So the NYVGA came…and then it went in shame. The awards began with a pre-show of five speakers: Dan Ackerman from CNET, Sherri Smith from Tom’s Guide, Jordan Minor from Geeks.com, Sara Clements from Unwinnable, and Samit Arcar as the Front Page Editor of Polygon. From the start, they kept blabbing on about politically themed games that might change the gaming world. They all talked about their picks for game of the year. This was pretty much a boring ass introduction that immediately got the attention of Twitch viewers. After this, there was a second part of the pre-show that was slightly more entertaining. Jeff Heely from Game Awards, Harold Goldberg Founder of the Critic Circle, and a young girl named Kamari were the speakers this time. Kamari won a contest for an internship for best writing at DreamYard Academy. She has loved video games and was always competitive. Special guests often come to DreamYard to teach about gaming and writing. This is a huge step into the gaming industry for these young writers. They offer training in writing and competitions for scholarships. This also includes exploring the world of technology and VR. Meeting with professional writers offers encouragement for all of the interns. Kamari said she wants to be a video game designer. She did her homework on coding and the fundamentals of a video game designer. DreamYard is a year-round effort that is a really interestingly amazing association.
Host, Devin Delliquanti officially opens for the awards. Right off the bat, this guy takes too long to begin listing off awards. It took about 20 minutes for him to stop and the Twitch viewers were absolutely roasting this guy. I laughed my ass off the whole time because watching the chat screen was the best part of the show. We gamers are so fucking cruel and I love it! Watching and listening to the show opened up some pretty obvious flaws throughout the night. The sound was painstakingly awful. Several times, I could hear the host of each speaker tune in and out. The chat viewers had to tell the NYVGA Mod so they could fix the issue. The picture looked as if they were recording from an old phone, and the lighting was just piss poor. After Devin finally stopped talking, they started off with what looked like a poorly prepared school choir. They were singing a few songs from some of the games nominated for best song award. What made it so bad was that half of the singers looked like they didn’t know the lines and didn’t care. I just couldn’t find out why they began the awards with a school-like choir performance.
Towards the end of the show, they introduced a local band called Shipa Ray. Christ man, they really sucked. I’m sorry to be so harsh, but it was that painful. They played three damn songs! People were trolling them so hard the whole time. Surprisingly, the NYVGCC Mod rolled with the trolls. It was nice to see they had a sense of humor with all of the shit being said. Then, for whatever reason, they showed an awkward message from Perfect Date featuring furries. It was just not needed and plain weird. Next was the World Premiere for Octogedden (Creators of Plants Vs. Zombies), and it looked like a mobile game. Studio head George Fan came up to talk about it, and he just chewed gum the whole time. It seemed like he didn’t even care about his own game. Lastly, there was an awkward video of a game called Where the Water Tastes like Wine. It looked like you traveled through animation as a giant through the U.S. but with a weird story. I would say the biggest fail of this show was the lack of video game talk. Sure, there was some, if you call cracking bad jokes involving games good gaming talk. That host Devin tried so hard to get the audience to laugh at his jokes the whole time he was up there. Sometimes you could hear some people, but it was quiet most of the time. I know it’s an award show but for god sake, talk about some motherfucking video games! I think we all expected the show to be filled with way more video game clips, game performances on stage, more gaming music, and just better quality. Most of the people that presented and accepted awards just failed big time. I know were gamers, and our public speaking skills are not the highest but try to make it entertaining. The funniest thing was the fact that most of the Twitch viewers stayed just to see if Todd Howard A.K.A. Godd Howard would show up. I will continue to watch video game awards but I hope I never see one like this again.
Below is a list of awards along with the winners of the awards.
Best song of the year: Persona 5
Central Park Children’s Zoo Award for best kid’s game: Super Mario Odyssey
Trapeze Bridge Award for the best remake: Metroid: Samus Returns
Statue of Liberty Award for best world: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Ebbets Field award for best Esports moment: Plup Annihilates Armada
Broadway Award for Best Indie Game: Cuphead
Herman Melville Award for best writing: Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus
Best Mobile Game Award: HQ Trivia
Nicherbacher Games Journalism Award: Yussef Cole
Best Virtual Reality Game: Resident Evil 7 Biohazard
Great White Wave Award for best acting: Melina Yergens in Hellblade
Legend Award: Todd (Godd) Howard
Big Apple Award for the Game of the Year: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!)