The Game Industry Got To Face What It Actually Is!
A terrible awards show for a grim, mercenary industry.
What fascinates me most about the video game industry is how, as huge as its grown, it lacks the institutions of other industries.
Video games are a global industry with a massive and growing fan base that sells hundreds of billions of dollars of our wares a year. We can't stop pointing out that we're bigger than film and music combined. Because we're very insecure.
And yet, film and music have publications dedicated to their industries. And full-time reporters and critics that cover just their work. (To the extent anyone hires full-time reporters anymore.) And regular space in the mainstream press to cover their work in depth, as opposed to the scraps and mentions video games get.
And they have awards (Oscars, Emmys, Grammys) dedicated to celebrating their work and those who create it.
I got to thinking about this after withstanding some of The 2023 Game Awards last week. You can watch it on YouTube, though I suggest not doing so without wearing protective gear.
I have two questions: 1. Why can't the games industry have nice things? 2. Do we really deserve to?
What Are The Game Awards?
I like best-of lists and awards ceremonies. It's good to spend some time every year taking stock and celebrating those who excelled. (I want to write more about this next month for the Oscars.) They're a good thing, just one of those amenities for a mature industry that people care about.
Video games have been around for 50 years, and everyone loves us. We've earned a proper award show.
There are a lot of games awards, but The Game Awards seems to be the biggest one. They happened last week. Online. No normal person heard about it.
The Game Awards CLAIM to be a Big Thing. Last year, they bragged about having 103 million views. As in, about as much as the Super Bowl and over 5 times the Oscars. I do not believe this number. I just don't. (A good think for video game reporters to ask about, if they existed.) This show makes no cultural ripples outside a day of muttering on Twitter, but it matches the reach of the Super Bowl? Come on.
It's a really lousy show, and it completely fails at the single most important goal for any award: Celebrating our work and the people who make it.
I don't want to go too much into the problem, as many have covered this already. One good source is the Washington Post, which is in many ways still a source of news. To its credit, it has an actual, dedicated game reporter on the payroll.
However, two problems need to be stressed.
The Problems.
One. The show is almost entirely ads for upcoming games. Our awards show is not to celebrate what we made. It's to blow smoke up your ass about what we might make (and that might never actually exist.)
If you want to pay for this show with ads, great! How to do this is a solved problem. Every 15 minutes of show, run a few minutes of ads. Put your game announcements there. It can pay for the show, but it shouldn't BE the show.
("Wait. The ads are in the show? So The Game Awards takes money directly from the companies it is judging?" Yes. "Isn't that a conflict of interest?" GOOD QUESTION!)
Two. The awards were a contemptuous afterthought. As in, after each hour of ads and awkward conversations with celebrities, they would suddenly rush through 5 or 6 awards, speaking as quickly as possible, no explanations of the categories, no speeches, just boomboomboom and on to the next trailer.
Three. the tiny handful of awards that let you see the winners allotted 30 seconds for thank yous. And, yeah, I know, overlong acceptance speeches are boring. But seeing someone having one of the best nights of their life celebrating making something you loved is kind of cool, isn't it?
The winners ran up to the stage, grabbed their statues, and barely had time to take a breath before the "Get off the stage" music started playing. Honestly, it was MEAN.
But there was limitless time for celebs to get onstage and ramble, as well as the lamest Muppet sketch ever created. It communicated that the game industry has no pride in itself or its creators.
So In Summary
The Game Awards is entirely concerned with making a quick buck and letting the host hang out with Keanu. It contained absolutely no love for and pride in our young, strange, art form. It's gross, mercenary, and overlong. It was kind of trashy.
But this is where I part ways from other critics of the show.
The Game Awards is exactly the show the video game industry deserves.
Entertainment For the Overcaffeinated
I mean, be honest. When I talked about love and pride in our industry? When I suggested that The Game Awards might have conflicts of interest? Didn't you gag a tiny bit. Like, "Oh, you sweet summer child, have you MET the video game industry?"
People who complain about The Game Awards (myself included) dream of something like the Academy Awards. Something with a history, with a love of the craft, with the occasional bit of dignity (like the Oscars' historical montages and In Memorium), and with the excitement of seeing the people who make the work.
Hollywood is a crass, mercenary place, but it's still full of people who dream of making great art. Every year some of them succeed, even though those works make less money. And the Oscars are flawed and their ratings are dropping (at least now), but they are a genuine institution and nobody doubts that they are made by people who love movies.
How do video games compare?
So here's a fun exercise. Closer your eyes and picture The Oscars, but for video games. Really. Try it.
It wouldn't work.
What Is the Video Games Industry Anyway?
Video games make the vast majority of their money from addicted, obsessive whales buying loot boxes and kids who buy DLC with the credit cards they stole from the parents. To make an awards show that shows love for the art would involve bringing in less cash, and games companies never EVER leave money on the table.
And do most of the fans even want The Games Awards to change? Right now it's a 3 hour show which is 90% ads. However, most of this show's fans are 12 year olds hopped up on Panera caffeine death lemonade, and that's what they WANT.
What Would Our Dream Game Awards Even Have?
Game development celebrities? They don't exist.
Fortnite and League of Legends are the two most popular video games. Can you name one designer on each of them? Probably not. That's why The Game Awards imports big names from other industries. Our creators are dedicated and talented, yes, but nobody will pay to see their faces.
Artistic Achievement To Celebrate? Come on. The Oscars used to be stylish. That age is past.
Yes, yes. I know. Games Are Art, and all the usual homilies. But products that really try to be art have tiny audiences and nobody wants an award show about them. (Evidence: The plummeting ratings of the Oscars.) What gets the crowds excited is Peter Griffin in Fortnite. And let's be clear. Peter Griffin in Fortnite is awesome. But I don't care if someone gets a statue for it.
A Dignified Look At the History and Inventors of Our Industry? I mean, it's possible. As our creators age, there will be a need for an In Memoriam for game developers. Also, the Oscars always have a few montages to show the history of cinema. The Game Awards should have these, to remind us how incredibly far we've come from Pong and Pac-Man. Nolan Bushnell should be up there handing out a statue every year.
But this would cut into ad time, and our industry doesn't do dignity. So never mind.
The Real Problem Is Obvious
Video games were invented too late. Nobody can afford real reporters, so we don't have a fully-staffed industry press. Paying for magazines is gone, so "Variety magazine but for video games" isn't going to happen. Even if it was economically feasible to make a serious game award that celebrates the industry and the many different sorts of artists in it, nobody would want it.
To have awards, we need traditions. To have traditions, we need people to stay in this industry for the long run and care about it. Maybe we'll have that someday. Not now. Everyone leaves.
Video games took over the world so fast because they always moved at top speed, always mercenary, taking no prisoners and never stopping to think. The Game Awards represent us perfectly. Maybe this can change, but not in this generation.
To have game awards that mean something, a large chunk of the industry has to be animated by a spirit besides ego and greed. A handful of idealistic indies lurking in the shadows won't cut it.
This sort of change can happen, but it won't be made by us. It's a generational sort of change. It will require the world to change and our industry to change in reaction to it.
Until then, let's just be happy that we have the fun of arguing about this. If you live a life where The Game Awards seems like a real problem, things are probably going pretty well overall.
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Maybe it is a generational difference in perspective here, but I don't understand your point of view for the most part.
Half the internet is Video Game reviews and press!
As for mainstream press, only boomers listen to that, and most current seniors don't play and never will play video games.
From my perspective you are bemoaning the fact that a dying industry that caters exclusively to senior citizens doesn't cover gaming news, and that the few video game "institutions" that try to copy these obsolete ways of doing things are bad and boring.
Yes, but so what?
We don't need institutions telling us what is good.
If you want to celebrate one of your favorite games, instead of watching The Game Awards, watch one of the 10 hour long thesis's uploaded to YT.
I think the uncomfortable truth is that games are just not as socially accepted as other past times despite their popularity. Watching sports or movies are, although they are equally unproductive (maybe even moreso because you have zero influence on the outcome). It’s like porn - a LOT of people consume it, but nobody wants to be publicly associated with it because of the negative consumer stereotypes. You just kind of have to enjoy it in private and toil away in secrecy if you’re a producer.