Vote now for G-Phoria 2006
The recently-ragged G4TV is getting ready for its annual awards show and it has just opened its website for voting. According to the official line, the awards show, set to air August 8th at 6 p.m. EST, will be less sensational:
This year will be very different than past years - no big BS Hollywood party or non-gaming celebrities reading poorly written jokes off teleprompters - more lo-fi, by the people for the people... you get the picture. Spike TV clearly has the lame, made for mainstream, disingenuous MTV-like award show covered, we're happy to let them have it.
According to Robert Juster, executive producer of G4 Interactive, the show will use the theme of an "election night coverage special -- with a very Colbert Report / Daily Show feel to it." Juster then provided this video as an example of the "awesome 'attack' ads" produced by the G-Phoria team.
The video more or less takes a menial attack ad about Hurricane Katrina, medicare, and other common issues, and uses the name of video games (Kingdom Hearts II and Shin Megami Tensei) instead of candidates. If this is what they think makes Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert popular, then they've missed the point. Comedy Central's hour of political humor works because it's witty, clever, and has a point. The humor of this ad was lost somewhere between concept and scriptwriting.
The second video we've seen, which plays when you go to the voting page, isn't much better -- the video shows Mt. Rushmore discussing G-Phoria. It actually uses Snoop slang ("fo' shizzle") and laughs at the word "duty," again revealing what it thinks its target audience is.
The show will go on regardless of your opinion, so if you plan on complaining about the winner at a later date, at least go and vote now so that you can say you contributed. The categories are the usual suspects, and do a good job of highlighting games worthy of praise: Guitar Hero, Shadow of the Colossus, Killer 7, and Digital Devil Saga.
