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00:00 Welcome to Mojo Plays, and today we're taking a look at various moments in Game Awards history
00:05 that caused more than just commotion.
00:18 Before we begin, we publish new videos all week long, so be sure to subscribe to Mojo
00:22 Plays and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
00:27 The Fighting Game Fiasco of 2022
00:37 The lazy miscategorization of games started becoming noticeable in 2022 with the Best
00:42 Fighting Game category.
00:44 Multiverses, The King of Fighters XV, and DNF Duel were all expected picks, but Sifu?
00:51 Many within the FGC were flustered by this miscategorization, including famed fighting
00:56 streamer Maximillian Dude.
01:10 The nomination came off as if the jury thought a fighting game was just a game heavily focused
01:15 on combat, even though that would just be an action game.
01:19 Not sure how anyone would think that when we've had fighting games define what a fighting
01:23 game is, like Street Fighter, Tekken, Skullgirls, Killer Instinct, you get the idea.
01:31 Sifu is a great game, but to call it a fighting game was just negligent on the jury's part.
01:37 At least Multiverses, a platform fighter that properly represented the fighting game label,
01:42 won the award in the end.
01:52 An RPG kerfuffle
02:00 People have been up in arms over the 2023 Game Awards nominees already.
02:04 We'll get to some of the other controversies later, but the quieter outrage is focused
02:08 on the Best RPG category.
02:11 Baldur's Gate 3 and Sea of Stars are great choices here, but Lies of Pi and Final Fantasy
02:17 XVI are leaning way harder into the action category than they are RPG, the latter more
02:23 so than the former.
02:24 This was especially hard to accept knowing that other RPGs like Octopath Traveler 2 and
02:29 Cassette Beasts were left out in the cold in favor of Starfield, which is a good game,
02:35 but best RPG?
02:38 Are we just labeling anything that has stats and doles out XP an RPG these days?
02:49 Hydro Bot, taking it to the next level
03:05 The Game Awards used to be not so marred in controversy after controversy, but the very
03:09 first year where it was truly alarming was in 2016.
03:13 The 2016 Game Awards had a menace looming over its shoulder from the moment the show
03:19 started, the shick Hydro Bot.
03:21 The mascot of the Razer company was constantly butting into the show between every award
03:26 and commercial break.
03:28 What made it worse was just how bad the interstitials were in line delivery and overall demeanor.
03:34 It just came off as pandering to many, and the frequent interruptions caused many to
03:38 stop watching.
03:47 The ABK non-address
03:58 The year 2021 was rather tumultuous.
04:01 Not only were we still in the midst of a global pandemic, but Activision Blizzard King found
04:06 themselves in a nasty spotlight after the corporation was exposed for mistreating its
04:10 employees across a multitude of levels.
04:13 Initially, Keeley said that he was not going to bring up the topic at the Game Awards,
04:18 which resulted in backlash from various media outlets and developers.
04:22 Keeley did end up opening the show, addressing it, but he did so without clarifying as to
04:28 what he was referring to and without naming Activision Blizzard King specifically.
04:33 As expected, this got him even more backlash than before.
04:47 The exclusion of remakes and remasters
04:50 In 2023, we saw a ton of remakes and remasters pour out of the woodwork.
04:56 As for the Game Awards, it was a category that was considered at one point before being
05:00 scrapped.
05:01 The reason?
05:02 Keeley stated it was because "are there really five amazing remakes every year?"
05:08 In a year where we saw Dead Space, Resident Evil 4, Advance Wars, Super Mario RPG, and
05:14 Like A Dragon Isshin, some folks saw this answer as a poor excuse.
05:19 Make it happen next year, Jeff.
05:21 Jeff Keeley, Keeper of Time.
05:36 For a time, the Game Awards was a tad hard to sit through for most audiences, and it
05:41 wasn't just because of advertising.
05:43 While bad pacing can be partially blamed, there were also folks pointing to the amount
05:47 of time focused on one particular side of the show.
05:50 Some would say there was too much focus on trailers, while others argued against the
05:54 meaty selection of awards.
05:57 Keeley and his team have managed to cut down the shows to reasonable runtimes in recent
06:01 years.
06:02 Unfortunately, it has come at the cost of several categories getting shoved to 30-second
06:06 spots with no time for the developers to give acceptance speeches.
06:11 The only categories who get that are actors and directors nominated for bigger categories
06:16 like Game of the Year, Best Direction, and Best Performance.
06:22 2020 Game of the Year
06:37 The 2020 Game Awards upset a lot of folks.
06:41 Like a lot of folks.
06:43 Filmmaker Christopher Nolan walked on stage and announced the winner of the 2020 Game
06:47 of the Year award was The Last of Us Part II.
06:51 This had many people enraged for other reasons, mainly because of how many arguably "better"
06:57 games came out in 2020.
06:59 Ghost of Tsushima, Doom Eternal, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Hades, and Animal Crossing New
07:05 Horizons all dominated much of the conversation in 2020 while we weren't anxiously awaiting
07:10 updates for COVID-19.
07:13 And yet, the Game of the Year is voted on by the public, and it's also worth mentioning
07:18 the jury had a 90% weight in the matter.
07:20 So who is to blame here if anybody at all?
07:32 The Absence of Security
07:34 While the 2022 Game Awards came and went with very little conflict over who won which shiny
07:39 trophy, alarms went off when Hidetaka Miyazaki and his cohorts went up to accept their award.
07:46 One person unrelated to them had managed to sneak on stage and take hold of the microphone.
08:02 No one had stopped him, no one had tried to stop him, and folks quickly realized how horribly
08:07 the situation could have gone.
08:09 A similar incident occurred at Summer Games Fest 2023, another showcase Kili hosts every
08:14 year.
08:15 Thankfully, Kili has gone on record to say that starting with Game Awards 2023, security
08:20 will be tightened to ensure there are no more stage invaders regardless of their intentions.
08:26 The Meaning of Indie
08:36 This might be the biggest uproar the Game Awards has seen since the Hydrobot Festival
08:41 of 2016.
08:43 When Dave the Diver was nominated for Best Independent Game, folks were quick to point
08:48 out how it was not an indie game.
08:50 Dave the Diver was developed by Mint Rocket, which is a studio formed by Korean billion
08:55 dollar tech giant Nacon.
08:58 Many felt that this was a failure on the voting jury's part in properly classifying certain
09:02 terms and criteria.
09:04 Kili only fueled the fire when he made his stance on the matter, stating "Independent
09:09 can mean different things to different people, and it's sort of a broad term."
09:14 Is it though?
09:15 Is it really?
09:25 The Voting Jury In recent years, the legitimacy of the Game
09:29 Awards voting jury has been called into question, and it's becoming more frequent.
09:34 Every year, the nominations are chosen by a select number of gaming outlets from across
09:37 the world, the biggest ones being those in the US.
09:41 Problem is that the credibility and scale of each is… debatable, we'll say.
09:47 Many outlets on the voting jury are podcasts and YouTube channels, and many of them frequently
09:52 guest on each other's own shows.
09:54 If the Game Awards is truly about celebrating games, shouldn't there be more than 25 outlets
10:00 on the jury to represent the US?
10:02 Why isn't Windows Central on the jury?
10:05 Or Last Stand Media?
10:06 Or Push Square?
10:07 Time Extension?
10:08 Retro Gamer Magazine?
10:10 Nintendo Life?
10:11 Powerpix?
10:12 Or even the Washington Post?
10:13 Why are we not asking content creators that specialize in fighting games, sports games,
10:19 and online gaming what the nominees should be for their respective categories?
10:23 We have a diverse selection of jury members for eSports and accessibility to represent
10:27 different voices, and they don't even get screen time.
10:31 Look, all we're saying is, make the voting pool a little bit wider to include other outlets.
10:38 Please.
10:39 Doesn't have to be us, but it definitely feels like there's an echo chamber going
10:44 on.
10:45 What Game Awards controversy got your goat?
10:47 Did it make our list?
10:49 Let us know down in the comments in a civil manner, please.
10:53 And be sure to subscribe to Mojo Plays for more great videos every day.
10:57 Thanks for watching.
10:58 [outro music]