Spike Video Game Awards 2012 Was Extremely Immature And Downright Awful

Mobile & Apps: "Spike Video Game Awards 2012 has ended, the winners have been announced and the losers sent to a corner to reminisce on what could have been. The question is though, was the awards any good, and do we really need another one in the future."

[JelalTrueshot]

It always has been. However, I believe this was their best year yet. Inclusions such as Journey and Half Life 2 give me some hope. I was convinced they were going to name Mass Effect or HALO as the game of the decade.

[EVILDEAD360]

The VGA as a show is getting better and better. The people who hate the format arent necessarily the audience that Spike is trying to capture.

If people don't realize why it's important to have the celebs, the music guests, the fanfare, and the comedic entertainment then they missed the point.

When you look at movies and music for example, you have the Grammys and the Oscars as the pinultimate for those entertainment mediums.

But, the awards shows that grew just as big and are watched the most by this generation is the MTV Musice Awards and the MTV Music awards.

The VGAs are modeled after these kinds of award presentations.

Are they perfect? Absolutely not. I would have loved to see more presentations of the awards, but they showed what they felt were the most important in the time constraints of trying to entertain.

IMO I'll take the entertainment value anytime. The Sam Jackson mode skits were absolutely hilarious.

Again, just like the humble beginnings for the MTV award shows, the spike show is getting better and better. As well as developers who are taking the premieres more serious and putting out good stuff.

Evil

[Nemesis4567]

Hmm, I actually would agree with you on that. But here's my two cents. These "celebrities" and musical guests aren't true "gamers". So a lot of times when they speak about gaming it seems fake or they really don't know what they're talking about. We almost had a live action uncharted movie where Drake has a family full of thieves. Look at what Paul Anderson has done to every video game film he touches. I think celebrities have their place in the grammys and the oscars most definitely. But in a video game award show.... No. That world is for true gamers. Don't get me wrong, there are some celebs who do enjoy games in their spare time. But for the most part they have no idea what their doing or talking about. Again, just my two cents.

[EVILDEAD360]

@ Nemesis

'I think celebrities have their place in the grammys and the oscars most definitely. But in a video game award show.... No. That world is for true gamers.'

I get what your trying to say, but again you miss the point of award shows of any medium.

If you look at the Acadamy awards..This year you have Seth Macfarlane hosting. In the past you had Chris Rock, Ellen Degeneres, Jon Stewart, David Letterman.

Why do we have comedians hosting the Academy Awards? It's the entertainment value.

When Jethro Tull beat the smoking hot Metallica years ago at the Grammys, it showed that the Grammys didn't represent the youth and were out of touch.

Which is why years later you have both the MTV Music AND Movie awards.

Now we ALL know people never took 'The Best Kiss' award serious at all. but, as the years went on Movie makers realized that these events were a perfect way to promote movies to the mass market.

We had an entire TV station dedicated to 'True Gamers' and in the short years the Spike awards have gone a long way to promotingour video game culture to the mass media as any one event on G4TV has ever had beyond the E3 coverage.

Video gamers are doing entertainment numbers which is why it's getting the notice it has. It's the records being broke by Call of Duty and Halo..it's the amazing work this gen of combining cinema AND video gameplay from games like Mass Effect and Uncharted that has Hollywood staring hard at what the medium is doing.

Yeah, we ALL know how cheesy some of this stuff gets, but I genuinely laughed at Some of the material (again Sam Jackson mode in Walking Dead and Halo 4 had me spitting out my drink).

I didn't agree completely with the nominations, but I love the attention titles like Walking Dead and Journey got from the Mass media.

Your simply not going to get ratings if you have a show full of guests from the Bonus Round or Kotaku or IGN. If you want to grow the medium beyond us fans we need Celebs to bring in the viewers, the fanfare, and the ratings.

Spike gets it and the VGAs are again catering to the mass audience of gamers and not JUST true hardcore fans.

Spike is perfect for what it does, but what needs to happen is for there to be streaming and access for gamers to the other more traditional video game awards mediums like the Game Developers Choice Awards etc. that we normally only read about.

Evil

[unknownhero1123]

I agree however i find handing out awards on the red carpet like what they did to the best male and female voice was insulting.

[ElitaStorm]

giving someone an award and tell them GTFO was extremely immature and awful

its once in a year,

[linkenski]

I agree but the show itself was so bad, and i just sat and cringed all the time. The stuff going on, on the stage - with the exception of awards and thank-you-speeches - have NOTHING to do with gaming.
Linkin' Park? It was already horrible to hear that song at the credits of the game. Tenacious D... what did the do to earn a place in videogaming this year? More importantly, what did Samuel Jackson do this year!? These people don't represent gaming in ANY. POSSIBLE. WAY!

[iamnsuperman]

Just make it a professional award show with black tie + meal affair with only awards given. How come every other medium can do it correctly but gaming can't. It just makes gaming look immature

[Zha1tan]

And why should gaming have to conform to every other entertainment industries award show prerequisites?

It was childish but its purpose is to entertain and get views, its not exactly strict on decorum and why should it be?

[darthv72]

answered your own question.

simply put, gaming is as much a part of entertainment as movies and music. It has taken many years to be accepted as such so to break that stereotype of a childish and immature form of entertainment they should be as willing to embrace the spotlight like other mediums do.

Perhaps it is leading by example. If gaming took the high road to be professional in their awards shows could lead to us (the gamers) being more mature as well.

I mean come on. Unless you are over 30 then you grew up in a society of gaming that has been keeping things down instead of letting them evolve. Which is why there is so much disrespect of those who may share a difference of opinion.

there may be fans in the movies and music and tv side of things but in gaming its those over the top fans that hurt the rest of us who are just trying to enjoy this entertainment medium.

A little class, especially when it comes to awards shows, isnt too much to ask.

[iamnsuperman]

"And why should gaming have to conform to every other entertainment industries award show prerequisites?"

Well it doesn't it is just good etiquette. Spike is the big awards show but it just comes across like the MTV movie awards/Nickelodeon award quality.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

Its definitely a fair point in terms of "it purpose is to entertain"...

But other awards shows such as the Oscars are also about entertaining while rewarding peers.

The problem is the VGA's don't want to be an awards show, they want to be a promo show for upcoming "new" unrevealed games as that draws more attention then the actual rewards. We tune in for the game reveals not for the bullshit awards and horrid musical acts.

I mean come on...they are handing out awards back stage prior to the show proper with Spike / Gametrailer scrubs just handing these guys the award out of the blue...WTF?

I say just throw the towel in Spike and call it the VGR (Video Game Reveal) show, hold it every December and just do an hour long show of video game reveals and ditch the awards that mean nothing coming from Spike TV. Make it a mid year sort of E3 and I think we all would have no problem with it.

[Bimkoblerutso]

Because video gaming is as viable a medium as any other form at this point. Just looking at the nominees and winners should be enough of an indicator that the video game demographic has moved quite a bit beyond the bro-tastic frat boy crowd that's automatically satisfied by a pair of boobs and a bunch of random explosions.

In fact at this point, I'd argue that the show is doomed to continually miss the point simply for the network it's on.

[Sharingan_no_Kakashi]

As per usual. It would be nice to see most of the awards actually given. It might help to get rid of the meaningless celebrity appearances.

[Eldyraen]

If you watch the preshow online you get to see the rest of the awards being shown before the ceremony ;)

The whole "awards show" angle is a joke but its still mildly entertaining at times and had a few cool videos and some well deserved award choices this time around. It's more like an MTV awards show than an Oscars but in many ways more commercialized/publicity based even.

Still, I got a few laughs (Southpark opening--been a while since watched it) and some cool trailers out of it so not a total bust. And as I said, some of the devs/games really deserved it this time around.

[CaptainPunch]

What do you expect from a network like Spike?

[Hellsvacancy]

Watching the VGA was awful, I hated it, I like Samual Jackson, not that much though, he was too over the top

I wont ever sit up until 4am watching rubbish like the VGAs again

[TheCagyDies]

Agreed

[Ben_Grimm]

So what won GOTY 2012? I'm reading that Mass Effect 3 won best story. Which is...shocking.

@Godchild

Excellent, it’s good to see that a digital release with not even half the budget of Halo/CoD won GOTY at least for the VGA.

Hopefully more companies will follow in its footsteps and release more games that don't have to be these graphic/multiplayer juggernauts but simple, with great design and story telling.

[Godchild1020]

The Walking Dead Won GOTY.

http://m.ign.com/articles/2...

[SageHonor]

I only watch for the game premieres. I'm sure most people would agree.

Sam Jackson was over the top but I believe he was better than any other host.

[ghostrider32]

The VGA's is only good for world premiers.

[cr33ping_death]

its always been...and people expect it to be... but every year someone has to complain about it. just look forward to the trailers and enjoy...or record the show and skip all the bs.

[SOULJER]

ghostrider hit it on the head, the rest of it suck. Why the hell was beaver there.

[Riderz1337]

"Welcome to the Spike Video Game Awards"
Shows 5 awards in 2 hours.

LOL

[MattyG]

It was... Alright. It wasn't as immature as last year, and there were a few good moments. It was worth watching just for the premiers actually. Also, did anyone else think Jessica Alba was drunk off her ass when she presented the Dark Souls 2 trailer?

[TheoreticalParticle]

"The question is though, was the awards any good"

WERE, goddammit. WERE the awards any good? If you don't know how to write, then why the hell would I want to read your writing?

[OmniSlashPT]

They need to get rid of those 'celebrities'. Get people such as Miyamoto announcing GOTD or Uematsu announcing Best Score for example. Jessica Alba? ffs I understood Samuel L Jackson, it was entertaining, but the rest was just too much. They showed more Hollywood related people than games-related people!!

Besides, they have +20 categories but only seem to show about 5 or 6 during the show. I liked the live orchestra (although they ruined Journeys theme lol).

They should also actually respect game devs. This kind of shows is not about the gamers ou even the games, it's about the people behind them. I completely loved thatgamecompany's speech when Journey won Best Independent Game, and its a shame it was such an unique moment in the show.

VGA's keep being the same year after year. It's all about the world premieres. No one cares about the awards, the celebrities, the performances, and thats a shame.

[Riderz1337]

Do you honestly think Miyamoto would waste his precious time with the VGA's? He could care less.

[sjaakiejj]

I love Miyamoto, but he would be terrible at presenting the awards - let's be honest now. If developers were as good at presenting as they were at developing I'd agree with you, but since they aren't, I don't.

[Lord_Sloth]

Indeed. They need to have Nolan North, Steven Blum, Reuben Langden, and many other known Voice and Mocap actors and game creators on there announcing the awards.

[AznGaara]

To be honest I really liked what they did this year. Especially when it came to how they had live musical scores play while the trailers were playing. It was very good. I was wondering why people started applauding during the middle of The Last of Us trailer and realized it was because the ukelele player started playing again with the trailer.

[sjaakiejj]

I really didn't mind it. It was entertaining, light and fast paced - much better than the drag that is known as the Oscars.

Who the hell wants to watch a bunch of dudes in suits hand over awards one at a time?

Also, the idea of video game developers handing out rewards is rather silly. You need someone with presentation skills, not programming skills, to host an event. So it's either going to be journalists or actors, and I know the event wouldn't be half as good if Geoff was presenting.

[DigitalRaptor]

What really sums up the VGAs is who is in charge. It's that hack "journalist" Keighley, who is more concerned about celebrity status and entertainment value than the substance of an award show, categories and true recognition.

Just google 'angry Joe interviews Geoff Keighley' to understand that even though the producer insists that he's looking to make the VGAs better, the same mistakes are being made and suggested improvements being ignored in favour of Spike's popularity contest. Each year goes by and it's improving in certain areas, but it's still a popularity contest.

As long as the Spike VGAs exist, gaming will always be perceived as juvenile, when it deserves to gain the recognition of music and film. The only reason gamers watch the show is for the trailers, doesn't that say something?

[Trekster_Gamer]

It is a crappy show that always looks like it was produced by a filthy mouthed 8th grade student. I wish it would go away and be replaced with a good video game awards show.

[Hicken]

I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't exactly go into the show expecting much, so I'm not really disappointed.

[TruthbeTold]

Unfortunately, too many gamers these days are 'Extremely immature and downright awful'. It would be nice if we could start moving away from the stereotypical behavior and help gaming become as respected as it could be alongside other forms of entertainment...

[megamanX2]

"Spike Video Game Awards 2012 Was Extremely Immature And Downright Awful"

yet you idiots watch it every yeah, and then complain about it lol.

[knifefight]

I was just thinking that.
What did people expect, really?

[Plagasx]

Actually, I found it much more entertaining and mature than last years...

[strigoi814]

I actually think jack black is only the normal person there everyone is immature

[Dirtnapstor]

Jack Black I'm sure could be "the normal guy", but he's role playing for the audience...that type of thing is what people expect of him. The "people" are the fans that keep him employed.

[counselorterry]

I'm like many that have commented already, I watch every year in HOPES it gets better, but I'm continually let down. I agree there needs to be SOME entertainment value in terms of celebrities and what not, but the awards themselves should be the heart of the program. Use the sketches as filler inbetween handing out awards, not the other way around. It's pretty sad when you can count on one hand how many awards are handed out in a two hour program

[Dirtnapstor]

Yup...potty-mouthing just like every immature pleb attempting verbal recognition online. Samuel J. can be great, but within context...not in a forum like this. The VGA's could be a great show, but not now-and certainly not for kids! I thought I'd let my son watch...nope; especially with the ginormous dong waiving back and forth behind Tenacious D... Grown Up and have some class! If this type of event represents gamers, we've got a long road ahead of us!

The Last of Us, Tomb Raider, and MGS5(?) were the shiners!

[ZILLA]

this fckin guy is a POS(period)ill never watch it again as long as he's host!

[gamern4g]

It was really a very strange.

[Crotin]

Personally I think they improved this year over the last few years: most notably because the typical games didn't win the awards, and shows that you can't win just off of name and past reputation alone (for once).

Samuel L Jackson was about as good as he could be I guess. I liked the Walking Dead segment just because I remembered that part in the game.

P.S. I wanted to shoot that "nerd king" or nerd god whatever guy that went up there. That guy actually has a following? That dude's doucheness was off the charts