These Spike VGA's Should be Disbanded and Deleted from Memory

Over the past weekend, Spike TV hosted the Video Game Awards on TV. The show was produced my Mark Burnett's Company who is behind Survivor and many other TV Shows. I have never been so appalled and saddened by the disgrace of what their writers and directors produced for the fans of video games. I don’t know if I can find anything good to say about the show. The entire awards show overreached and was filled with Nickelodeon style Double Dare skits, lame stereotypical jokes, and tacky dialogue scripts. I enjoy good comedy. The stage used virtual reality to highlight the GOTY nominees. It looked good at first, but as the show wore on it seemed over utilized. The audience or nominee crowd was set up to be a informal awards show rivaling the Golden Globes. Each table seemed to have its own company.

The entire show was 120 minutes or 2 hours. Only 30 minutes of time was dedicated to scripted events and the actual award presentations. The rest of the time was filled with world premiere video game trailers and nominee videos. I felt like they were marketing to people with A.D.D who couldn’t keep focused on the premise of the show. I am not knocking having world premiere trailers. Its the sheer number of trailers verses the lack of the number of awards given out on TV.

It would be too easy to blame the host of the awards show, Zachary Levi, for the bad execution of some the jokes that seemed to be squeezed into the show to fill time. He was just doing his job. I almost put my foot through the TV when Mr Levi stood in front of a table with a huge turkey leg, then a mana potion, and finally a health pack showing his health being raised to 100 percent. That is a prime example how bad the writing was. I have to admit the teabag joke for taking too long with your speech was funny at first, but then there was too many tiresome references for the few awards given.

Felicia Day, I feel bad for her. She did an amazing job for the work she did. She was forced to wear a spider man outfit and jump on a wall. She then had to collect cupcakes with her mouth on a moving conveyor belt. These two childish skits were rehearsed and for charity. I am happy that Spike/VGAs was supporting Child's Play but they didn’t need to waste air time and do frivolous stunts to promote it. The acts belonged on a sitcom or variety show not an awards show.

I think the entire awards show lost a ton of credibility when Charlie Sheen presented an award. But to make matters worse, before doing so admitted he was only there to pick up a check while mocking himself. I also feel bad for Blizzard Entertainment for picking up the Gamer God Award. Such a poor elitist title for being industry pioneers in the game industry. I would of preferred a name with deeper meaning representing someone or something who helped shape the industry to date.

Now that I said my peace, you also wont find me sitting in a car ranting on YouTube how bad the awards show was for leaving a specific game nominee off a list. I wont be receiving an invite to the VGAs next year for writing this article. I think we need to have a better organization fill the role of a true awards show for the Video Game Industry. I would hate to think that television would attempt to sabotage an industry they share together called entertainment.

What did you think of the VGAs? Did you agree with any of my assessments?

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