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Game Awards 2019: Was it really Geoff's fault?
- Thread starter HustleBun
- Start date
Setting up an awards show's big appeal as an arm of game marketing was never a great idea. I understand the need for funding and advertising, but expectations should be mainly set around the games getting the awards, not some game coming out 1-2 years later.
I think Geoff does a great job with the show overall, and is a wonderful host. Even if I have issues with the show I'm glad something like it exists.
I think Geoff does a great job with the show overall, and is a wonderful host. Even if I have issues with the show I'm glad something like it exists.
Not sure who to blame but the only annoucement i liked was the DND one and Bravely Default 2 though whoever decided to end the awards with the fast and furious needs to be fired. the game was shovelware from the get go.The 2019 Game Awards were incredibly disappointing.
But why?
And whose fault was it really?
I watched the entirety of the Game Awards last year. I came home from an office Christmas party, I stayed up hours later than usual and became increasingly exhausted and irritable as the night went on. The next morning, feeling disappointed and insanely tired, it felt vindicating to see so many major publications and forums tear into the show. I joined a massive thread here on Era, pages of pissed off comments and I still felt like I needed to add my own.
But looking back, something really rubs me the wrong way. A lot of these posts were blaming Geoff Keighley. The guy who loves games, celebrates gaming as an art, boosts creators who deserve more spotlight, the guy who put this entire thing together.
So was it his fault that zero of 20-30 predicted announcements happened?
Was it his fault that the show was bogged with trailers for crappy looking MOBAs and F2P games?
Was it really his fault that big announcement for the end of the show was Vin Diesel telling us that he "saw" a trailer for Fast9 and showing off a PS2-looking low budget fast and furious game?
I feel guilty for complaining that we were let down by something that had been so much better in years before, when without Geoff, it may not have ever existed in the first place.
And yes, many studios, and Geoff himself, were on Twitter teasing many of those reveals that never ended up happening--- but what happens when Nintendo or Rocksteady pull out at the last minute? So yeah some of that disappointment was from announcements that were told to expect, but let's be honest and admit that a lot of it was just our own hype.
I remember listening to GameXplain's predictions podcast. They were trying to hype responsibly and comment one what was "expected", "likely" "unlikely" or a "shot in the dark". NONE of their 30-odd predictions came to pass, even the tiny obvious ones and I was really frustrated that I had stayed up all night hoping to be excited or even caught off guard by something interesting and new.
That was my own fault.
At the end of the day, teased annoucnements not happening shouldn't overshadow the tight production, fantastic nominees and great hosting work by Geoff himself. I would bet bottom dollar that the crappy Fast and Furious announcement was a last minute replacement for something else. I would bet anything that it was completely out of Geoff's control. The games he teased on twitter? What was he supposed to do if they suddenly backed out??
Geoff seems like a good dude. He puts together an awesome show that wouldn't exist without him. Let's hype responsibly this year. Don't downplay the impact of the pandemic.
I plan to do what I forgot to do last year- Watch the show for the actual awards.
It's an awards show after all.
OP
OP
This. People were pissed about the reveals. Simple as.
Reddit: r/Games Official Discussion
Reddit: Live Discussion
Reddit: That was really bad
Resetera - Game Awards Discussion Thread
ChiGuy - The 2019 Game Awards was Awful
BeatEmUps - What Happened to the Game Awards?
Gamefaqs
Twitch was a hellscape. Like...they were fucking brutal to the show and Geoff and it made me feel gross.
But yeah, that's what I saw on the internet after the show. I disagree with a lot of it but there was a ton of backlash.
I think what you're asking for is receipts on the warranted hype, correct? Like the studios that were teasing games? Or Geoff's tweets?
Who the fuck cares if somebody whined because they wanted nicer trailers? Trailers are provided by publishers, who decide what they want to promote.
It was a very good show IMO.
It was what one would expect it to be. A marketing event. Like what else do people expect? It's just a couple hours of commercials with some superficial awards inbetween to emulate the the oscars but somehow even more corporate. Its a good 2 or so hours to see if anything fun is releasing soon, but people get really weird about these events. They're just marketing, however much some soulless industry icon stands and holds a standard "w r very unique ;))" speech to appeal to whatever nerds carry their entire individual worth in things they buy.
With all that said, i enjoyed 2019, some cool trailerinos.
With all that said, i enjoyed 2019, some cool trailerinos.
??? the event is basically there to show trailers and that's what it did, I don't really think ppl have control over the timing or wants of the marketing dept of other companies?
like yeah i am hollow and sad that i haven't seen much of elden ring since it was announced by why the fuck would i be mad at ppl about it lmao
like yeah i am hollow and sad that i haven't seen much of elden ring since it was announced by why the fuck would i be mad at ppl about it lmao
OP
OP
I mean. That's kind of what the entire thread is asking? Because a lot of people cared. Here and anywhere video games are being discussed.
I'm kind of self-reflecting and saying "yeah, it's not a big fucking deal if we don't get big announcements at an awards show".
Just tune in and enjoy The Game Awards for what it is. It's a night to focus on gaming and the accomplishments within gaming during the year. Trailers will be there. Teasers will be there. Sometimes they're big, sometimes they're not. Just kick back, watch the stream, and have a good time. If you set sky-high expectations, you're going to be let down. You can't blame Geoff for showing genuine excitement for his project that has grown into such a massive event.
I didn't even watch so I don't care but Geoff is the one that put it together so yes he's responsible for its quality. He should stop hyping it so much, it never ends well
We literally got our first look at the 9th gen with Godfall and Hellblade 2, we had an Xbox console reveal. I'm not gaga for it but it was a fine show in terms of announcements.
You're missing a key choice in that poll. Blaming it entirely on Vin Diesel and no one else for no real reason.
OP
OP
Updated the OP with discussion threads that happened during and after the 2019 GameAwards since people keep asking about the backlash.
To reiterate, I'm not standing by the backlash.
I understand why people were disappointed after seeing so many studios or Geoff himself, hint at or tease reveals that ended up not being at the show. But the level of backlash was unwarranted and I think Geoff is a fucking awesome host.
It's an awards show and I think we need to view it as such. Leave the video game marketing to E3, Nintendo Directors and Sony's State of Play streams.
It's hard to not get excited when a studio hints that they'll be revealing a game that you've been wanting to see, but we have to get better at taking that stuff with a grain of salt and not feeling so deflated when it doesn't happen.
To reiterate, I'm not standing by the backlash.
I understand why people were disappointed after seeing so many studios or Geoff himself, hint at or tease reveals that ended up not being at the show. But the level of backlash was unwarranted and I think Geoff is a fucking awesome host.
It's an awards show and I think we need to view it as such. Leave the video game marketing to E3, Nintendo Directors and Sony's State of Play streams.
The Twitch comment stream when Vin Diesel brought out that game to end the night...is there a way to recapture that?
Yep. I think what we need to do, and it's going to be really fucking hard, is not take every studio tease and tweet before the show as gospel. It will be hard because big publications will pick up those tweets and publish them as news items (so they'll be tough to ignore).
It's hard to not get excited when a studio hints that they'll be revealing a game that you've been wanting to see, but we have to get better at taking that stuff with a grain of salt and not feeling so deflated when it doesn't happen.
I watch the show for the awards, not the announcements
if a cool announcement shows up I see that as a bonus
if a cool announcement shows up I see that as a bonus
I still incredibly dislike that the Games For Impact award was completely undermined by fucking stupid Muppets sketch, so I'm expecting the accessibility award this year to be awarded by The Annoying Orange, Alf or some other dumb shit.
Beyond that, I've long accepted that it's much more of an avenue for ads than actually caring about awards, and tune my expectations appropriately.
Beyond that, I've long accepted that it's much more of an avenue for ads than actually caring about awards, and tune my expectations appropriately.
.
These shows are always a big silly mess with moments of genuine sincerity with some crass ill-timed marketing liberally strewn about. I don't remember anything explicitly worse about this show than any others.
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Do I have good news for you.
The Game Awards 2019 - Live on Twitch on December 12 - thegameawards on Twitch
thegameawards went live on Twitch. Catch up on their Special Events VOD now.
www.twitch.tv
The comments are still intact.
Geoff is a treat for this industry and also a very pleasant person.
He saved us from that SpikeTV shit, it just became a meme to be disappointed with these kinds of things so people continue to just force it to be "terrible" to them so they can be in with the crowd.
Unfortunately just seems typical lately for a good portion of the game community to be negative about most things. With all that said though... ending with Vinny D talking about that poor game was an interesting choice.
He saved us from that SpikeTV shit, it just became a meme to be disappointed with these kinds of things so people continue to just force it to be "terrible" to them so they can be in with the crowd.
Unfortunately just seems typical lately for a good portion of the game community to be negative about most things. With all that said though... ending with Vinny D talking about that poor game was an interesting choice.
It was an alright show, even with the announcements. I believe that the biggest issue was the placement of said announcements though. A Fast and Furious game ending the show while a next gen console got one of the early time slots is mind boggling to me. That showed me that while Geoff's capable of getting bigger announcements, he has no idea how to structure them within the show. Hopefully he listened to the feedback from last year, and this year will be much better on that front, as that's really the only major flaw I had with the show.
Both the studios teasing as well as Geoff's tweets. Like was already covered, if a studio pulls out, there's not much he can do about that but it'd give better context of what was known going into the show.
People coming to watch this show as an E3 event is an issue. I would honestly rather it be more of a celebration of gaming itself than a marketing event
I'd argue the biggest flaw 2019 had was that it was outside of the Series X reveal, there wasn't anything earth-shattering. Series X reveal was huge, but compared to the overall quality of announcements in 2018, there were more things that the large enthusiastic groups (IE forums like Era) would get excited about.
Ending on Fast and Furious was definitely a mistake, but I'd actually think that it was out of Geoff's hands. Half Life Alyx was probably going to be their closer, and after they pulled out, there was not as much one can do to reorganize a larger reveal as the ending (especially when you open with a new hardware reveal)
The outlook on TGA's will be much more positive if A. You do not see it like a mini-E3, but rather an announcement event for smaller things. Only really expect 1-2 large announcements from the larger players. B. Do not take Geoff's "hints" or "teases" as concrete evidence of a thing happening. The show really seems to only come together within the last month or so, keep in mind that other companies will want to have their own launch events.
The big thing is I can already see the Game Awards as being received negatively this year since pandemic probably screwed the teams planning to have something ready for this year's TGA's over. Don't expect the next Smash character or Bayonetta 3 or Metroid Prime 4 or GTA 6 or anything that can be perceived as a massive announcement this year, remember that there is a pandemic and that Geoff isn't trying to replace E3.
Ending on Fast and Furious was definitely a mistake, but I'd actually think that it was out of Geoff's hands. Half Life Alyx was probably going to be their closer, and after they pulled out, there was not as much one can do to reorganize a larger reveal as the ending (especially when you open with a new hardware reveal)
The outlook on TGA's will be much more positive if A. You do not see it like a mini-E3, but rather an announcement event for smaller things. Only really expect 1-2 large announcements from the larger players. B. Do not take Geoff's "hints" or "teases" as concrete evidence of a thing happening. The show really seems to only come together within the last month or so, keep in mind that other companies will want to have their own launch events.
The big thing is I can already see the Game Awards as being received negatively this year since pandemic probably screwed the teams planning to have something ready for this year's TGA's over. Don't expect the next Smash character or Bayonetta 3 or Metroid Prime 4 or GTA 6 or anything that can be perceived as a massive announcement this year, remember that there is a pandemic and that Geoff isn't trying to replace E3.
OP
OP
Rumored Announcements and Why
December: New Batman game for Game Awards 2019 (tweets included)
Multiple teases at Elden Ring, including showing up in the trailer for the Awards Show
EGM: Silent Hill rumored for Game Awards and apparently-
To be fair to Geoff, he did debunk all those articles claiming that an RE3 announcement was coming during his Reddit AMA
Updated OP with GameXplain's reaction to the GameAwards which is actually kind of hilarious.
OP
OP
oh my goodness thank youDo I have good news for you.
The Game Awards 2019 - Live on Twitch on December 12 - thegameawards on Twitch
thegameawards went live on Twitch. Catch up on their Special Events VOD now.
The comments are still intact.
The game awards as an awards show matters even less than the Grammys or oscars (which are already meaningless), so when the majority of viewers are mainly there for the glorified E3 press conference side of it and geoff hypes it a little too much....
sure maybe he fucked up, by why anyone would react with so much passion towards this thing is beyond me.
sure maybe he fucked up, by why anyone would react with so much passion towards this thing is beyond me.
OP
OP
Normally I'd be weirded out that so many of us ITT just straight-up forgot how bad 2019's show was compared to previous years. Up until then, each show was a marked improvement on the show the year before — not this time. I'll chalk it up to 2020 and the decade's worth of mostly-terrible shit that happened in it. It is definitely worth looking at the many links OP's been posting, however. Memory can be one hell of an illusionist.
I will say that most of the problems with the 2019 show were largely out of Geoff's hands, though I definitely think he hyped it up way too much for what it ended up being.
I will say that most of the problems with the 2019 show were largely out of Geoff's hands, though I definitely think he hyped it up way too much for what it ended up being.
Pardon me, but the Batman article shown there only cites a Youtuber claiming that the Batman game will be at the TGA. The tweets are all WB themselves teasing the game, not the Game Awards themselves. The Silent Hills article also give no straight evidence of a straight TGA tease, only citing a tweet from an analyst. Even the article speaks about the source " I've never really heard of Mr. Serrano before, and have no idea about his track record, so I'm taking this with a grain of salt for now. "
If you are using these articles as evidence that they teased those announcement earlier on, then I don't think they are super legit IMO.
OP
OP
Sure. I was trying to find some of the tweets that people were using in hopes of Batman being there, I saw some of them in the article and jumped the gun. There was a ton of smoke around Batman showing up, including a lot of buzz being celebrated here. That's what I was trying to show.
Again, and I can't stress this enough, a game like Batman not being teased is no reflection on Geoff or the Game Awards.
This community has a bad habit of not letting go their inner child. I don't just mean era but gaming in general. Some of the hyperbole and angst is beyond me and really makes me wonder if there really are people above the above 30 who are this dedicated to get their angry voices heard.
Just learn to not overhype yourselves and set expectations. It's an awards ceremony and advertisement pit first, game announcements after.
Geoff has been going at it for 2 decades now. The Doritos Pope still going at it not only shows me that he actually gives a shit about the industry but also he sees that it can be more. I hope his vision of gaming being fully considered as art and an equivalent to music, television and movies does come to fruition.
Just learn to not overhype yourselves and set expectations. It's an awards ceremony and advertisement pit first, game announcements after.
Geoff has been going at it for 2 decades now. The Doritos Pope still going at it not only shows me that he actually gives a shit about the industry but also he sees that it can be more. I hope his vision of gaming being fully considered as art and an equivalent to music, television and movies does come to fruition.
I love The Game Awards, but I do feel like its getting a little too bloated. I love how he loves to showcase indie and smaller games but I would rather quality than quantity when it comes to the "world premiere" announcements.
I would rather half the number of announcements if it means the announcements are more substantial. I feel like because of these announcements alot of categories and nominees get brushed over. Isn't this suppose to be a celebration of gaming and developers?
I would rather half the number of announcements if it means the announcements are more substantial. I feel like because of these announcements alot of categories and nominees get brushed over. Isn't this suppose to be a celebration of gaming and developers?
I remember liking the show overall. I honestly don't remember any of the games that were hyped to be there except I remember rumors of different WB games being there, but that was kind of happening for every event for a bit. I have no clue what Keighley hinted or hyped that wasn't there. Either I don't remember or I just wasn't following the information that closely.