I don't know any gamer that likes awards shows. I can't remember the last non-VGA awards show I watched, and the last VGA that I saw was the one where they announced Skyrim.
In my (heavily biased) mind, awards shows are generally geared towards the people who celebrate pop culture and mainstream trends. They watch reality TV, drink Pumpkin Spice Lattes, debate who wore it better and have no idea what a PS Vita is. And while there's nothing specifically wrong with that, my point is that as a subculture, we don't really care about awards shows.
Game of the Year awards? Count me in! Top 10 (or 20 or 30) lists? Sure thing! But the actual pomp of opening envelopes and handing out statues is kinda... old fashioned. Media has changed, the way that we consume it is changing, and it will continue to change. We don't want to sit and watch broadcasts anymore, and even livestreams feel oddly confining to a consumer base that is increasingly on-demand focused. Spike TV took a nod in that direction last year with the horribly rebranded VGX, but it looks like things are going to change again.
It seems that Geoff Keighley, the host of the VGA/VGX, is now bankrolling his own show, and I'm cautiously optimistic about it. In an interview with Polygon, he states that "This show will be a show I am making for the game audience, not for the pressures of the television network or some of the desires they had. Gamers are a mainstream, massive audience that wants to celebrate our culture in a certain way. This show may not be something that works on Spike or any television audience. We're sort of building something for a different audience. I want to make it successful for a gamer audience first and gain their respect. That is something that wouldn't have worked on Spike or on any TV network."(credit Polygon)
Good god I hope so.
VGA/VGX started out as a gaming industry analog to the Oscars or Emmys, but over the years, ended up devolving into a series of "world exclusive" game announcements, flash-in-the-pan musical acts, and pandering pseudo-gamer celebrities with awful humour based on outdated stereotypes. If Keighley wants to make this work, he's got to make good on his claim that this show will be for the gamers. It doesn't bode well that his advisory board has representatives from "Activision, Electronic Arts, Konami, Microsoft, Nintendo, Rockstar, Sony, Valve, Ubisoft and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment" (credit Polygon), but there was no mention of any game journalists, no pro gamers, no indie developers.
Of course, this IS a business venture after all, so there will need to be some concession to the big money guys, but for an advisory board for a show that's "for gamers", there seem to be few representatives in that line up. Where is Jeff Gerstmann, Anita Sarkeesian, or even PewDiePie?
I don't know how this show is going to end up, but I REALLY don't want to see Joel McHale phoning it in to make more cheetos jokes. Instead, why don't we stack the lineup with fan favourites and standout designers. Ditch the "edgy" bands with the word "Fire" in their names and swap them for Video Games Live or anyone on the PAX concert lineup. Get the writers at Double Fine and Telltale to write the teleprompters, instead of the marketing shills that have increasingly stuffed the script with stilted jokes.
Can you imagine what it would be like to see Felica Day trade one liners with Max Temkin from a script written by Ron Gilbert, before introducing The Protomen? Maybe Charles Martinet and Nolan North doing live voiceover for an animated skit between segments? Ken Levine presenting Shigeru Miyamoto with a lifetime acheivement award?
Now that would be a show for gamers.
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