical but what an odd game to talk up and what a weird platform to announce it on.

There was one thing I wanted to get your opinions on though. It was announced that Psychnauts 2 was on its way, but then they also revealed that it was being crowd-funded. I know we’ve touched on crowd-funding in the past, but I wanted to get your opinion on this situation specifically, and what are your thoughts on using this method to financially back a new game?

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Andy: Ugh, that whole Psychnauts 2 thing just rubbed me the wrong way. It reeked of the Shenmue 3 E3 thing and that just left a terrible taste in my mouth. They essentially said “Hey, here’s a game that many of you wanted for a long time, here’s a teaser trailer for it. Oh, yeah I forgot go to this site and start giving us money for it or else we “can’t” (read: won’t) make it.” I have voiced my displeasure over the whole pre-order push, and this is worse than that. This is essentially a pre-order… of a pre-order with no time frame on when it will be done, no idea what the game will be about, how long it will be or anything about it other than the name.

Imagine if EA or Activision announced the next Battlefield or Call of Duty game and then followed it up with “Help of make this game a reality by getting involved in the Kickstarter!” The internet would lose its collective sh*t. There would be pitchforks, boycotts and strongly worded memes. But, because the game is well liked, and the studio has the little underdog mentality it’s OK. I’m sorry but how many crowd funded games does Tim Schafer have going? A crowd funding campaign should only be used for companies that are looking to get up and running, or for unique circumstances. Schafer seems to think crowd funding is his studios personal ATM. By my count Double Fine has released 21 games since 2005 – why the hell do they need crowdfunding is beyond me.

I know my opinion is pretty strong on this topic because it frustrates the hell out of me. To me making a game is about risk/reward for the developer. Make a good game and gamers will buy it and talk about it to their friends. Make a crappy game and you won’t sell many copies and figure out what went wrong. Crowdfunding takes away the risk, because the backers are the ones taking it on, and leaves only the profits for the developer. I really don’t like that model for established developers. Add to that it was done at a video games award show, I just don’t understand it. “World premiere of a game you won’t get to play unless you pay for it before it’s even developed!” I’m starting to get concerned that this will become more of a trend in the industry, if it is it’s just not a trend I can support. What do you think though? Is announcing a game and then smacking the crowd funding label on it at an awards show poor form, or brilliant planning?

Nicholas: Crowdfunding really does seem like the ultimate way for a developer to gauge the level of interest that gamers have for their next idea/title, and allows them, as you’ve said, to essentially place all the risk of (financial) failure on the community rather than a publisher or their own pockets. While it’s certainly a smart move, I can’t help but agree with you that it also isn’t somewhat of a dick move, mostly when it’s being driven by a studio that either has a lot of experience or has some serious money behind them. For example, if a small unknown studio is being backed by Electronic Arts, then there’s no reason why they should rely on crowdfunding to finance their project.

As far as the announcement itself goes, yeah, it does seem like poor form. This all hinges off what you’ve said above about the fact Double Fine has released over 20 games in the past 10 years. Obviously the studio has some experience behind them, and while I can’t comment on their financial position, you’d like to think that with so many games, and with Psychonauts being as successful as it was, that they’d have some more money behind them to fund it themselves.

Do I think this is going to be a trend? Perhaps I suppose. Crowdfunding isn’t that new anymore, but you provided two examples already in this article, and I can think of Yooka-Laylee as one that I’ve personally backed myself. I don’t think I’d see myself backing too many games thought to be honest, and I’d probably expect the community to fund it, and then I just pay for the final retail version once it releases.

As we near the end of this article I wanted to ask, was there anything else from the awards event that you wanted to discuss?

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Andy: There are a couple other things that come to mind about this year’s Game Awards show. One being the blatant paid for promotion of Star Wars Battlefront. Asking all the guests backstage something to the effect of “You played Battlefront earlier, what did you think?” It just came across to me as really desperate advertising. Also Geoff Keighley abandoning his apparent love of Mountain Dew and Doritos and jumping ship to Bud Light. The advertising during the show wasn’t subtle at all, it was ‘smack you in the face with it’ several times over.

The only other thing that really stands out to me was the massive public relations disaster that Konami visited on themselves, and how Keighley chose to deal with it. For those who didn’t watch, or hear about it, here’s what happened in a nutshell. Metal Gear V won the award for best action/adventure game. Traditionally, a developer or member of that team accepts the award, gives their little speech and everyone carries on. With Metal Gear, Kiefer Sutherland (voice of Big Boss) accepted the award. You could almost hear the confusion from people in the room, then the camera pans to Keighley and he basically buried Konami. He informed everyone that Hideo Kojima was scheduled to be at the awards show but Konami, through their lawyers, told him he could not attend. The audience of course booed, and they went to commercial (probably one with Bud Light if I remember correctly).

An awards show should highlight the best things from the year and give us enough teaser information to leave us frothing at the bit for the following year. Yet, this year’s show did none of that for me. I was bored and just unexcited throughout the entire thing and when I look back, even a week later, all I remember is negative stuff. From the obviously empty seats, to the canned awards to the tiff between Konami and Kojima rearing its head again. It never felt like a true award show. It really felt like more of an excuse for industry insiders to get together and hang after a two hour show to make it look like they were there for a reason.

As we close this week’s discussion, is there anything that you will take away from the show? Or maybe the better question is, should there even be an awards show? In the grand scheme of things does it really matter with how many other awards are out there and given out by pretty much every outlet? Maybe it’s the format of the show, the hosts, or something… but the last two years (or more really) have not been kind to the Video Game Awards. Should we even try to fix it or just scrap it all together?

Nicholas: From how you’ve sold it to me this week, as far as I’m aware, there really isn’t a need for these award nights. Like I expressed at the beginning, and much like you’ve re-enforced with your comments so far in this article, it just seems either completely redundant or an utter waste of time. Any news/gaming outlet can run their own Game of the Year awards (and rightfully so), so why we need another concentrated awards night to do the same thing seems pointless.

All awards shows are ultimately stupid when they are publicised like this as they seem to be less about the medium being celebrated and more about the people, and it seems the video games one is no different. I’ve never watched these shows before and I don’t think much is going to change going forward. With that said though, I think I might crack open a bottle of Mountain Dew and a bag of Doritos as I vote for Stevivor’s GOTY. Yeah, that sounds like a perfect plan…

Tune in next time for the next instalment of Game On or Game Over. If you have any ideas for our next article, feel free to contact Andy or Nicholas on Twitter.


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About the author

Nicholas Simonovski

Events and Racing Editor at Stevivor.com. Proud RX8 owner, Strange Music fan and Joe Rogan follower. Living life one cheat meal at a time.

About the author

Andy Gray

From the frozen land of Minnesota, I was the weird kid that begged my parents for an Intellivision instead of an Atari. My love for gaming has only grown since. When I’m not gaming I enjoy ice hockey and training dogs. I’m still trying to get my Elkhound to add to my Gamerscore though, one day this will happen.