Spike Video Game Awards 2012 Winners and My Quick Thoughts on Award Ceremonies

God I despise award ceremonies and everything has an award ceremony these days. I forgot to watch the Spike Video Game Awards show last night but I am glad I did because most award ceremonies are cringe worthy to watch especially video game based ones. If last years one was anything to go by then I doubt much has changed. Anyway here’s the winners or I could say losers.

Spike Video Game Awards 2012 Winners:

Game of the Year
The Walking Dead: The Game.

Studio of the Year
Telltale Games.

Best Xbox 360 Game
Halo 4.

Best PS3 Game
Journey.

Best Wii / Wii U Game
New Super Mario Bros. U.

Best PC Game
XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Best Handheld/Mobile Game
Sound Shapes.

Best Shooter
Borderlands 2.

Best Action Adventure Game
Dishonored.

Best RPG
Mass Effect 3.

Best Multiplayer Game
Borderlands 2.

Best Individual Sports Game
SSX.

Best Team Sports Game
NBA 2K13.

Best Driving Game
Need For Speed Most Wanted.

Best Fighting Game
Persona 4 Arena.

Best Adapted Video Game
The Walking Dead: The Game.

Best Independent Game
Journey.

Best Graphics
Halo 4.

Best Song in a Game
“Cities” by Beck.

Best Original Score
Journey.

Best Performance By a Human Male
Dameon Clarke as Handsome Jack (Borderlands 2).

Best Performance By a Human Female
Melissa Hutchison as Clementine (The Walking Dead: The Game).

Best Downloadable Game
The Walking Dead: The Game.

Best Social Game
You Don’t Know Jack.

Best DLC
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Dawnguard.

Most Anticipated Game
Grand Theft Auto V.

Character of the Year
Clap Trap (Borderlands 2).

Best Game of the Decade
Half Life 2.

Theres two main problems with award ceremonies among many minor things. Firstly they mostly ignore independent or small games/films and secondary video games like other forms of entertainment and art mediums come down to personal taste. You can argue that a good game or piece of art will always shine through and pass all taste barriers but in the end its up to the individual whether they like it and in most cases people will come up with a different opinion on any single piece. Look at the Turner Prize every year for a perfect example of how wide the boundaries of taste are.

Most of the winners above I disagree with, a lot of them are good games but I wouldn’t say for example that Halo 4 (I would choose Journey out of the choices given) has the best graphics of all the games that came out this year. Visuals have the same problems as the things I mentioned earlier, it’s a matter of opinion not fact. You can maybe say something is better with numbers but it doesn’t actually mean its better. If that was the case all paintings and art from the last two thousand years should be thrown in the rubbish bin, we have the internet and Microsoft paint now after all which technically is better quality its HD for a start.

Maybe I should blame the actual audience of these award ceremonies especially when these awards were mostly chosen from a list by the public and after all Spike and the other award organisers are just giving the public mostly what they want. However that just makes the whole situation even more tragic and depressing.

My other awards related posts:

• The Best Video Games of 2011 and Other Awards.
• Game Developers Choice Award Nominees Announced.

Some of my other opinions:

• Twenty New Grand Theft Auto V Screenshots and The Second Trailer. Also My Thoughts on The Games Potential.
• Assassin’s Creed Anthology is Out Soon. Also My Thoughts on What is Cheaper Digital or Physical?.
• The Walt Disney Company Now Owns Lucasfilm with New Star Wars Episode VII in Three Years. Also My Thoughts.
• Hotline Miami and First Update is Available. Also Three Trailers and Some of My Thoughts on The Game.
• My Opinion: Star Wars The Old Republic Subscriptions Plummet and is Now Going Free-To-Play.
• My Opinion: In Minecraft all Animals are Homosexuals and Why its Hard to Make Genderless Games and Films.
• My Opinion: OUYA a Glorified Smart Phone for Under £70 is Storming Kickstarter.
• My Opinion: Final Fantasy VII PC Re-Release Announced, Trailer and Twelve Screenshots.
• My Opinion: European Court Rules That You Can Resell Downloaded Software and Games.