Reviewing the 2021 Game Awards

An unsponsored review of the game industry’s biggest award show

A yearly tradition for me is “frustrated-watching” the Game Awards, and this year, I had an audience as we streamed the entire three (!!) hour show live.

Watching it led to many different drinking games including taking a drink when a celebrity was shown and taking a drink when a grub hub commercial came up, but as I say every year, the thing that’s missing from the award show honoring the people who make videogames are the people who make videogames.

So, before I must have an Amazon Prime commercial, I want to give my thoughts on TGAs and why this show does not, and should not, represent the industry.

The show started off on a bad foot from the very first five minutes with Geoff giving a poor response to this year’s wave of development mistreatments, lawsuits, strikes, and sexual abuse. Talking about online harassment is important, but so is talking about what is affecting the people who make video games.

With that, I want to say that it is horrible to hear about what’s going on at Ubisoft, Activision/Blizzard, and a recent expose on Bungie (along with Naughty Dog last year). No video game is worth abusing employees over and it’s time for the industry as a whole to stop rewarding developers who make games off the suffering of its employees.

Speaking of which, Geoff’s message was followed by the reveal of a new game by Quantic Dream and David Cage, who has also had trouble when it comes to abuse in the game dev space.

For a show that really cares about video games, there was more about the people surrounding the industry than those who were in it. The pieces about how videogames affect minorities and POCs, LGBTQ+, and those suffering from disabilities was great, but it would have also been poignant to talk to developers and have pieces on those trying to do more in these areas, as opposed to the fifth or sixth commercial about Amazon Prime or that Riot Games music thing (which I did get 12…

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