by Stephanie Cookies
Last night The Game Awards were held in Los Angeles. Aired only online, the show is the successor to decade spanning Spike TV’s Video Game Awards and is one of the few premiere awards for games.
Unfortunately, this year’s show has not been without controversy. When the panel of judges was announced, it was a primarily male group with the original gender breakdown being 32 men and 1 woman. When one of the judges, Christopher Grant of Polygon, swapped his spot for an equally qualified woman, Deputy Managing Editor Megan Farokhmanesh, the total breakdown then became 30 men, 2 women. After noticing the disparity, Kill Screen chose to remove the publication from the awards show entirely, with The Guardian’s Keith Stuart following suit a few days later. All of this brought the final tally of judges to 28 men and 2 women, obviously still heavily male.
The awards, in general, consists mostly of men with the advisory board of game designers and executives being largely male and the eSports Advisory Board being made up of 10 men.
Why is this important? Because we now live in a world where 42% of game console owners are women compared to 37% of men, according to a Pew Research Center study and representing the diversity of the gaming base is important. Gaming, like many other things that have been traditionally in the “nerd” pervue has now become firmly entrenched in pop culture and there are more female gamers than ever. There is every indication the numbers are growing, not dwindling, despite the vocal minority to stop females from playing in their sandbox.
I want to be clear, I do not think this was an intentional slight or meant as a malicious gesture against female gamers. At least, I hope it’s not. But it is important to point out these issues when they appear so change can start to happen. There needs to be more equal representation that more accurately reflects the current gamer base, not one that continues to represent the outdated notion that the overwhelming majority of gamers are male.
RELATED: We Need More Women Behind the Scenes in Entertainment Media
All that being said, the awards did happen last night and there were quite a few announcements, premieres and, awards. On with the show.
Westwood Studios was presented with the Icon Award for, well, everything they accomplished. We probably wouldn’t have modern eSports if it weren’t for them and what they pioneered. The video below explains better than I ever could.
WORLD PREMIERES
As expected, there were quite a few world premiers throughout the show. Some for brand new games, such as Telltale’s Batman and TWD: Michonne, others where new trailers for games coming out soon such as Uncharted 4, and games coming to a new platform such at Rocket League. Watch all the trailer goodness below:
Telltale Game’s Batman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNmo1rsl13c
The Walking Dead: Michonne (Telltale Games)
A stand-alone, three-episode event releasing in February 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBQJyoaJ7AI
Far Cry Primal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bvzx2AXaYg
Uncharted 4: Thief’s End
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js1EcMCQu6M
Shadow Complex Remastered
Currently free on PC for a limited time via Epic Games: www.shadowcomplex.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6wGaDmIkQY
Psychonauts 2
Game will be crowd funded, the campaign is currently live at https://www.fig.co/campaigns/psychonauts-2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDBg-_0KQP8
Rock Band VR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KykD2fGY53c
Quantum Break
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRPayEQPFOU
Star Citizen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF-OEyQJ0eI
Rocket League coming to Xbox in February 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U0EPUM60LI
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-F4B5-OsUA
WINNERS
The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt walked away with over all Game of the Year and Best Role Playing Game with its developer, CD Projekt Red, winning Developer of the Year. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain also received two awards, one for Best Action/Adventure and the other for Best Score/Sountrack.
There are a couple of things to note about these two winners; The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt is currently 50% off across most platforms. So, if you haven’t checked out the game yet, right now is a great time.
In a baffling move, Konami banned Metal Gear Solid V creator, Hideo Kojima, from attending The Game Awards. Host Geoff Keighley had this to say during the awards:
“As you noticed Hideo Kojima is not here with us tonight and I want to tell you a little bit about that. Mr. Kojima had every intention of being with us tonight but unfortunately he was informed by a lawyer representing Konami just recently that he would not be allowed to travel to tonight’s awards ceremony to accept any awards. He’s still under an employment contract and it’s disappointing, and it’s inconceivable to me that an artist like Hideo would not be allowed to come here and celebrate with his peers and his fellow teammates.”
Kiefer Sutherland, the voice of Venom Snake in Metal Gear Solid V, accepted the award on Kojima’s behalf.
The full list of winners is as follows:
Game of the Year – The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt
Developer of the Year – CD Projekt Red
Best Independent Game – Rocket League
Best Shooter – Splatoon
Best Role Playing Game – The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt
Best Action/Adventure – Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
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