The Game Awards has always felt like a show that's trying really hard to be taken seriously but consistently falls short. That's beginning to feel like a thing of the past with respected industry members like Josh Sawyer here (Fallout New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity, etc director), or Jacob Geller and Kelsey Lewin via the MinnMax Show podcast, or Patrick Klepek of Remap (Scoops!) heaping varying forms of criticism on the 2023 award show ranging from being embarrassing for casual viewers, not representing itself properly as an award show, not calling proper attention to the nightmare year that game development has had behind the scenes, and so on. Long story long, I think The Game Awards matter now - and based upon the (often negative) engagement I've seen across the internet and within the industry, people want the show to be great, but to also want it to be what it simply cannot.

I don't think think it's any secret that the success of The Game Awards (TGA) can be credited to its informal Winter E3 but not E3 branding. Hot take incoming: people like being excited about new video games that aren't out yet. I do think that this is of critical import to the show and it's long term success. Sure, I would still watch if this was an average award show akin to the Oscars or the Grammys, but it's obvious that the show would not pull the same numbers if it was. So how does Geoff Keighley balance what people want? While people on Twitter are ping ponging between 2022's prevailing criticisms of unregulated speech times and poor security and 2023's speeches being too short or non-existent ie. "a slap in the face to devs", I think the extremisms of these complaints don't really represent how close Keighley really is from a show that pleases most everyone. Here's how he can get there:

1. Keep the celebrities to a minimum and replace them with game industry figures.

This actually sort of happened this year too! Okay, well...once. Ed Boon was technically on that stage presenting an award, but that's not what people were talking about. Anthony Mackie, Timothee Chalamet, and Jordan Peele kind of took over this conversation. I think the prevailing opinion is that celebrities add very little to this show. I am in full agreement with this. Here's why. While I can't say for certain, I would imagine the core audience would be faaaaar more into seeing Reggie Fils-Aimé present an award than Anthony Mackie right? Of course we would! We love legends of the gaming industry and are mostly indifferent to celebrities. Limit the celebrity appearances to something actually great like Keanu Reeves and not a confused Al Pacino and we'll all feel breathtaking again.

2. Make it clear which categories will have speeches attached to them and which will not and allow up to 2-3 minutes for a speech before playing them off.

No award show has speeches for every category. It would be miserable to watch. The amount of speeches wasn't necessarily problematic to me, but what irked me is the lack of clarity on who and what gets a speech. Presumably Best Action Adventure game got a speech because Zelda won and Aonuma was there to give one? You wouldn't want to stiff Aonuma after all, but then no other genre category got a speech so...? It's just muddy and bound to make people angry. The solution? In my opinion, the winners of Games for Impact, Best Performance, Game Direction, Best Music, Best Narrative, Best Indie, and Game of the Year get speeches and you relax the time limit on those. It was made clear to speech givers to wrap up in 30 seconds and Keighley himself admitted that was too short. Give 'em 2-3 minutes to say their peace and that should be plenty.

3. The orchestra is too good not to use them more. In addition to the Game of the Year montage, add a montage for Best Music.

This one is pretty self explanatory but a consistent praise of the show is the orchestra. They are awesome and add another dimension to the show besides trailers and speeches. This is not meant to replace anything like the Old Gods of Asgard bit from Alan Wake 2 which also was very well received or even the Hellblade or FF7 Rebirth musical numbers.

4. Spread out the non-speech receiving awards between trailers and play a 30 second video montage of the game winner.

The rapid fire nature of announcing the non-speech receiving awards has been a consistent criticism and I think giving each award winner their own moment with a small amount of pomp and circumstance would be apt. It doesn't have to be a lot in my opinion, but enough to make their moment their own and to showcase their game to anyone who may be unfamiliar with it.

5. Move some of the trailers into the pre-show if need-be to make room for these other adjustments and market the pre-show heavier.

I straight up missed the follow up game from Motion Twin (the Dead Cells dev) because I didn't know there was a pre-show with big stuff in there. The adjustments needed will assuredly make the show longer or displace some of the game trailers, so moving some of the trailers into the pre-show and then marketing the pre-show heavier is a potential solution. I'm sure the cost to put a trailer in pre-show is less than the main event, but as noted at the top, I think this show matters now. It's important to get it right for the most people to ensure its growth and development.

6. KEEP DOING THE FUTURE CLASS THING

The Future Class highlighting up and coming indie devs was a wonderful addition to the show and I can't emphasize how much this type of thing is appreciated.

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All in all, no, I don't think TGA is embarrassing. I think that is reductive and overly negative for what is some really good fun for those interested and we are better off for having an independent entity like Geoff Keighley doing his best to figure it all out every year. Geoff deserves a ton of credit for bringing it to us in the first place and trying to get it right. That said, the show is not perfect. We do need the trailers for eyeballs and entertainment value and Geoff's got that down. But if he is able to take some of the criticisms to heart to do more to celebrate and honor the winners, I think we could be in for the best version of TGA in the very near future.