This year too, Geoff’s Game Awards tried to tell the story of the gaming year in prizes and (above all) announcements of future games, in the little space between the presenter’s ego and the commercials. Ten years of an event that, like it or not, has managed to carve out its space and in fact become the night of the video game Oscars. Ten years actually celebrated with an evening a little above the average Keighley event, although much less exciting than he himself is trying to pass off, as usual. After all, if you ask the host how the wine is… However, this year’s Game Awards have raised some themes that cyclically return to infest the discussion around video games, effectively managing to photograph not so much the industry at this time, but the public itself.
First of all, I think it is appropriate to focus on the winner of the most coveted award (and not only), that Astro Bot who was somewhat of the star of these awards, winning both the game of the year and the best direction, as well as others two important awards as best action/adventure and best family game. Perhaps this last category – which continues to have a horrendous name – is in some ways the most significant: the reign of Nintendo in which a game triumphs that is in fact the closest thing to an apocryphal 3D Mario. Astro Bot is without a doubt one of the best looking games I’ve played this year. It’s a very square platformer that amazes for its entire duration and can be played with a smile constantly on your face.
Astro Bot also has a good production history and represents the victory of a small studio and a low-budget production with a genre that is not exactly mainstream. I found the speech by Swen Vincke of Larian particularly beautiful when introducing the award, which emphasized how the best video games are those on which the best work has been done, without urgency, without following market logic, giving time and way for people to develop with passion. But not only that, I also found it ironically appropriate for the game it was unconsciously about to reward, between a part two of a remake and a large expansion of a great success.
A TOY ROBOT FOR CHILDREN
The public, however, does not agree. Because come on, it’s just a kid’s game. Let’s not joke, Wukong clearly should have been rewarded, as this is a game for real gamers. At most I could understand Metaphor or Elden Ring, but not this little robot game, let’s be serious. So down with review bombing. No, not to Astro Bot, to Baldur’s Gate 3, because it is directed by Vincke who is guilty of having opened the envelope and read the winner’s name. A perfectly linear reasoning.
There is no shortage of interesting moments at these Game Awards, such as the award for best independent debut game given to Balatro (which also won best independent game). Two delegates from the (anonymous) developer LocalThunk collect the award, speaking for him and inviting the public to experiment with the many other independent games that continually arrive on the market and even mentioning Arco, released last August, to which the Balatro dev would award the prize if he could prize.
There is no shortage of interesting moments at these Game Awards
But if we want to photograph the public, there are two other interesting facts that happened at the Game Awards, which gave rise to just as much controversy. The first is the announcement trailer for The Witcher 4. A cinematic trailer entirely in CGI which in fact adds nothing to what we already knew: Ciri protagonist in the role of a witcher who kills monsters on commission even if the real monsters are people . I loved the third chapter of the series like few other games in my life and in any case the idea of this sequel scares me incredibly.
DIVISIVE ADVERTISEMENTS
CD Projekt has undergone a huge turnover of professional figures in these almost ten years which has practically made it a different team during the difficult process of transformation from niche software house to heavyweight. The change occurred both before, during and after the disastrous launch of Cyberpunk 2077, a game for which we all had very high expectations and only years after its release (and only on new generation consoles) did it manage to become a satisfying experience. Among other things, it is still very far from the game that was promised during development and very far from an interesting role-playing game, working much better as an immersive sim.
I find the idea that a de facto upset team returns to work on its most successful saga to return to a commercial comfort zone very worrying, also because it all seemed quite rushed to me. Furthermore, the fact that nothing relevant was seen or said playfully seems to me to be a further cause for concern. In which direction does The Witcher 4 want to go? A more of the same of 3 today would be quite obsolete. But obviously that’s not what the public is worried about. The problem is clearly Ciri, accused of not being beautiful enough. And the problem is obviously not playing a male character, which will prevent the average player from engaging sexually with all the women in the game. Rightly so, it breaks immersion, it seems obvious to me.
THE REAL PROBLEMS OF THE AVERAGE VIDEO GAMER
Finally, the latest controversy concerns the last trailer of the evening, which announces the new IP that Naughty Dog has been working on for several years. Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet was shown for about four minutes of trailer, revealing an imaginary very distant from what the Californian team has done so far: an 80s retro-future full of references. From my point of view, the software house has enormous credibility, after having created an exceptional and at the same time massive game in The Last of Us Part 2. She has also already demonstrated a particular sensitivity towards certain issues, which are so annoying to some sections of the public, with Ellie’s coming out already ten years ago and the representation of “non-compliant” characters.
From my point of view, the software house has enormous credibility
All reasons why I would have expected enthusiasm and curiosity, only to encounter controversy and jokes here too. Apart from the three product placements in four minutes of video, which made me turn up my nose too, the problems are apparently different. In this new chapter we will play a woman with Asian features and olive skin who even has shaved hair. “These guys are obsessed with lesbians” was the average comment I saw around, not to mention the dislikes for the trailer and the comparisons with Concord and its failure, almost hoping that Naughty Dog itself would fail badly and be closed down.
These Game Awards once again portray a closed, misogynistic and (not even so) vaguely homophobic public. An audience to which we are now unfortunately accustomed, and which is not just made up of a few nameless internet trolls who fuel the controversy. I found myself in group chats with very normal people who were naively wondering “why did they make it so bad?” talking about Ciri they either complained that Naughty Dog had become fixated on a certain type of representation or they joked about Astro Bot’s victory. I found myself having difficulty trying to convey a different narrative from the one that is popular.
These Game Awards once again portray a closed, misogynistic and (not even so) vaguely homophobic public
You will have seen the controversies around on social media if you hang out in gaming communities of any kind, I don’t think I’m telling you anything new. Indeed, there will surely be someone among you who agrees with at least some of these. I think that under the surface there are also slow processes of change taking place, but I also think that we must constantly carry forward a healthy critical discourse around video games, both here and in our small way, in chats and audio parties, to get out sooner or then from this muddy quagmire.
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