I posted this on my site, but thought it should be here too.

I like many, watched the VGA's on Spike TV last night. Throughout the show, I participated in the twitter chat and found that there were many who felt the same way I did. On my twitter account (@SenorWakko), I don't follow and talk to just gamers and/or fans, I talk to many who are journalists within this great industry, and many of us were embarrassed by what we saw.

Who wrote the script, a pre-teen? Many of us day in and day out, try our hardest to make the video game industry relevant, along with integrity in gaming journalism. Then Spike TV literally spit in our faces, with the T-bagging if they went over thier time limit during acceptance speeches, dumb skits, etc. Did they forget what demographic is the largest within the gaming world? In 2011, the average gamer is 37 years old, and we are talking about people who are leaders, teachers, firefighters, police officers, etc. Am I to believe that we as a whole are only into crude jokes and stupidity? 

I am not a prude, and can laugh at a lot of things, but last night show was in was not laughable, but in poor taste and lowered the industry as a whole. Gamers are already considered geeky, live in their parent's basements, or are loners. We don't need to feed into the already negative stereo types. To be T-bagging leaders in the industry, watched by millions around the world, either through TV or internet, I was horrified. We do not see this type of behaviour happen at the Oscars, Emmy's and other high profile award shows.

I don't want to take away from the winners of the awards, as they and the nominees all deserve recognition in their accomplishments and hard work. The VGA's are suppose to be best of the best, creme' de le creme, and yet we watched as the industry was made to be a butt of thier jokes. Worst of all, is the fact that the majority of the awards were involved in like a 90 second spot. Even Mark Hamill(the voice of the Joker), seemed to miss many of them, and he was present at the event.

I am not asking the producers to make it boring and monotone. The jokes do not have to be so crude, and make sure that we bring in people that understand our industry, and not just celebrities who can drop a big name title. It's time to take gaming as a serious industry and treat our leaders with respect, not like we are a bunch of adolescents.

I think the problem with the VGAs, is that quite simply, they aren't targetted at us. I don't even know if Spike/MTV know who is their target demographic with these awards. It's just one big marketing stunt, and a bad one at that.

If you are a real gamer, you are probably better off skipping the event entirely, and watching the trailers/reveals on YouTube after the event. There are far more serious awards shows around (at least here in Britain, we have the Golden Joysticks and the BAFTAs), so it's probably best not to take the VGAs too seriously.