The evolution of the /v/GAs
One of the cool things about the Vidya Gaem Awards is, similar to an annual event or gathering of friends, we have a theme each year. As one of the archivists of the Vidya Gaem Awards, I thought I would take the time to post a list of the years we’ve been doing shows and what makes each year special.
Note: This article contains a lot of GIF files. If things are loading slow, that’s probably why.
2011 Vidya Gaem Awards
Director: Ryan Dell
Theme: Contemporary
Winner of “Least Hated”*: Deus Ex: Human Revolution by Crystal Dynamics
Winner of “Most Hated”: Dragon Age 2 by BioWare
Being our first show, we had a lot of bells and whistles of a conventional award show. This includes a parody of the U.S. National Anthem (despite the Director being an aussie), an opening ceremony and closing ceremony, and a heartfelt monologue by the founder of the Vidya Gaem Awards, Nighthood. Hosting the award show were internet personalities DukeLovesYou and Nyanners, who both were well known on the board for their Vocaroo posts.
Noticeably absent from the first Vidya Gaem Awards was an intermission, which, in lieu of several commercial breaks spaced throughout (the Vidya Gaem Awards do not receive any money for its presentation), would have been present at around the halfway mark. In between awards, there are several skits which help space out the content and build anticipation for the content.
2012 Vidya Gaem Awards
Director: Stuff3
Theme: Neo-80s
Winner of “Least Worst”: The Walking Dead (Season 1)** by Telltale Games
Winner of “Most Hated”: Mass Effect 3 by BioWare
The 2012 Vidya Gaem Awards built on the success and reception of the 2011 by doubling down on internet presence and audience participation. Nearly each award was voiced by a different cast member, and a combined cast/crew count of roughly 50 individuals. In addition to the range of vocal talent, there were several community skits and guest segments in addition to the skit that brought the total length of the show to nearly two hours.
The 2012 Vidya Gaem Awards were the first year to have a preshow, as well as an intermission. The preshow was an opportunity for skits that didn’t make it in the main show to still be presented. Guest segments included “/v/ plays”, VGCW Wrestling, the 4chan Cup, and “Fine Game Girls”.
2013 Vidya Gaem Awards
Director: PhoneEatingBear
Theme: Minimalism
Winner of “Least Worst”: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Winner of “Most Hated”: Gone Home
The 2013 Vidya Gaem Awards trimmed down much of the skits and extra content that was present in the first two shows. It also reverted to the format of having two voice actors, as opposed to a unique voice for each award. While it still had an intermission, it is the second shortest show we have ever done, only the 2014 Vidya Gaem Awards is shorter. Production troubles and infighting (including three re-writes being done on the winner’s speeches) caused the show to be released rather late, in the middle of March.
On a personal note, the 2013 Vidya Gaem Awards were a year of reflection, and of renewal. It was my first year producing the show and featured a radically different crew than the first two years. As such, the tone and mood of the show leaned away from indifference and towards a self-aware, self-driven presentation.
2014 Vidya Gaem Awards
Director: PhoneEatingBear
Theme: Grunge
Winner of “Least Worst”: Bayonetta 2
Winner of “Most Hated”: Dragon Age: Inquisition
The 2014 Vidya Gaem Awards featured a reformed writing team, an edgier script, and a leaner show. At 62 minutes, it is the shortest award show we have ever done. It was also the first year in which every award had been customized, with each sporting a unique color, icon, and background music.
Looking back, a few people that worked on the show that year (myself included) refer to 2014 as the year we forgot all about. Indeed, like the year before, the award show is over before you even know it. However, even with that said, it has a special place in my heart as the one with the least number of problems. Of all shows, it released the earliest, on January 31st, 2014.
It also set the stage for our five-year anniversary.
2015 Vidya Gaem Awards
Director: PhoneEatingBear
Theme: 1990s / Slime
Winner of “Least Worst”: The Witcher 3
Winner of “Most Hated”: Undertale
The 2015 Vidya Gaem Awards was the first year we introduced Sweep Points. Though we have had preferential voting since 2012, Sweep Points are a way to quantify the degree or margin a given nominee is preferred over other nominees. The reveal for the Sweep Points, which appear to tally in real time to the viewer, are also a way to build hype and anticipation over a “cold” reveal.
What I really liked this year was how relevant many of the community submitted skits were to the theme and winners, even if the connection was merely a coincidence. Some of the inspirations for the theme were Nickelodeon's Goosebumps and Legends of the Hidden Temple. Musically, the show took inspiration from drum and bass and UK jungle.
2016 Vidya Gaem Awards
Director: PhoneEatingBear
Theme: Cyberpunk
Winner of “Least Worst”: DOOM (2016)
Winner of “Most Hated”: No Man’s Sky
The 2016 Vidya Gaem Awards reskinned the template of the 2015 show and made some improvements. From a technical angle, an icon to more clearly identify each nominee in addition to their name, as well as a redesigned results screen and lead-in and lead-out transitions.
The show saw a debut of several cast and crew members who would return to our following presentations. You know who you are, thank you.
2017 Vidya Gaem Awards
Director: PhoneEatingBear
Theme: Commercialism
Winner of “Least Worst”: NieR: Automata
Winner of “Most Hated”: Star Wars: Battlefront
The 2017 Vidya Gaem Awards took commercialism to new heights, harkening back to an era of oversold promises and a yearning ordering now and waiting 6–8 weeks for delivery. The visual presentation took inspiration from Billy Mays commercials, as well as memorable or eye-catching commercials from the 1990s and 2000s.
Prior the sweep points segment, another area of customization appears, unique to this year’s award show. I called them “Jeopardy Screens” due to the fact they appear similar to a Jeopardy question. What was in these screens was at the discretion at the person who edited, of which there were about six different people. Some were trivia poised in the form of an answer, like real Jeopardy. Others broke the fourth wall, referenced a video game quote, or simply made an observation.
We also introduced our own take on “World Premieres”: the /v/GA Premiere. These segments are a free opportunity for indie developers to promote their game within our show. I talk more about the concept in my previous article, “The Art of the World Premiere”.
This was the last year PhoneEatingBear and I produced the Vidya Gaem Awards, but with the help of a special cast member on the team, we made sure we closed it out on a solemn note. The credits sequence is a tribute to the winner of Least Worst, NieR: Automata, and its “Ending E” credits sequence.
2018 Vidya Gaem Awards
Director: Counter
Theme: eSports / China Takeover
Winner of “Least Worst”: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Winner of “Most Hated”: Fallout 76
A new dawn presented itself with the 2018 Vidya Gaem Awards. The show used a “quarter finals” format to simulate an eSports competition between nominees, heading off in an approximately 10 second “final match” which showcased footage from the top two nominees before revealing the winner. The segment was also accompanied by a graphic showing the percentage of individuals who accurately predicted that the nominee would win.
This was the first year we had two themes in one year, merged into one presentation. While this seems like herculean effort, it was achieved by splitting the themes into two distinct segments of the show and changing tone, while keeping the dynamics and mechanics of the template the same.
2019 Vidya Gaem Awards
Director: Counter
Theme: Mecha
Winner of “Least Worst”: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Winner of “Most Hated”: YIIK: A Post-Modern RPG
In the 2019 Vidya Gaem Awards, gamers rise up. It was the first year we held a team vote on the theme, and we used ranked-choice to allow for our staff to select multiple theme ideas in order of preference. In the end, Neon Genesis Evangelion won the staff competition as our theme of choice.
Thinking of a specific franchise was a first, but it was a long time coming. We eventually broadened the theme to encompass Mecha as a whole. So, rather than relying on a specific franchise for inspiration, Patlabor, Dangaioh, and The Big O served as additional references.
Segab, a veteran editor of the Vidya Gaem Awards and source of our award templates since the 2013 show, created a motion graphic in Unreal Engine which, coupled with the Title Card, “launched” viewers into each award.
2020 Vidya Gaem Awards
Director: Counter
Theme: Conspiracy Theories
Winner of “Least Worst”: Hades
Winner of “Most Hated”: The Last of Us Part II
Conspiracy Theories was our second theme choice in 2019, but given the sheer amount of disinformation going on in the world in the year 2020, we thought it’d be a prime choice to pick this one. Staff voting was held and it won, BY A LOT!
Or, perhaps, everything was rigged. 😏
Jokes aside, 2020 was a very special year. It proved COVID couldn’t change the dynamic of an already-online award show. Whereas other award shows were being cancelled left and right, or forced to “Zoom”, the 2020 Vidya Gaem Awards doubled down on the benefits of an online presentation, by maximizing the amount of discernable information on the screen.
They say history doesn’t repeat itself, but it tends to rhyme. And wow, it sure did this year. 2020 had the same developer (Supergiant Games) win the coveted “Least Worst” Award for least worst game of the year. It closed on Catherine’s “It’s a Golden Show” (which we used as our closer in the 2011 /v/GAs), and it featured the return of several people who were here in the earliest productions.
And while I wasn’t able to get Stuff3 back, I was able to get something just as good. W.T. Snacks (the creator of /v/, who I met at 2020’s MAGFest) submitted a set for the 2020 Vidya Gaem Awards Preshow. It was really nice of him to do that for us!
2021 Vidya Gaem Awards
Director: Donny Q
Theme: Web 1.0
Winner of “Least Worst”: Metroid Dread
Winner of “Most Hated”: Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — The Definitive Edition
If we ever needed to “dial it up to 11", and then realize we had dial-up, the 2021 Vidya Gaem Awards were that year.
With the retirement of two of our most respected people on our show (one being responsible for the template, and the other, who the most senior voice actor on the team), we took a moment to reflect what was important. We needed to know what we could and couldn’t do, and we asked /v/ for help. Our community responded — and 2021 marked the largest increase in volunteers for the show since the 2013 /v/GAs.
Our 11th show combined the customization from the 2020 show, and brought it back to Web 1.0 with flair. Use of the Internet Archive’s “GifCities” feature was essential to fleshing out the award nominees as if they were short clips on a website.
2022 Vidya Gaem Awards
Director: Donny Q
Theme: Dreamcast-Punk / Graffiti
Winner of “Least Worst”: Elden Ring
Winner of “Most Hated”: Saints Row (2022)
Overall, the 2022 Vidya Gaem Awards were successful, with increased outreach efforts and a well-executed show. The Outreach team, which I continue to lead, achieved many accomplishments, by notifying developers of their nominations and attending various in-person gaming events.
The 2022 Vidya Gaem Awards was also the first year we had a “narrative”-associated award show, a calculated risk that both set it apart from other shows and was a way to ensure our show continued to stand apart as an award show that has high replay value. The concept was that we needed to take back Vidya City from the Global Acquisitions Group (GAG), a fictional organization inspired by 9GAG and the Embracer Group. The liberation of the city was done by “capturing” zones that represented each award. The winning nominee’s “gang” (represented by the publisher, if there was one) captured each zone.
As we witnessed various gangs fighting for each zone, we were reminded of the creativity, passion, and dedication that exist within the gaming industry. It’s true that competition can be fierce, and not every change within the industry is a positive one, but it’s our shared love for games that overcomes evil.
2023 Vidya Gaem Awards
Director: Donny Q
Theme: 1990s JRPGs
Winner of “Least Worst”: Baldur’s Gate 3
Winner of “Most Hated”: Forspoken
The 2023 Vidya Gaem Awards took inspiration from JRPGs like Lunar, Final Fantasy, and RPG Maker, and served as an “Award Show RPG”, the first of its kind.
Continuing a narrative-driven award format, the awards are told as a story by Condorcet the Slug Girl. The protagonist, Hero-kun, journeys through the awards’ overworlds, collecting nominees to use for each ‘battle’. The nominee that does the most damage (that is, has the highest Sweep Points) is considered the winner.
Hero-kun passes through a forest, desert, and finally, Dracula’s Castle. A rogue character named “A.S.S” (after that one douchebag who had the high score in all those 1980s arcade cabinets) assists Hero-kun in his journey by collecting the winners of the “best of” 1993 and 2003 awards and sharing this knowledge with him.
Wrapping Up
Each year, we our show builds upon its past presentations to make something new and enjoyable. We aren’t perfect, and we aren’t getting paid for this, but it is a labor of love and hate that we deliver on in hopes of getting better games for next time.
A special thanks go out to:
- All the template artists also, without which much of our show would not be possible. They are: Ryan Dell (2011), Stuff3 (2012), Segab (2013–2020), PhoneEatingBear (2014), Ghost (2016), and Shuttah (2021-present).
- The preshow submissions from 2012–present.
- All skits and bumper submitters
- All /agdg/ trailer submitters
- Everyone who works on the team
- And everyone who watches it!
- >>> (You)
