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Spike TV's VG Awards very disappointing...


BardicKnowledge
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I watched them tonight after reading here and elsewhere that Video Games Live would be playing. It turns out that they played one half of one song (their classic games medley), and then we only heard snippets as they went to commercial. In other words, I heard about as much of them as I hear of Kevin Eubanks when I watch the Tonight Show...not enough to make it worth it if that's all I wanted to see.

The actual awards were fairly bland, and there were some terrible jokes to boot. But that's not the issue -- there was so little VGL on television that I don't feel they should have bothered advertising. Anyone else have a similar feeling?

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Makes me wonder why the orchestra agreed to appear at all. If they had any real cred...

In any case, I tuned in at random twice. Once they were premiering that Iron Man the Game trailer, and the other one Skate won for something or other.

Edit: Even the Video Game Show podcast guys, who are consumers of a lot of the games that would get coverage on the VGAs, regularly bust on them.

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It's actually well made for a game awards show. You can't expect them to show a droll, boring, by the books type of award shows for videogames anyway.

I thought the Foo Fighters performances were great though. It's strange since their musical guests and a few comedians' appearances are the most fun part about the award show.

Also, Video Games Live was amazing from what little of what we saw. Tommy Tallarico was working it like a maniac. It got my interest piqued for VGL.

Makes me wonder why the orchestra agreed to appear at all. If they had any real cred...

VGL itself IS the orchestra. I think you have no idea what you're talking about. And it seemed like they had a pretty top billing as far as the actual event went. The show isn't exactly a total videogame event as it was a popular culture thing, but they put in a lot of effort to get a lot of celebrities into one building. It's the kind of needless, but fun theatrics that disappeared in E3.

As for the actual awards themselves, I don't think I could have chosen much different. Call of Duty 4, Orange Box, Halo 3, Madden (meh, but sports fans are attached), Super Mario Galaxy and Bioshock. It's strange how Bioshock won, but maybe the voting public liked it a lot more than the most critical fans did.

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With no offense to Spike - the channel has a role, and plays it well - I think eventually there will need to be a more credible Video Game award show, as the art form progresses. It's difficult, for example, to simultaneously wax idealistic on how games are for everyone, and that more and more girl gamers are popping up, when the VGAs are on a channel that's rather open about being "for guys" - for whatever that means. I wouldn't expect VGAs on Oxygen, that's for sure... Nothing that aspires to being considered an art form can have award shows like these, on channels like these.

That being said, it's better than nothing at all, and I'm sure VGL played more material at the actual event. Given that Tommy's doing as much as possible to promote game music, I don't think he can afford to turn down opportunities like this just because of some of the negatives. I'd also expect The OneUps, etc. to take the gig, were it offered, and wouldn't hold it against them.

I think it'd go a very long way towards fixing the overall presentation if they stopped treating their audience like idiots, acknowledged the dominant role of Internet culture on gaming, and played to a somewhat wiser audience.

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I agree that the show can get better as it goes along but it does seem to be getting better at least. I didn't even expect the world premiers like that to that degree though, even if they were mostly teaser trailers. I think the internet virals that introduced every award and the great cameo of Red vs Blue are a few steps better than last year's. Even if the Video Games Live segment only lasted 5 minutes. 5 great minutes but still.

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With no offense to Spike - the channel has a role, and plays it well - I think eventually there will need to be a more credible Video Game award show, as the art form progresses. It's difficult, for example, to simultaneously wax idealistic on how games are for everyone, and that more and more girl gamers are popping up, when the VGAs are on a channel that's rather open about being "for guys" - for whatever that means. I wouldn't expect VGAs on Oxygen, that's for sure... Nothing that aspires to being considered an art form can have award shows like these, on channels like these.

That being said, it's better than nothing at all, and I'm sure VGL played more material at the actual event. Given that Tommy's doing as much as possible to promote game music, I don't think he can afford to turn down opportunities like this just because of some of the negatives. I'd also expect The OneUps, etc. to take the gig, were it offered, and wouldn't hold it against them.

I think it'd go a very long way towards fixing the overall presentation if they stopped treating their audience like idiots, acknowledged the dominant role of Internet culture on gaming, and played to a somewhat wiser audience.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Though, honestly, until video game music is fully "mainstream" I doubt you're going to see more than just one VG Awards show. Which is unfortunate, since it takes a lot of skill and talent to not only create a video game, but also compose its music.

One can only hope for the best.

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I watched them tonight after reading here and elsewhere that Video Games Live would be playing. It turns out that they played one half of one song (their classic games medley), and then we only heard snippets as they went to commercial. In other words, I heard about as much of them as I hear of Kevin Eubanks when I watch the Tonight Show...not enough to make it worth it if that's all I wanted to see.

The actual awards were fairly bland, and there were some terrible jokes to boot. But that's not the issue -- there was so little VGL on television that I don't feel they should have bothered advertising. Anyone else have a similar feeling?

Didn't need to roll your d20 to know that was coming.

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DJP, sorry to rain on your parade, but I believe G4 does something like this, and it's about 100 times more appropriate - not like I watch it anyways.

Spike should stick to what they do best - UFC replays and Slamball - everything else (including MXC - G4 wins with Sasuke) is utter crap.

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Spike should stick to what they do best - UFC replays and Slamball - everything else (including MXC - G4 wins with Sasuke) is utter crap.

Wait, they still show Slamball? I haven't seen it for years, and I regularly check the channel...

Anyway, I was trying to get excited about this for about a week, but after watching the first five minutes, I decided it would be more fun to do my project on the production of Mexican tomatoes. And I would bet good money that it actually was.

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