Look, I had nothing better to do on a Saturday night, and they had some new game reveals planned, OK? That’s why I did it.

I know for a fact that I’m not in the minority of “gaming elite” that are disgusted by the VGAs each year. It’s almost as if executives and television producers who have little knowledge of videogames planned an event to appeal to the Spike audience. Celebrities? Really? Anyone could’ve read the teleprompters and delivered a horribly forced line of enthusiasm, but anyone wouldn’t have cost as much money. Also, 90% of the time it felt as if they were talking down to the audience, which they probably were.

Fuck that show! The worst part is, some small part of me knew this was coming, that I’d have to endure constant douche-chills for an hour or so to see the one trailer that was relevant or interesting. I knew that I could’ve just waited an hour for all the trailers to be on Youtube.

Actually, I did eventually make a stand. It was just about to go to commercial break, and I was left with the promise of Charlie Sheen delivering the award for “best shooter”, when I finally just made the pain stop.

And what of the awards themselves? Honestly, I couldn’t care less about them. Though as one positive point for the show, I know that Jeff Gerstmann was one of the judges chosen. So even if no one working at Spike knew what games were, they at least tried to find someone who did.

Oh, but I did see a couple of awards (they’re divvied up throughout the spectacle between cupcake eating contests and general bullshitting). They awarded the “Best PC Game” to Portal 2. Now, I love that game to death and think it’s very award-worthy, but that is a weird one. Portal 2 was a multiplatform game, and while the PC version may have been better, it seems like that award would’ve been better suited to go to an actual PC-only game, of which there are many. Oh well, minor issue.

So why don’t I care about the awards in general? Without any discussion or rationalization, calling one game “better” than another is pretty abstract, allowing that all the games considered are good games. To give a counterexample, Giant Bomb’s game of the year deliberations are usually epic 4+ hour podcasts in which you actually get to listen to the arguments for each game.

Oh! One more thing that made me mad. Uncharted 3 got the “Best Graphics” award? It’s a great looking game, but honestly that plus the “Best PC Game” award lead me to believe that no one on the judges panel actually plays very many PC games.

Eh, but who cares. Like I said, the awards don’t matter. Some parting advice. Next year, let’s not watch the VGAs.