Whilst we like to think that our understanding of this medium transcends that of the casual enthusiast, it's a vile accuracy of society that, whether we like it or not, the majority of people who play games like God Of War, SSX, even Mass Effect 3: These people are fucking morons. Or are they? For such people the Video Game Awards on Spike TV were undoubtedly a huge success. They probably enjoyed the stupid sex jokes and flagrant humiliations of our entire medium. They don't care how terrible the script is, so long as the woman reading it has a great rack. And, in fairness, Denise Richards really does have a great rack.
(I was going to post the obligatory picture of boobs here, but you are just going to have to use your collective imaginations. Instead, here is a nice picture of Commander Shepard. He's so dreamy ^_^)
It's easy to forget
that most people playing these games don't then hold lengthy conversations online about their emotional and ethical impact on the player. Most people playing videogames don't give a fuck about anything more than chainsawing aliens in half. Most people are not us, ladies and gentlemen, and therefore they are an easy target. We like to think that we true gamers (ha!) have a deeper understanding of the games that we play. We call ourselves "Hardcore" because we read news articles and listen to podcasts, but does that really set us apart?High-Horse meet rider. Rider meet high-horse.
But is our horse so high that we can blame the VGA's for catering to the huge audience of unenlightened goons? It's pretty ironic watching so many games journalists lashing out at how tacky the VGA's were, at the audience to which the entire show was aimed - Ironic because whether they like it or not, the majority of people reading their stuff were likely to have empathised with the VGAs a lot more than with their own pretentious attempts at journalism. The reason the VGA's cater to these people is because these people exist. You want to know who these people are? Every cunt with a Swastika or Penis emblem on black ops. Every fucker glitching out the map on Halo. Every 13 year old boy who has been given an Xbox or a Playstation 3 as a substitute for real parenting. They do not represent the entire spectrum, true, but they do embody an unhealthy majority of it. We are outnumbered. This is capitalism, mother fuckers; Supply and demand.The world is full of people to whom Braid is nothing more than a game of Mario in a bidniss suit. For those people, there are the VGA awards.
So where does that leave us? The people to whom videogames are not simply a weapon within the procrastinators arsenal. What about the people who genuinely care about the state of the industry, to whom videogames are a culmination of ideals and shared experiences from around the world? The hordes of committed fans that litter endless forums with their opinions and shared ventures; What about the people who set their watches to a different time zone so they can tune into their favourite gaming news live, the people who spend more money on their console than they do on their car? Where does that leave us?Right here, Giantbomb. Right here.
Thanks For Reading
Love Sweep
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