So, past VGA's have portrayed the gamer lifestyle pretty in an unflattering way. This year was better (but that isn't saying much). Within the first half hour there were plenty of sigh and cringe-worthy moments.

Especially the use of women in the broadcast. Now, I'm a guy and I love my objectification of women, but, c'mon. Can't we pretend to be subtle? "I like games because they're hot like me and I'm hot." I wish that wasn't a sophomoric parody of what was said, but it was said. Yeah, eye candy is fun, but it just reinforces everyone else's idea that gamers are a bunch of adolescent perverts.

And how about the looks on the faces of all the UFC fighters on stage for LL Cool J's triumph, Mama Said Knock You Out? I felt bad for them, and I was at home. Oh, and, y'know, I like Busta Rhymes (even though I miss the dreads), but something tells me he's not that enthusiastic about the realness of the Uncharted trailer.

Maybe one day you can start off a conversation with a girl about what video games you like to play, but, as long as Spike keeps up the shameful, tired cliches of yesterday (which I guess were funny at some point), it's just makin' us look bad.

Point taken. But thats not just games, that happens with everything. Because people like watching boobs. And in terms of making us "look bad" - surely having an overweight Halo fanboy with body odor presenting awards is going to be slightly more damaging to the public perception of the industry. Jack Black was actually pretty funny. You have to remember that most people who play games dont know (or wont recognise) any of the developers receiving awards there, and that lowers public interest. Hell, I didnt know half of them. Sticking 50 cent and some supermodels in there is just a way of easing the transition between the hardcore and casual game stuff.

Yes its old and tired now, and its easy for us to be cynical - but it could have been a whole lot worse. At least everyone taking part had some vauge understanding of how goofy the whole thing was. Maybe thats why Jack Black worked so well...

You have written some decent blogs - nice work =)