My game, you have no right to award

Chapter 165 Nomination
At the end of each year, numerous game award ceremonies are held around the world.

These gaming prizes vary in type.

Some awards are sponsored by countries, others by media organizations, and still others by commercial entities.

And their respective selection policies and game preferences are completely different.

Some awards place more emphasis on the popularity of the game, such as some awards decided by player voting.

Some awards place more emphasis on the originality and breakthrough of the game, but also take commercial performance into consideration.

Others are more academic, and the jury prefers experimental works that break the boundaries of game design.

Like in the gaming industry’s relative, the film industry, the Oscars are the most well-known annual film awards, and the Academy decides which films receive the final nominations and awards, or which actors receive the Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, etc.

The Academy is the judges of the Oscars: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Obviously, since the judges are not a group with vested interests, theoretically, the logic behind awarding the Oscars should be more inclined towards academic considerations.

In fact, this is indeed the case.

Some movies that are not box office hits also have the chance to win awards.

This has also led many film production companies and directors to confuse cause and effect and produce films with the goal of winning Oscars from the very beginning.

The lines, themes, and even the actors are chosen according to the academy's preferences.

From catering at the beginning, it has become all-round "personal customization".

The theme of the movie must be artistic, not commercial.

It must also have a humanistic flavor and a discussion on humanity.

The story should have depth, not be superficial.

If it does win an award, the production company can make money from the title of "Oscar-winning film".

Whether through theaters, disc sales or online platforms, audiences are more or less curious about award-winning films.

Just click in.

This is what they are planning.

In the gaming industry, the situation is slightly different.

The film industry has been ahead of the gaming industry for several decades, and its industry structure is more stable and it has more experience in hosting award ceremonies.

The gaming industry is far from having any particularly authoritative award ceremonies. For example, in the film industry, the most recognized ones are the Oscars and the three major European film festivals.

In the gaming industry, if we really want to talk about the leader, it would be TGA.

Although it may not be the most authoritative, it is definitely the most influential and popular game awards ceremony.

Since there is no most authoritative game award, influence and popularity are the best ways to judge.

Therefore, if someone says that TGA is the most authoritative award in the gaming industry, it would not be wrong.

TGA, the full name of which is The Game Awards, was founded by Jeff Keighley.

When talking about this award, we have to mention Jeff, who is also nicknamed "Brother-in-law" by domestic players.

If Jeff chooses to leave TGA one day and creates another award, it is estimated that in a few years, that award will replace TGA's position.

The reason why TGA is TGA is not because this award has any unique advantages or mysterious magic, but because of Jeff's love for the gaming industry and his super personal strength.

Therefore, mentioning TGA without mentioning Jeff is like mentioning Apple without mentioning Steve Jobs, mentioning Nvidia without mentioning Goliath, and mentioning the 3D zone without mentioning Tifa... ahem!
Speaking of Jeff's family background, he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

His parents are both executives of film companies. As a result, Jeff has been able to see various big-name actors, directors, etc. working in the film industry since he was a child.

Just in terms of the connections he has accumulated in the entertainment industry, Jeff was already far ahead of his peers in the gaming industry when he was a child. After all, games and movies are inseparable!

His affluent family environment allowed him to own various avant-garde electronic devices since he was a child, and game consoles were naturally one of them.

What kid doesn’t like playing games?

Playing games is human nature. Since ancient times, even primitive people would play if they had enough food to eat, although in a more crude way.

It's one of the most instinctive of human pastimes.

In modern times, people’s conditions are naturally no worse than those of primitive people.

As expected, Jeff absolutely loves games!

From the time he was just a few years old, gaming was destined to become his lifelong passion.

Jeff was able to easily access game consoles when he was a child. Of course, his parents were quite open-minded and were happy to see him playing games.

They are both in the entertainment industry, so they can see the huge potential of the video game industry.

So, when they saw that their son loved games so much, they were not angry, but very supportive!

When Jeff was 14 years old, he did something very bold.

How bold is it?
He wrote an email to the famous American Sierra Entertainment Company.

Many current players may be unfamiliar with this company, or even have never heard of it.

But in the 80s and 90s, it was definitely a powerful gaming company in the North American gaming industry.

For the game practitioners at that time, it was definitely a name that could not be avoided.

For the new generation of players, what Sierra is most famous for is not the games they develop themselves, but their identity as the publisher of "Half-Life" produced by Valve.

And Jeff actually sent an email directly to the other party, asking about the game production issues.

As a result, Xueleshan took the email very seriously and responded to him formally.

Taking this as an opportunity, Jeff began his identity as an ancient "game reviewer up master".

He obtained a beta version of the game in advance from a well-known game company, wrote a review and posted it on a forum for game enthusiasts, naturally becoming a celebrity.

Later, his father happened to know a producer from a TV station, and the TV station wanted to produce a game show.

In addition, Jeff has become famous as a reviewer, so his father and the producer hit it off!
The decision is yours!

So, Jeff, who was only 15 years old, became the host of a TV game show.

Although the results were not good and the show was a complete mess, it would not be an exaggeration to say that it was a farce.

A full house of awkward show-level performances, coupled with product placement that had nothing to do with the game, was Jeff's first experience making a gaming ritual.

The reason for the failure was not only that Jeff, who was only 15 years old, had no experience in producing TV programs, but also because no one knew how to make a program about video games at the time.

Later, Jeff continued to participate in various programs, continued his career as a reviewer, and entered the University of Southern California, which has the most developed entertainment industry education in the United States.

After graduation, he soon had a bigger opportunity of his own.

That is the predecessor of TGA: VGA!

As an annual awards ceremony, the VGA has some similarities with the later TGA. However, unlike the TGA that Jeff leads today, he did not have much say at that time, and the greater power was still in the hands of the television station.

This resulted in the VGA being somewhat different from the ideal awards ceremony he had imagined.

The awarding rules are not strict, too entertaining and commercial, the awards change almost every year, and all kinds of gimmicks are used to attract audiences in order to make money.

This approach makes VGA far from the "Gaming Oscar" that Jeff wanted to create.

This is the reason why he later chose to leave the TV station and founded the TGA, an online game awards ceremony.

In the year when "Netherworld Mountains and Seas" was released, TGA had of course already planned to hold the awards ceremony on time at the end of the year.

The TGA awards are divided into several selection stages, the first of which is the nomination stage, and then the live broadcast of the official awards ceremony.

Just like the Oscars have the Academy as their jury, TGA also has its own jury.

The TGA jury is composed of more than one hundred authoritative gaming media from all over the world. They will select the final five nominees for each sub-award through everyone's vote.

Each media outlet can vote for the five nominated games in their minds, and then TGA will combine everyone's opinions to decide the five games that will eventually appear on the nomination list.

But the problem is that these more than 100 media outlets are not distributed according to number of people or countries and regions.

European and American media alone account for 60%-80% of the jury.

In some areas, there are not many players and the purchasing power is not high, but there are a lot of media outlets serving as judges, even more than the three East Asian countries combined!
This has led to the fact that this award inevitably caters to the aesthetics of Europe and the United States, rather than the world's aesthetics.

This is somewhat understandable. After all, no award can be said to be completely and 100% fair.

Prejudice will always exist.

But this proportion is a bit too high.

In addition, what is even more outrageous is that the media chosen by TGA to join the jury are not necessarily all gaming media!
There are a lot of weird newspapers that call themselves gaming media and have joined the judging panel.

This is a mess.

After all, the editors of these media may not play games at all.

Even if they played the game specifically for the purpose of selecting this award, so what?

Do they really have the ability to judge whether a game is good or bad since they don’t usually play games?
What’s more, they are more likely to choose not to play the game, just muddle through and vote casually.

What does the gaming industry have to do with me anyway?
Not the punditism, not the game, not the media.

Therefore, the credibility of the TGA awards is often questioned.

But unfortunately, Jeff has a very good relationship with people in the industry, and he is very good at keeping things balanced. Often after an awards ceremony, he can actually let those big game companies get what they want without offending anyone.

There is no better award ceremony in the industry that can be used to replace TGA, and there is not even an award close to the level of TGA.

As a gaming media, IGN was naturally present on the jury of this year's TGA.

As one of the most famous gaming media in the industry, it was impossible for them not to be on Jeff's list.

Sigmund Miller naturally would not miss this opportunity. He still remembered the scene where "Youming Shanhai" humiliated him. The other party also caused him to be scolded by netizens to the point that he almost quit the Internet, and even his social account had to be set to private status.

But when he attended an internal meeting of IGN, he found that he didn't need to take any action at all.

Because no one mentioned the game "Youming Shanhai" at all!
The games everyone mentioned were all those with high ratings and good media reception.

“I voted for ‘Fantastic Journey’!”

A blond editor shouted excitedly.

"Me too!"

"I'm voting too!"

Miller nodded with satisfaction. He was just about to mention this game.

This is a game developed by an independent game team of two people, and the game type is a role-playing puzzle game.

Players need to play the role of an African-American girl who is isolated in school. Because of her fear of being excluded by others, she falls into an endless dream.

In her dream, she gained her own super powers and became a police officer in the dream world, punishing evil and eliminating evil. She used her super powers to break through her inner fear and depression and finally defeated her inner demons.

In the ending, the little girl chooses to return to the real world, learns not to care about other people's discrimination, and lives freely.

HAPPY ENDING!!!
For Miller, there were plenty of reasons to nominate this game for Game of the Year.

First of all, the art style of this independent game is very pleasing, it is an ink style with a slightly cartoonish touch.

Although the entire game is composed of 2D scenes, no part of it appears to be poorly expressed or poorly made.

The overall game is very detailed in terms of graphics.

The game's design is also quite good, whether it's the battles in the dream world, the puzzles, or the story line explanation, they are all above standard.

Although Miller doesn't think this game can become the final game of the year, he thinks choosing "Amazing Journey" is a good choice.

No matter who you are, after seeing the theme and background story of this game, you can only applaud it instead of questioning it.

After all, children, independent women, brown skin, and LGBTQ+ are all the most respected elements in the industry now!
Put them together and they are simply invincible!

Miller didn't even know what would happen if a game editor chose to give the game a low score.

I'm afraid that cursing on social media like I did would be the least of my worries!
The game quickly gained the support of most IGN editors.

As the base camp and pioneer of correctness, IGN has always led the way and let other things take a back seat.

So this game will definitely be included in the list of nominees for the best game of the year submitted by IGN to TGA.

"How about the Netherworld Mountain and Sea?"

Just as Miller was feeling proud, a younger-looking editor reached out and said.

In an instant, the room was silent for several seconds. People looked at each other before finally looking at the editor who had spoken.

He rubbed his hands nervously and explained slowly.

“The gameplay of this game is very good, the combat system is very unique, and the art style is completely different from any game I have ever experienced!”

“The oriental fantasy-themed storyline was a little hard for me to get used to at first, but after digging deeper, I found it very interesting!”

“Players’ response has been increasing over time.”

"I think there is some truth to nominating this game for the final list."

"Besides, this game has sold over seven million copies so far!"

Miller's mouth twitched when he heard this number.

The last thing he wanted to hear right now was how successful this game was!
It would be better if this game rotted in the stinking ditch on the side of the road!
I absolutely cannot let "Youming Shanhai" be nominated for TGA's Game of the Year Award!

(End of this chapter)