Is any song of the Christmas season less relatable than the Twelve Days of Christmas? Since when does Christmas have 12 days? How wealthy would you have to be to afford gifts like 5 gold rings or 12 pipers piping?

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

Old Gift: 3 French Hens

Analysis: Unpatriotic. Go eat a crepe.

New Gift: 3 changes to the Video Game Awards.

Analysis: Desperately needed.

So, even though it was a week back, here’s three tips to help the VGA creators connect with gamers next time.

1. Show all the awards.

This is what stunned me most about the VGA’s. They didn’t show the majority of the awards. They recapped them, in about a minute. Honestly, it felt kind of insulting. Especially when they followed the recap with a painfully longer segment featuring Tila Tequila choosing which next gen console she wanted to love.

It’s an awards show. Show the awards.

2. Choose hosts who are passionate and sincere about games.

The VGA’s were chock full of celebs and psuedo-celebs, most of which didn’t seem excited or truthful about their love for games. That coupled with the very model heavy look of the audience lent to an air insincerity. Even Samuel L., as cool as he is, hosted with an air of being above the awards, or games in general.

I don’t know about you guys, but i can kind of feel when someone is bluffing about the love of our favorite past time. But seriously, choose celebs who actually do love games and give them some freedom to nerd out about them.

Also, some of the guests and hosts who did seem to know a thing about games seemed to be trying too hard for the laugh. I would suggest taking the comedic pressure off them a little bit and let them focus at actually introducing the awards that they probably feel honored in introducing.

3. Remember that this is about games and honoring their creators.

Bioshock beat out Halo 3 for game of the year! That’s freaking huge! But not to anyone at the VGA’s, seemingly. Why didn’t we get any long shots of Bungies’ table while the creators of Bioshock were giving their awards speech, you always get those dramatic shots at the Academy awards or the Emmy’s. Did anyone even care?

I thought the game exclusive peeks were a great idea. i loved seeing the trailer for Borderlands and hear crazy ol’ Don King announce a new boxing game. Add to that. Get the developers and the publishers involved. Get Bungie to show sneak peeks of new multiplayer maps. Tell Rockstar to get some hype going for the L.A. Noir trailer or GTA gameplay that they’ll be debuting. Get the guys at Infinity Ward to rally their fanbase to support them by watching the awards. And forget trying to tie in the MTV crowd with stars from current shows.

And lastly, lets honor the creators of the games like other legit awards shows do. Honor the people that have worked so hard. I have nothing but respect for the guys at Infinity Ward or Bungie. Lets let them feel that they really have achieved as much as they have. Maybe the “crazy smoking monky” award really isn’t the way to go. The people winning those crazy smoking monkey awards are netting a lot more cash than the guys winning the little golden statues this year. Maybe it’s time for a reality check and a little bit of a respect upgrade.

On the third day of Christmas my true love game to me:

Three changes to the VGA’s

Two Kane & Lynch’s

And a Video game loving girlfriend.

12 Days of Christmas, for Gamers: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12

Tags: 12-days-of-christmas, christmas, videogame

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• The 12 Days of Christmas: Revised for Gamers - Day 2
• The 12 Days of Christmas: Revised for Gamers - Day 4
• The 12 Days of Christmas, Revised for Gamers: Day 11
• The 12 Days of Christmas, Revised for Gamers: Day 9
• The 12 Days of Christmas, Revised for Gamers: Day 10

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