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Dear Spike TV VGA’s, I Hate You
Posted December 13, 2006 by Kevin
Another year has come and gone, and I am still amazed at just how dumbed-down Spike TV makes their VGA shows. Who the hell produces these shows anyway? I have a hunch it might be the same crew who helped Sony develop their viral marketing campaign. I can just hear the higher ups planning it in my head:
“What should we do for the show this year?”
“Just throw a few b-list celebrities on there, say a few cuss words, and play some emo rock music.”
I will say that at least this year they handed out some actual awards with *gasp* acceptance speeches - sometimes even from the developers themselves, and the World of Warcraft trailer was impressive. But even the acceptance speeches were pretty lame. When Tony Hawk Project 8 won the award for [insert stupid Spike TV created category here], it was none other than Tony Hawk himself who accepted the award. Last I checked, Tony Hawk was a professional skater, not a game developer.
The thing about the VGA’s that just makes my skin crawl is how they portray gamers in general. I enjoy a good stereotype as much as the next guy, but WHEN are people going to get beyond the false idea that gamers are all unemployed, sweaty losers living in their mom’s basements who have never been laid, nor will they ever get laid? It is so beyond old. It’s embarassing that Spike TV can’t hire any more creative writers who can come up with something other than the same tired old jokes about “gamers” and their nerdy ways. As soon as the opening sequence started off with a reference to “All our base are belong to them”, I knew the entire show was doomed.
The truth is, most gamers hold successful careers, are married (or have a girlfriend), maybe even have a kid or two, and actually have other hobbies besides playing video games (like ranting about video game award shows on their blogs). Yet, the entire show - from Sam Jackson blurting out the F word every chance he got, to the emo punk bands, to the onslaught of b-list celebrities acting “hip” all combined to form one of the most contrived, boring, watered-down award shows the world has ever witnessed. The only shows to top this one in terms of idiocy are the three former VGA award shows.
If I was a game developer, I would personally be a little pissed to sit back and watch a network like Spike TV whore out my hard work and portray it as nothing more than some half-ass dog and pony show for washed up celebrities and rock bands to have their fifteen minutes of fame. Video games contain beautiful art, amazing sound design and music, clever programming tricks and algorithms, and advanced physics and math programming to create the worlds we all play in. The point is, video games are very much an art form, and contain a lot of hard work and brain power. Large teams of artists, programmers, sound engineers and designers work long hours to make a game - but you’d never know it by watching the VGA’s. In the end, games are portrayed as cheap entertainment for blood-thirsty, sex-starved, pimple-faced geeks.
After enduring that train wreck, I am convinced that marketers and companies have no clue who their target market is when it comes to gamers. Oh well, I gotta end this now because my mom is yelling at me to get back down in my basement and clean up the place so I can hopefully find a job someday.
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