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2012 VGA Winners

Started by KatieHal, December 10, 2012, 12:42:38 PM

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KatieHal

The VGAs were this past Friday--winners are listed here--and I was excited to hear The Walking Dead won Game of the Year!

Adventure games FTW!

What are your thoughts on the winners? Or the non-winners?

Katie Hallahan
~Designer, PR Director~

"Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix." Christina Baldwin

I have a blog!

crayauchtin

Skyrim has been out longer than I thought. :P I guess most of 2012 was a blur for me. But when I voted I was TICKED Skyrim wasn't an option.

Seeing that Wikipedia article explains it though. :P
"If your translation is correct, that was 'May a sleepy hippopotamus lie down on your house keys,' but you're not sure. Unfortunately, your fluency in griffin-speak is too low."

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KatieHal

Yeah, it gobbled up all the awards last year. :)

Katie Hallahan
~Designer, PR Director~

"Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix." Christina Baldwin

I have a blog!

Lambonius

The Walking Dead is not an adventure game.

KatieHal

Yes, yes, I know your arguments. However, technically it's genre IS adventure game, and this thread isn't about debating that. It's about the 2012 VGAs.

Katie Hallahan
~Designer, PR Director~

"Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix." Christina Baldwin

I have a blog!

Blackthorne

Eh, heh, the VGA's are run by SPIKE TV.  They're as credible as Goebbels at a bris.

You know, I guess good for Tell Tale - this will change their business model and production, though, irrevocably - and I think we can count them out of the adventure game revolution for the future.


Bt
"You've got to keep one eye looking over your shoulder
you know it's going to get harder and harder as you
get older - but in the end you'll pack up, fly down south, hide your head in the sand.  Just another sad old man, all alone and dying of cancer." - Dogs, Pink Floyd.

KatieHal

That said, the winners were based on votes from site visitors.

Hey, if an adventure game wins, that means more attention on the genre as a whole. And that's a good thing for us!

Katie Hallahan
~Designer, PR Director~

"Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix." Christina Baldwin

I have a blog!

Cez

#7
Quote from: Lambonius on December 10, 2012, 01:08:18 PM
The Walking Dead is not an adventure game.

I'm going to have to disagree with this. I was stuck in the section where you have to get rid of the zombies in the motel in ep1. That was a puzzle, that was adventure game mechanics. I couldn't just walk out and kill zombies, I had to figure out things, explore the environment, find items and use them. Same with the one where you have to cause a distraction to get to the keys.  If that isn't an adventure, I don't know what is.

It's a modern take on a genre that has been getting s*** for way too long, and that has finally been recognized with a game of the year award. An adventure game won a Game of the Year award. That is awesome.

That shows that Telltale found a way to make this genre beloved by the community again, by changing it, and us the hardcore adventure gamers may not like that, but whatever they did is working for the masses. We have been asking the question, for years, and years of what can we do to make Adventure Games popular again.

Well, Telltale just gave us that answer.



Cesar Bittar
CEO
Phoenix Online
cesar.bittar@postudios.com

Blackthorne

Quote from: KatieHal on December 10, 2012, 01:40:10 PM
That said, the winners were based on votes from site visitors.

Hey, if an adventure game wins, that means more attention on the genre as a whole. And that's a good thing for us!

I suppose; but it didn't win because it's an adventure game, you know?  And it's really not an adventure game in the traditional sense that say, you guys or our group, produce.  It won because it's "The Walking Dead".  The licensee property is hot, and they took that license and made a good game out of it.  But the name does A LOT to sell it.


Bt
"You've got to keep one eye looking over your shoulder
you know it's going to get harder and harder as you
get older - but in the end you'll pack up, fly down south, hide your head in the sand.  Just another sad old man, all alone and dying of cancer." - Dogs, Pink Floyd.

Lambonius

Yeah, it had its adventure gamey moments, but those were largely phased out after the first couple of episodes.  There was an article about it somewhere, but I can't be bothered to find it.  I bought the game, and I enjoyed it.  The writing is great, but the game as a whole I think is a bit over-rated.  It would have been much better if they could have had more divergent paths or at least more profoundly different outcomes based on your choices throughout the story.  I'm not talking about the ending--I think the ending was perfect, and I'm glad it ended the way it did and that nothing you could do would change it.  I just mean that as a whole most of the choices didn't really change the course of the game much.  I'd have loved it more if it even just went a Fate of Atlantis route and had 3 distinct paths or something.  It feels more like Heavy Rain lite, but with better writing and characterization.

KatieHal

Looking more closely at the list, I feel I should add the TWD and Telltale also won:

Best Studio
Best Downloadable Game
Best Adapted Game
Best Performance by a Human Female (Melissa Hutchison as Clementine)

Katie Hallahan
~Designer, PR Director~

"Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix." Christina Baldwin

I have a blog!

Cez

I agree it isn't the traditional way, but the traditional way isn't working on a large scope, and that has been part of the question many developers have asked themselves, how to get it to work to a larger demographics.

That may mean that our beloved genre becomes easier and puzzles become dumb, but on the other hand, that also means we are starting to see a return to big budgets for these games, which we haven't seen since the 90s with Sierra and Lucas. That to me is great news. A studio being able to do a high tech adventure (ish) production is awesome. Because I like playing games with great production values, great actors, etc, and I would like to see some of that stuff back. We had it in the 90s (well, ok, some was still bad, but that was more of the industry starting to do it), we lost it in the 2000s, and it would be great if we can get it back.

There will still be our kind of games, the more hardcore traditional adventure games, but hey, if this opens the door for more streamlined adventures focused on story, character, and a few puzzle situations that will keep you entertained, heck, I'm all for it!


Cesar Bittar
CEO
Phoenix Online
cesar.bittar@postudios.com

Blackthorne

I guess, but there's always that part of me that thinks accepting this kind of stuff is just signing one more line of a Faustian contract, you know?


Bt
"You've got to keep one eye looking over your shoulder
you know it's going to get harder and harder as you
get older - but in the end you'll pack up, fly down south, hide your head in the sand.  Just another sad old man, all alone and dying of cancer." - Dogs, Pink Floyd.

dark-daventry

i haven't played The Walking Dead, so I can't comment on whether it is or isn't an adventure game or whether it's truly deserving of Game of the Year, but I was personally hoping for Journey for Game of the Year. I loved Journey so much; everything about that game just proves that video games are as viable an art form as music and movies. I'm glad TellTale, and the adventure genre as a whole, got it's time in the spotlight though; this little genre of ours deserves more attention.

One big gripe I had about the VGA's this year: the majority of the "world premieres" weren't really world premieres at all; most of the games been announced a year or more prior. All they did were show off new trailers for games we already knew about. The only real world premieres there were Dark Souls 2 and The Phantom Pain, which could very well be a coded trailer for some Metal Gear game, be it Metal Gear Solid 5 or Metal Gear Solid Ground Zeroes. And let's be honest here: the VGA's aren't even about the awards anymore; they spent the majority of their screen-time focusing on stuff other than awards. I foolishly tune in every year hoping something will change, but nothing ever does. For a tenth anniversary, this wasn't all that great.

As for all the walking dead arguments on here, here are my two cents: any genre has to evolve with the players, the technology, and the industry as a whole. A genre cannot possibly expect to survive if it stays the same, never evolving and never changing and adapting to the needs of the industry. The adventure genre used to be text parser, and then it eventually evolved into a point and click fashion; TellTale's games, while not the games of yore that we cherish so much, are really just one modern evolution of the genre. If adventure games are to return to the mainstream, things need to change. the mechanics of the genre worked in the 80's and 90's, but they haven't been working for the past decade or so.
Founder of the (new) Left Handed Alliance Of Left Handed People (LHALHP)

Gay and proud of it!

Avid Adventure Game fan

Blackthorne

It's true - but sometimes the evolution and adaptation goes in directions that it shouldn't.... self-perpetuated evolution and development is definitely a tricky thing.  Sometimes you evolve yourself out of existence.  Cough * cough * Sierra-On-Line.....


Bt
"You've got to keep one eye looking over your shoulder
you know it's going to get harder and harder as you
get older - but in the end you'll pack up, fly down south, hide your head in the sand.  Just another sad old man, all alone and dying of cancer." - Dogs, Pink Floyd.

stika

I don't think I bought or played any 2012 games save for a few XBLA titles.

I usually buy games after they've been out for a year or two to save money, lol

this strategy works pretty well for me as I can buy games for a fraction of what they cost when they were originally launched. As a result I now own over 1000 games :P

Bludshot

That would certainly be the year for Telltale to leave an impression.  The blockbuster games this year were pretty stale.
Deep Thoughts with Connor Mac Lyrr
"Alack! The heads do not die!"

darthkiwi

QuoteI suppose; but it didn't win because it's an adventure game, you know?

Well, yeah. But looking back on past winners, the show seems to have a penchant for open worlds (Red Dead Redemption, Elder Scrolls, GTA) and occasionally other shooters (BioShock, Resident Evil). Given that list, I'm amazed Walking Dead even got a look in. I'd have expected something like Dishonoured to win - it's shooty and stabby and kind of open world. (Sidenote: I love Dishonoured.) TWD didn't win *because* it's an adventure game, but the mere fact one *did* win is frankly amazing to me.

@Blackthorne: what exactly are you afraid of? I guess the idea that corporate greed and cookie-cutter "Oh we'll just make that game but with different graphics" thinking might ruin the genre? That's a valid concern, and I do like the small adventure scene that's going now, but I do also wonder why adventure games have such a small following compared to other genres, whether anything can be done to change that, and what the resultant games would look like.
Prince of the Aquitaine. Duke of York.

Knight errant and consort to Her Grace the Empress Deloria of the Holy Roman Empire, Queene of all Albion and Princess Palatine.

Blackthorne

Quote from: darthkiwi on December 11, 2012, 01:48:37 PM

@Blackthorne: what exactly are you afraid of? I guess the idea that corporate greed and cookie-cutter "Oh we'll just make that game but with different graphics" thinking might ruin the genre? That's a valid concern, and I do like the small adventure scene that's going now, but I do also wonder why adventure games have such a small following compared to other genres, whether anything can be done to change that, and what the resultant games would look like.

Yeah, you've got it right there - it's that kind of cookie cutter formula that makes a genre so generic... it's just one of those nagging thoughts in the back of my head. 


Bt
"You've got to keep one eye looking over your shoulder
you know it's going to get harder and harder as you
get older - but in the end you'll pack up, fly down south, hide your head in the sand.  Just another sad old man, all alone and dying of cancer." - Dogs, Pink Floyd.

Lambonius

There's a big difference between evolving a genre and changing its mechanics to the point where it's not recognizable as that genre anymore.  I'm not saying Telltale has done this with The Walking Dead, but they came close with Jurassic Park.  Walking Dead is a far sight better than JP, and it does some amazing things on its own, regardless of whether or not you consider it a true adventure game.

I think the problem is that there are different ideas of what the core components of an adventure game are.  A lot of gamers and developers seem to look at "adventure game" as a catch-all genre that means any interactive experience with a strong focus on telling a deeper story with strong, developed characters.  The actual "mechanics" come second to that for many.  Remember, games like Zelda and the Resident Evil series have both been classified as adventure games, despite being two VERY different types of games, neither of which resembles a traditional adventure game.

Telltale's name says it all--they care about story story story, and that's what they're selling with their interactive experiences.  They've been moving away from traditional "games" for a long time.  And obviously they have been successful; there's definitely a market for what they're pushing.  Now, I also believe there is a solid market for traditional "classic" styled adventure games, like the Sierra or Lucasarts games of old.  I hope we can capture some of that with QFI when it comes out.  And obviously, POS believes there is a market for that as well which they are attempting to capture with Cognition, and eventually Moebius.

Personally, I see POS as kind of a step between us traditionalists at IQ and Telltale, and perhaps that is largely because of two different mechanical approaches to the games from a game engine standpoint, but I also think there's something to be said for the idea of plot delivery vs. what I might call plot discovery.  Think of Dark Souls--to get to the meat of that plot you had to really dig through the game, read item descriptions, etc. and eventually you got a solid idea of what was going on.  Then you have at the opposite end Telltale, who delivers you all the plot on a platter with very little "game" holding it together.  POS and IQ fall in the middle there, with equal amounts of story delivery and story discovery.  I think ultimately our approach with QFI will be slightly closer to the Dark Souls end--though not nearly that obtuse--what I mean is that a fair amount of information will be gleaned from actually exploring and interacting with the environments.  Whereas something like Cognition sits a little closer to the other end, wherein there are a lot of non-interactive scenes that deliver important plot moments to the player, but also the player is able to explore an admittedly more limited environment, where only certain hotspots are interactive.

Anyway, I was going somewhere with this, but I've rambled on too much, so now I've forgotten.