spacer New here? Join the Ripten community.
We are an independant open forum for both hard-core and casual gamers alike. Membership is free and grants access to exclusive contents.

Returning Riptenner: Login Now
spacer
360 PS3 Nintendo Wii Reviews Interviews Previews Trailers Events News PC DS PSP Retro Gadgets Film & TV Comics
Ripten Team
Founder/Editor-in-Chief
Chad Lakkis
Bio | Posts | AIM | Email
Reviews Editor
Dan Landis
Bio | Posts
Host / Editor
Jon Zungre
Bio | Posts
Associate Editor
Dylan Duarte
Bio | Posts
Writer (US)
Demi Adejuyigbe | Posts
Writer (UK)
Sam Naylor | Posts
Our Friends
G4TV The Feed
g4tv.com/thefeed
Meet In The Lobby
meetinthelobby.com
Read Other Recent Posts
Are You A Video Game Junkie With Mad Writing Skills? Write For Ripten
NFL Super Bowl Champion Steelers Connect with Soldiers in Iraq for Guitar Hero Competition
Emergency Alert System Broadcasts Making Their Way To Video Game Consoles?
Modern Warfare 2 Writer Reveals Alien & Undead Storyline That Never Was
Sonic The Sackboy: LittleBigPlanet Goes Hedgehog with DLC Costume Pack
VGA 09 Set To Reveal Ten Unnannounced Titles, Including A New Shooter From 2K Games
Ripten Original Programming
Ripten TV
Ripten Radio
Ripten RSS Feed
Ripten Twitter
Ripten MySpace

spacer
the-12-days-of-christmas-revised-for-gamers-day-3

The 12 Days of Christmas: Revised for Gamers – Day 3

by Jonathan Zungre on December 16, 2007 at 7:00 pm

videogame_christmas.jpg

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.

vma_tia.jpg

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.

vga_sam.jpg

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.

vga_sign.jpg

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

Share This:
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • N4G
  • Add to favorites
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Live
  • Technorati
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • email
  • LinkedIn
  • Print
  • RSS
  • Yahoo! Buzz


Related Posts:
Unlimited Game Rentals Delivered - Free Trial spacer

2 Comments »

  1. Avery
    on December 17, 2007 4:22 am

    There should be a rule that states, “All video game trailers labeled and over-hyped as WORLD PREMIERE trailers MUST HAVE ACTUAL GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE.”

    Did the VGA producers forget that these games are actually played and not just watched? It’s like buying a game based on a cutscene.

  2. Jonathan Zungre
    on December 17, 2007 7:09 pm

    yeah some gameplay heavy trailers would have been nice. i really would have like to see something from 2k’s new boxing game, not just don king being funny.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Comment Now


Note: Commenting on Ripten does not currently require registration, however to be eligible for contests on the site, you must be a registered user.

Commenting Rules: No hate speech allowed. If you must argue, please debate intelligently. Comments containing selected keywords or outbound links will be put into moderation to help prevent spam. Ripten reserves the right to delete comments and ban anyone who doesn't follow the rules. Thanks.

Tired of the Goomba? Upload your own custom comment avatar.

spacer Unlimited Game Rentals Delivered - Free Trial