Wow, I am the first poster.

Worst, there is no sci-fi-themed video game to vote for.

I have no idea what this is even supposed to mean.

And the winner is....... { drum roll }... Motor City Online!

and the winner of th best krumpd nastiest guys are the ..........ying yang twins!!!!!!! yeyah !!!

and wat aye

it is really stupid, we have people inside the industry that can do that, why not let them do it?

And the Galactic Procrastination Foundation Award for Most Interesting Blog That Is Not Updated Enough goes to... GRUMPY GAMER!

Oh, also, Ron Gilbert won the Nobel Prize for Video Gaming or something.

Give the masses what they want! Although it is horribly wrong, that is the kind of thing a lot of mainstreamists (as it where) love.

Just sit back and feel superior, and wait for the next game developer conference, or that winning lottery ticket. I'm sure MI3(ii) will win all the awards, whatever they happen to be.

I guess this goes back to what that Rubin guy said about the need for making game creators in to stars.

Whats an award ceremony without the stars?

logic dictates: the awards ceremony closest to the creators of the game, would be able to control the stars, and thus become the premiere awards ceremony. right?

oh my god! you should try out Cedric & the revolution, it's the best game I've played in ages! it felt like a trip through time way back to the days I was playing Day of the tentacle! It jept me going & going until I made it up till the end. I swear I even thought it was the work of ex-Lucasarts artists... Ron, did you secretly worked on this game???

Only games published in 2005 can qualify. World of Warcraft, being published in 2004 doesn't qualify, which means that the list of candidates is little more reasonable -- my personal favorite in this category is LEGO Star Wars, but I can also see Shadow of the Colossus doing well.

I guess I don't understand what all the complaints are about.

It's not that the Hugo people are trying to act like they understand games -- they're just recognizing that games contribute to the tapestry of Science Fiction.

Seems to me that they're not trying to stomp on our turf, but rather, they are tipping their collective hat to Sci-Fi game developers.

The problem is they don't have the knowledge to properly evaluate games, so it just becomes a contest of what game the members last read about.

I would also expect that the Hugo awards might focus on story in games, an even hard thing to evaluate.

Why doesn't the Game Developers Conference give out awards for the best movie or book.  They could, but I doubt the people making the decisions have the expertise to choose ones that really matter.

haha I remember playing hugo. wow that is old.
It's all BS for money. anybody who's opinion is worth anything should know that. those awards dont mean crap. It IS a popularity contest. I watched parts of two VG award shows. I wont ever watch another one because I just sit there and get mad and there's nothing I can do about it. everyone else can go play the 50 cent video game.

I understand why the fact people "who are not from the industry" giving out videogame awards could be a problem, but, hey, we're whining for decades for the mainstream audiences to acknowledge videogaming. So, let's be a bit logical. At least, that's a step forward, even if it's a step forward the least.

And, anyway, MTV's got the MTV Movie Awards. It doesn't make any sense either. And nobody's yelling.

"The problem is they don't have the knowledge to properly evaluate games, so it just becomes a contest of what game the members last read about. "

I never realized games required that much brainpower to understand or evaluate. It's amazing users are even able to "get" them.

"Why doesn't the Game Developers Conference give out awards for the best movie or book.  They could, but I doubt the people making the decisions have the expertise to choose ones that really matter."

Assuming this Hugo is going to focus on sci-fi-themed games, wouldn't a more appropriate comparison would be for the GDC to give awards for best movie or book based on a game? Which actually sort of makes sense, even if game developers don't have the knowledge to properly evaluate literature or films.

But what makes you think GDC members aren't swayed by hype, by what their company produced or they worked on, or what sells? When was the last true "left-field" GDC pick that showed more insight than everyone else's awards?

Wow, World of WarCraft won an award!? Half-Life 2!? Katamari Damacy!? Amazing! No one else had the knowledge to properly evaluate and award those low-profile games!

(All kidding aside, all I remember about last year's GDC awards-other than the insultingly stupid "Geek Eye for the Game Guy" segments-is that I correctly picked the winner ahead of time in all but one category, which either means I do have the knowledge to properly evaluate games despite not being a developer, or that the GDC awards are as predictable as everyone else's.)

I'm not saying the GDC awards are perfect, or even close, but at least they are done by our industry.  

Why are the Hugo's doing game awards?  I just don't get it.  I really don't.

Well let's look at some other categories of the Hugo awards:

"Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form"  i.e., movie
"Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form"  i.e., TV or short film
"Best Professional Artist"
"Best Website"

So, what?  Is the "World Science Fiction Society" made up of movie directors, professional artists, and web designers?

Does it matter?  Are they a peer organization or a FAN organization?  I think they're more the latter.  So when they gave an award to "Star Wars" in 1977, was it because they understood the craft of filmmaking?  No, it was in recognition of its Science Fiction-ness.

I think it's the same for the special arward for games.  They're just validating the fact that certain games contribute to the body of Science Fiction.  They're not judging the game-ness...they're judging the Science Fiction-ness.

And it's too bad that there are probably some gamer fans behind this award who truly do love games, and you want to slap them in the face because they don't have the proper creditials...

It's a sad day when game developers start rejecting positive recognition simply because "who the hell are they to love our work?"

I totally agree.

Ron isn't complaining, he's just saying that all this is silly. And it's silly, indeed.

All awards are silly. I mean, who really cares about them, apart from the person receiving the award? I don't buy games based on how many awards they got. I don't go to see a movie based on how many Oscars it got. Am I the only one?

Don't forget, folks, the annual cringing embarassment that was the SPA "Codies" awards. The involvement of "gaming industry" people didn't do a damned bit of good there...

Bah, my last message should have been a reply to Ron's one above... but I'm stupid.

"Special Hugo Category: Best Interactive Video Game"

(http://www.laconiv.org/2006/hugos/hugogame.htm)

Strange... Just thinking about: is there a game out there that is not interactive?
..
~

Yes, there used to be one... It was called Phantasmagoria. Remember?

Me write blog.

Long story short: you're wrong - or at least premature.  Wait for them to give the Hugo to the "wrong" game, then jump all over them.  But this knee-jerk "They don't understand us, so what right do they have to judge us!" reaction - that was fine when we were 13, but as grown-ups, we're supposed to hear people out, then tell them what fat-headed idiots they are.

Because we're mature.  :-)


You're making baseless - and, frankly, conceited - presumptions: "Oh, they're scifi people, what do they know about games?"  I never went to film school - doesn't mean I can't do a thoughtful evaluation of movies.

Maybe they'll make bad or uninformed choices, maybe they won't - right now, we don't know either way.  But to simply presume they know nothing about games or that their opinion is without merit, simply because they come from "outside" our little hobby, is just insulting.


Because books and movies aren't games; but lots of games do tell stories - or try to, at any rate.  And the Hugos are given to scifi and fantasy stories in different media: movies, novels, short stories, etc.  Shouldn't games finally be included in that list of media?

Isn't this what we want: acceptance by the rest of the world?  People outside the gaming industry who say that games are worthy of respect alongside established media?  Or do you prefer videogames to stay stuck in their own little ghetto: "for gamers, by gamers, non-gamers keep out?"  Because I've been there nearly 30 years and I'm about ready for us to move up in the cultural caste hierarchy.

Are they gonna evaluate games using the same criteria we as gamers do?  Probably not.  Is the awards process likely to be flawed?  What isn't these days.  Might the "wrong" game win the award?  Possibly.

But we won't know until the award is given, so criticizing it now is premature.  As one friend puts it: "It's the shout of the thirteen year old nerd who thinks attracting the attention of the cool kids means he's eventually going to get beaten up.  Or, in more adult terms, it's scornful (and irrational) elitism."

Funny :) Monkey-man's still got it.

Man, I wish I knew how to animate like you...

HA!

(Ok, that was lame.)

Actually, ignore that.

Kroms.

just make another Monkey Island, i love you

Ohhhhhh... so Ron's new game is a COMEDY RPG-FPS, sounds good to me! we need cash! come on everyone invest 10 dollars, let's all lend a helping hand!

I have to say I've enjoyed the Pirates VS Ninja's movie greatly. It struck a pretty nice balance between spoof and drama and fightmovie and... well, trailer, really.

For obvious reasons I didn't care much for the ninja's, but the pirates usually cracked me up.

Just imagine there was World Pirate Fiction Society that every year gave out an award for the best novel, movie and short story about pirates. Now imagine that this year they decided to add a new award: Best Pirate Game.

Would that be so awful?

The mistake Ron makes in his post is assuming that the Hugos are purely a literary award. They are not. Since the Hugos cover books, magazines, tv series and movies, it makes sense to include games as well.