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Spooky Scary Skeleton
Member
When is this award show ever not cringey?
The length should be 1.5 hour at max. 3 hours that is mostly musicals and interviews is just too much.
Other than Joel McHale talking smack about esport players and a couple newly announced game trailers, this award show was just too bloated and felt waste of time. I feel sorry for EU gaf users who stayed awake for this show.
The length should be 1.5 hour at max. 3 hours that is mostly musicals and interviews is just too much.
Other than Joel McHale talking smack about esport players and a couple newly announced game trailers, this award show was just too bloated and felt waste of time. I feel sorry for EU gaf users who stayed awake for this show.
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Dice
Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
My thoughts:
- Writing for the show itself needs improvement. It makes sense to start with an explanation of why you're having the show "We all love games and want to celebrate them and the fun we have/bridges built" yadda yadda, but to constantly repeat that for the entire night got old and had a "us gamers" feeling.
- That was not helped by the interviews being more bland PR by every single person who was interviewed.
- It felt like a new world premiere every 30 seconds but only CTR, The Outer Worlds, and MK11 looked interesting.
- Devil Trigger was awesome. RDR2 performance was alright but I can see a lot of people not being into that if they don't have any old blues culture in their upbringing. The symphonic performances were lacking melody and extremely boring.
Not really about the awards as a production but discussion happening around it:
While I feel that fighting over leftist inclusiveness activism is really dumb, especially when there wasn't that much in the show, I can admit there was some. Do I have a problem with that? Not really. I didn't/don't have an emotional response to witnessing such things. However, rationally, in seeing the interactions between persons afterward, I do take issue in one aspect. I have a problem with presenting inclusiveness as a left-exclusive value. That is simply false. Straight up. Acting like it is also doesn't help inclusiveness at all.
It's like when a film wants to help normalize strong female leads but then fills the dialogue with a bunch of gender tensions of male-pushback against the lead, little quips against men as if they're an antagonist hivemind, and propping oneself up against even unspoken oppression or doubts of her capability. It is far more effective to simply be an example of what you want things to be, otherwise you're basically dog-whistling the worst people onto yourself to fight over the validity of the characterization rather than normalizing such protagonists. Taking this view to inclusiveness, it amazes me when a corporate head like Phil Spencer seems to understand 1000x more about cultivating inclusive conditions than those who obsess and build their whole life and identity around it.
- Writing for the show itself needs improvement. It makes sense to start with an explanation of why you're having the show "We all love games and want to celebrate them and the fun we have/bridges built" yadda yadda, but to constantly repeat that for the entire night got old and had a "us gamers" feeling.
- That was not helped by the interviews being more bland PR by every single person who was interviewed.
- It felt like a new world premiere every 30 seconds but only CTR, The Outer Worlds, and MK11 looked interesting.
- Devil Trigger was awesome. RDR2 performance was alright but I can see a lot of people not being into that if they don't have any old blues culture in their upbringing. The symphonic performances were lacking melody and extremely boring.
Not really about the awards as a production but discussion happening around it:
While I feel that fighting over leftist inclusiveness activism is really dumb, especially when there wasn't that much in the show, I can admit there was some. Do I have a problem with that? Not really. I didn't/don't have an emotional response to witnessing such things. However, rationally, in seeing the interactions between persons afterward, I do take issue in one aspect. I have a problem with presenting inclusiveness as a left-exclusive value. That is simply false. Straight up. Acting like it is also doesn't help inclusiveness at all.
It's like when a film wants to help normalize strong female leads but then fills the dialogue with a bunch of gender tensions of male-pushback against the lead, little quips against men as if they're an antagonist hivemind, and propping oneself up against even unspoken oppression or doubts of her capability. It is far more effective to simply be an example of what you want things to be, otherwise you're basically dog-whistling the worst people onto yourself to fight over the validity of the characterization rather than normalizing such protagonists. Taking this view to inclusiveness, it amazes me when a corporate head like Phil Spencer seems to understand 1000x more about cultivating inclusive conditions than those who obsess and build their whole life and identity around it.
DeSo
Banned
How RDR2 loses to GoW and its shitty FoV is beyond me.
Imagine having an action game but you can't see what's coming behind you because of shitty FoV.
BOOOYYYYY
BOOOYYYYYYYY
GoW wins.
At the end of the day no one will remember the new GoW but RDR2 will go down as something special.
Imagine having an action game but you can't see what's coming behind you because of shitty FoV.
BOOOYYYYY
BOOOYYYYYYYY
GoW wins.
At the end of the day no one will remember the new GoW but RDR2 will go down as something special.
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danielberg
Neophyte
Yes open world game nr 3546 with typical horrible open world pacing that drags everything down, bad controls and auto aim is truly the next step.
Both games are good at what they are trying to do and both actually aim for something different but out of the nominated games gow was the most complete package.
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1.21Gigawatts
Banned
The awards this year definitely showed how video games have established their role as a dominant mainstream entertainment medium.
The talent on display, from music to voice acting, the quality on display, from RDR2, to GoW, to Spider-Man, to Celeste and many more, and the people on display showed that this medium is ready for prime time, that it has something to say and that it will shape our future in significant ways.
At the end of last gen I wasn't sure where gaming was going to go.
At the end of this gen I am certain that gaming is looking forwards to a bright future, not just as a form of entertainment, but also as an art form with cultural weight behind it.
The talent on display, from music to voice acting, the quality on display, from RDR2, to GoW, to Spider-Man, to Celeste and many more, and the people on display showed that this medium is ready for prime time, that it has something to say and that it will shape our future in significant ways.
At the end of last gen I wasn't sure where gaming was going to go.
At the end of this gen I am certain that gaming is looking forwards to a bright future, not just as a form of entertainment, but also as an art form with cultural weight behind it.
Petrae
Member
Even 90 minutes is too long. 60 minutes is enough. Roll the trailers. Insert a few edited-for-time interviews, either relating to the games shown in the trailers or about what the next year in the industry may look like. Jettison all of the musical performances (wastes of time) and the “awards” (which don’t matter for shit and aren’t numerous on-camera anyway). Keighley can still give a lifetime achievement award or whatever to someone, pre-recorded, and make that into an interview.
As it stands, The Game Awards are reliable only for cringe factor and for their announcements/trailers. One of those is good— the other is not, and really should go away if Keighley actually wants to deliver a quality product.
1.21Gigawatts
Banned
So you have a problem with the format of an award show and would prefer just a trailer reel?
In that case I would recommend not watching the award show live and instead watch a highlight reel afterwards.
Petrae
Member
The “awards” aren’t important to the show; if they were, Keighley would give more out on stage, and/or during the actual event instead of “pre-show” bullshit.
Let’s not even start about the “awards” themselves, which are a farce. Overloading your lineup with eSports awards, while relegating core awards like “RPG of the Year” to pre-show and lazily combining sports and racing into one award, is objectively awful and destroys any credibility that Keighley attempts to grow.
What’s the point of all of the side entertainment? Live music? Why? Sony did this for its 2018 E3 presentation, and rightfully got destroyed for it. It’s a waste of time. Want to showcase that shit, or the “celebs”? That’s what a “pre-show” is for: the extraneous stuff that a small number of core viewers care about.
The Oscars, the Grammys, the Emmys, and other legit “awards” shows are about the actual awards when the camera is on. Commercial breaks can be populated with trailers for future stuff. Keighley doesn’t care about the awards, so calling it an “awards” show is pretty misleading.
Just call it “Geoff Keighley’s Video Game Show”. He can do what he wants, since there’s no format intimated. If he wants to have a symphony orchestra directed by Hideo Kojima playing while he waxes nostalgic about the year that was while showing trailers for the year that will be, that’s fine. He can provide wall-to-wall cringe.
For an “awards” show, though? I think the video game industry deserves better. It wants to be a legitimately-regarded art form in entertainment? Then create a show that proves it. As it stands, “The Game Awards” is nowhere close to being that show.
1.21Gigawatts
Banned
I see you have a hard time distinguishing between your own interests and others people interests.
Just because you don't care about certain awards, e-sports und video game music doesn't mean that no one does.
Just because you care much about RPGs doesn't mean everyone else does, too.
This show apparently isn't aimed at you. Thats not a fault in the conception of the show.
Gaming, even though it has been around for a while, is only slowly entering the mainstream and so fa its still entirely reliant on advertising and flashy announcements to get people to tune in.
The Oscars have been around for a while and can rely solely on the artistic value of the things they show to pull people in. Video games are not there yet.
In light of that I think TGA did a really good job celebrating the artistic achievements of this year, as well as other aspects of the medium.
You might not care about e-sports, I don't either, but more people watch that shit than the Superbowl or the World Cup and its time for this massive entertainment niche to take its spot in the limelight.
And I can say that even though I have no connection to e-sports whatsoever, its just something I know exists and its a part of the medium I like.
CatLady
Selfishly plays on Xbox Purr-ies X
Yeah, wtf was that? Use the preshow for eSports and streamers and the main event for, ya know, actual games.
Alexios
Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
https://gematsu.com/2018/12/kinda-funny-games-showcase-2018-live-stream not exactly TGAs but nice stuff have been shown 
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/346399587
Looked for a thread, didn't find, would be nice to have one.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/346399587
Looked for a thread, didn't find, would be nice to have one.
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IbizaPocholo
NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
Rekki-Maru
Banned
what's the origin story for ninja? was he a normal dude that fell into vat of adderall?
Jon Neu
Banned
RDR2 does a lot of impressive and far more ambitious stuff than GoW.
tassletine
Member
I’d say the pacing was very deliberate in Rdr and I had no problem with the controls as the game basically plays it”s self. The hunting still held a challenge, even with with the auto aim though, so that was good.
I wouldn’t say either game was aiming for anything different, but GOW gets marked down for bailing on it’s core gameplay and watering it down for the mainstream, trying to copy every other AAA title. RDR gets extra marks for the writing, which was top notch.
danielberg
Neophyte
But it didnt water it down for the mainstream if anything it has the most complex combat out of any GOW. Most people got fooled by the camera change into thinking "oh just another over the shoulder thingy" and never gave the combat a chance or tried to get better at it.
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IbizaPocholo
NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
IbizaPocholo
NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
tassletine
Member
It's still watered down as there's far less combat. I thought the combat was enjoyable myself but it's not exactly Bayonetta.
What I meant by watered down was just the whole mainstream template -- Collectables, sidequests, emo story, stuff, that's everywhere now.
GOW is very mainstream in that regard. I would have preferred more combat myself and less walking / talking.