Last week, Spike TV hosted the 7th annual Spike Video Game Awards (VGAs). For those of you who don’t watch the men’s network regularly, or don’t follow the shameless self-promotion industry, allow me to provide some context on this award show.
In 2003, Spike recognized that there was no mainstream award ceremony for the video game industry, which had seen tremendous growth since the 2000 release of the PlayStation 2. Spike decided the best course of action was to hire David Spade as a host, pack as many celebrities on stage at once, and hand out awards to sponsors of the award ceremony. I mean that’s how you build credibility, right? To top things off, the producers decided to present the “Game of the Year” award in the first 5 minutes of the show…because that makes a lot of sense.
Since that botched first attempt, Spike has done a commendable job of improving the format of the show, and attempting to legitimize their award ceremony – despite the ratings from last year. But I still don’t think Spike understands that putting Mike Tyson on stage with a bunch of kids from Jersey is wasted opportunity.
In my opinion, Spike has two options to make the VGAs more successful. The first is to focus on games, not celebrities, and recognize the skills that go into creating them. Video games are interesting in that the final product is often less highly regarded than its individual components. For instance, a single video game is home to orchestrated music, highly creative concept artwork, advanced animation, and complex writing. The creator of the Grand Theft Auto games recently revealed that the script for GTA V will likely reach 1,000 pages, approximately 10 times as long as a traditional film. This type of script also has to factor in the player’s decisions and therefore must contain many different branching paths. If Spike spent half as much time focusing on experts who make these games as they do hiring celebrities, people may actually be interested.
A second option is for Spike to make the VGAs interactive, taking advantage of the inherent nature of video games. It seems like a waste to host the VGAs on TV, where the experience is completely passive. All video games systems and all computers are online at this point and Spike could create a download for Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, PC, and even the iPhone that allows viewers to participate. For example, the VGAs usually bring with them a large number of game announcements. Rather than simply screening a short trailer for these games, Spike could negotiate limited time, playable demos which viewers could try out for themselves. Alternatively, there could be real-time voting from viewers. The winners are already chosen by online polling at this point, so it’s not as if this suggestion would greatly impact the respectability of the awards.
When the VGAs launched, Spike was mocked, but largely given the benefit of the doubt. Now, 7 years later, it’s somewhat painful to watch the industry maturing, and this award show stubbornly refusing to grow up. Yes, celebrities are fun. Yes, David Spade was funny in Tommy Boy. I still don’t see what they have to do with video games nor why anyone genuinely interested in this industry would watch this award show.
