With VGX (the VGX?) happening over this past weekend, we thought we’d take a look back in this week’s Ask PSLS and ask the staff: What did you think of VGX, and how would you change it going forward?
Anthony Severino – I Am Become Death (@Sev_Anthony)
Honestly, I think it needs to die. Not just because of the terrible new format or the ridiculous daytime timeslot, but because the video game industry is at a turning point. Console manufacturers and publishers put a lot of risk into investments of new games, and to have them debut at an award show that very few people care about wastes potential marketing buzz stemming from the announcements… unless you’re Kojima and can keep people talking for months (something that’s all but forgotten now) with a tease.
The final nail in the coffin is the fact that no one really gives a shit about the awards themselves. They really don’t signify much, and don’t have any more value than ours, IGN’s, or the various other outlets putting out awards this time of year. All it’s good for is for jerks like Square Enix to slap a GOTY sticker and re-sell an old, already released game just because they were nominated. Seriously, these publishers aren’t even winning and they’re releasing GOTY editions. The worst yet was that Dead Island GOTY Edition a while back. I wrote an article about it and a PR rep attacked me telling me that one, single, solitary no-name media outlet had awarded them a GOTY nod – something that shows that outlet doesn’t take games seriously, nor should gamers take their award seriously.
I won’t even get started on the terrible hosts that work the mic each year. Just let Keighley do it – at least the guy cares about the games industry. Having a generic host just for dick-measuring and bragging rights is just an insult to gamers.
Oh yeah, I’m pretty upset about VGX.
Cameron Teague – CameronX (@Cameron_PSLS)
Firstly, I would never put an X behind it’s name, that is pretty stupid in my opinion. I would also scrap the entire show while I was calling the shots. It is a rather bland show that hypes up all of these trailers and then delivers utter disappoint around almost every corner. There is rarely anything epic revealed and then to make matters worse, the awards are a mixed bag of deserved and “What the hell are they thinking?” To be honest, I forgot the show was even on this year, so that tells you about how much I care for this event.
Chandler Wood – Beginning Wood (@FinchStrife)
Where do I even begin? Three hours is way too long, especially when you consider the garbage content that it contains. GTA V live music? Lame cuts to a bunch of weird musicians to hype it? The gawd awful dry humor of a host who clearly doesn’t even care about being there besides making an extra buck? The length could be forgiven however, if a few things were done to change it.
I think I mirror everyone’s sentiment on the name change to VGX. It’s ridiculous, unnecessary, and means nothing. At least VGA stood for something, but why can’t we have a cool award like the Oscars, the Emmys, or the Grammys? We could call them… the Keighleys? *Shudders* This year’s show also didn’t focus on the awards portion at all, glazing over the one’s that they did do, and completely skipping some categories on the live show altogether. It was more a show off event for the “world premieres”, which I’ll tear apart in a moment.
They absolutely need to do away with hosts who are going to treat the whole thing as a joke too. They don’t have to be a hardcore gamer, or even have a massive passion for the industry, but for the love of Nathan Drake show some damned respect! The two bit comedian they got for this year spent more time being an unprofessional douche bag than he did making any kind of relevant statements, especially in interview segments. Even Keighley was getting visibly tired of him before long.
And please don’t try to pass off things as a “World Premiere” when it is just a new trailer. If you have groundbreaking new info about a game, or a new game to announce, then carry on. But hyping everyone up on showing “Over 10 world premieres” and then only gracing us with a couple new announcements and a ton of trailers for games that we know about or are already released (looking at you Tomb Raider!!!) is just a sad cop out that shows the lack of planning, time, and professionalism that went into this year’s VGX. Kill ’em. We’re fine without ’em. I don’t think that gamers need VGX as much as Geoff Keighley needs VGX.
Jason Dunning – October 19th is January 2nd (@Jasonad21)
Possibly due to the fact that I enjoy Joel McHale on The Soup and Community, and I can’t wait for Community next month, I didn’t completely hate VGX at first. I enjoyed the change of pace from similar events and how they took the time to interview developers after having their game or a new video premiere (No Man’s Sky!).
It really started to weigh on me in about the second hour though, where you could tell Geoff and Joel weren’t having nearly as much fun as they thought they would, and the format of no breaks or commercials meant you had to pay attention to stuff that wasn’t very interesting. All in all I gave up at about the 2 hour and 20 minute mark, when the world premieres seemed to end, the awards were a complete afterthought, and the Grand Theft Auto V concert was about to start.
For next year, I really hope they go back to a style closer to the VGAs, giving out awards in a manner that the people who create award-winning games deserve. They could then use VGX as a short pre-show to the VGAs, offering up world premieres and short interviews.
Russell Ritchey – His Hindsight is 40/40 (@RussellCRitchey)
I don’t think anything of VGX, so I guess the thing to change would be its marketing. Make me care enough to want to check out coverage of the event as it is happening as opposed to well after it has happened. In hindsight, I don’t remember catching any advertisements for the event this year.
What did you think of VGX, and how would you change it going forward? Let us know in the comments below.
