Did you watch the Spike VGAs over the weekend? Quite a spectacle -- Jack Black in his underwear wielding a flamethrower, Tim-Freaking-Schafer making an entrance in a carriage, and various women painted entirely silver and fashioned like bizarre robot angels."The Spike VGAs are embarrassing" is not a new refrain, of course. And to be fair, the display debacle makes a little bit of sense. Games are still young. We need the special effects, the shenanigans and the scantily-clad broads (and comedians), presumably to draw attention to the space and maintain user interest. MTV's Video Music Awards are another example of this tactic -- after all, everyone knows nobody really watches, anymore, what few videos are actually still extant. People tune into that show to see Britney disasters or find out which chicks are going to kiss.
And I'm often accused of taking myself too seriously, so I'm not sure if I have my head up my ass here, but the entire thing was pretty horrifying. Those who follow my work know I have never in my life taken the "I'm A Woman And I Play Video Games" stance, nor do I ever want to. So if I feel that the show was distastefully exclusionary and -- okay, okay, I'm finally going to say it -- misogynist, there's probably something grievously wrong with it.
And, you know, I tend to only call sexism when something is offensive to women while glorifying men -- but all the show really glorified was that it's awesome to be a chubby nerd in your underwear. How do you guys feel about being portrayed that way?
The opening musical features Jack Black warring on videogames' behalf against the demons of reading, exercise and romance. Wait, don't we live in an age where we'd like to believe that those things are not mutually exclusive? Oh, I see, that was supposed to be the point of the performance (I felt a wash of sympathy for Black, actually). You learn things from games, Wii Fit helps you play actively, and Xbox Live is a wholly viable avenue for modern social interaction. Hey, screw the concept of games being only one entertainment component of a balanced, healthy life. Let's just allow them to account for all our basic functions!
[I'm sure it's not his fault that these monkey statues are so ugly]Still, head-out-of-ass, that all would have been fine if not for the assertion (and I'm paraphrasing) that you should just "make" your girlfriend play on Live with you if she wants your attention, and that the ancillary merit of Wii Fit is that it can make your girlfriend look like Wii Fit Girl, who did indeed, at the appropriate point in the performance, make a stripe-bottomed, butt-swiveling appearance (though, not being especially a connoisseur of Wii Fit Girl, I can't say whether it was truly her or a dancer styled in her image).
I'm going to say something a little difficult here: I don't think that highlighting female sex appeal -- okay, wait, no, I'm just gonna come out and say it -- I don't think that objectifying women is always sexist. Kim Kardashian is consciously and electively working her brand image when she emerges with cleavage abundant to say, of Dante's Inferno, "It is based on a book. Hee!"
The female body is practically an art object, so I didn't even mind the trotting-out of vacant Marisa Miller or the gyrating argentine archangels (who may or may not have been Argentines). Like the subject heading says, I wasn't sure whether to be horrified at the gaudy display, or jealous that I wasn't there. Everyone looked wonderfully drunk, which might have been a fun way to block out the pain and be less anxious about all the aggressively hot women.
What horrified me was not so much the tackiness of these individual moments. I mean, let's be ostentatious, let's have fun, let's throw a grand flame-throwing fucking spectacle -- but it's the fact that they seemed to be representative of a prevailing 1997 kind of attitude that I thought we were way, way over. And allowing these attitudes to be a visible TV representative of who we are isn't just backward, it's probably destructive.
As I've been saying to friends, I feel we're at least ten years away from the day when we can have a respectable, Versace-gowned and Golden Globes-ish presentation on the worthiest artists and dignitaries among us. And who knows? That day may never come (but if it does, I call dibs on the Valentino). At the very least, the majority of the industry and its fans has widely accepted that the stereotypes of our past are applicable only to a tiny minority. We've relinquished that crap because it holds us back.
We've rejected it because it alienates people -- so why drag it out again at an event whose cranked hyperbole is geared at broadening awareness and increasing appeal? Who in the world still thinks they speak for all of us? Why does the industry participate in this?
...And as a footnote, GTA IV? Seriously?
Oh, and as a second footnote, David Jaffe wants you to know that those God Of War III sneak peeks looked like crap compared to what he's seen, due to the inadequate resolution of the VGA's screen.
41 comments:
Award shows are the entertainment industry's way of bending over and servicing itself. Not something I want to watch.
The whole thing was an insult. The shills at Spike who think (if there are any) those who truly love games would like this are idiots.
The only improvement was picking Jack Black over Samuel Jackson, as Black actually seemed to give a shit.
I hope they figure it out and don't screw it up next time.
Do we really have to have a Gala event in celebration of the best videogames of the year? In this world of the internet, and with award shows cluttered with ads, do we really need one? Can there even be a third party awards committee with-out any outside influence?
"Versace-gowned and Golden Globes-ish presentation on the worthiest artists and dignitaries among us"
If we ever get there, gamers would of already turned off the tv, and will be playing Dead Space Returns...
It looks like the target demographic is the stoner/slacker crowd who happens to play video games. Or perhaps the stoner/slacker crowd who happens to watch Spike TV and can't tell the difference between what a 'man' is and a jackass.
Either way, there is seems to be little to appeal to video game 'culture.' (As much as I hate to use the word culture in the sense of continuing needless subdivision of specific groups.) And even less appeal to the expanding market of video games to the newcomers who aren't the stoner/slacker angry-young-man demographic.
These awards shows are largely arranged by people who are not part of the industry. They don't appeal to people in the industry (as far as I'm aware) or to people "serious" about games. They certainly don't advance the industry or the medium in any meaningful ways.
A film award show put together by the ESA would be absurd. Why is an games award show put together by a TV network (a low-brow, pandering one at that) tolerated? It's not for PR, the trade shows have that covered. And if it's for visibility and exposure, I'd prefer to have none if it's going to be of this sort.
It would be great if the TV networks would coordinate with industry organizations to come up with legit and useful. Given the chances of that happening, I guess we can hope poor financial forecasts will kill these shows off next year.
The only thing more awkward than the show itself was the "Whopper Virgins" commercial that they aired about a thousand times. Ugh.
*Vaguely relevant rant*
You might not be offended Leigh, but to be honest, I am.
Not on behalf of women you understand, I'll leave that up to them, I'm offended on behalf of myself.
I'm offended that people think I want to see cartoon boobs and tiny waists. I'm offended that people think I need 'booth babes' to woo me to a stand to check out their latest games. I'm offended that people assume that my penis either controls my brain, or at least has direct line to my wallet. Most of all, I'm offended that genuinely good games feel the need to do this, meaning I feel almost embarrassed to like them.
Yes I like naked women, but putting them in your game doesn't mean I'll buy it. I have porn for that.
You and I seem seem to agree on this topic. Despite the host change (who has something invested in gaming with his role in Brutal Legend), the show was still awful. Presenters who didn't give a crap, out-of-place music performances, unfunny skits, and so few awards for what was supposed to be an awards show. I'd rather not have these awards than to have the industry set back 20 years as a result of them.
Amen! The whole thing was an atrocity.
Regardless of the merits of awards shows like this, the Oscars, the Grammys, etc., they do serve a non-masturbatory purpose. In essence, it's an opportunity for a particular industry to put its best foot forward and say "Here are the excellent things we achieved this year." Inevitably, the specific movies or films or games that get celebrated aren't going to be universally agreed upon, but that's also part of the point: Once *someone* has established what the best is, those of us who disagree can focus our arguments for the alternatives. I still love defending Annie Hall's win for Best Picture in 1977 over Star Wars when confronted with overzealous fans.
Given what we saw on Sunday night, it's impossible not to be disappointed by the representation of an entire industry as vapid, immature and, yes, misogynist.
Also, whoever decided it would be a good idea to have Kim Kardashian introduce a game based on the works of Dante should be punished. Really? REALLY? That makes about as much sense as featuring Philip Roth in a Mountain Dew commercial.
I'm not so sure it was a problem with our industry as much as it's a problem with Spike TV. As an industry I think we might have gotten over more of this sort of thinking than those awards would make evident. Spike TV (from the commercials) seems to be ALL ABOUT babes and macho guy stuff. If we want serious awards obviously we can't ask Spike TV to host them.
While I didn't actually watch the proper show, I did get to watch 10 minutes or so of the Pre show (due to being in the UK). It sparked a bit of a rant, but on the whole I just thought it was astonishingly stupid and trying to turn the whole thing into something it shouldn't have been. At least we got some Brutal Legend news, which is always awesome.
latinogamer: I'm not going to say that I think we need a Golden Globes spectacle for the "Industry," but I can't help but let my imagination ponder a gala of some sort.
Though Jack Black would still probably end up in his underwear with a flamethrower, so so much for Video Games being serious business.
I'm pissed Tecmo Bowl Kickoff wasn't named game of the year. Which is a form of sexism because the game is better than sex.
It was sexist when Sarah Silverman got booed off the stage a few years ago, and then Jack Black delivers a similar routine built on archaic stereotypes and it registers as a minor irritant, a cultural curiosity. At least Sarah Silverman had the decency to be confrontational and funny. Air lifting PS3's into Africa was actually spot-on, funny, and remains enduringly relevant.
The rule in my house is that you put pants on to play. Doesn't matter if you're alone, or even just playing your DS in bed: pants are required. It's sort of a cloth napkin versus paper napkin thing... it makes a world of difference somehow.
The award show was set up for Spike's main audience which seems to be 16-22 year old guys who find the articles in Maxim too taxing. When the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards is more dignified and better attended you have a problem.
My guess is that they are bringing in the people who have made the MTV Video Music Awards such an irrelevant awards show.
I didn't watch since, well, we don't get Spike up here in Quebec but from what I've heard it seemed pretty horrible. But then again, I think that the Teen Choice award and other crap like that are also insulting to the targeted demographic and audience. So until we get a true VGA gala on something like NBC or "gasp" Fox, or better yet, the Internet, we'll have to put up with it and say to our friends "We're not all like that you know".
Anonymous has it right. This awfulness is par for the course for Spike TV. If we want a decent award show, it isn't going to come from them.
I think what you're seeing is more a product of the VGAs being a Spike TV production than anything else. I mean, have you seen some their other programming? MANswers? I watched it once for 5 minutes and it made me embarrased for humanity. Wait, lets find some!
Seriously terrible stuff.
I won't get into the 'comedy' bits that fell flat, the condescending tone or the fact that people only vaguely tangentially related to video games are what's hyped . . . well, more than I just did. I tune in to Game Trailers each week for the exclusive trailers and interviews with important people who actually make video games. I don't know if you ever tune in to SpikeTV, but other than GameTrailers, is 90% feral machismo, drunken frat guy humping a gal at a party's leg. It's not insulting to women, it's insulting to people who think or don't have a hormonal imbalance. As G4 edges closer to becoming a second SpikeTV, my fear is that this type of channel is a profitable, viable business.
I like this tack, Leigh: arguing whether misogynistic entertainment is justifiable is missing the point. The point is that we don't want our culture, such as it is, represented in this way.
I agree with commenters that the biggest problem is that anybody legitimizes this show. Game makers (and decent entertainers) ought to decline to appear.
Aside from the problems of the show's production and venue (I didn't even bother to watch it), I think the problem with having a video game awards show in the first place is related to representation from the people actually making games, a problem that Leigh's Sexy Developerland addresses.
Books have authors, and those authors become famous and get publicity. Movies have actors and producers and directors, and they get the same treatment. Video games have programmers, and nobody in our culture really wants to talk to programmers unless they're rich, have a political agenda, or are entertaining or charismatic in their own right. What's more, programmers are way too busy to give interviews and public appearances, and speaking as a programmer myself (not in games, unfortunately) I would be disinclined towards that kind of thing anyway.
The reason there are irrelevant spokespeople for games is because we aren't even aware of who the relevant people are, for the most part. Every once in a while a high-profile actor will do voice work for a game, and that's the best public representation the industry can get right now.
These things could change if the actual management structure of game studios changes, or we "celebritise" more developers and game directors and writers, rather than borrow celebrities from other mediums. A video game awards show arranged by people who actually make video games, or are at least appointed by game makers, would most likely have a lot more integrity.
When you think Spike TV, you think....Total misogyny, I mean, Im a dude and that's why I didn't watch it. Let's be real it's Spike TV, home of T&A, car crashes, MMA, T&A, and more car crashes...
If game awards were to ever go the suit and tie route, I just want to be the official seat filler.
I agree Leigh... Thumbs down.
I remember the first AIAS awards back at E3 in 1998, thinking to myself "sweet! We have our own Oscars now."
And though they may be considered among the more "prestigious" awards in the industry, it's not like you'll see a network bidding war for broadcast rights.
The problem is that while games have gained mainstream market potential, the culture has not.
We've all grown up with games. For some of us, that's 20+ years of cultural history. By comparison, the few years since your mom got her DS are a drop in the bucket. They have a long way to go before they catch up.
I don't know if we're ever going to get the red carpet awards show, but I don't see it happening in the next 10 years.
15-20, hopefully.
Jumping into the whole "This is Spike TV" thing. Any award show put on by Spike is going to look like this. I too watch Gametrailers TV and it often starts a few minutes late, so I get the last few minutes of the prior show on the DVR, and invariably what I see is either a woman with large breasts in a bikini or some kind of homo-erotic ultimate-fighting segment.
The channel is shite, there's no reason to expect that any show sponsored by them is going to be anything but shite as well.
I honestly think its a shame that Gametrailers is stuck there, because the show is generally decent.
boy I'm sure glad I don't get TV
Awards show ratings have been slipping down to increasing cultural irrelevance year-by-year, annually outdoing the previous record low. These events are not televised for goodwill, they are aired because they present lucrative opportunities in terms of advertising dollars (which appear to be getting scarce if the recent decision to allow film ads during the Academy Awards is any indication).
The Video Game Awards are just that, a corporate concoction designed to lure in advertising dollars by focusing on a set demographic and a major interest of that demographic. It is male-targeted (as typical of sexually focused product, it sinks to the lowest common denominator), and expecting something otherwise may very sheer delusion.
Marketers attempting to win over the specific audience for a brand, such as Mountain Dew, revel in the opportunities for embedding their product. The focused treatment "world premieres" receive in an elevated environment removed from the typical press cycle is nothing short of a publisher's wet dream.
And actually, we already have those award shows - Interactive Achievement Awards are the Golden Globes, the Game Developer Choice Awards are the Academy Awards, and Independent Games Festival Awards being the equivalent of the Independent Spirit Awards.
Peers already honor peers, and the organizers of these events could lobby for a live telecast. (IAAs did in fact stream live on GameSpot, which even had a red carpet pre-show, but the GDCAs and IGFAs aired on G4 delayed and edited.)
Nevertheless, I did watch the first five minutes of this event, and was overwhelmed and traumatized by condescension; thus continued what I have been doing since Gary the Rat (blatant humor, but I remember a general cunning) was canceled, not watch SpikeTV. (Plus, all of those trailers went up two hours later, so it was not like I was missing much avoiding puerile ribaldry.)
Perhaps most unfortunate, I think it might be a step down from G-Phoria and generally less memorable. At least that show's organizers exuded what seemed to be an overall oblivion in their intent. (Although I apparently only watched less than half of the ceremonies that have aired, so I may regret saying such.)
The only thing Spike TV is good for is Star Trek: The Next Generation reruns. :P
I kind of cringe whenever I see it mentioned that videogames are a young medium as an excuse for these thing.
Videogames as a medium are the same age as recorded audio was in 1942.
And if were to judge it by the time it has been an industry rather than merely a novelty on university mainframes (sup SpaceWar) than it's as old as the American motion picture industry was when Bridge Over The River Kwai was released.
I thought parts of the show (pretty much everything Jack Black did) was extremely entertaining, and I actually got the impression he's actually familiar with gaming. And I think they've been improving on their choices for game nominations every year. And the showed some cool (albiet short) teasers for new games, which I liked.
I think the real problem with the show was that too many of the awards and industry people were skipped over completely in favor of putting some more models who don't know what they're fucking talking about on stage to fail to excite at all. Metal Gear Solid 4 shouldn't win 3 awards and not have Hideo Kojima not even so much as step onstage.
Though it was nice to see Tim Schafer finally get treated like the king that he is.
VGA was absolutely terrible! I watched it with my sister who is also a girl gamer and was completely embarrassed! The show didn't even focus on awards, gaming or the creative minds behind games but rather stereotypes and the complete mistreatment of women. This show was done entirely by people who've never been a part of the gaming community! Personally, I'm insulted that Spike even associated the community I love so much with that atrocious display.
You know what movie award shows don't have? "World premier trailers." It's different from the misogyny problem, but it's emblematic of another major issue with the video game culture.
If movies were 10-100+ hours long, would they?
I've been gaming a long time, and I've been the demographic for a long time. I was under 10 when the Atari VCS came out, I was in my teens when home Microcomputers led the way and I was 26 when I bought a PS1, which, according to the games press of the time, was the average age of the gaming community at the time.
The last 3 years or so, it's become clear I'm not the demographic anymore. It's screaming sophomoric retards who consider format-loyalty driven internet flaming sessions as big a component of gaming as actual gaming. It's becoming harder and harder to find any place of respite from these human dregs, who stink up every forum and outlet they can find.
What's laid on for shows like these seems squarely aimed at these people. Everything seems aimed at jerks, and they don't seem to be a commodity in short supply.
It's not that there aren't plenty of us older gamers interested in the industry who want it to project an image that's more mature than the damaging old stereotypes, it's just that we're getting drowned out by a new generation of gamers who actually fit the stereotypes pretty well. Not that I'm saying they're the majority, but they're certainly the most vocal.
Maybe they should let Sarah Silverman host the whole thing next time? I think she had it nailed at the 2006 show.
Sadly, I think Hughes is right. Even those of us who fall into the teen range like myself find it to be a problem. Stereotypes are what they are though and until Gamers are actually represented correctly publicly, the stereotype will probably remain.
David Sahlin: No? I don't think so. Swap out Emmys for Academy Awards. There's twenty hours per program and they don't burden their viewers with advertisements for specific future products.
Because those awards, as self-congratulatory and potentially lucrative for the studios of the winning films as they may be, are about film appreciation. There's almost nothing in video games press that isn't about fucking hype.
John D. Moore: The reason I ask is because I tend not to really watch those kinds of events.
If the video game press is all about hype, then I suppose it'd be nice to remove press from the equation altogether. I've heard the Child's Play charity galas can be quite glamorous, for instance.
In other words, it seems as though the people who would benefit most from an event of appreciation are either unable or unwilling to support it.
"but all the show really glorified was that it's awesome to be a chubby nerd in your underwear. How do you guys feel about being portrayed that way?"
This made me laugh. I am a chubby nerd, it's 3pm, I just got out of bed and am sitting at my PC wearing just my underwear lol. Makes it kind of difficult to feel indignant about the stereotype. (It is awesome btw if anyone wonders).
Its depressing, embarassing, stupid, and offensive to pretty much all involved. Personaly I consider myself both a feminist and a gamer, and events like this make that seem like an oxymoron to those outside the industry. It does exist outside the industry however, and the idiotic discussion and dialog that forms part of so many gaming sites seems to be more a symptom of the internet as a whole than any gaming demographic. Spike may try and pretend it is marketing iself to the gaming demographic, but we don't need to allow ourselves to pretend we are part of this.
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