Video Game Awards Round Up

Tonight, Spike TV graced the gaming world with the Video Game Awards. It was a round up of video game stars, developers, performances by Deadmau5 and the Black Keys, and featured animation to bring the characters of our beloved games to life. I expected it to follow the same format of other award shows. Announce a category, bring in a presenter to announce the nominees, then announce the winner. Although this happened for a few of the awards, a majority of them were just announced by the mysterious narrating female voice. The more prominent awards like Game of the Year and Character of the Year had representatives of the winning game go to the stage and claim their award. For those who went over their allotted time for their acceptance speeches, they were forced to the ground and tea-bagged by Sergeant Lipton. There were also a number of other interesting components to this show.

Backstage with Felicia Day was mini-games galore. There were three games: the Spiderman fling, Fruit Ninja real fruit slice up, and  Little Big Planet 2 cupcake challenge. Each of these games had their own point system that resulted in a certain amount of money that would be donated to Child's Play! That's right, the foundation that I wrote an article on not too long ago that donates video games to Children's Hospitals.

This show took its attendees into account. For instance, it teased the social gamers (Farmville, Castleville, ect.) by showing them focusing on their phones playing games instead of paying attention to the show. Zach also introduced a man known as ThaBlackBaron, a fellow video game blogger. He made this video about his discontent with the 2010 VGAs. Due to this outspoken video, he was invited to the 2011 VGAs and sat right across from the man in charge of the show, whom ThaBlackBaron had threatened in his old video. He then made this video after he felt justice had been served when Skyward Sword was nominated for this year's show.  Maybe one day I too will be recognized by someone big in the industry and be invited to an award show... or convention. Crossing my fingers for E3!

While all of this was going on, viewers had the opportunity to vote online for the NFL Blitz Cover, Character of the Year, Most Anticipated Game, and Trailer of the Year. All of the other awards were previously voted on by an advisory council.

On a random note, Zachary Levi announced that 42% of gamers are now women! YEAH! Sorry, I had to get a little excited about that. Great statistic there. Anyways, let get to the part you all want to hear about.

The results:

Best DLC: Portal 2 Peer Review
Best Downloadable Game: Bastion
Best Performance by a Human Male: Stephen Merchant as Wheatley - Portal 2
Best Performance by a Human Female: Ellen McLain as Glados - Portal 2
Best Graphics: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Best Original Score: Bastion
Best Song in Game: "Build That Wall (Zia's Theme)" By Darren Korb - Bastion
Best Adapted Video Game: Batman: Arkham City
Best Independent Game: Minecraft
Best Motion Game: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Best Fighting Game: Mortal Kombat
Best Driving Game: Forza Motorsport 4
Best Team Sports Game: NBA 2K12
Best Individual Sports Game: Fight Night Champion  
Best Multi-Player: Portal 2
Best RPG: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Best Action Adventure Game: Batman: Arkham City
Best Shooter: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Best Handheld/Mobile Game: Super Mario 3D Land
Best PC Game: Portal 2
Best PS3 Game: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Best Wii Game: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Best Xbox 360 Game: Batman: Arkham City
Studio of the Year: Bethesda Game Studios
Game of the Year: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

NFL Blitz Cover: Ray Rice - Baltimore Ravens
Character of the Year: The Joker - Batman: Arkham City
Most Anticipated Game: Mass Effect 3
Trailer of the Year: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

During the acceptance video for Character of the Year, the Joker heavily hinted at the next Batman game plans for Rocksteady Studios when he held up a document that read 'Batman: Arkham World Script.'

Extra Awards:

Game God: Blizzard Entertainment
Gaming Hall of Fame: The Legend of Zelda

The Legend of Zelda is the first series/game/anything to be admitted into the Gaming Hall of Fame. I started tearing up as soon as the montage for the series began. Scenes from every Zelda game flashed on the screen as the female narrator described the role music takes within these epic games. As soon is it ended, Miyamoto appeared out of fog proudly raising the trophy as Link would raise a newly discovered item. It was magical.

In addition to the awards, there were a number of world premiers for trailers and cinematic introductions for a number of games presented by celebrities. Click the title of each game for the trailer for each game.

The Last of Us - will.i.am
Mass Effect 3 - LL Cool J
The Amazing Spider-Man - Tony Hawk
Rainbow 6 Patriots - Kevin Jonas
Fortnite - Epic Games
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron - Stacy Keibler
Diablo III - Blizzard Entertainment
BioShock Infinite - Felicia Day
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance  - Hideo Kojima

Personally, the coolest was Diablo III. I've never played any of the Diablo games but that introduction made me want to. There are also several other world premiers on the Spike TV premier page. It includes Hitman Absolution, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and many more.

The show concluded with the Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance trailer and a goodbye from Zach. Overall, I was pleased with the awards show and enjoyed the two times I watched it. It wasn't perfect but hey, what is?

Yours truly,
HavokRose

P.S. What did you think about the VGAs?

Charitable Achievements

As I walk around my college campus, I often find myself reminiscing of the elementary school days of playing with shaving cream on our desks, listening to songs about onomatopoeias, and playing computer games that seemed to have more fun involved than learning. One other thing I recall were the  countless school fundraisers. We had various types: selling curly shoelaces, cookie dough, yoyo's, wrapping paper, and even cheeses. One of the more popular fundraisers among the students was a unique fundraiser called Jump Rope for Heart.

Jump Rope for Heart is program that gives the students the opportunity to raise money for the American Heart Association foundation. The students raise donations by getting others to pledge a certain amount of money for every time they skip rope.

This year, Xbox has partnered with the Children's Miracle Network to bring gamers a similar fundraiser. It is called G3, or the Gaming and Giving for Good Charity Event. The way you raise money is exactly the same way you would for Jump Rope for Heart. A friend or acquaintance pledges a certain amount of money and based on how much you play is how much they pay. The event occurs on the weekend of October 1st and offers participants a free Xbox Live Gold membership for the weekend. Full event details can be found here.

After seeing this announced I decided to research what other video game-based charity events there are out there and didn't find too much. Other than some expired events like the Complete-Game Completion Marathon, (A two day event in which participant's video game challenges are broadcasted while other gamers donate.) I found an awesome direct-donation type charity.

The Child's Play Charity has been working with over 70 hospitals around the world since 2003 to donate interactive toys, video games, and other electronics to children's hospitals. They do so by connecting contributors to the hospitals directly with an interactive map on their website. The donor has a unique option to purchase a requested item directly for their selected hospital or to simply donate money to the organization via text, Paypal, or sending money directly. And that's right, you can text a donation! If you text GAMERS to 50555 it sends $5.00 directly to them and will show up as a $5.00 charge on your phone bill.

Although I won't be participating in G3 due to required college events, I definitely plan on making a contribution to Child's Play! These unique ways to help others by sharing the passion of gaming is not only a great publicity for the companies who sponsor them, but also for the gaming society as a whole.

If you plan on signing up for G3 or have other experiences with video game charities, share it here!

Yours truly,
HavokRose

For more information about the Compete-Game Completion Marathon click here. For a direct link to Child's Play click here.