The Game Awards Has Lost any Semblance of Balance

From Cinelinx:

Geoff Keighley’s Game Awards showcase can’t be both a way to “honor the gaming industry” and an E3 competitor at the same time.

[Orchard]

Is it even a competitor to E3 though? The show was pretty lackluster in terms of announcements & trailers etc. The two best showings were Senua (from a graphics perspective) and AW2 (from a new game announcement perspective).

It's got a long way to go if it wants to be anywhere remotely close to E3.

[LoveSpuds]

If you want to question the pacing and duration of the show, that's one thing, but how you can suggest the game announcements and reveals we're lacklustre is beyond me. There was so much great stuff show and some great surprises.

It has never tried to position itself as a E3 competitor, its a game awards shoe, there is no trade show element at all.

[Xb1ps4]

The "hardcore" gamers have always been a finicky bunch.

They had great announcements and I appreciated the show.

[--Onilink--]

Yeah, its the pacing that kills it for me. I understand the need for ads to cover expenses, but its just WAAAAY to many of them.

Even the awards themselves would normally slow the pace, but when you factor in the ads it just becomes a slog. There has to be a better way to do the ads

[Michiel1989]

Its maybe because what was said about the show beforehand, they said they had 5 announcements comparable to elden ring, and i think they failed in that aspect. I still think it was a great show with cool announcements etc, but maybe that statement contributed to people feeling a bit let down by it.

[_SilverHawk_]

I Can't wait to watch a way better game awards show being made by the author.

[JangoMan]

Pacing had its issues but if we compare this years TGA to previous ones, i see lot of improvements. They are improving every year.

[Ruegrong]

I disliked because i hate acronyms 'AW2'

[Seraphim]

that's kind of my thinking, though, not for said reasons. We have E3 & TGS but even E3 has become less dominant. Especially since the pandemic and with Sony not attending. We're also seeing how easily developers and platform holders can shift toward a more focused showcase such as Nintendo Direct and PS.

However, those two major events are traditionally the big shows with reveals. I believe the EU has a show as well but I don't recall that ever having major [global] reveals. At the same time, depending on development it makes sense to announce some games during the VGA's, I guess. Suppose it also can't hurt viewership but who knows. I've never once watched the VGAs & don't care to. But at the end of the day I agree, is there even a competitor to E3 and TGS. My answer would be no. The VGAs can have their reveals but at the end of the day it's alternative sources that will provide a bulk of reveals; imo.

[KingofBandits]

I think the announcements were way better then in previous years however the SJW pandering and constant reminders of it were vomit inducing. the show was has been becoming more and more influenced by flavor of the day politics from the bowels of twitter, and frankly Im done with it. all this stupid #metoo bull, its "HER" turn force fed crap, constant reminders that talking trash online is no longer acceptable, blah blah.....its like the whole thing was written out a paced by the former Hillary Clinton campaign staff. These types of people have used pop culture pass times (comics, gaming and movies) as a means to champion their degenerate behaviors and social darlings, and in time they will learn that the only result of woke is broke. They did it to movies to a disastrous degree, western comic books are all but dead, and gaming will be next.

[Atticus_finch]

Horizon had better graphics than Senuas "gameplay" Easily.

[Outlawzz]

I liked the show and I thought it was better than last years. Also, the orchestra is amazing !

[LoveSpuds]

Yup, a bit long but I have to say, they got the cadence just right in my opinion, I can't say I was ever bored and there were so many trailers and reveals to keep me interested throughout. I thought it was really decent this year.

It's a shame that so many sit on the side lines and snipe and the Game Awards and Jeff Keighley but considering he doesn't have the financial backing that likes of the Oscars has, I think he deserves a lot of credit for getting these events off the ground.

[CS7]

Same. I hadn’t watch The Game Awards in years but I saw the live youtube link and took a quick look…. Then I had trouble pulling away to get to bed.

Great announcements
Great trailers
Fair awards
Very high production values
And an overall feeling of celebrating gaming

After that show is when I gained respect for TGA.

[Outlawzz]

@ lovespuds

Yea it's a shame people don't realize how much work gets put into it especially with limited funding and I have to give it up to him, he has a dream and it's getting better every year so I'm celebrating with him.

I don't care wt critics have to say and come on, that orchestra! playing some of the best in game music, which itself doesn't get as much attention as it should, that alone is gold lol

[porkChop]

Awarding devs for their hard work while also giving them a platform to announce their new projects. On top of that, they also organized the whole demo event to highlight creative indie devs that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. How is that not honoring the industry? This year's show was really good, better than it has been in years. The majority of the awards were fair and deserved, lots of cool trailers, surprises, etc. What else are you expecting?

My one major problem going into the show was Geoff's silence on the treatment of devs in this industry. But he heard the complaints and he started the show with a statement in support of devs. It took a while, but at least he listened.

[Michiel1989]

i got a bit mixed feelings about it, on the one hand it should be adressed and a show where there are so many watching is a good platform for that. On the other hand I dont think he is the right man to have a monologue there about the treatment of employees, it could get awkward if the message he gives doesnt resonate with everyone, compromising the show in the process.

I think also most of the people that watch TGA are allready aware of what is going on (especially with actiblizz in this instance), but maybe im totally wrong about that. My mom who never plays games, besides some tetris and mario kart with me when i was a kid asked me about it because she heard about the uproar it caused.

[derek]

All these shows are terrible. Your not missing anything by waiting for the live show to finish and check out the trailers and demos afterwards.

[chadwarden]

Seriously. It's a giant waste of time to sit through all that fluff.

[KingofBandits]

agreed if I wanted to be talked down to and listen to a bunch of nobodies pander to an ever smaller subset of nobodies' Id watch the Oscars. Thats the problem, the average person has gotten sick of these pompous "stars" being paraded around and given a platform to spew stupid twitter talking points. The VGA's are right at the tipping point, they are one or two more min away from being so "stunning and brave" that they loose relevance.

[victorMaje]

It was a nice show but I didn’t feel it’s trying to compete with E3. What I did feel was that it’s trying to compete with the Oscars, as a show, the presentation, the appearances, the orchestra (which is great btw).
Not sure yet what to make of what it’s becoming but I do hope next year will have some award categories more in line with core gaming.

[sourOG]

Lmao! What?

[CrimsonWing69]

Look let’s give Dorito Pope some credit, here. This was by far the least cringey VGA and some of the announcements were E3 level worthy. I give ol’ DP a pat on the back for this one.

[KingofBandits]

the pandering was extremely cringe, but as a whole the show had good announcements and the orchestra and performances (NOT you imagine dragons) were solid. Dorito pope upped his game from the years past.

[CrimsonWing69]

Yea I agree on the pandering, but at this point that’s just the world now.

[TheGoodestBoi]

Then run your own game presentation if you think you can do better

[Magog]

E3 existed for devs to sell their projects to publishers primarily. Now that the internet is mature it no longer needs to exist. The biggest players in gaming don't attend so it is also irrelevant to the public. What is wrong with this awards show is how often they get it wrong and how the judges aren't impartial due to sponsorships and exclusive access to games traded for publicity and support.

[ApocalypseShadow]

Agreed. Sums it all up.

Gamers are settling for hamburger when we all deserve steak. The show was better than before but it's still low quality and one big advertising spot. Where some awards are questionable.

[Guitardr85]

Honestly...can't we have both shows? Lol

[Spenok]

This is a really dumb thing to debate.

"HOW DARE THEY PUT ON A GOOD SHOW FOR ONCE!"

[GameZenith]

At E3 you can actually play the games. TGA you cannot.

/end discussion

[RetroCaptainSteve]

It's just kind of weird that it's a four hour awards ceremony and only 20 minutes are devoted to awards.

[Stanjara]

I'm so glad that i didn't waste 4h, but instead watched 4 games trailers on ytube.

[Yui_Suzumiya]

Probably the best TGA I've seen and I got to see this while it was streaming. Alan Wake II alone made it banger of a show.

[Bobertt]

This was the worst Game Awards so far. It was way too long and had no big reveals. Hopefully it's just because of Covid and the Devs didn't have anything to show and they make it up next year.

[BrainSyphoned]

At least every game wasn't sponsored by Pfizer

[gold_drake]

i think the only think i wasnt quite a fan of, was the random input of those two streamers really. that was quiite ... odd.

the pre show and the main event was good tho.

[MrBeatdown]

As cool as the Matrix demo is, the last big WORLD PREMIERE was just a glorified ad.

I don't think the format works. Everybody wants to give credit to the best games, but I don't feel like anyone has any interest in watching an awkward game developer rushed on and off a stage to accept an award. Then it just becomes a showcase for a bunch of trailers, which nowadays are just prerendered stuff we won't hear about again for a year.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

At least this is one of the Game Awards better years, not that it sets the bar very high, but I'm mostly happy with who got awarded what compared to previous years. There were a few okay trailers and announcements, nothing that particularly wowed me or get me excited.

[AWBrawler]

It bored me to sleep literally. Woke up and it was still on. I only watched because sega tweeted out that the Sonic movie and game would be there.

[mastershredder]

Ugh… All this hardcore gamer talk, barf. Fanship and nursing yourself off gameshow award shows does not make someone a hardcore gamer, it just makes someone a very impressionable gamer and a perfect consumer.

I’d rather game than watch any echoing fart-chamber or self-appointed entity make a ridiculous long winded and self-serving presentation on what THEY think is good. I can get the cliff notes about the show and any news announcements afterwards or in most cases before hand.

These awards shows are old and done and cringingly pander to their core audience. The focus and the format sucks and the great thing is I don’t have to see them. Now back to Far Coño 6.