VGX 2013: Did Joel McHale make the show better?

Yes! I feel like Giant Bomb is the last bastion of people having fun with games on the internet. After all the cynicism last night I had to watch a bunch of Vinny Quick Looks just to remind myself that not everybody is an unbearable asshole.

I think the writers made it terrible. Joel proved he could be a good host when he hosted Ubisoft's E3 conference. The terrible VGX writers who decided to merge the VGAs and The Soup are the ones to blame.

I don't understand why they can't get this show done right. Stop trying to be some big comedy fest or something and just be a real award show. Take it more seriously and stop trying to do lame "gam3r" shit.

It's easy to do. You don't have to be stuffy. Just be laid back about it and give out some awards.

You are a complete contradiction, Why are you on a video game website that clearly values games as something more than just meaningless distractions? No wonder the industry can't move forward with people like you in the crowd. You are more harmful than people who casually dismiss games. You seem actively against any form of respect for them. Gross.

Most of his ad libbed material was pretty amusing, but you could usually very easily tell when he swapped back to the script. I thinking the pairing between him and Geoff was alright, but could have been better if Geoff had loosened up a bit. People seem pretty quick to be upset by Joel's jokes as they weren't wholly positive every time, 'He doesn't take our medium seriously!', but taking it with a grain of salt I found I enjoyed it. To be fair, I missed the first half of the show, and from the sounds of it Joel warmed up quite a bit after things had been going for a while. If they were to toss the script but still give him basic direction, as well as a co-host that was a little looser, I think it could work really well, but I just don't know that his and Geoff's styles of hosting meshed that well. If I were to suggest a celebrity host, I think Geoff and Elijah Wood would probably work very well together.

I don't think games are meaningless distractions. They're something I enjoy and I have fun playing them as a hobby. But I don't think for a second that it's a serious artistic medium that needs a serious awards show. If the industry "moving forward" means a future of Bioshock Infinite and Gone Home, then I should probably get out while I can.

No. there were a lot of mis-steps in the show overall, but the guy was a complete liability rather than an asset. The only people who seem to derive any pleasure out of the whole thing are those who actively dislike the premise of the show overall. Still when you're talking about a crowd for whom any game announcement is somehow transformed into 'PR shill bullshit' you've kind of reach a zero sum point where in all news is somehow to be resented (Oh my god how dare these developers and publishers tell me about these upcoming games of theirs!!!).

Was anyone honestly expecting Reggie to start talking smack about Xbone or PS4? Was anyone expecting Tim Shaffer to openly state how much Doublefine are paying Elijah Wood for Broken Age? Was anyone expecting telltale to say whether there would be sexscenes in the just announced GoT game? All of those questions and more just caused awkwardness, but none of them were ever asked with the intention of being answered.

I think in future they need firstly ensure they have a co-host who actively gives a damn about games and has a modicum of respect for those who make them. Secondly they need to only interview people who has something worthwhile to say. None of this 'we can't talk about that right now' non interview BS. Thirdly cut the dismal comedy skits, they were all terrible. Fourthly big up the actual awards. Rather than giving people a laundry list of nominated titles, go a bit more in depth about them in terms of explaining the premise and game play. Doesn't need to be super long, but just enough to paint a picture for people. 'Bioshock infinite: You play pinkerton detective Booker DeWitt who finds himself transported to Columbia a floating city built by the mysterious ....' Coupled with some game footage.

"VGX 2013: Did Joel McHale make the show better?"

Better than what? Dying of cancer? Being burned alive?

No. This was a trainwreck and Joel only made things worse.

When he went off script, hell yeah.

For everyone that voted Yes:

I love y'all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qmJUebAZdo

Video games aint gonna be taken seriously yet.

IF the whole show was based around that sort of self deprecating, disinterested humor that would be ok because when you'd drop an incredibly awkward non sequitur there'd be another dood to pick right up from it with one of his own. But they have game developers and industry folk show up that don't all have a great sense of humor - people that really need the straight laced Geoff Keighley approach - then McHale kinda half shits on them, half shits on the show and shrugs his shoulders as if to say "hey my agent said this was gonna be easy money but wow what a bad decision this was!"

They should really just have Keighley host it himself, keep the production to a minimum and show a whole bunch of cool exclusive clips.

He came off as a condescending jerk to me. Treating the industry like a joke. They should have someone respectable from the industry host it. I saw some suggestions that Adam Sessler should host. Thats a good option. Also developers with lots of charisma and enthusiasm for the industry could make good hosts. People such as Randy Pitchford, Cliff Bleszinski, Tim Schaffer, or David Jaffe. Those are just some from the industry that could make a good host.

Shhhh. We're not supposed to like Adam Sessler now, because he made some cryptic tweets a month ago, and contradicted himself in one of his videos. Because that's all it takes from becoming well-respected journalist to piece of shit, according to the gaming community.

People forget that this show still has to be approved by some middle aged white guy in a suit that controls the money. So the suit says we need a snarky comedian cause that's what those kids like right? Oh and get some guys from the GTA5 soundtrack to sing in there too, but make sure they're cheap cause this is going on Spike.

I agree 100%

And to put a finishing touch to this stupid debate here is a guy who actually knows what he's talking about:

Him asking Reggie how much money he makes made the whole show for me. Awesome awkwardness.

Surely you're joking.

I don't think that Joel was the problem per se, it was more that the he and Geoff had no chemistry what so ever. I still disagree that they need a celebrity (whether or not they're actually "gamers" is irrelevant) to legitimize the thing, but Geoff is seriously a boring dude.

Somebody said it in the chat last night, Ryan Davis would be the ultimate host for that thing. That or Gerstmann/John Drake, I'd watch the shit out of that.

Joel did his thing, but his thing isn't suited to that kind of show.

Or rather what that show should be, but I guess maybe it did fit with what a crapfest glorified Hypetrain the VGA/X seems to be.

Asking anyone what their salary is is pretty rude, actually.

I knew we were in for a shit show when Assassin's Creed 4 won best Action Game

I'm honestly wondering if people know that Joel McHale's entire persona is to be a rude, condescending, jerk? Community, The Soup. It's the kind of humor he uses. I'm in no way defending his performance by any means. I am just curious as to what people expected from someone who's entire career is about being a sexy jerk. Like Robert Downy Jr.

If they actually wanted someone who is somewhat known to people in the main stream and is also a comedian who cares about games than Chris Hardwick would have been a great choice.

I enjoyed what I saw. Sorry if I'm not overly cynical and can just enjoy the show for what it was.

Reggie should have just come back with "Way more than you buddy"

Is that true though?

I have no perception or knowledge of job-salary ratios whatsoever. It makes me feel stupid.

I didn't like McHale on the whole. There were bits where I was on board and liked his deliberately deadpan snarky humour, but as I saw him continually try to throw developers off and generally try to make them uncomfortable, I just got really turned off. It was this bizarre mix as Keighley was apparently trying to celebrate the games industry while McHale seemed intent to sneer at it as much as possible.

I really liked it when he kept talking over Tim Schafer.

#culture

I don't think so. The little I have seen, it looked like he was more disinterested than witty. Like he had no interest being there and was hellbent on doing the absolute least he could do to even fake interest.

The jokes felt completely flat because he didn't give a shit even to say them. It was like watching someone reading jokes from a teleprompter while being bored to death. Heyman and Burns did more for the show in 2 minutes than McHale did in 3 hours.

yes

Did they expect him to take it seriously?

VGX? What the hell? It's all promotional stuff like trailers and interviews... it's so completely transparent.

Calling this thing an awards show is silly. It also betrays the true audience of video games, making it seem like it caters only to people who like guns and explosions with an occasional whimsical RPG.

VGX is nothing more than the big 5 studios buying some time to show their new stuff on TV.

These are the growing pains of the industry.

Not really. But only because of the stark contrast of personalities between him and Geoff. Geoff's just a soulless public relations marketing lapdog who will sweet talk your game in front of a camera and Joel is someone who wants to mock the fact that he's in the middle of a three hour long advertisement - together they make an awkward team. I think what could be said is I might enjoy a VGA with Joel solo hosting and I know I won't enjoy a VGA with Geoff present.

Geoff was shillin' hard as always. So it was nice to see him put on the spot.

He showed how absolutely terrible this show is so i guess he did?

I have always found these awards to be terrible in their own special way. Without Joel I think i would of fallen asleep given how terrible the script was. He was an asshole who tore the awards a new one. I think it was entirely necessary given the history of the Spike VGA. Luckily they improved on the advertisement not being entirely over the top this time.