On Saturday December 10, 2011 was a night to celebrating the gaming industry with Spike TV’s eight annual Video Game Awards, but if you were watching the show you might have been a little confused on who won. Gamers last night had no idea what was going on, we thought we were going to honor the producers and the makers of the games we spend all day and night playing, but that wasn’t the case, the awards to a lot of us looked like a big commercial.
Gamers voiced their opinions via twitter, even Mark Hamill, famous for his roles as Luke Skywalker in Star Wars and as The Joker in Batman cartoons and his recent work on Batman: Arkham Asylum/City games, made a statement via twitter saying “Weird VGAs! Don’t mind losing but I’d like to know when it happens Did I miss something? Award given off –camera? Tara & I in lousy seats Boo!†If the nominees had no idea who won or lost, neither do the fans. Here’s the list of winners:
GAME OF THE YEAR
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
STUDIO OF THE YEAR
Bethesda Game Studios
CHARACTER OF THE YEAR
The Joker – Batman: Arkham City
VIDEO GAME HALL OF FAME AWARD
“The Legend of Zelda”
GAMER GOD AWARD
Blizzard Entertainment
BEST XBOX 360 GAME
Batman: Arkham City
BEST PS3 GAME
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
BEST Wii GAME
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
BEST PC GAME
Portal 2
BEST HANDHELD/MOBILE GAME
Super Mario 3D Land
BEST SHOOTER
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
>BEST ACTION ADVENTURE GAME
Batman: Arkham City
BEST RPG
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
BEST MULTI-PLAYER
Portal 2
BEST INDIVIDUAL SPORTS GAME
Fight Night Champion
BEST TEAM SPORTS GAME
NBA 2K12
BEST DRIVING GAME
Forza Motorsport 4
BEST FIGHTING GAME
Mortal Kombat
BEST MOTION GAME
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
BEST INDEPENDENT GAME
Minecraft
BEST ADAPTED VIDEO GAME
Batman: Arkham City
BEST SONG IN A GAME
“Build that Wall (Zia’s Theme)” by Darren Korb – Bastion
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Bastion
BEST GRAPHICS
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
BEST PERFORMANCE BY A HUMAN MALE
Stephen Merchant as Wheatley – Portal 2
BEST PERFORMANCE BY A HUMAN FEMALE
Ellen McLain as GLaDOS – Portal 2
BEST DOWNLOADABLE GAME
Bastion
BEST DLC
Portal 2 Peer Review
MOST ANTICIPATED GAME
Mass Effect 3
GAMETRAILERS.COM TRAILER OF THE YEAR
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations – E3 2011 Trailer
EA SPORTS NFL BLITZ DIGITAL COVER ATHLETE
Ray Rice
Even though a lot of gamers were upset with the award show I did get to interview Isaiah “TriForce†Johnson who’s been in the gaming industry for years. When I asked him what he thought about the “Tea Bagging†on the show he said this “The concept of the joke was taken from gamers off-line and used as a way to add as a joke that both the mainstream and gamers could understand. I believe that gamers did not like such a shameful behavior like that, which was referenced from us (gamers) was made public on live television, Outside of that, the entire production and presentation of the show was cool. It was a drastic improvement from last year; it can only get better from here. If I could grade it, I would give it a “B-“.
When I asked him since he was at the show, did he see a different award show than the viewers at home he said “Yes, I understand the productions of shows so I have an idea of what they saw vs. what I experienced. I can understand why they felt a certain way about the show but there are two sides to the fence.
When asked if the VGA’s gave gamers a bad look his response was: †More people watch youtube than television. Whatever they displayed about us on the VGA isn’t something the rest of the world has not seen in its purest form online. That is not to justify what they did with the tea-bagging or The Black Baron cursing up a storm. What people have to accept is what Zach said…gamers express themselves and we do so in a variety of ways. That is because of the passion we have as gamers. Obviously there are gamers that can find a way to express their views in a more subtle manner but let’s be fair even I’ve gotten eccentric when expressing myself in gaming. We’re all guilty of that…because we’re gamers. Hey didn’t do any harm that hasn’t or already exist. However I would suggest to lay off of it. We can laugh at ourselves but for only so long. Next time I’m sure they will be creative in finding a joke that everyone can laugh at without reminding people of some of the silly stuff we’ve done as gamers. Personally…I thought the tea-bagging was funny but that’s just me.
