Okay, I was a day late, but I finally watched the Spike Video Game Awards last night. I was a little on the tired side and skipped through (probably) the most redeeming parts (Foo Fighters performing twice) but I watched the rest of the show (after all, I was watching to see how craptacular it was.. so Foo Fighters, take no offense to the fact that I skipped your performances, it was a sign of faith more than anything else).
Samuel L. Jackson… I love the guy. He’s been in so many movies I’ve enjoyed. He’s a versatile actor and did a pretty good job on the show. His highlight of the show? Insisting the award girls (wearing not much more than body paint, pasties, and thongs) to take big bows at the end of the show… multiple times… with a wide, wide grin.
For the most part though, this was an exercise in celebrity ego stroking. When the first award went to Kristen Bell for her part in Assassin’s Creed, I think the tone was set for the night… the game itself didn’t win any awards, but she did for being involved? Can you say “we need a hot blonde to be presented with a trophy so everyone will pay attention?”
Apparently, to be cool enough for videogames, you need to cuss like a sailor, strive to be _really_ funny (even if you fail miserably), or change your clothes six times throughout the show… and in rare occasions, all of the above! I still love you Sam!
Apparently, much like every forum topic from the past 6 months, Spike seems in agreement that 2007 was the year of the shooter. I say that because every winner WAS a shooter unless the category specifically singled out a non-shooter game type. Let’s see the categories won by shooters this year: Game of the Year, Best Shooter (was that even necessary?), Best Military Game, Best Graphics, Breakthrough Technology, Best Xbox 360 Game, Best PC Game, Best Original Score, Best Multiplayer Game, Most and Addictive Video Game Fueled by Dew. It’s interesting to note though that the best Wii and best PS3 games were both Platformers. It’s also interesting to note that the best Wii and PS3 awards took place off screen. So basically the Spike Video Game Awards were one big (mainly) 360 Shooter Fest. Joy.
I’m a normal heterosexual male and I enjoy looking at beautiful women as much as the next guy, but I’m still left scratching my head over the choice of painting the winning game logos on 99% naked women. I mean I’m sure the 16-24 crowd was all over that, but as videogames strive for social acceptance in the “real world”, outside the realm of kids and dorm rooms, are we sure this is the best we can do? Spike seems to be trying to make us take their award show seriously yet at the same time make it look like a pack of wild strippers are there to entertain us. Let me ask you a question… were any of the painted women pretty? Wait a minute, let me rephrase that… guys… did you look at their faces even once?! I know you saw the occasional wrinkle in the pasties, thinking you were getting a free peak, but you didn’t even look at their faces once, did you?
Award shows are often political, almost always subjective, and quite often controversial but I think anytime you try to force something on the audience without them genuinely feeling that way to begin with, it will just stink of fakeness. And that’s what I was left with after the show ended. For me… it was about 6-7 minutes of a censored Kid Rock performance sandwiched between two hours of celebrity gamer wannabes and scantily clad strippers looking for their big break sprinkled with largely unimpressive gameplay-less “World Premiere” game trailers. Oh, and an extremely large and extremely unfunny comic who’ll likely be dead in 10-15 years. I can’t wait until 2008’s awards… maybe they’ll get it right then… *sigh*
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12 responses so far ↓
1 Lono // Dec 11, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Agreed.
2 Hollowcow // Dec 11, 2007 at 1:40 pm
I second the agreement made by Lono.
3 lwelyk // Dec 11, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Thirded.
4 irish boy90 // Dec 11, 2007 at 4:22 pm
i just didn’t bother watching.
5 saphira963 // Dec 11, 2007 at 6:33 pm
never saw it but fourthtededed
6 Jeffrey // Dec 11, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Yeah I would have to agree. I didn’t even bother watching it this year because I saw the very first Spike TV VGA and it was just awful! they even had David Spade as the host, DAVID SPADE?!?! at least Samuel L. Jackson is likeable so I’ll give them that. But yeah I saw a clip of that fat dude you’re talking about on Gametrailers yesterdee and his jokes were just not all that great, he just spent three minutes just talking about how fat he was, yeah no kidding dude! anyway award shows are trash and video game award shows are no exception…
7 DemonicDerek // Dec 12, 2007 at 12:46 am
I agree as well, the show sucked. I was only watching to see what Red Vs. Blue Clip bungie had shown. That clip wasn’t all that funny, I mean RVB has done better, way better, Also the pratically naked girls weren’t really all that hot in the sense that the body paint kinda made them look a little disgusting even…
All in all it sucked, could we have G4 host the awards instead?
Imagine what the female response to that show was?… or specifically the girls who will be offended by it.
8 Olly Newport // Dec 12, 2007 at 2:20 am
Wow, well that counts me out for finding it on whatever channel you watched it on, on youtube.
Do you pay for TV over there, because that sounds like crap.
9 Tuco01 // Dec 12, 2007 at 7:39 am
I thought television was a dead medium anyway. And while I too love Sam, “versatile actor” is a bit of a stretch.
10 Amber // Dec 23, 2007 at 11:21 pm
I watched it and immediately regretted it. Surprise– girls actually play video games! They don’t want to see naked women with the logos on their chests! What a joke.
11 funny naked videos // Apr 3, 2008 at 3:10 pm
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12 naked and funny // Apr 4, 2008 at 10:07 am
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