I watched the Real Game Awards last night. The inaugural presentation was pretty much what I expected, which is to say rough around the edges but showing a lot of potential.
The show was born from “Stuttering” Craig Skistimas’s dissatisfaction with corporate award shows like Geoff Keighley’s. Craig is royalty when it comes to independent content creation. If you were a gamer in the mid to late 2000s, you probably spent a lot of time on ScrewAttack watching shows like The Vault and AVGN. It’s one of the things that inspired me to start this blog in the first place. After floating around the industry for a while, Craig returned a few years ago to restart the SideScrollers podcast. He’s been very outspoken about the current state of video games, especially with how the industry has turned its back on gamers.
The idea was to create a show for gamers and by gamers. The winners would be selected democratically among the community, rather than by access journalists. Corporate shows have become about pushing politics while AAA developers and journalists pat themselves on the back. The industry has become detached from its customers. Awards rarely reflect the games the players actually enjoy. So Craig and the team decided to make their own show. One where anyone could vote for a nominal fee. To fund the show of course and keep the riff-raff out. Presumably, they also planned to include hookers and blackjack at some point.
Thursday night was their first show, and it was pretty bare-bones. The ceremony was pre-recorded and delivered at rapid-fire. Craig says he doesn’t like the long-winded nonsense of corporate shows, and I think the format they chose worked out well. All the awards were presented by friends of SideScrollers ranging from regular guests to ScrewAttack alum like James “AVGN” Rolfe. They even got Duke Nukem himself, John St. John, to act as master of ceremonies. That’s what sealed it for me. They know their audience, and they’re really on to something great. It was light on the politics too, focusing on the games.
I’ll let you check out the winners yourself rather than steal their thunder. None of the picks were what I’d call controversial though. It’s exactly what you’d expect for 2024. I like that they added some quirky categories like Best Husbando and Best Jiggle Physics. Like I said, they know their audience. The Real Game Awards are a huge callback to the gaming culture of the 2000s. Honestly, this is what these shows should have always been about.
Craig plans to have an even bigger and better show next year. They’re still trying to lock down a venue, but they plan on having limited tickets. The Real Game Awards was a real breath of fresh air, and I’m looking forward to what they have cooking for 2025.
