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Spike Video Games – The Gamers speak! (updated!)

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Well, now that we’ve had a day to digest what transpired during the Spike TV VGAs, we can now look back and see what others thought. Seems that VGO and I weren’t the only ones who were underwhelmed by the whole shooting match.

New-to-me Grimwell Online took notes and commented. This is a great read, read the whole thing. A couple quotes:

Not that I’m complaining, yet. You see, I can’t really blame Spike. They have no idea how to do an awards show about video games so why not just skip it and play some music matched with titties and see who notices??? It’s Spike after all, it should be about titties.

He is an 80’s metal-head, so he was looking forward to seeing Motley Crue back in action but, after watching Snoop Dogg join in the song, didn’t think that was quite such a good idea. I’ll let you read his exact words on his site.

Snoop walks off, the song falls apart. The Crue has no idea where in the song they should be, so Mick wanders into a solo…. the song crashes and burns. I cry.

At NetJak, Rick “32_footsteps” also followed along, with the play-by-play blows. He wasn’t as mean to Spike TV as others but wasn’t kind, either. He gives us these gems

Host Brooke Burke promises to show previews of upcoming games. I wonder if they’ll just give out 2005’s awards now. After all, doesn’t this show rely purely on hype and flashy visuals over substance?

and

Was it better than last year’s show? Yes. But then again, trepanning without anesthesia was better than last year’s show. This year’s show was dreck, but at least it wasn’t insulting my intelligence at all times. Just half of them. I just hope that I’m the only one who watched this – maybe in the future, Spike will leave such awards to people who actually know games, and not just people with conflicting allegiances.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only one watching.

Here, here, and here are a few forum threads discussing the awesomeness of the VGAs.

Of course there was the Video Game Ombudsman, who I followed during the show. He also chimed in with wit and biting sarcasm. But he sums up the way forward:

If we in the video game community — the press, the developers, the publishers, and the gamers — sit idly by and allow this type of show to speak for our industry, then we deserve whatever stereotypical bad-mouthing we get from the mainstream press and society at large.

Agreed.

Zonk on Slashdot has a great editorial as well, it’s worth a read:

I have enough problems in my day without having to explain to my family why a show honoring the entertainment I love is populated mostly by underdressed women in angel costumes. Once a year, wouldn’t it be nice to put the scruffy, anti-social gamer stereotype behind us? To sit down and watch some very intelligent people in tuxedos and gowns get their due for providing us so much entertainment? Seriously, wouldn’t it be great to see John Carmack present an award? Or get to listen to a Wil Wright acceptance speech? A gaming awards show taken seriously would be a sight to see. Even if that never happens, please — enough with the Spike-style awards shows.

Succint and to the point. Exactly the way I feel. My wife knows I love games. She even plays them with me. But when she sees things like “Cheat codes read by hot chicks” she gives me that “look”. I think she recognizes (and tolerates) the nature of the “stereo-typical” gamer demographic but even she can see through the Spike TV’s thinnly veiled attempts at pandering. But we can and should rise above this. I think these quotes and links prove that the award show in absolutely no way represented gamers as a whole. I hope enough of an outcry is made so changes can take place. The first step would be to prevent Spike TV from ever hosting a video game award show. That would be a step in the right direction.

Update (12/20/2004) – A couple other places on the ButtonMashing reading list have chimed in. The-inbetween had some choice words for Spike TV:

And to make it even more intolerable, the tape delay means that the Spike tight-asses are censoring about every other word that they say. My tv now sounds like a skipping CD.

Everyone (including myself) looks to Penny-Arcade for their comments and opinions on all things gaming, so I looked anxiously to see what they would say.

if your 2004 awards program does not include Metroid Prime 2 or World of Warcraft, it has no authority whatsoever to coronate the king of any genre. I’m not even saying that those games need to win. I’m simply stating that the games exist and are real, news which has not reached them out there on the ragged periphery of taste and intellect.

This is something I thought about but didn’t articulate. Even though I haven’t played Metroid Prime 2, the fact that they all but ignored Nintendo proves their insignificance and irrelevance.

Video Game Awards 2004

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9:06 – Just logged on, fricking laptop took forever to boot up. Anyway, here we are, and watching the opening act made me go YAWN. Let’s get to the games.

9:10 – Hmm, Snoop doesn’t do it for me. Neither does his co-host. No bother, I’ll deal with it. Geez, the writing sucks already. No feeling, just going through the motions. Okay, first award for female in a game. So far, outside of NFSU, the games are lame. Brook Burke. No comment here (in case the ButtonWife reads this)

9:15 – I love those AOL “I want my computer to make the sound of a Yeti” commercials. They make me laugh.

9:17 – Hmmm, this is degenerating more and more to the lowest common denominator. But Bam just came on, I dig Magera. They’re announcing the “Viewers Choice” – I’ll go out on a limb and predict that they are stacking the deck so Katamari Damacy wins, to appear “hip” and in touch with gamers, but my vote is for Burnout 3.

9:22 – The first non-surprise, Halo 2 wins best FPS. The footage they used wasn’t very flattering compared to the other games. I love Ron Perlman and I know he was involved in Halo 2, but let the guys from Bungie talk.

9:30 – OOOOoooh a world premier of a crappy game based on classic movie! From those artists at EA, no less. Gag. Now the award for best driving game.(oops, I’m sorry, “The Pontiac GTO Best Driving Game”). My money’s on Burnout 3, that game is some serious fun. But with only three games. Yup.

9:34 – I love Ribisi (when he’s Phoebe’s brother) but I can’t stand Sum 41, I’m gonna go read Video Game Omsbudman’s comments and watch some Scrubs. Good stuff there.

9:44 – Best song in a game. Shouldn’t that be something like “Def Jam Best Song in an EA game”? < -- I wrote that before they announced the nominees. What a freaking joke, all songs were from EA games, all top-40 pop, Blech. I don't care who wins that one. 9:52 – Best Mass multi-player game? WTH is that? At least the gave the DS the “Best New technology”. Most of those awards were weak. 9:57 – Almost an hour into the “Award Show” and I’ve supressed the gag reflex twice, felt guilty watching at least thrice, pitied myself as I write this, and hope for something redeeming in the next hour. I’m not counting on it, but you never know. 10:01 – No one makes fun of Christopher Walken. That was the lamest bit yet, the “failed audtions”. Samuel L. Jackson is a bad dude, though. I don’t play PS2 games, but GTA:SA looks fun. 10:11 – I wish Snoop would put that Xbox controller down. Why is he holding it? It’s obviously not a wireless controller, it’s driving me nuts. On the otherhand, Vin Deisel is a handsome man. 10:16 – Commercial break and then Motley Crue. I’m going to tuck my wife in, I need to get away from the TV before I gouge my eyes out. 10:30 – I’m tired of the musical acts beeing constantly muted while they saying naughty things. Gimme a break. And I forgot to mention earlier – Fable is the RPG of the year? I’ll go with that, if RPG means really pathetic game. 10:39 – Oh good, another video game first-look, Fear and Respect. Looks like another game I’ll be skipping. But now it’s Malcolm in the Middle. He’ll be the most believable, I’m sure. Welp, after that line, that went out the door. He’ll regret it. Anyway, Viewrs Choice is… Burnout 3 – just as I though. Good for them, I concur. The guy who did the voice for Burnout 3 is single-handledly redeeming the rest of this craptastic award show. 10:48 – Exactly who I associate video games with – Ludacris, Method Man, and Redman. So the moment we’ve all be waiting for, Game of the Year. My money’s on Halo 2, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was GTA:SA (considering the hip-hop slant of the award show) 10:51 – Wow, I was right, it was GTA. I’m actually surprised it wasn’t Burnout 3, considering how much of an EA love-fest the show has been. 10:53 – Hey, Spike TV! I want those two hours of my life back. I have no idea what Motley Crue has to do with Video Games and your show was quite possibly the worse way to spend two hours on a weekday night. I think you surpassed the crapiness that was last years show. Motley Crue and Snoop Dogg on the same stage, singing the same song. The Apocalypse is upon us. I’m gonna go play some Halo 2 on Live. I’ll check in later.
Update: Thanks to Kotaku for the link on their VGA review post (and all the traffic they’ve sent my way). If you’re coming via Kotaku, welcome! Did you think the Video Game Awards sucked as much as I did? Hopefully you’ll take the time to read some of my other ruminations, realize how insightful and witty I am, and you’ll come back for more. Or leave in disgust, wondering how someone could be so wrong. Either way, enjoy!

Update 2: Not quite a “slashdot” but I’ve also been linked via games.slashdot.org. It’s quite an honor, I will admit. I’ve read slashdot for years, but never thought I’d get linked. So welcome slashdotters, too!

Week in review (Part 4)

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This has been a fairly quiet week as far as new games go, but lots of good stuff out there in the gaming blogs world, so we’ll get right to it. (I’m still looking for a better title for the week in review and I’m trying a new format)

  • At Tales of a Schorched Earth there’s been a few reviews for some Gamecube games (both of which I want to play) X-Men Legends and Paper Mario 2. Both look promising, but he makes a good point, PM2 shouldn’t have been releases this close to all the other blockbusters. I agree
  • From hello, nintendo, there’s a link to Idle Thumbs about poorly named games. It’s a great read.
  • From AFK Gamer it looks like Blizzard may be nerfing some of the classes/skills in WoW. Blizzard did this often with Diablo 2, and unfortunately someone always gets the shaft. I remember the Necromancer being a fun character to play and after a while they continually nerfed him to the point of laughability. I don’t know what he’s like now, but I had a sweet Necromancer that got jobbed.
  • Me, I’m looking forward to Christmas at the ButtonHouse
  • Above (or more likely, below) all the Top Ten Lists coming out, at Evil Avatar is a discussion of this years Worst Games of the Year. EA’s members can be counted on for both fanboyism and valid insight. Here it’s a mixed bag. Most disappointing for me, hands down, was Fable. The jury is still out on the worst.

Of course, let us not forget that there’s still a ton of good games to be played. I’ll be updating this week of a couple more I’ve been able to pick up. The fun never stops.

Some thoughts on game reviews

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Last week I commented on game reviews after reading this post on RedAssedBaboon. I railed against the content of the review but didn’t say much about review scores. But I can promise that’s exactly what people look at before they read a review. This made me thing a bit about a way of giving a game a score that encapsulated more than just graphics and sound or story and gameplay. There are outside influences that should also be considered, like when a game is released (relative to the release of the console) and sequels. Read on to my new way of reviewing a game.

This is still a rough draft, but I have been thinking about this for a while and think I may be on to something. It is a new take on the “1-10 scale” but takes more than the graphics/sound/gameplay/control aspects in to consideration. It’s hard to reduce the rating of a game to a single number but in the end that’s what I’m using. There are a few things that I’m assuming. One, I don’t think there has been a perfect game yet, hence no perfect 10s. Two, I’m not sure how this will work across platforms so I may have to keep the scores within the platform. That doesn’t mean a game that is scored 9.2 on the Gamecube is any better than a 9.2 game on the Xbox. But for now they’ll have to remain isolated.

My rating system is akin to the Pauli Exclusion Principle but instead of electrons we’re talking games: No two games can have the same score. Using an example, here’s how it works (using Gamecube games). The games I’m using a three fantastic games: Metroid Prime, The Legend of Zelda:Wind Waker, and Viewtiful Joe. On a gameplay level, all three are different but all three deliver with aplomb. Audio and visuals are superb and all three are replayable. Given that I don’t think a game can reach a perfect 10 or anything close to that, I’m giving my favorite game, Wind Waker, a 9.7. Then we have Viewtiful Joe. Again, another classic, one of the best on the Gamecube. But it’s not quite a 9.7 but it’s definitely a 9.6. So we’ll go with that. Now we have to consider Metroid Prime. Definitely one of my favorites, right up there with Wind Waker. I would say they are almost equals. But since we have the exclusion rule, I can’t give Metroid a 9.7 but it is better then VJ. So we’ve narrowed it down between those to. I’d say it’s closer to 9.7 than 9.6, so I’m giving it a 9.68. Now Wind Waker is a 9.70, Metroid Prime a 9.68 and Viewtiful Joe is 9.60. These values aren’t set in stone and they are subject to revision (as are my rating rules) but this gives the basic framework.

Sequels are especially tricky. It’s always assumed that a sequel is going to have the advantage of an experienced programming team that can improve things like graphics and controls. But I don’t think a sequel that looks better but doesn’t improve on a certain level doesn’t deserve to be rated higher than its predecessor. Same thing for games that are released later in a console’s life – it should be looked at more critically.

Week in review (Part 3)

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Another week has gone by. The (arguably) best month of videogaming has unfortunately come to an end, but it has brought everyone much gaming goodness. It also looks like the plebes employed in the gaming industry also have something to be excited about. Our first item is just that.

From Kotaku, we get a leaked internal memo from Electronic Arts. From the memo:

As much as I don’t like what’s been said about our company and our industry, I recognize that at the heart of the matter is a core truth: the work is getting harder, the tasks are more complex and the hours needed to accomplish them have become a burden.

He does acknowledge blogs before “media” which seems to be becoming a common theme lately.

We are looking at reclassifying some jobs to overtime eligible in the new Fiscal Year. We have resisted this in the past, not because we don’t want to pay overtime, but because we believe that the wage and hour laws have not kept pace with the kind of work done at technology companies, the kind of employees those companies attract and the kind of compensation packages their employees prefer. We consider our artists to be “creative” people and our engineers to be “skilled” professionals who relish flexibility but others use the outdated wage and hour laws to argue in favor of a workforce that is paid hourly like more traditional industries and conforming to set schedules. But we can’t wait for the legislative process to catch up so we’re forced to look at making some changes to exempt and non-exempt classifications beginning in April.

That doesn’t sound like contrition to me, but I also recognize that EA is a big Wall Street company that has investors to please, but nontheless, no one deserves the hours these guys put in. I guarantee the guy who wrote this memo hits the road by 3:30 every day. (This memo was verified by Kotaku, too)

From Joystiq, we get a link to something that is near and dear to my heart – statistics. Bungie.net statistics to be exact. I am simply overwhelmed by what Bungie is actually keeping track of. I was showing my friend what you can access online and it is pretty amazing. Well here we have an intrepid Halo 2 player who has made Bungie’s RSS feed into some visually useful and pleasing data. I haven’t had a chance to use it yet (you need Office 2003 to make it work and I only have Office XP on the laptop, I’ll have to use it on the PC downstairs). For all that are interested, here are my Halo 2 stats. Nothing special, but I love Halo 2 on Live nonetheless. (Please notice the Symbol. I hope the irony isn’t lost on many)

On that note, according to the Washington Post (Via Kotaku) the Gamecube is obsolete. I have refrained from going off the handle on this one, but I can’t bottle it up forever. I’ll leave it at that for now.

That was a quick review of what I liked this week. I’ve come across more Gaming Blogs lately, so hopefully I’ll have a bigger pool of blogs to review, but for now I’m satisfied with what we’ve got so far. If you’ve got a tip or something you think I should see, drop me a comment. I’m in the process of setting up an email address for tips, but I haven’t set that up yet. Until then, comments will have do to.

(This post probably should have qualified for the “read more” link but I totally forgot I had it. I’ll add one next time.)

Playing with Blogger

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I’ve been messing around with some of the cooler features of Blogger. I’m trying out the feature of posting a little blurb of a post and have the rest of the post show up here. It’s pretty cool stuff but it’s getting frustrating to set it up to only show the “read more” link when I want it to. Well, thanks to this guy, I’ve been able to get it to work. Not too shabby.

Hmmm, I can’t seem to comment on his blog to thank him. If he happens to stumble here, consider himself thanked.

Week in Review (Part 2)

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Outside of Halo 2, the biggest story in the gaming-blogosphere was definitely the emerging details of problems bubbling over at Electronic Arts. After the anonymous post of an EA employee’s spouse came a message from an employee who decided to speak out against the bad conditions at EA. After all this was news of a lawsuit brought against EA by current employees. Craziness, indeed. I’ll be interested to see how this turns out.

But of course this week has been dominated by Halo 2 goodness. Me, I waited in the cold waiting for the game and I’ve been playing the heck out of it. What have I learned from this? Number one, I will never, ever wait outside a store at midnight to get my copy of an anticipated game again. The only thing I got was the shivers and an early alrm the next morning. Not worth it. I’ve also learned that Xbox Live is for real. I’m reserving my judgement on Halo 2 until I’ve finished the single player campaign and I’ve logged a few more hours on Live.

November is so chocked full of good releases, I fear I’ll miss some of the better games coming out. I would like to get my hands on Mario Tennis, Paper Mario, a Nintendo DS and a smattering of other games. I definitely plan on picking up Metroid Prime 2, but I’m hoping Santa brings me a copy of that.

There’s much more going out there in our gaming world, but I haven’t been feeling well and I just ran out of time to post everything I wanted to. This is a work in progress, of course.

game girl advance

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game girl advance:

“1. Willingness to take measured risks – gamers learn this innately long before they get to business school.

2. Different way of interacting with others. For example, less respect for hierarchy and seniority. In game world, anyone can be beaten by a 12-year-old. Gamers tend to respect ability, not seniority.

3. Seriousness about expertise, and being rewarded for that expertise. No matter how many times you fail in a game, if you REALLY want it, you CAN beat it. No doubt a helpful attitude in business.”

Just a quick blurb from game girl advance, commenting on a book called Got Game talking about how video games are training a new generation of business people. I like the three points made, especially the first one. Anyone who played the original Prince of Persia know all about taking measured risks.

Maybe these new business people can have some influence over at Electronic Arts.

More good stuff.

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At Popular Culture Gaming, the topic of women in video games and in particular their use in magazines comes up, this time discussing their prominent display of scantily-clad (man, that’s a cool phrase) women on magazines. He says he’s ashamed to be a gamer. When I see this stuff I can’t help but agree. It doesn’t do anything but further pigeon hole us gamers into male teenagers (and tweenies) with raging hormones. But I think this problem is deeply rooted in pretty much all print media. With the advent of the internet, I think it’s clear that print media is struggling to find its place and magazines are using sex to sell issues. Just look at any magazine rack at your local 7-11. Unfortunately, I think video game magazines are particularly guilty of this.

From the I-could-have-told-you-that research, apparently guys prefer video games to TV. Yup. I watch one or two shows regularly (Lost and Scrubs) and sports, but I definitely prefer games to TV. Unless one of my sports teams is on TV, I’d rather ve gaming. Sometimes that means waiting until the wife is done with her shows, but often she shows me the love and watches her shows on the little TV in the bedroom and I get the big TV for gaming. This particular article concentrates on online gamers and comes for the UK, but I think it’s pretty applicable here, too.

Also from the article –

Global rivalries are strong online, with a third of UK gamers (31 per cent) choosing the US as the nation they most like to beat online followed closely by the French (18 per cent) and Germans (11 per cent)(3).

I love this!

From Guardian Unlimited Game Blog

Catching up

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I’ve been rather occupied with a certain game the past couple of days so not many updates lately, but I’ll be watching Lost tonight and that should give me a chance to catch up with some non-Halo 2 blogging. I don’t have much time now, but a blog post can’t be complete without a link, so here’s a sweet review by The Video Game Ombudsman, cutting and pasting all the glowing comments from various Halo 2 reviews. It’ll make you want to rush out and by Halo 2 right away.

How did Halo 2 score perfect tens again? (Not trying to troll, just trying to remove the mask of hype and blind fanboyism). I still think it’s a fabulous game with a tremendous upside with Live. It’s not perfect, but it sure beats the pants off 98.4% of the crap out there.