The 2011 Spike Video Game Awards: On Teabagging, Cupcakes, and Charlie Sheen

I feel like everyone's too busy with VGAs while I'm the loser in front of the line who's missed out on 8 days of work screaming "WHEN ARE THE GIANT BOMB STAFF TOP 10 VIDEOS AND BOMBCAST AWARD DELIBERATIONS UP!? IS IT DOWN TO SKYRIM VERSUS SAINT'S ROW?! OH SOMEONE TELL ME, DAMMIT!"

It's Spike TV doing awards. People bitching about inevitable shit is just too damn tiring to see on these forums.

Nice read though. Your pain is what keeps me going, Alex.

Just so everyone knows, I follow Glen Scholfield and Michael Condrey on Twitter, and they were in on the tea bagging. That's why Robert Bowling did what he did. Not that this changes anything about the show.

I thought the show was mildly entertaining, but for the most part completely pandering to the lowest common denominator bullshit.

Miyamoto was top notch. The Black Keys were great. Levi did his best to make the horrible jokes written for him....work.

I know the producers don't know a damn thing about video games except what they see on the news and here about second hand from internet memes, but someone with some balls and half a brain needs to take this show over and make it legit.

@Alex: The 'writing style' was just a pluck from something I had read from you a few months ago when people were complaining about your writing. Last night you were talking about just accepting things as permanently being bad as being defeatist, now the solution is just to ignore it? I'm sorry, there's just an inconsistency in message that irks me.

The BAFTAs are video game's real Oscars. Enough said.

Alex, killing it as always.

I feel bad for everyone involved. This is something we as a society should look at and vow to never let happen again. Like Mass Genocide.

That show was so bad it is impossible to put into words. At least in the UK we have the Gaming BAFTAs which if I'm to be honest is the nearest we will ever get to a gaming Oscars if thats what people really care about.

@Alex: Loved the article, especially the subheading.

I watched the first 10 minutes with my family and turned it off cause it made me embarrassed to be a gamer.

I also feel really sorry for Zachary Levi. He was trying so hard.

Fantastic article Alex, I think you nailed it better than Jeff's.

Also, and I like the dude, but is there really any doubt that Keighley is a total shill? Or tragically misguided at best. He hosts videos on gametrailers called GAMESTOP PREVIEW or shit like that about what's coming to Gamestop. Come the fuck on. I have no doubt that he's passionate about games but he should never be considered an independent, tell it like it is person. At this point he's more on the PR side of the business than the journalist side.

"You can't lay the blame on host Zachary Levi" I don't. Mostly because I don't know who that is.

I actually do watch the GDC and DICE awards, and to me personally they're a lot more entertaining because they're presented with discussions and lectures on stuff that's enlightening. It'd be great if more people watched those, they've had pretty good hosts the past few years.

There should really be a "I like this article" button, but just for your Whiskey Media Profile or something like that.

This > "Filed under: Tea-Bagging"

Found the 2011 GDC awards, some good stuff here

@Redbullet685: Pretty sure it's like the Kids Choice Awards where the judges and fans votes are "taken heavily under consideration" but then they just give the award to whoever they want.

Well written Alex and I think you speak for most of us.

Would have loved to see the Bastion devs get a minute for the THREE awards they won but instead they had to make time for that horrible Spider-Man segment.

It doesn't take hate to be dissapointed in a sideshow marketing ploy disguised as an awards show. It takes a heart.

I watch the VGA's every year with a group of friends despite us never enjoying it. We love to see developers we respect get recognized, especially on TV. It was really terrible just how little screentime was actually granted for that purpose.

Also, I have to say. Just got finished reading Jeff's writeup then I noticed another one was up, and that it was longer. I almost passed on reading it but I noticed it was by Alex. I've come to really enjoy the way you write, and it was an awesome read. Keep on, duder!

Well, this is a great article. Alex, you tha man!:) I totaly agree with this whole piece. It's really a shame... VGA's could've been a good game-awards show, but it probably really never will be. And i feel really bad for Geoff 'cause i believe he is very passionate about games. Well, shit happen's...

I agree with everything Alex said.

I would actually watch a "boring" VGA where they let the developers speak because I find it interesting but it will never happen on TV especially on Spike.

Brilliant write-up, Alex. In a better world this "award" show would not exist.

Glad I didn't watch it, I hope the Bombcast talks about it on tuesday

Great Article.

Can't we just accept that the VGAs are nothing more than a Teen Choice Awards or MTV Awards equivalent? Surely it can remain the sacrificial limb for the more respectable awards that try to recognise good talent.

Loved the article Alex

Dig Deeper into Teabagging.

The annoying and depressing thing about all this is that regardless of how horrible "everyone" thought the contents of the show between the trailers were... the same trailers are what "everyone" is now talking about. That's the cycle; that's what "everyone" responds to.

We can crow about how above teabagging and Charlie Sheen and stale humor we are... but we're not. That long-form commercials with no gameplay is even a thing people get excited for points to a greater deficiency.

I have a huge litany of issues about "gamer" or "geek" "culture" as a whole and one of these days I should just sit down and try to coherently connect all the dots. I like Alex (and Giant Bomb) because he's got a better batting average than most at calling individual components of it.

When he's not writing articles with image macros in them, anyway.

I just don't get why it's called the Video Game Awards. Not even just because that's clearly not what the show is about, but why do they want to pretend that's what the show is about?

I mean, who really gives a fuck what game wins what? I don't care if they think Modern Warfare 3 was the best shooter, because I don't, I thought BF3 was. I can only cynically assume that every reward will go to whoever gave them the most exclusives, so it's meaningless to me. But even if it WAS genuine, I still would not care - and I think the majority of people are only watching for the exclusives, feeling the same apathy towards the awards.

So why pretend? Why not just simply call it something about presenting new games? You can still honor the past, but the point can be advertising new games, which is what most people want anyway. It'd be more honest, less offensive, and would cut some confines they clearly wish didn't exist.

I don't understand why they simply don't do that.

Excellent and fair review of the VGAs, Alex. Well done.

Great article Alex, I preferred this to Jeff's sort of rambling piece. I've never dared watch these awards and rely on reporting like this to tell me what wondrous spectacles I've missed out on.

I think a lot of people enjoy complaining about the VGAs and I worry that this goes some way to making it a success. It's almost as if they do it on purpose.

To be clear: "meaning" does not have to equate to "boring." The last thing in the world the video game industry needs is to be treated with dire seriousness.

I disagree so much. So, so much. I'm trying to stop the disagreeing before it tears a hole in reality and sucks as all in, but I might not be able to do it, so if the world ends right now out of pure disagreement at least you know what happened.

I'm so, so, SO tired of actual professionals of the actual industry shrugging with a goofy smile and just casually assuming that:

a) Games can't be serious or deep.

b) "Serious and deep" can't be entertaining (everything from Shakespeare to Woody Allen to friggin' Citizen Kane and, of course, Portal, proves otherwise).

c) Their own personal idea of "fun", which tends to be some variation on a LSD trip or, for that matter, Saints Row III is somehow an absolute idea of fun. That the games they dislike are not fun because they dislike them.

It's belittling, it's annoying and it's frankly willingly stupid. Worse yet, if you speak out against it you're accused of having an inferiority complex. "Games don't need to be art, or serious entertainment", they'll say, "You're just fishing for legitimacy. You should just let go".

See, it's the other way around. Because gaming already is a legitimate art form (no, really) it'd be nice if the guys making that sort of thing weren't shunned and told that, somehow, what they do is not a videogame. Yeah, I'm looking at you, Jeff.

Look, I like the Whiskey crew. I do. That's why I'm around, that's why I'm a subscriber. But can we at least accept that just as Transformers coexists with 2001 and Twilight gets to be displayed in book stores alongside Michael Chabon's novels, gaming is multifaceted and able to tackle many subjects.

I genuinely live in fear of this approach completely dominating the industry. I fear that Giant Bomb will one day be Comic Vine, and utter geeks in it will write about games in-fiction and won't even consider the possibility that the art form contains more than the equivalent of superheroes (military shooters, I guess?).

So, hey, I don't necessarily want the VGAs to be the Oscars, and Alex is spot-on in most of his criticism, but that has nothing to do with whether I think developers can make an impassioned speech about what they were trying to do with their work and how happy they are that people got it and chose to recognize it.

Sheesh. Ok. Rant over. It's a thing that bothers me, that's all. Moving on.

Great article.

I turned of the TV once L.L. Cool J started talking... that was embarrassing.

I guess for what it's worth I should mention that G4 did hold an award show from 2003-2009 for video games that progressively got worse about midway through its annual running til it suddenly got a lot smaller. It was interesting for what it was. It was the first time we got to see Cliff Blesinski in his crazy tuxes. But with where G4 is at right now I kinda doubt there will be another massive award show like that again. So yeah...I don't maybe we don't need one? Either way probably am going to continue my trend of not watching the VGAs again next year.

ALEX REIGNS SUPREME!

Beautiful article.

Great piece, Alex!! It was sooo bad. The only decent moment of the show was Miyamoto recieving that award, but that didn't last long since they quickly cut to a horrible rip off of Tested.com's Real Life Fruit Ninja segment form the last BLLSL. And Shigytried so hard to speak in English :(...dicks

Teabagging? Really?! Words can not describe my frustration, I just hope that next year's VGAs aren't about noobs and pwning.

@Dtat said:

Tell it like it is, Alex.

I don't think they're going for the 18-34 demo as much as the 9-16 demo.

Your tweets were the highlight of the VGAs, Alex.

It makes no sense to me that they'd spend more time with awards/devs on the pre-show than the actual broadcast, that's just lazy and disrespectful to the people this award show is claiming to be putting in the spotlight. That fuck up with Mark Hamill is a prime example of this, too.

Wow, I wasn't watching it but had it in the background and from that I would've said it wasn't horribly offensive. Clearly I missed the "good parts". I'm more surprised that this has been going on for 9 years than that it turned out bad again.

@FluxWaveZ said:

Hot.

I watched the first few VGAs but haven't bothered since. Glad to know I'm still not missing out on anything, and I'll continue to wait for respectable year end awards like the Giant Bomb stuff.

Curious when Keighley will give up on that sinking ship.

Amen Alex

If spike had a 1 to 2 hour special of trailers like the VGAs I would have no problem with it but to masqurade it as a awards show and paying feint service if any at all to the games themselves and their develiopers his disrespectful and shameful.

I like Kehighlys Last Hours stuff and am sure he dosen't have much pull if any so he is stuck in a rock and a hard place but calling it a Video Game Awards show is Bullshit.

Let the developers and voice actors talk, don't make it one huge advertisement, and stop acting like dudebros who automatically assume most girls who play games are actually dudes.

There were a couple parts I did like, though:

• Hearing Shigeru Miyamoto accept his award for creating the Zelda series
• Every time Portal was mentioned (like Wheatley's nomination acceptance speech) and seeing Ellen McLain and John Patrick Lowrie interviewed (Tara Strong, I love you, but I think GLaDOS deserved it the most.)
• The augemented reality stuff was pretty cool.
• "If you think the anonymity of the internet entitles you to make racist, sexist remarks, you're a douchebag."

I'd like to hear the song of the year nominees played live, like they do at the Oscars.

I don't need to write anything now, I can just link people to this page for my feelings to be known. Thanks Alex.