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The Game Awards has been circling the hype drain for several years, and with last night’s ceremony wrapped, it’s at last flushed and sewer-bound. We’ve seen Effie Trinket dance for her oppressors in the Capitol of Panem, and our real-life Hunger Games were equally sickening. I’m bad at math, but I can count to 60, and most of the award winners didn’t even get that many seconds to speak. Despite giving a deserved spotlight to some extraordinary games, TGA’s actions have told us where its loyalties lie. It doesn’t matter how the votes fell. Corporations were the winners, and none more than The Game Awards.
Who Hypes the Hypeman?
The choice of which voices you’re going to platform and for how long is a deliberate one. Choosing to dispose of Best Fighting Game so abruptly was deliberate, and so was choosing to speedrun categories like Best Art. TGA wrapped a Hulk-fist-wearing hand around the mouth of countless devs, but not before making them don their fanciest threads, fly to LA, and smile for the camera. Like Flava Flav in a hall of mirrors, TGA has evolved into an infinite hype machine. There’s no game behind the ad; there’s just an unending performance of self-satisfied back-pats and approving nods.
From Snoop Dogg to Todd Howard and Harrison Ford, the faces of the rich and famous (at least in gaming circles) were on full display. It’s obvious from the celebrity guests, unequal stage time, and disproportionate prominence of ads that money holds the megaphone. Notably absent from the lavish auditorium were the 14,000 or so games industry workers laid off this year. Of course, it’s far easier to find seats for the C-Suite execs who swung the axe than it is to find a grave big enough for the bodies they left behind.
Kill Your Dreams Here
If there’s anything TGA values as much as corporate hype, trailers, and ads, it’s the conspicuous consumption drip of the Oscars and Emmys. I can’t tell if it’s all just Geoff Keighley chasing the high of Old Hollywood glam. In an era of inflation, discrimination, and layoffs, it’s ugly. Despite its brave pantomiming to the contrary, TGA doesn’t care about how games can make a difference. Pay even slight attention to the indie gaming scene, and it’s shocking to see how many of the year’s best projects TGA outright ignored. I love that Balatro made it, but it took a Normandy beach run.
Let me hold your digital hand while I say it doesn’t matter who won and who lost. That’s missing the forest for the dollar signs. The Game Awards wasn’t shy about its disregard for developers and gamers alike. We shouldn’t be shy about holding it accountable. TGA is like a mobile game with unskippable ads. If we continue to play despite knowing its greed, superficiality, and pitiless disregard for our ability to afford bread, we cannot be surprised. A free 10 Pull won’t help you find empathy when there’s none to be won.
