I'd like to find someone within the game industry that is happy with Spike TV's annual Video Game Awards show. Really. Is there anyone out there who doesn't think of it as infantile? Crude? A stereotypical collaboration of pompous has-beens and wannabes filling up airtime for self-promotional glory, treating the content itself as if it were aimed at cave-dwelling Neanderthals who drink Mountain Dew and eat Cheetos all day?
Well, I've never fully watched the VGAs...I spare myself the embarrassment of having to sit through something that would probably make me more uncomfortable than sitting in a room full of middle-aged women discussing the cycles of menopause.
Nevertheless, some unfortunate beings have been relegated to suffering through the TV abomination known as the Spike TV VGAs live and in person, namely Mark Hamill and Tara Strong, nominees for best voice actors from RockSteady's Batman: Arkham City, voicing the Joker and Harley Quinn respectvely. The two renown actors were very displeased with the awards show, not for losing the awards to Ellen McClain and Stephen Merchant of Portal 2 [Check out the complete list of VGA winners Here], but because they didn't even know they lost.
Personally I think it's blasphemy that Nolan North didn't walk away with the award...I mean, how do you finish Uncharted 3 and not think to yourself that North and crew really deserved the win? Had he half-arsed his performance by a bit the entire thing would have fallen through given that the game itself relied so heavily on the actors' performances. Then again, that's the politics of awards shows.
Anyway, according to Just Push Start, Hamill tweeted his disappointment with the award show, saying..."Weird VGAs! Don't mind losing but I'd like to know when it happens Did I miss something? Award given off-camera? Tara & I in lousy seats BOO!"
Again, I can't say because I didn't watch, but according to Just Push Start the award for best male voice actor was given off-camera during a montage and the female voice actor award was handed out during a pre-show event. Yeah, real classy...real classy.
The common complaint from most people who have an I.Q. above the double digit parameter is that Spike (or MTV, given that they're the parent company) produces a schlocky Dude-Bro awards show that really doesn't take the gaming industry as serious as it is. I mean, Modern Warfare 3 made $1 billion dollars in under 17 days, and will go on to make more money than any movie released in 2011. Top talent from Hollywood are oftentimes tapped to play or voice characters in big-budget games and yet for some odd reason the VGAs is some sort of production abortion, treating the video game industry like a cesspool that caters to a market made up of unibrow, beer drinking nitwits. Is that why maybe the Spike VGAs wasn't on the front page of Yahoo! as a top searched item the day it aired? Or maybe that's why the only reason it even gets mentioned on a news blog or website is to talk about how horrible it is?
Anyway, Mark Hamill and Tara Strong weren't very pleased with the Spike TV VGAs. While chatter in the industry is that the show was better this year than those of previous years, the obtuse, celebrity-filled event seems like it still has a ways to go before anyone actually takes it seriously.
