Trigger

http://www.spiketv.com/events/vga2004/

You can vote for the winners.

I just sent off a nasty letter to them since their choices are bullshit. Only 3 choices for racing games? Gamecube seems to have been ignored. Katamari Damacy gets a nomination for... best soundtrack?

I thought last year was pretty lame and this year seems to be shaping up to be the same lame-ness. The video games industry is surpassing the movie industry in terms of revenue, so let's get a decent rewards show to reflect this. One without arbitrary nominees that are little more than sponsor ass-kissing.

NitroJMS

Would you expect any less from an MTV network?

It's funny that Metal Gear Solid 3 is a game of the year nominee when it's been out like less than a week.

The "Best New Technology" award is just embarassing, as two of them are just product plugs (a NVIDIA graphics card and an XBOX surround sound kit).

Gizmo

Such a friggin' joke.

Gizmo

I went ahead and voted. The ONLY Excusive Nintendo games I saw were Donkey Konga, the GBA games, and the DS. All ONCE. Did they forget Nintendo still exists?

Goldberg74

Isn't this where we all talk about the demise of Nintendo and how its going to go the way of the Sega?

jaeufraser

The thing is, video game awards shows suffer because nobody will ever want to watch them. Movie and music award shows have celebrities. Most people could care less about some programmers or game designers, which makes for a show few people will watch.

Nonetheless, in revenue, I'm not sure video games really surpass film. With 10 billion in just US theatrical revenue, that doesn't even begin to take into account the myriad of ancillary markets (most importantly DVD and international markets) that film has. Basically, people are comparing the entire video game industry to just the theatrical BO office take of US films (throughout the world), so it's not really a good comparison. The gap is closing, and video games are becoming much bigger. I believe in 2003 the industry raked in close to 24 billion, but that's probably not much higher than the total theatrical revenue of the film industry. Throw in DVDs, video games are obviously not quite there in being as large in revenue.

Though in truth, the complete lack of stars or really interest in a video game shows is why this just doesn't work. Nobody cares to see these people win anything. Kind of why they have the science and technology Oscar on a separate night. They should have an award show, that's cool, but they really shouldn't be expecting or trying to make it something that'll blow the roof off on ratings and be some popular event. in general, it won't be.

quietsoul

My friend's friend is actually writing the scripts for it. About a month ago, they gave him the games and about two weeks at home to come up with something. He doesn't normally play video games and ended up getting insomnia from playing too much. My friend said he couldn't close his eyes without running through the games in his dreams. To say the least, he didn't enjoy most of the games because they made it a job. He's a pretty funny guy, but I'm positive Spike's video game awards is going to be bad as everybody elses.

Outlaw

They're doing Nintendo a favor for not showcasing them on shit like this. (they completely ignored Gamecube last year as well)

the spike awards are worse than the G4 ones, if thats even possible. It's the most blatant moneyhat contest around.

moneyhats with boobs that is. and the most godawful jokes ever.

edit: hah! snoop dogg is hosting

Decker

Well, I'm not sure that a Nintendo exclusive is in the same league as those GOTY nominees. MP2 may very well be an amazing game, but neither it nor any other Gamecube exclusive has transcended the gaming realm and become a cultural phenomenon the way that the Halo or GTA games have. Nintendo knows its market of devoted life-long gamers who grew up with their francheses and caters to it (which is fine), but even the biggest Nintendo fanboy should be able to admit that no Nintendo game made a GTA : SA or Halo 2 or even a HL2 or Burnout 3-level splash this year. Maybe when the next Zelda comes out???

Now with that said, I still think the Spike awards are a joke. Madden 2004 was last year's GOTY? Even worse, the godawful Enter The Matrix was voted best game based on a movie. That game shouldn't have been nominated for ANYTHING with "best" in the title. Total disgrace, there.

ps Glad to see Katamari Damaci get a little love. That's the little game that could.

msdmoney

Insert obligatory comment about Nintendo's exclusion and Spike's pandering to sponsors here.

spainlinx0

Awards shows aren't really supposed to hand out awards based on how big a cultural splash a game makes, unless that's the name of the category.

Trigger

I agree - not that I think Metroid Prime 2 would deserve the win given the competition, but I certainly think it deserves nomination. Even I can see the Nintendo was snubbed. This seems like a PS2/Xbox love-fest... I'm surprised the PC got as much attention as it did.

discostu1337

Katamari Damacy very well should be nominated for best soundtrack...and it sure as hell should win.

V-ism

But it won't because only 5% of the voters have even heard of them game.

Anyway, I'm surprised at the what nominees were chosen and what weren't. I think the Best Song should only be original stuff made for the game, and not licensed songs. Such as the themes from Snake Eater, 007: Everything or Nothing, and what not. Last year was laughable, but I voted anyway.

Drexl

Last year, Madden was best game overall, but it didn't even win best sports game.

darkside

God, what a horrible selection. Best RPG and Tales of Symphonia and Paper Mario are not even listed. Fuck those guys I won't waste my time voting for any group that refuses to acknowledge the GameCube. I don't know how Donkey Konga snuck on there, but they probably thought it was a PS2 game. Prime 2 not being there is no where near the insult of Tales and Paper Mario getting excluded. Tales of Symphonia was by far my choice for RPG of the year. It blew away Fable which will probably end up winning.

Its obvious they want San Andreas to win as many awards as possible since Snoop will be the host.

~~ PAL ~~

It's a biased show that's geared toward their biggest advertisers (read: Microsoft, EA). I'm going to ignore this one.

Trigger

It's on tonight.

TeeJay13

Jaeu, what you said is exactly why the show is HORRIBLE, its all celeberties,music, and a bunch of BS. The game developers aren't even there, so you know that show means absolutely nothing.It's way to mainstream. That show was so horrible its funny.

jaeufraser

Well, that's why a video game show will never work as something that mainstream audiences will watch. If you did a video game show properly, most people would have no interest in watching it. If you do what will drive ratings (bring in a bunch of celebrities who have nothing to do with anything, and award only the few games that mainstream audiences have heard of) then you end up with a crap show. Video game award shows should be left within the industry, cause as a ratings driven television program it's doomed to fail. Unfortunate, but true.

Trigger

This show went beyond being so horrible it's funny, and was so horrible it wasn't funny. I'm more stupider for having watched it.

Trigger

God that was the worst thing ever. Snoop Dogg was the host? He was barely on it (not that I'm upset about that) - all the guests fucked up their jokes and the musical numbers sucked and the awards went to whatever game didn't really deserve it. I think Snoop was in the back getting baked. His musical performance sucked. The theme last year was boobies... the theme this year was rappers. Nintendo was snubbed completely. A giant light can or sandbag didn't fall on Tara Reid and she didn't die, so that pissed me off.

tanman

Mainstream gaming.

gmal2003

As was mentioned. There is a glitz and glamour factor in other award shows not present in video game award shows.

micky2983

I thought last years sucked so bad that I didn't even bother watching this years.